chrysler kid

iTrader: (14)

again thanks to VIP1 for his informative status, and everyone else that contributes what has been weekly to the lighting faq.

there has currently been alot of discussion about the cheap ebay hid kits, and i would like to share my findings for future reference


question 1: Are hid's kits illegal?
https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...t-fines-2.html
Yes hid's are illegal to create or distribute within the united states because they do not conform to factory bulbs specifications of a halogen bulb. Even TSX retro fitted housings still do not conform to code. therefore any car not equipped with hid's from the factory are technically using illegal lighting. Although they are illegal there is currently no law against them, or a law supporting their legitmacy. what does this mean? if the oficer feels you deserve a ticket, he can write you one

question 2: what benefits will i see from a plug and play 9006 hid kit when i replace the low beam headlight bulbs ?
HID lighting will last an average of 3-5 years and out perform any halogen bulb on the market . by simply ordering a cheap 9006 hid kit for your camaro you can expect a 2-3x better illumination of the road at night. while the kit will extend visibility at night, it however wont increase your peripheral vision, or to say it wouldnt illuminate the sides of the road any more than a regular high intensity halogen bulb. for the best visibilty, a projector setup with hid lights is optimal, but for now you are looking at just the lighting itself. on certain kits, the polarity is reversed. what this means is that you will need to install your plug into the ballast backwards. my kits required this, and i didnt not suffer any damage from trying the polarity either way. so if you hook the lights up and they dont work, flip the headlight plug around
for a 93-97 hid bulb swap information click here
https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...-z28-hids.html
for t/a information look here
https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...-trans-am.html

question 3: what do i need? how hard is it to install?
you will need to buy the 9006 hid kit of your choice (for 98-02 camaro's). the kits with slim ballasts are the most efficient, but as long as the seller implies a warranty you should be fine with any kit. authorized (or large vendor sellers) will often say free lifetime warranty, but be weary they are probably only talking about the ballast unit itself
below are the items included that you will need, which are included in the kit
1. an extension harness to connect the ballast to your stock headlight harness
2. a ballast to refine the power signal to supply a constant energy source to the hid bulbs (square piece)
3. hid bulbs with harness
4. bracket for mounting ballast

It will take you about 30 minutes for a thorough installation. it is very important to keep the bulbs clean to ensure they have a long life. disconnect your headlight bulb from the harness, and that harness simply plugs into the HID ballast. place the new bulbs in your headlights and your ready to roll. be sure to securely fasten the ballasts before you take off . replacement bulbs are universal, and pricing for a pair is around $30
be sure to re adjust your headlights after you install the new headlight kit. pulling up to a closed garage and making sure your headlights are aimed level, and not upward is very important

question 4: can i put a hid kit in my stock foglights?
https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...ere-ya-go.html
Yes you will need to search for "894 hid kit" for camaro or "880 hid kit" for t/a's and firebirds. the bulbs and ballasts are plug and play just like your headlights. so far there have been no adverse side affects or harm to stock housings. While these may spruce up the look of your ride, do not expect a dramatic increase in light output, the oem foglights in the camaro are relatively poor at dispersion of light no matter what bulbs are in them. t/a foglights should see a dramatic increase in light as they are not projector based like the camaro units


question 5:What does 8k mean? what color should i get?
5k is generally the best color penetration available, however yellow is the very best. in discussing this fact with my hid kit vendor, he mentioned that with his 300k lighting setup nearly all road signs were pure glare at night. they were so bright that they were nearly un usable and emitted pure glare, to which he was ticketted several times. however if you want the custom look, other blue/purple/yellow/pink/green can also be found. i have 10k color (deep blue) myself and they were still 2x brighter than my regular halogen silverstars

color of bulbs is based on this simple scale
15000K ---------blue blend with purple, worst penetration

12000K----------blue blend with a little purple, poor penetration

10000K----------white blend with blue obviously,poor penetration

8000K-----------white blend with blue,penetration decline,white blend with little blue

6000K-----------conversion suggest white blend little blue

5000K-----------Bright white, hyper white

4300K-----------Xenon HID headlamps light is light yellow.

3000K-----------golden, best penetration

3k bulb--------------------------------12k bulb




question 6: will i blind others with my cheap hid lighting?
hid kits are about 2-3x brighter when you stare directly into the headlight, but do not blind others in opposing lanes compared to other vehicles when installed and aimed properly on 98-02 camaro's. However, you will blind the person infront of you in their mirrors. be wise to this and use courtesy when following other vehicles because the headlights are very bright.
in previous arguments there has been discussion about halogen housings with hid bulbs being very blinding as they scatter light anywhere.

the camaro headlight housing however contains a scatter shield to better emit the beam pattern. below is a comparison of two 9006 headlight housings, one from a camaro and the other from a silverado

here you can see what i call the glare and focus scatter shield (please correct me with proper name if im mistaken) it is in the center of the low beam headlight, the black colored object


here you can see the silverado headlights, which also use a 9006 bulb, but do not have the glare reducing cover in them. these headlights would be damaging not only to other drivers, but in the end your not going to see much more of the road than you would with regular halogen bulbs. be sure to check your vehicle for these before you waste money on an hid lighting kit, the best bet for your application would be a retrofit (adressed below). t/a sealed beam headlights are are so weak from the factory however, that you WILL see a great improvement over stock


question 7: are hid bulbs going to damage my headlight housings?
35w (standard hid kits) should cause no destructive damage to your headlight or foglights

question 8: what about ebay projectors?
https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...tmas-pics.html
https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...fter-pics.html
A projector + hid light setup will give you the greatest amount of visibility, with minimal amount of light scatter. there are several different projector headlights available on the market for the camaro with different bulbs which are included when you buy a set of projectors. the bulbs are commonly either an h1 or h3 bulb:H3 is intended for fog lights. H1 is intended for high beam, but is often used in eBay projectors. H1 has better output than H3 and H1 projectors typically handle HID better than H3 projectors, but still not as well as some H7 projectors or real HID projectors(to quote the lighting faq).. there are a few sellers who offer a headlight + hid kit, but in general you will need to buy a new hid kit since the projector bulb is different from the stock camaro bulb. you will want to find an h1 bulb projector based housing and h1 hid kit. projectors with stock bulbs are often no better than regular halogen headlights


question 9: what is a retrofit?
https://ls1tech.com/forums/western-m...ave-again.html
a retrofit is placing projectors from another vehicle into a halogen based headlamp. these setups in general cost about the same as an expensive set of projector headlights on ebay, but require some fabrication. they offer by far the best dispersion and focus of light. instead of replacing a halogen headlight bulb like you would in an ebay projector, a retrofitted unit is a projector that came equipped and designed for hid light emmitance. the most common, and most sought after are the acura TSX projector housings

chrysler kid

iTrader: (14)

here is a better reference of a headlight with no scatter shield. this is one of the first kind of clear headlights made for the durango/dakota. after searching it appears that newer models of the clear headlights have added in reflective caps to the headlight

wannafbody

iTrader: (2)

So Eurolamps housings and HID Kits aren't the best option for TA's due to not having a scatter shield.

In the case of HID fogs on a TA you will notice an increase in side visibility. The light directly in front of the vehicle gets mixed with the lowbeams so if your using stock lowbeams you will end up with a more whitish-yellowish light in the center and bluer light toward the outside edges with a 6000K bulb.

chrysler kid

iTrader: (14)

https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...hting-faq.html



any upgrade to them will be very noticeable, but the most common complaint about a hid kit is the glare coming from them. ive been blinded several times this week my old civics and corollas using hid kit. the best option for t/a is the retrofit like vip1 has done to his formula, however the easiest would be eurolamps. even without the light scatter shield it will be a drastic improvement over stock, but the light stream is probably pretty intense to oncoming traffic.

previous arguments against the cheap plug and play kits was that they caused a horrendous amount of glare, but i just wanted to give some feedback now that i have had mine installed for several months

VIP1

The color of the light output is also affected by the housing.

For example, stock unmodified FX projectors with OEM 4300K D2S bulbs have a yellowish cut-off. Bending/removing the secondary front shield (not the main cut-off shield) changes the cut-off to blue. The actually light output color only changes slightly from yellowish white to slightly whiter white but most people notice the color via the cut off which dramatically changes from yellow to blue. Changing the stock fuzzy lens to a clear lens further sharpens the cut-off and increases intensity below the cut-off and lessens the minor stray light immediately above the cut-off (which is a bit of a trade off since that minor stray light helps light up signs).


The K number is the color temp. It is not the brightness (well not directly, I'll explain). 4000K - 5000K is the brightest. Continuing up the color scale, the light gets bluer then purpler and the lumen output (the actual measurement of light) decreases. In other words, a 10000K HID kit is dimmer than a 4300K HID kit. Our eyes are least sensitive to blue light. Blue light also scatters more easily. In the end, we can see better with a 4300K HID for many reasons.




BTW, this thread is a follow-up to this thread:
https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...un-around.html


Check out HID Planet's Forums for plenty more info on HID and retrofits.

chrysler kid

iTrader: (14)

indeed. there was quite a bit of banter about them back and forth and the conversation got sideways relatively quickly. adding to that the fact that there have been alot of questions about hid lighting and i thought i would collect the recent information into one thread, mostly its the information that you and other have contributed towards recently asked questions about foglights, headlights, legality, what you need, what color is best and so forth


although the hid's in reflector housings are a hated subject, my setup has an acceptable level of glare to on coming traffic, but deadly if you are in the headlight beams. However the whole lighting output is pretty much just two hot spots, they merely extend the field of vision by high levels of light output. think of your stock headlight bulbs on crack

im pretty close to the garage in this picture, but it shows where the hot spots are. im sure if i backed the car away and took a different picture you could see a better spread, but still see the hot spots. i could litereally see the dimples in the stock housing in the light on the garage

Iceman can

iTrader: (1)

Sticky! Want to do one like this for the T/As?

chrysler kid

iTrader: (14)

https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...-trans-am.html

sorry at this time you will need to spend quite a bit more time and effort because there are no such plug and play kits for the trans ams. a set of h4 fixtures will cost you a pretty penny

chrysler kid

iTrader: (14)

just a few night shots to show that the oem headlights are not heavy glare emmitors. they pretty much emit a square of light

01Z0H6

iTrader: (63)

Nice... I too am running these in my Fbod.. I need toget some of the 894's for the fog's..

SIC LSX

iTrader: (10)

where do you get them?

SantaCruz163

iTrader: (6)

So HID in the stock housings aren't that bad in regards to scatter?

My dilema is that I want to run HIDs but am unsure if I want to buy projector headlights or just use the stockers and do the whistler mod.

maxgee

iTrader: (5)

Just got mine from ebay...came quick ordered them this past friday. One problem, they won't hold firmly in place. I read somewhere on this forum where a minor modification was needed to get them to stay in place. Anyone?

bene

iTrader: (16)

Ultimately you would want to use the projector. I had 9006s before in my stockers while it increased and improved the visiblity at night people are blinded w/ the numerous glare from the stock headlights. I switched to projectors since then w/ HIDs. I'll take pictures of my set up once I get around to it.

chrysler kid

iTrader: (14)

i have only received compliments about mine. never anything negative in the past year

salaguinto99

I have an 9006 HID light kit (ballast, wiring and bulb) from an older car ('93 infiniti) and I tried to install it in my 2001 Camaro (V6) with stock headlights. All the fittings matched and I was able to mount the HID bulb into the stock housing without any problems. However, when I tried to turn them on, they won't light up. I have daytime running lights, do I need a relay or something to make them work?

SparkyJJO

iTrader: (11)

Plug the ballast into the factory harness backwards. These cars are wired in reverse for some odd reason. Halogen bulbs don't care (just a resistive wire, really), but as you found HID ballasts do care.

On my old 98 I reversed the pins on the factory harness. On my current 99 I used a relay harness.

I still actively discourage anyone from putting HID in non-projector housings.