Bought an hid conversion kit

Topic: Bought an hid conversion kit (Read 1966 times) previous topic - next topic

Bought an hid conversion kit

November 19, 2009, 06:32:42 AM

Bought an hid conversion kit off of ebay for the 99. It was kind of a pain but all in all in the end it came out working fine. The kit + shipping cost me $50.00 which i think is a steal considering the Sylvania silverstars that i was using cost 50 bucks and burn out in about a year.

Bought an hid conversion kit

Reply #1 – November 19, 2009, 12:09:36 PM

wow that looks killer! i eventually will install a set on my dd and my 90.

Bought an hid conversion kit

Reply #2 – November 19, 2009, 01:26:25 PM

Yea they are really nice but i noticed that one of the headlights is mis aimed i believe. The driver side looks like it may be pointing to the right.

Bought an hid conversion kit

Reply #3 – November 19, 2009, 01:31:51 PM

Quote from: Cougar8775;299399

wow that looks killer! i eventually will install a set on my dd and my 90.

Be ready for scatter and blinding on coming drivers. Housings are not deigned for HID so they project horrible light patterns. This is what I hear.

Bought an hid conversion kit

Reply #4 – November 20, 2009, 08:06:08 AM

Quote from: DVP;299407

Be ready for scatter and blinding on coming drivers. Housings are not deigned for HID so they project horrible light patterns. This is what I hear.

Havent noticed any scatter, nor have i had any headlights flashed at me. On a side note on Wensday i went to brondes ford looking for new headlight assemblys for the 99. When i found the price out I shiznit bricks. Hell i thought 150 on ebay was bad Ford wants 512 for the passenger side and 514 for the Driver side. Can someone maybe tell me why the heck they think they can get away with reaming people like this?

Bought an hid conversion kit

Reply #5 – November 20, 2009, 08:40:20 AM

I'm sure they prolly discountinued the part, so therefore, your paying for whats left in circulation, unfortunatly.

Chris

Bought an hid conversion kit

Reply #6 – November 20, 2009, 03:28:45 PM

Quote from: 20th anny 5.o;299486

Havent noticed any scatter, nor have i had any headlights flashed at me. On a side note on Wensday i went to brondes ford looking for new headlight assemblys for the 99. When i found the price out I shiznit bricks. Hell i thought 150 on ebay was bad Ford wants 512 for the passenger side and 514 for the Driver side. Can someone maybe tell me why the heck they think they can get away with reaming people like this?

Taking about Cougar8775.

Your housings are designed completely different than his or mine.

Bought an hid conversion kit

Reply #7 – November 20, 2009, 04:17:19 PM

Quote from: 20th anny 5.o;299486

Havent noticed any scatter, nor have i had any headlights flashed at me. On a side note on Wensday i went to brondes ford looking for new headlight assemblys for the 99. When i found the price out I shiznit bricks. Hell i thought 150 on ebay was bad Ford wants 512 for the passenger side and 514 for the Driver side. Can someone maybe tell me why the heck they think they can get away with reaming people like this?

Never buy parts from a dealership unless you want to be raped

Bought an hid conversion kit

Reply #8 – November 20, 2009, 05:45:02 PM

Quote from: 20th anny 5.o;299486

Can someone maybe tell me why the heck they think they can get away with reaming people like this?

generic HID kits have only very recently come down in price. getting application specific parts costs more, not counting the stealership tax.

Bought an hid conversion kit

Reply #9 – November 20, 2009, 05:56:14 PM

Quote from: t3skidoo;299543

generic HID kits have only very recently come down in price. getting application specific parts costs more, not counting the stealership tax.

Im talking about Oem parts the Hid conversion kit cost me 50 bucks man. The headlights i have i noticed while cleaning them with blue magic have cracks in both of them and something in the housing.

Bought an hid conversion kit

Reply #10 – November 20, 2009, 11:18:52 PM

the cougar i would have to come up with new lenses but itats a pain. and my lesaber already has clear lights so it wouldn't be difficult to do the conversion on it.

Bought an hid conversion kit

Reply #11 – December 24, 2009, 02:11:16 AM

I want to being this back up as it came up on another forum. Take a picture of that car against the wall and you'll see the issue easily. Without driving in front, or oncoming, of the car in a normal car-height, you won't see the glare.

From the picture I see the camera capturing, that is a TON of glare. My projects show only the projector itself, none of that stray light you show. My avatar shows that they look like just above the cutoff - no glare around the lights. The beam is wide and reaches beyond where that picture was taken.

HID Projectors - HID's using projectors have a sharp cutoff and give you that blue "twinkle" that you see when other cars are driving around. The blue sits at the edge of the cutoff, controlled by a metal plate inside the projector.

OEM Reflector - HID's using reflectors do not have a cutoff or any blue - they just have a higher color temperature than halogen by a couple thousand kelvin. These reflectors are designed for the shape of the D2R (reflector) bulbs and do a good job of keeping the light focused.

Halogen Reflector - HID's using reflectors they were not designed for have a best case of looking like this. The beam size is pretty much useless though. Light will sit on a couple hotspots on the road.

Halogen Reflector 2 - HID's placed into reflector housings designed for halogens will typically look like this. The light is all over the place with very little on the road.

They may also look like this - more focused but no wide beam:

Very often, this is what other people see. Normally a person may see this glare when below the cutoff of projector HID's (which is below the beltline of other vehicles) but a retrofit can usually be seen with this glare sitting up much higher and in people's windwhields/rearview mirrors. This is the typical high beam look and people get "fix it"/get checked by a shop tickets for it. Higher color temperatures cause the glare to become even worse, as in this photo (likely 6K-8K color temperature).

Halogen projector retrofits typically look like the "Halogen Reflector" image above, while the best case is normally closer to "OEM Reflector". A select few can get the HID projector look but the beam is much sloppier.

Bought an hid conversion kit

Reply #12 – December 24, 2009, 02:20:54 AM

I took two pictures, one above the HID beam and one inside the beam. You can tell what glare looks like on camera by comparing the shots. Basically that halo of light radiation around the light source is very bad glare.

Bought an hid conversion kit

Reply #13 – December 24, 2009, 03:09:47 AM

Quote from: Seek;303765

I took two pictures, one above the HID beam and one inside the beam. You can tell what glare looks like on camera by comparing the shots. Basically that halo of light radiation around the light source is very bad glare.

Wait, you have HID on your 87-88 bird? How? Where is the kit? I need one. When I turn my blinkers on, the light that projects from the blinker (the one next to the headlight, not cornering lights) projects out further than my headlights, I'm not joking!

Bought an hid conversion kit

Reply #14 – December 24, 2009, 03:27:59 AM

Quote from: jpc647;303773

Wait, you have HID on your 87-88 bird? How? Where is the kit? I need one. When I turn my blinkers on, the light that projects from the blinker (the one next to the headlight, not cornering lights) projects out further than my headlights, I'm not joking!

http://foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?t=91&highlight=hid

I used to have your problem many years ago and only new headlights helped fix the "marker lights are brighter than headlights" issue. New stock headlights with new stock foglights, both with relays and thick wiring to get me 14.4v at the headlights, still sucked though. With the HID's in place the foglights do nothing but light up the tops of trees where the HUD doesn't reach (thankfully). Relays did help a TON though - if you have clear lights with good reflectors still, they will increase the output tremendously. I don't remember numbers but going from 12.5v to 14+v is like a 50%+ lumen increase.

Edit: Some voltage love - http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/relays/relays.html

HID projectors were just my next logical step after going through the following. I give rough percentages but the equivalent lumen output helps put it into perspective, although not close at all to what I'm sure I actually had available for light output.
1) Cloudy headlights with moisture inside/damaged reflectors (base level - horrible - cannot see much at all at night) - 600 usable lumens on road
2) Clean headlight inside/out and make lens clear (+50% output on road from #1) - 900 usable lumens on road
3) Add relays (+50% output from #2) - 1400 usable lumens on road
4) Add TC bumper cover/foglights with relays (+50% output from #3 - more widespread output) - 2100 usable lumens on road
5) New headlights with foglights (+30% output from #4) - 3000 usable lumens on road
6) Acura TL HID Projectors (+100% from #5 - great intensity and beam width - foglights don't light up road anything noticeable) - 6000+ usable lumens on road (projector+fog)
7) (Next) Acura TL/TSX quad projectors (expect +100% output from step #6) - 11000+ usable lumens on road (projector only - legal limit of 4 forward lights)