Originally Posted by Nova5

Step DOWN to 5000K. it gets brighter. 4300K is the optimal number for brightness thou.

And for the love of all that is the F-Body DON'T jam them into your halogen housings. Its a terrible and dangerous move. Retrofit projectors.

Originally Posted by rel3rd

Why can't you, or why shouldn't you, "jam" them into stock housings?

Just curious as I was thinking about this upgrade and have never heard this before. Thanks.

Originally Posted by neutron82

i think he's just referring to putting them into stock housings without retrofitting projectors into the housings... if you put an hid bulb in a stock housing the light pattern will be all over the place and probably blind people in front of you whereas a projector will "project" the light output to the ground

Originally Posted by VIP1

Here is a primer...

HID = High Intensity Discharge
Its a bulb and ballast assembly. Instead of a filament glowing in a glass tube (incandescent & halogen), HID is a arc of electricity at a high voltage in a glass tube.

Projector Housing
Its a light housing with a reflector "bowl" in the rear, cut-off shield in the middle, and curved glass focus in front. It produces a wide even light pattern with a sharp flat or stepped line with light below and little to no light above. Some projectors are halogen, some are HID.

Reflector Housing
Standard incandescent & Halogen housing with a reflector in the rear and either Clear or Fresnel or Parabolic glass in front. The cut-off and general pattern is not as well defined as a projector. There is no cut-off shield. The beam pattern is determined by the glass pattern and reflector shape. Almost all reflector housings are halogen or incandescent. Only a couple HID reflector setups were available from the OEMs.


Check out the Lighting FAQ for some more info on Headlight upgrades and projectors. HID Planet's Forums is also a great place for information.


You shouldn't install HID in the High Beam location because they can't be flashed quickly. You'd loose the ability to signal other drivers with the high beams. Vehicles that come from the factory with HID high beam have Bi-Xenon projectors. Its one projector housing for low beam and high beam with a movable cut-off shield. For the high beam, the cut-off shield rises to let more light upwards like a standard high beam pattern.


Here are some examples of bare projectors:


(Not my hand.)


Here is an example of a projector beam pattern:

(My 2001 Formula with Hella 90mm H9 projector, modified cut-off, and 4300K HID kit.)


(tadpole's Miata with FX35 projectors)

(Please note that those pics were not taken at the same place or settings so you can't compare brightness. That being said, the FX projectors are brighter, wider, and have better spread than the Hella 90mm.)

Here is some good reading:
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...nversions.html
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...e/bad/bad.html
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...good/good.html

Some good discussion here:
https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...un-around.html


Regarding HID Kits:
Basically Halogen and HID produce light differently (glowing filament vs. arc of light) and HID kits don't always place the arc in the same place as the Halogen filament. And some halogen filaments are horizontal to the glass tube. All HID arcs are vertical in the glass tube. Which means that the focal point will be off and you'll get a bad light pattern. Also, HID puts out a lot more light than Halogen. Therefore a Halogen Reflector Housing intended to spread a certain amount of light of a certain shape over a certain area now has a lot more light going outside this area not necessarily where it is needed and often where it shouldn't be (high, blotchy, and often into the eyes of others).

This problem becomes compounded with dual filament hi/lo applications. I've seen four kinds of so-called "bi-xenon" HID kits designed for dual filament applications:
1.) One fixed/non-movable HID capsule
You lose high beam but its position and resulting pattern is like the high beams are stuck on and you are blinding everyone.
2.) One HID capsule for low beam and One Halogen bulb for high beam attached to same base
Neither is positioned correctly and the high beam bulb is not replicable. Sucks for you if it blows.
3.) Two HID capsules on one base. Neither is positioned correctly and you have way too much light coming out for high beam and you can't flash-to-pass because HID starts up slowly and you can damage the bulbs and ballasts from frequent flashing.
4.) One Movable HID capsule often with a built-in shield/cap. This is the "best" of these options because it tries to put the arc in close to the correct position for high/low operation. The capsule will move depending on whether you have the high or low beam activated. The beam pattern is still not good, but not as bad as the above options.


For clarification, a bi-xenon projector has only one fixed/non-movable HID bulb. When high beam is activated, the cut-off shield inside the projector moves to allow more light higher through the lens.


Check out the Lighting FAQ: https://ls1tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=710357

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 4300K HID for many reasons.

For the 1993-1997 Firebird, you'd need a bi-xenon setup otherwise you'd lose high beams.

Originally Posted by Nova5

Bingo.

due to the bulb design of Halogen filament and Xenon arc bulbs the light source is in two different locations.

For a Halogen the brightest point is in the center where the negative and positive power forces meet. the housing is designed around this specific point to control light output.

The Xenon bright spots are at the tip and base of the bulb as its creating an actual electrical arc. it weakens in the center where it meets. There are Xenon reflector housings built to handle the bulb.

Each housing is designed for a specific bulb type. Putting the wrong bulb type in causes alot of glare and hotspotting that should not exist. Ever been blinded by a ricer going the other way with blue or purple lights? Chances are those are his LOW beams and he just stuck a Xenon into the halogen housing. Retrofitting a projector into your headlight system is the best way to go to get Xenon. With a projector the housing being made for halogen is pretty much meaningless.

Originally Posted by chrysler kid

biassed information

Originally Posted by chrysler kid

feel better about yourself now?

i have been blinded more times by people running projectors than i have by regular housings. there is an acura TL in my town that gives me a migraine from a mile away.

i thought we went over this subject before, youve never even seen a hid in a camaro housing so how can you butt into every thread and tell people not to do it. im glad you have done a projector retrofit but please stop spreading biassed information. the camaro headlight with teh scattershield is one of the best units to upgrade. the difference between a halogen bulb is HUGE

https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...hs-rumors.html

Originally Posted by marksboy7

I've got hids in both my car and truck in reflector type housings and mine don't blind people. I've actually had two or three friends purposely go out and dive by me to see if there was any problems, none said it bothered there vision. I run 8000K's in all mine, 35w bulbs in lows and 55w bulbs in highs with a high 4 kit so when I switch to the highs my lows stay on. I'm not wanting to start an argument about which housing people should use, I'm just stating my experience.

Originally Posted by Nova5

It's not biased kid. it is a very real problem. You just can't accept the fact HID in Halogen is VERY BAD lighting. If you get blinded by Projectors they are improperly aimed. Properly aimed projectors will not blind other drivers at all on a level surface(unless you hit a bump, or are running in highbeam mode). HID in a Halogen housing will blind all the time due to not being made for the HID bulb. Do not start this lousy argument in here again. Go back to your thread for it.

Originally Posted by VIP1

WOW.... I hope you don't drive anywhere near me. I've seen a similar truck with HID in the stock Halogen Reflector housings and damn that sucked. Owe my eyes.