HID headlight install and comparison

[droo]

I've been busy doing maintenance and repairing bits on my 'new' toy. (na 1.
As i do a lot of country driving, i'm a big fan of lighting the roads ahead of me. My other car (nissan pathfinder fourby) has decent headlights and great driving light/spotties which i've fitted 50w HID's and light up the road for over a km ahead comfortably.

Coming back to the mx, and its reduced height compared to the fourby, the globe light brightness and thats partially due to the angle that it hits the road being reduced. So, i've done a few experiments with various globe assemblies (crystal headlights, the crystal "projector" headlights, and the oem ones).

In a nutshell, the crystal ones are rubbish (unless someone can point out a good brand and web site for it). The crystal projector headlights are also rubbish.

Rubbish as there is no defined cutoff on lowbeam output, and essentially is "highbeam" even on the low beam setting due to its undefined light scattering.

I've returned back to the oem glass, having not even taken my mx on the road at night with the other setups as i'd be ashamed of myself blinding others.

Below is a very direct comparison between standard globes (not quite standard but the phillips "blue" light ones and oem headlights, vs crystal headlights, vs oem glass + HIDs.)

Hope you might find this useful if you where thinking about the conversion. I've adjusted the HID's lower by 10cm at 10metres distance to reduce the actual glass glare onto coming traffic. Light output is significant.

The HID's are 35w output, and their ballasts have been secured beneath each of the light assemblies and cable tied out of the popup mechanism's way. I'll get more photos of that setup if anyone's interested tomorrow in daylight.

[sailaholic]

Awesome thread, been considering all the same options.

Had been shying away from hid main beams due to legality. Was considering a set of hid spot lights as high beams/driving lights can legally be hid.

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[manga_blue]

The Phillips "Blue Light" bulbs are non-performing bling but at least Phillips are honest enough to say as much in the marketing for them.

Their conventional performance bulbs are their Xtreme Power ones - plug in H4s and H7s with about twice the useful light. I've got them in all our cars now. All the local auto electricians sell them, calling the HIDs a waste of time and money - basically because of too much back glare. It's all winding, wet country roads thick with roos, wallabies and wombats here and they do the job.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/H4-Philips-X- ... 1060wt_905

[droo]

just back from an 80km drive through foggy areas and then dense traffic. Zero flashbacks from oncoming traffic. Before my drive out, i smidged down the angle of the globes another inch (at 10 metres) and still lights plenty of road ahead of me. The fog was great - was able to pull over on a side road, and confirm the beam output.

The colour of this starts off blue tinted, then whitish, then standard globe yellow, but much MUCH brighter. They take about 15-20 seconds to warm up and have their characteristic ballast buzzing when they warm up.

On the open highway through the hills here, the high-beams are fantastic and exactly what i'm after considering it's a h4 dual purpose headlight assembly.

Also this afternoon, I'd wired in and fitted twin element indicator globes on the front and inserted 21w parker light bulbs replacing the 5w original bulbs to help be more visible over the HIDs but i've found them unnecessary as they arent blinded out by the light.

The brightness over hills is no brighter then seeing a modern euro brand coming over a hill and being in it's low beam dip with their projector HIDs.

Legalities aside, i appreciate that. I will remove them if i'm pulled over for them. I've comfortably hidden the ballasts under the pop up assemblies and the actual globes themselves arent visible under the popup hoods. This is the third vehicle i've owned with HIDs but previously had never done the comparison between them.

For $76 from a sydney group and delivered in 2 days of purchasing on ebay, i'm happy. Could have got them 20-30$ cheaper from china/hongkong but would be typically waiting 4-6 weeks for them.

If anyone's interested:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/H4-Bi-Xenon- ... 869wt_1106


They install neatly and with a bit of time and cable ties, the wiring is pretty much invisible.
Took me about 3 hours all up but most of that time was working out where to get 12v from in the engine bay and re-fitting the pop up lids flush, and then i decided to paint the plastic surrounds black, and also had to repair an alignment screw which i had broken.

[manga_blue]

OK, interesting. The back glare that worries me is off reflective road signs and guide posts. Sometimes I think you can have just too much light.

I'd been thinking that HIDs are fine for Europe where there's plenty of streetlighting and other light noise. But where I am there's just black night. If I come across a spot with a lot of guide posts or those big arrows around a sweeper or just big signs they put out enough glare to spoil my night vision for a second or two. It means I have to dip through patches like that so when I get through that section and back into the blackness I can still see. The trouble with that is I've missed seeing wombats while the lights were down.

How do your HIDs go with that?

[BadBong]

..I've always wondered what's the difference between these $76 xenons and the ones that are $200-300 ?...

Can anyone shed some light? (pardon the pun... )

[Mr Morlock]

Custom made HID headlamps OE cost maybe $700 per unit but these are photometrically designed for a vehicle . The replacement light source for the H4 as commented on presumably are matched as close as possible to the same focal lengths as the oe bulb. The units will be low volume, poor quality , variable tolerances, and uncertain specification. The actual performance is not necessarily as advertised. Philips and Osram in their premium plants make extremely high quality products with low defect rates ( about 20ppm) for legal bulbs . However if "droo" is satisfied that the performance is genuinely better it's his call- photos certainly give that impression. One might also consider are the electronics really safe and probably forget advising the insurance co as these lamps are not legal.

For those doing night driving and where high beam can be utilised it is easy to fit driving lamps which are very effective - you can even get legal HID d/lamps but probably not really necessary.

The so called high performance H4's etc also come with much reduced life over standard bulbs so a driver doing a lot of night driving will notice more replacements are required. If you drive a few hours a week then lamp life is not much of an issue. What is the life of these HID replacement light sources?

Drivers have to decide if they have a problem with visibility. If there is then the root cause(s) need to be addressed eg poor reflectors ( old lamps) poor aiming, poor quality bulbs, old bulbs, or poor eyesight and the need to wear glasses for night driving. Daniel Sterns website has info on HID aftermarket products but it is hardly an endorsement http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech ... sions.html.

[greenMachine]

OK, interesting. The back glare that worries me is off reflective road signs and guide posts. Sometimes I think you can have just too much light.

Too right!

I think that the modern signs have much improved reflective abilities, which I find too bright with just halogens .

[Mr Morlock]

you can have too much uncontrolled light or badly aimed lights- signs are no more reflective than yesteryear though arguably more of them - ie better safety signage.

[Regie]

damn...look at that glare!

you will be getting flashed!

[Jimi]

Just on the legalities, if your car is pre 1994, the headlights adr is not applicable, so I can't see any legal issue, since there is no headlights standard to be judged against.

1994 or later, and you're now under an adr, so it is plainly an illegal mod.

Double check the adr for the exact date off the rta website.

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[Mr Morlock]

I am not sure where the 1994 comment came from- lighting was certainly subject to certification long before that date. OEM headlamps, tail lights etc all had to be certified and were rigorously tested eg NATA labs. HID was not even a commercial reality until recent years.

[Jimi]

Mr Morlock, I agree there was certification, and that there always has been, however pre 1992 the vehicle ADRs did not include provisions for regulations. I checked the date of the ADR and it is 92, not 94, for lighting and signalling on vehicles not covered in the specific headlights ADR which was implemented in 2006 and is not retrospectivly applicable.

Ergo pre 1992, manufacturers were at liberty to follow any standard they felt like, if any standard at all. Thus choice of globe in standard light housing is not regulated.

Also, it seems that as long as your headlights and globes carry an E specification, they are legal in this country, thus e rated headlights with e rated HID globes meet this requirement, even if they are H4 retrofits.

Just my interpretation of the applicable laws.

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[rxmx]

Just realised I posted in the wrong place...

[Mr Morlock]

Jimi said "Ergo pre 1992, manufacturers were at liberty to follow any standard they felt like, if any standard at all. Thus choice of globe in standard light housing is not regulated."

The above statement is wrong. 60/55W bulb was the max legal for any OE headlamp system- the same applied in Europe.Anyone can check their older cars and you will see either on the housing the bulb wattage or certainly in owner manuals. All headlamps made had to be tested and certified and the usual headlamp was H4 60/55 or H3 H1 etc but all with standard wattages. Insofar as HID aftermarket there are no headlamp systems certified for specific cars that I know of- what co is going to spend that amount of money to produce and certify a fully compliant lamp for piddling sales?