Having driving lights come on with the high beams on a Firebird is illegal because your are only allowed four white lights on the front. That's why the factory fog lights go off when you turn on the high beams.

 

TTT......Updated Post #176 with BBL HID's

 

Nice to see you're finally not blinding everyone on the road. I wish more people would consider doing conversions the right way rather than the cheap way.

 

Anybody ever try the generic 4x6 conversion housings. They offer them with projector lens. Just not sure they would fit.


(non-sponsor link removed)

 

I don't see a pic or link since someone removed it, but almost all of those 4x6 "projectors" on ebay aren't actually projectors. They are poor quality reflector housing with a hunk of glass stuck in them to fool people. Output is bad. Especially if you get the black painted ones.

 

What about putting some 55 watt hid's for the highs and 35 for the lows? Also is 5000k the closest color to white led's?

 

Where? Which housings?

 

With the lmc housings.

 

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

See my Post #467, #469, #473 in that thread.

 

Those spots are actually there on purpose. They are a euro style thing to help you view signs in the dark, which is why they are angled to the right. I just installed mine with the bulbs it came with and I have that too, as proof.

That said, they aren't meant to be very bright and the HIDs do look blinding. If I were to upgrade the bulbs, I'd look into some of the newer Crees that have 1800lm output and seem to output light similar to halogens from what I've seen online. These honestly are very bright anyways though - well worth the money.

 

Just a bump. I was reviewing this thread after getting the bird back on the road and came across led 9005/6 bulb replacements.

http://www.automotivelightstore.com/...mentBulbs.aspx

Wonder if anyone's tried them yet. At $199/pair they're pricey, and they rely on a small fan for cooling, which in my experience with electronics (laptops, power inverters, and small battery chargers) end up noisy and failing with constant usage.

I love the allure of leds. Low power consumption, low heat, long life. It's amazing to me we've gotten along with the little metal string of filament bulbs for as long as we have.

I really want to have these, and have them work for a long time. But experience with similar products tells me the life span will be short to moderate. So I'd have to polish off the RMA sheets and carry traditional bulbs in case one dies on the road.

 

the biggest issue with those "new" HEADLIGHT specific LED setups is the size of the cooling fins/fan, there is not much room behind the bulb location between the tabs on the back of the headlight buckets (easy enough to cut off) and the lid of the headlight, plus you have to watch out for the core support on the low beams, like for example the BLS V1 kit that uses the Hella 60mm projectors is so tight against the core support that you HAVE to run HID's in the low beams because the 9005 bulb base would hang on the core support and prevent the headlight from being able to move up and down.

 

Those LED replacements and other current LED drop-ins are not good. From all the pics I've seen, the hot spot is way off. You'll get increased pool of light directly in front of the car, but less distance vision and more glare for everyone else. They don't properly use the optics to be useful.

Wait until someone comes out with a LED drop-in that properly uses the optics (which may never happen).

Check out these threads to see what I mean about a ruined beam pattern:
http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/show...output-picture
http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/show...rojector/page6
http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/show...ht-Bulbs/page8
Notice that the spread is wrong and the center is darker compared to halogen.

Instead, if you want brighter bulbs in those housings, take a look at HIR bulbs.

$18-$27 per bulb. Similar pricing compared to other higher output halogen bulbs. HIR bulbs are still halogen. HIR used to mean Halogen Infrared Reflective (in reference to special coating which reflected IR back to the filament to get it to burn brighter), but the current generation of HIR bulbs skip the coating and instead have brighter filaments to meet the lumen outputs of the spec.

HIR 9011/9012 bulbs are noticeably brighter than Standard 9005/9006 Halogen bulbs. Some cars come with them stock.

Here is a Lumen Ratings comparison (same wattage):

Low Beam (55 watt)
-- STD 9006 -- 1000
-- HIR 9012 -- 1870
[87% increase in lumen output]

High Beam (65 watt)
-- STD 9005 -- 1700
-- HIR 9011 -- 2350
[38% increase in lumen output]

9011
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-H...11B1/203654601
http://store.candlepower.com/9011.html
http://www.autozone.com/collision-bo..._0_18268_8548/


9012
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-H...LLB1/203654603
http://store.candlepower.com/ph3rdge90h.html
http://www.autozone.com/collision-bo..._167897_18268/


Watch out for fakes on ebay.

 

Hi, I am new to the site and I have read this thread about the conversion. Can anyone tell me is this the latest upgrade? I am asking becasue as much as I want to do this and order the truck headlights and ddm tunning hid kits, is there anything current or new since this thread(conversion) was posted 5 years ago? or is this still a good mod? Any info would be great
thanks

 

well, this was NEVER the right way to do a HID kit, it was the cheap way. The RIGHT way is the BLS HID kit.

 

thanks for the info, I checked out there website, I see why now everyone did it the other way.......

 

Any of you guys still have the cheaper method installed or did you do the switch over?? Also, anyone know if ddm hid kits are still good to order from and the truck lights?
Thanks

 

I have a 1996 TA with the single head light on each side would that kit work for me?

 

There is a member here named Tram (I think) that sells some water cut plates that bolt in place of your headlight. They are made to be used with the Hella 60mm projectors (same as the BLS V1 low beams). I have been useing this for at least 6 months now with a cheap 35w 6000k HID kit. I love it. I had the LMC housings with halogen bulbs and of course this is way better. My only regret is that I went with a cheap kit, I wish they were a bit brighter, but I'll switch them out later.

The BLS kit is great, but for what I paid for mine I'm happy. $80 for the brackets, $59 each on the projectors, and around $60 on the HID kit.

I know there not as pretty as the BLS kit, but there only open at night.

 

im subscribing to all of this info