|
HID people, where did you mount your ballasts?
just wondering where you HID people mounted the ballast on your fit, i know in order to access the bulb, you must get it from inside the fender liner, can you guys please take a pic of where you mounted it? i'm interested in a set of HID's but i dont know where to mount the ballast
|
I will take some pics tomorrow for ya...the passenger side has lots of room to mount the ballast. The tricky part is the drivers side due to the intake. Mine is mounted on a bracket beside the battery...pics tomorrow will explain more.
|
spamming
From what I have read installing HID on a Fit is not safe for incoming vehicles.
|
Originally Posted by hiroko12
From what I have read installing HID on a Fit is not safe for incoming vehicles.
And i got my set from a local stereo shop. |
Originally Posted by hiroko12
From what I have read installing HID on a Fit is not safe for incoming vehicles.
As for where my ballasts are..under the front bumper and right under the headlight housing. My installer removed the bumper and headlights to do the job - open the hood you can't even tell the lighting system has been modified. |
Here is where I placed my ballasts. Sorry about the dirty engine, still haven't had a chance to spray under the hood:
http://members.shaw.ca/yee.justin/DSC02776.JPG http://members.shaw.ca/yee.justin/DSC02777.JPG http://members.shaw.ca/yee.justin/DSC02778.JPG |
could somebody please explain to what these things are that your talking about and what they do.
|
Originally Posted by sLiVeRwOrM
could somebody please explain to what these things are that your talking about and what they do.
This is info from a site i mod on, hope it helps ya, there is going to be a few more post to help this one. HID --> high intensity discharge, what does this mean. Basically unlike the standard halogen bulbs which uses a "filament" to output the lights, the HID does not consist withfilaments and contain compact arc tubes, which enclose various gases and metal salts, operating at relatively high pressures and temperatures. For Example: This Image Compares the HID vs. Haolgen http://www.superhids.com/images/untitled.jpg What are the advantages of HIDS consists of standard Halogen or "super white" bulbs. HIDS: Wattage (W): 35W Lumens (Lm): 3500Lm Life Expectancy: 3000 hours or more Light Outpuet: 3x or greater than standard Halogens Color Temps (K): 4100/4300 (OEM) - 12000K (eww too purplish/blue) Halogens: Wattage (W): 50 -55W Lumens (Lm): 1000 - 1500Lm Life Expectancy: 350 - 500 Light Output: ~ Color Temps (K): 2400 - 3000K Q:What Kind of HID Kits can i buy for my car? A:There are actually two different answers i can give. Lets start with answer (1), and follow with (2) (1)You can HID Kit such as: Catz, McCulloch, Bohmen, etc. These are rebased HID Kit. which means the the bulbs are made to fit for the "halogen" housing headlights. Also getting all the necessary wires, ignitor(so you dont' screw up) and other necessary parts. Useally the wires are longer. Other thing is by putting an HID Kit into your standard housing that are ment to take 55W halogen, this can mean disaster. Honestly there is not a single kit that will make the glares and "UFO's" disappear. The thing is most people don't comprehend... b/c you are putting a bulb that is 3 times greater light output and into a housing that is not even made to handle HIDs. This is both PROJECTORS & Reflectors This is a "rebased" hid kit for an easy installment and good fitment http://www.superhids.com/shkit2.JPG OMG UFO's everywhere .. glaring .. this is a disaster for on comming traffic and person in front of you. http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...7/fa99725e.jpg This also is a GREAT light SHOW http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...6/fb291d25.jpg (2)You can buy a "DOT" or "ECE" projectors off BMW, Audi, S2K, Volvo or what not and retrofit them into your car.Valeo a company who makes projectors and few ballistas for Audi are one of the best choice doing a retro. Retro takes a lot of creativness and time and effort to it. It is not just a day job. This can last from anywhere to 2-7days. Picture of a Retro Fit done on a STi. (Thank You HIDforum for the image) http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...e/fa82f13d.jpg OEM Capsules vs. Rebased OEM D2S (projector housing) http://www2.msstate.edu/~pks2/MyInte...+pics/bulb.jpg Rebased for H7 i believe http://www.superhids.com/./h7.JPG Q: Can I put HID kit into my TYC/aftermarket Projectors? A: Yes and No. The thing is the aftermarket "projectors" so called are not high quiality like the Valeo, E55, E46 or what not and the aftermarket projectors for 99% of the Civic's are for halogen only and it's off some fog lights or same materials and stuffs. Either way DO NOT ever put your HID kit in a halogen projectors. It can give off various glares off everywhere, beam pattern will be not so great and sometimes it can melt :lol: WOW Look at the lightoutput and the "Cutoff" line that is very very very sexy and NICE>!! This is a 5th Gen Civic a local guy with TYC projectors and aftermarket "rebased" HID Kit http://www.comutek.com/test/plh.jpg As you can see the AIMing needs to be re-doned, but the light output is not that great compared to the RETRO. Q: Is HID illegal and also how about retrofitting? A: Yes & No. to begin with hids were never legal. Companies like BMW, Benz, Lexus, AUdi and etc had them on because it was adapted from Europe and Asia. U.S. Officals never had a problem with it until "ricer" companies begun to bring out rebased HID Kits that was blinding people with blue/purple light and was never a perfect fitment. This now has been a reason why Government officals, NTHS or something like that has been cracking down retailers who sales HID kits. IF they are caught and convicted, they can get jail time and fines. Honestly ONLY best rebased HID kits were teh CATZ. I am going to say NO, because the OEM factory HID kit does meet "D0T" as they foresay. If U.S cracks down and tells car manufactors to do not put HID kits in their car, this will be a dramatic decrease in car indutry, and economy wise. Plus the OEM HID is levled and puts out white light instead of blue or purple. ONly the lense and the light bouncing off the "shield" and the lense is making the blue/purple look to it. |
Here's teh second half.
Now to the bulbs and ballista subject Bulbs The bulbs. The common mistake some people here is that all these high kelvin rated bulbs are the shizzle. Well, they couldn't be more wrong. The higher you go in kelvin, the less light and lumens you'll have. Pratically anything over 6k is really a waste if your at all concerned with your safety and brightness of lighting. So what is the best bulb out there then you ask? 4100-4300k. It has the most lumens out of all the HID bulbs produced. Thats why car manifacturers still use them today. Below is a graph showing you the variances of the light spectrum. As you can see, 4100k would be right where the "sweet spot" is on that chart. It produces near to the suns same kelvin thus giving you daylight-like output. Think of it like this, high kelvin bulbs would be like being out in the sun with sunglasses on vs a 4100k being in the sun w/o glasses on. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...urescentsA.jpg Also here is another good thing to know taken from the FAQ: Yellow: 1500 k Candlelight 2700-2900 k Yellow painted fog halogen bulbs ------------------------------- Yellowish white: 3200 k Sunrise/sunset 3200 k Premium H7 non painted halogen bulb 3400 k 1 hour from dusk/dawn ------------------------------- White: 4100 k Philips/Osram OEM HID D2S 5500 k Bright sunny daylight around noon ---------------- Blueish white 5500-5600 k Electronic photo flash 6000 k Philips Ultinon HID D2S 6500-7500 k Overcast sky ----------------- Blue: 9000-12000 k Blue sky ----------------- Purple: 28000 Northern sky 12000-30000 k Ultra Violet light (black light) So know that you know about kelvin and some aspects of the bulbs, you might be wondering why you hear the terms D2R or D2S. Well, to put it very simply to you, D2R is a HID bulb that was designed for HID reflector housings. It has a different base than a D2S and also has a painted portion on the bulb itself. Why is it painted you ask? The paint is there to block certain areas of the bulb that would cause excessive glare in the housing. Does the paint affect bulb performance? Yes. A 4100k D2R has slightly less lumen than a 4100k D2S. Can a D2R be converted to a D2S? Yes. You would have to make a notch in the base of the bulb to match that of a D2S. you would also need to delicatly remove the painted portion of the bulb so that it would be completely visible just like a D2S. So enough about a D2R ehh, lets talk about the D2S for a sec. The D2S was designed only for a HID projector application. They are completely clear and give out the most efficiency of the two. Thats pratically all there is in difference between those two bulbs Below are some pics of both. D2R http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...s/untitled.gif D2S http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...20pics/d2s.gif Ballistas Ok, it has come to my attention some people think that if you use 2 different ballasts on the same bulbs, that one will look different than the other. Is this true? No. A ballast is a ballast (performance wise) as long as we are talking about 35W ballasts. As long as each ballast has the same exact style of connectors, they both can be used in conjunction with each other. Such as the rebased ones will have two connectors at end links, male and female as for the OEM ones are just female for the bulb and male for the HID "Plug"So now you may be asking yourself, "so what all does a ballast do in genral"? Well, here is a little bit of info on how flouresent ballast work and their basic simplicity. The same somewhat applies to automotive ballast. Our automotive ballast take in your cars DC power and converts it to AC current.
Originally Posted by »»UNKOWN««
The simplest sort of ballast, generally referred to as a magnetic ballast, works something like an inductor. A basic inductor consists of a coil of wire in a circuit, which may be wound around a piece of metal. If you've read How Electromagnets Work, you know that when you send electrical current through a wire, it generates a magnetic field. Positioning the wire in concentric loops amplifies this field. This sort of field affects not only objects around the loop, but also the loop itself. Increasing the current in the loop increases the magnetic field, which applies a voltage opposite the flow of current in the wire. In short, a coiled length of wire in a circuit (an inductor) opposes change in the current flowing through it (see How Inductors Work for details). The transformer elements in a magnetic ballast use this principle to regulate the current in a fluorescent lamp. A ballast can only slow down changes in current -- it can't stop them. But the alternating current powering a fluorescent light is constantly reversing itself, so the ballast only has to inhibit increasing current in a particular direction for a short amount of time. Check out this site for more information on this process. Magnetic ballasts modulate electrical current at a relatively low cycle rate, which can cause a noticeable flicker. Magnetic ballasts may also vibrate at a low frequency. This is the source of the audible humming sound people associate with fluorescent lamps. Modern ballast designs use advanced electronics to more precisely regulate the current flowing through the electrical circuit. Since they use a higher cycle rate, you don't generally notice a flicker or humming noise coming from an electronic ballast. Different lamps require specialized ballasts designed to maintain the specific voltage and current levels needed for varying tube designs.
With that being said, you now know the basics of what all is going on inside a ballast. The DC power from your car is being turned into AC power to supply the charge needed to power up the HID bulbs. The ballast throws out 23k +/-1-2k of volts to the HID bulbs upon start-up often refered to as warm-up. This is when you seeing HID trun on and start to change colors and get brighter as they warm. This usually lasts only around 25 seconds or so on OEM ballast. Cheaper aftermarket ballast tend to warm-up longer thus causing premature bulb life loss. Sometimes when people first get HID, they tend to show boat infront of their friends turning their HID off/on rapidly. Is this good some say? The answer is no. If you've ever seen HID turned off and on you would of noticed a 4100k turns redish-orange for a second. This is the bulbs way of saying OUCH! What happens is the bulbs have already created Xenon gas to for the light but hasn't cooled back into salts and then when the bulbs are turned back on, the ballast are sending out a start-up of 23k volts which IS NOT a good thing. The bulbs already had enough Xenon in them to supply light and didn't need the 23k shot to them. This kills bulb lifespan. So you've learned about ballasts and bulbs now. Lets move on to the wiring now shall we.... Some people out there just aren't aware of the dangers with wiring HID straight off of your existing oem wiring. Should a relay be used to power HID, yes and always needs to be used. Why you ask perhaps? Your oem halogen equiped car was never designed or intended from the manufacturer to use or run high voltage/high current/ high amperage HID ballasts. Ballast draw a imense amount of amps upon start-up and could very seriosuly damage your wiring and not just at where its connected. We are talking serious damage to fuse boxes, ecu's, or worse could short and cause fires on very old cares that even have a hard enough time trying to power halogen. The reason why is, that when the ballast "demand" power, your car has to supply it from somewhere. Lets say its tapped into your oem headlight wire ok. Now you power up the ballasts, the draw current from your wiring, your wiring might not be up to the task so its needs help, t searches for a source and before you know it, you've now weakend not only one source but two now just to try and supply the ballast good clean power. This is why a relay harness is needed. A relay harness gets its power straight from the battery via relays. These relays are then wired to go to your ballasts now. |
do i need to have the jdm hid housing? or would the original housing work with the hid kit?
|
the original housing will work with the HID kit.
|
so.. why would I want to spend $260 on some lights when I can spend $15 and get some nice bulbs.. and take the $260 and get some springs or something
|
Quite frankly ANY halogen bulb will not compare to an HID bulb regardless of what Daniel Stern says on his website.
Originally Posted by sLiVeRwOrM
so.. why would I want to spend $260 on some lights when I can spend $15 and get some nice bulbs.. and take the $260 and get some springs or something
|
you mean in the bightness and light quality? how long do the HID bulbs last?
Also that kit looks quite involved.. Iam not sure if I could do that..!! Also.. id have HID headlights but regular ole' bulbs for fogs huh |
HID headlights are almost three times as bright as a regular bulb. The total light output is measured in lumens.
A HID bulb should last almost 10 times as long as a halogen bulb. That is just the HID bulb itself. In terms of light output, the optical interface (reflector or projector) that the HID bulb resides in is actually the most important factor. A HID reflector or projector is designed specifically for the high output of a HID bulb. It is the HID projector that creates the brilliant color, razor sharp cutoff, and even, wide beam. Thats why if you really care about the light output, you will do a full HID retrofit instead of a HID kit. Installing a HID kit is only half of the equation, so to speak. $15 bulbs are garbage. They are tinted blue to appear as if it is HID, however the light output should be no better than a regular halogen bulb. The only way to get better output from a halogen bulb is to use higher wattage bulbs. |
i'm reading this post.. i was wondering what does retrofit mean? so there's the normal type of HID conversion kit and a HID Retrofit conversion kit?? and what rebase mean? what is the difference? i'm still trying to gather all my info b4 i go buy one~ and once i buy the HID kit. i can use any K bulbs? like 4k, 5k, or 6k?
|
Originally Posted by wai_lai416
i'm reading this post.. i was wondering what does retrofit mean? so there's the normal type of HID conversion kit and a HID Retrofit conversion kit?? and what rebase mean? what is the difference? i'm still trying to gather all my info b4 i go buy one~ and once i buy the HID kit. i can use any K bulbs? like 4k, 5k, or 6k?
1) Rebase - OEM HID comes in two main flavors: D2S for projector HID and D2R for reflector HID. A rebased bulb means a D2S or D2R HID bulb was modified to fit onto a conventional halogen socket. This is never done in an OEM HID application. 2) HID Retrofit - This entails opening up the headlight casing, and installing OEM HID projectors (i.e. s2000 or TSX or TL projectors). If you dont feel comfortable doing this, there are many vendors that will do the labor for you (at a price). Besides this you still need HID ballasts and bulbs. Pros: The real mccoy. By far the best you can do in terms of light for your car. Cons: Difficult, expensive, and labor intensive. See, you can fork over a lot of dough and have someone else do the legwork for you or you can do the research, parts tracking, and install yourself. 3) HID Kit - This involves buying a kit that uses rebased HID bulbs and your stock halogen optics. Pros: Easiest and cheapest method to attain HID lighting. Cons: Dont expect to have lighting similar to anything OEM. Compare a HID kit with a HID retrofit or OEM HID. You will easily see how much of a difference there is. 4) Color Temperature - The kelvin scale dictates the color of the bulb output and the lumen output. Higher temperature yields a bluer color but less output. All HID bulbs are 35W and are compatible with any ballast. OEM HID kelvin temperature is 4300k. Higher kelvin temperatures only really applies to HID kits. The reason for this is that with HID kits, the stock halogen optics dont create the brilliant color that a HID projector would. So thats why people purchase higher Kelvin bulbs to sort of compensate for the inferior halogen optics. Basically it comes down to this: If you care about the HID "look", then get a HID kit. If you sincerely care about the main benefit of HID (superior light output and beam pattern), then I heavily recommend a HID retrofit. |
any good retrofit hid kit u recommend? as in brand etc?
|
wow thanks for all the valuable info.. more info that i would of cared to know.. lol but thank you very much it helps alot!
|
Originally Posted by wai_lai416
any good retrofit hid kit u recommend? as in brand etc?
|
| All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:58 AM. |
© 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands