Want to buy HIDs for your car? Read this article first!

[Guest]

I had the phillips HID kits once. Well, I still have it but I don't use it anymore. Cause I think it is not as good as the advertisement said. My light direction is mess up, I am blinding other driver, and I don't think it's as bright as I thought it would be. It's SOOOO not worth to buy.

So if you guys thinking of getting a HID kits, read this article and think again. Better spend it on other modification:

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/conversions/conversions.html

 

[snickells]

I have HID's and love em. Who gives a rats arse if you send other drivers careering off the road as their eyeballs pop from the uber brightnes of your leet lights??

 

[naughtika]

also 60% of cars nowadays have Xenon built in.. its unfair to cars who don't have them..

 

[Outlanded]

also 60% of cars nowadays have Xenon built in.. its unfair to cars who don't have them..

Im with you christian!

they look the goods and also are much better on dark country roads.

 

[Guest]

well the new car's headlight is built for xenon from the factory

 

[Guest]

this has been covered before...

and to be honest ALOT of cars here in NZ (dunno about oz)
have retro fitted hids,
or headlights aimed so poorly its just as bad as retro hids,

even the factory hids are bloodly annoying,

so IMO screw everyone else! LET THERE BE LIGHT!!

 

[BuzzPuppy]

"So Gly's world ahead of him had light. There was a difference in the Heavens between day and night. Gly dusted his hands and observed his work with the HIDs and he saw that it was good.

And that was the end of the First Day."

(blatantly ripped off from the book of Genesis in the Bible, but meh you get that )

 

[SiliconAngel]

Which is a blatant plagarisation anyway, so I wouldn't worry about it too much Gav

On the subject of HID's, not only do they give me the absolute shits they're bloody dangerous - the number of dipshits with improperly aligned HID lamps on the road is getting stupid. I've seen plenty of cars where it's been done properly, and I'm the first to admit it looks shit hot. But driving down the road with a completely uncontrolled spot-light blinding anyone who gets in the way? Thats idiocy.

If you want HIDs for your VR4 buy a set of cibies. If you don't want to lay down the cash for a properly designed, safe solution I honestly hope you get your car defected for driving around with something so dangerous.

I'm sure this will be an unpopular opinion around here, but on this particular occasion I think the law has it right when it comes to HID 'addons' for existing headlamps (although having said that, I think it should be relaxed for properly designed aftermarket kits though).

Thanks for posting the link up Hoff

 

[Guest]

If you don't have projectors, you shouldn't have HIDs.

 

[dimi_108]

I used to be a fan of HID's. But trully, they are and should only be on cars with projector headlamps. The amount of glare HID's produce is absolutely annoying and totally uncool. I used to think HID's were the way to go, but after copping that very same glare by other noobs, it totally changed my view on them.
I love the colour and the look (of the real projector HID's) but the retro fitted kits are just too damn bright and the glare literally burns your eye balls.

In summer, when KB (VR-04-TT) hosted the Friday Night Sprints up Springwood Road, the HID's on my car would absolutely blind the other members.

So before going ahead with HID's take a look at this short documentary.

 

[SiliconAngel]

LET THERE BE LIGHT!!

Just a small addition - the idea that aftermarket HID kits give you more light is actually incorrect - they do give you the APPEARANCE of more light because the light is so broadly distributed (scattered), lighting up a lot more of your immediate vicinity. However the scattering also means the light won't be focussed correctly, so your actual line of sight will be shorter with an aftermarket HID kit than it would with normal halogen globes. So it's not only unsafe for other drivers, its more dangerous for you too.

 

[Guest]

Im gonna say if it helps you (the driver) see better at night then you should have em, especially people with bad sight. But it also attracts bugs at night... you should have seen my cibies after a trip i did.

 

[Guest]

Did a small test tonight ...

As you can see, the HID does 'seem' to give off more light, but it is scattered everywhere, you can see the sign at the top slightly better and of course the cutoff line toward the right side has been totally overcome by the HID, right where oncoming vehicles are coming.

It looks as if the HID is brighter, but if you look at it closely the HID has inconsistencies in the main beam, you have strong and light parts throughout which is easily noticeable when driving. Comparing different parts of the image you can see the Standard Light has a much clearer view on everything (look at the all the shrubs, the corner kurb towards the left etc). The Standard light has a much cleaner and more even dispersion of light, further reinforcing what Trev stated early that the beam isn't focused correctly (more dangerous). I could also say the standard lights give a wider vision too.

To be honest this is the first time Ive driven at night with the standard lights (one of the first things I did after passing inspection was to put on the HID Kit) and at first you don't get that initial 'pow' from the HID's making you think that the path in front of you is lit up more. When actually driving the road is much more cleanly and evenly lit, and to be honest the HID kit didn't really make anything on the road more obvious/easier.

Actually, then only thing that the HID's make more obvious is other drivers ... as they are flashing you.

After this, I wouldn't think I'd go back to aftermarket HIDs

** The images are straight from the camera - not affected in any way, unfortunately I didn't put it in Manual mode hence the different colour dash lights, but the beam colour is very similar to original.

** The HID Kit had 10'000K globes.

 

[dimi_108]

Nicely done Stephen. Thanks for doing that.
The inconsistencies in the HID you've shown can easily be seen in those two photos.
I'll be sticking with standard globes from now on too. Perhaps something that will light up the road ahead better but not HID again.

 

[mookers]

Dumb question time (I'm good at that):

If HID don't give any benefit, then why do they exist?

Someone said something once about using them only in projector lamps. How does that make a difference?

 

[SiliconAngel]

Kudos for taking the time to do that comparison Steve, that's fantastic work and a great writeup too!

Dumb question time (I'm good at that):

If HID don't give any benefit, then why do they exist?

Someone said something once about using them only in projector lamps. How does that make a difference?

Ok I'll try to explain it in plain English for you

You have two types of globes, halogen and xenon (High-Intensity Discharge, hence HID). The two different types of globes produce light in different ways, which means the way the light is emitted from the globe is different - the light itself is different (colour and intensity), and the angles of emission are also different.

Now from a technical perspective, the xenon globes produce a brighter, clearer light and are more efficient at doing it - its a much newer technology after all. So of course it makes sense for vehicle manufacturers to start implementing xenon globes in their new vehicles.

The problem is, in order to get from a xenon globe to an HID headlamp, the shape of the reflectors (the shiny chrome inside the headlight) needs to be designed for the different type of globe.

Have you ever used a portable torch with an adjustable beam? Where you can spin the end of the torch and the beam can go from tightly focused like a spotlight to quite diffuse for giving a general, soft light for illumination in your general vicinity? You can probably read a book quite easily from a metre with the spot beam, but it gets quite difficult with the diffuse light.

That is exactly what is happening when you stick an HID kit into a standard headlamp that hasn't been designed for it - instead of a tightly controlled focused beam you get scattered, diffuse light. The difference between that and our torch analogy is you can't adjust the angle of reflection to improve the focus of light reflection.

That's where specially designed HID headlamp replacements come in (referred to earlier as 'projector lamps', although the term's a bit of a misnomer). These are aftermarket headlamps designed from the ground up for HID xenon globes and as such should be perfectly safe in your car, as the reflectors are designed to project the light in a focused beam and won't scatter the light everywhere. Cibie have such an aftermarket HID headlamp replacement for the VR4, for example.

Just be aware that even aftermarket HID headlamp replacements aren't legal on Australian roads as far as I'm aware, as our respective transport authorities don't provide concessions for these within the law. If you have your heart set on them though (or already have them on your car) I have no doubt you could get engineering approval for them.

So the difference is HID kits replace just the globe in your EXISTING headlamps, HID replacement headlamps replace the whole thing. The former is rubbish and quite dangerous (for both you and other drivers) while the other is quite safe (well, assuming they've been designed correctly - don't just buy $100 no-brand headlamps off eBay and expect them to be any good!)

 

[Guest]

well after 4000k the hid light actually become dimmer and do no emmit's as many Lumen's,

4100k - 4300k is the ideal HID color temperature to produce the maximum amount of light, lumens, hence the reason while all OEM manufacturers equip their vehicles with these types of bulbs.

so your 10000k kit is actually pretty average,
i use a 6000k kit and its much better than any standard/xenon/halogen bulb ive ever used.

 

[CANDEE]

Hmm will have to have a look see to see what bulbs are in my CIBIES then..

 

[dimi_108]

Yup, exactly what Trevor said.
Here is a visual comparison

 

[Guest]

It's just a marketing hype that makes u think with HID is brighter and much better than the stock one.

Does anyone ever heard about the super compressor? The ads says it will add hp and improve fuel consumption. But it's all lie. It doesn't do anything to your car.

Also the ground wire, I don't think it'll do anything as the car it self already has enough ground. But if you go for the looks only no one can blame u.

Those are some products that proved has no benefit but does exist.