The great headlight debate...

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Thu Aug 04, 2011 10:35 pm

Alex wrote: I have them aligned properly and have never been flashed in either of them cars from people getting annoyed with them.

I remember radioing you to turn your lights off when I was cruising in front of you - those lights were DAMN bright, even in the middle of the day!! I couldn't flash due to being the car in front

Alex wrote:HIDs are great and the people that complain about them are generally old men.

I may be near 30 but I wouldn't say that I'm an old man!

I'm pretty sure that by ADRs your low beam globe must have a cover over it - the high beams don't matter as they shouldn't be in operation with an oncoming vehicle...

I should look into a kit for my driving lights - keep the low beams stock

Cheers

Bennie

mud_king91 · Post by **mud_king91** » Thu Aug 04, 2011 11:18 pm

You can get a hid kit for 120iish on ebay

Post by **Alex** » Thu Aug 04, 2011 11:19 pm

That's cos I had just put them in mr freedo. They were adjusted the next day. Those old lights I had at the time had busted reflectors also

You can get them for under $100 off eBay now. Best money i've spent on a car

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Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 6:27 am

It is illegal to retrofit HID's to light fitting designed for filament globes. It doesnt matter if you have them adjusted, the reflectors for filament globes are designed for a light source from a single point. Throw a HID in there and because the light source is an 'arc' that covers a lager area, there is more scattered light and glare. Thats why factory HID's are fitted a projector type fitting

Post by **Alex** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 9:03 am

Yes I understand that. Just saying they don't police it very heavily. Every second car has them these days.

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littlewhiteute · Post by **littlewhiteute** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 7:43 pm

Gannon wrote:It is illegal to retrofit HID's to light fitting designed for filament globes. It doesnt matter if you have them adjusted, the reflectors for filament globes are designed for a light source from a single point. Throw a HID in there and because the light source is an 'arc' that covers a lager area, there is more scattered light and glare. Thats why factory HID's are fitted a projector type fitting

Good to see somebody understands.

It pisses me off seeing the number cars out there with illegal lighting.

How anyone can drive a car not knowing what they have done is ILLEGAL is beyond me.

More than likely they do know, and are ignorant of the fact.

nncoolg · Post by **nncoolg** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 8:38 pm

you can get some pretty nice H4's these days anyway (on paper anyway) I saw some 55/60 +100's in the latest repco cat, 50 bucks

Can anyone recomend some good H4's without going to a rediculous wattage? I bought some blue H4's off ebay ages ago and I threw them away!

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 9:25 pm

Yeah go the Phillips H4 X-treme +100%
Possibly the brightest lights you can buy

nncoolg · Post by **nncoolg** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 9:26 pm

yeah, the phillips packaging looks pretty appealing, have you used these Gannon?

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:07 pm

Nah not yet, but Tom is an auto elec, he reckons they are the bomb.
Im very soon gonna fit em to the Foz

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 11:10 pm

Gannon wrote:Yeah go the Phillips H4 X-treme +100%
Possibly the brightest lights you can buy

Hmmm... Might have to crack on with that head light wiring upgrade I've been looking at doing for the last umptdeen years and get a set of these globes!

Cheers

Bennie

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sat Aug 06, 2011 3:50 am

Gannon wrote:It is illegal to retrofit HID's to light fitting designed for filament globes. It doesnt matter if you have them adjusted, the reflectors for filament globes are designed for a light source from a single point. Throw a HID in there and because the light source is an 'arc' that covers a lager area, there is more scattered light and glare. Thats why factory HID's are fitted a projector type fitting

Would this mod slip them into a "legal" status you think?

Just putting it out there...

Cheers

Bennie

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sat Aug 06, 2011 8:45 am

Now, this is why these forums are the best! Good find Bennie

Might go the Gannon suggestin next step myself

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Sat Aug 06, 2011 8:50 am

A good effort on the projector retrofit, but i dont think it would be legal. You could of course have it inspected and approved, but this is likely to be costly.

pitrack_1 · Post by **pitrack_1** » Sun Aug 07, 2011 1:13 am

Bit boring I know, but I tend to agree with Gannon and littlewhiteute. One of my friends used to declare in frustration at glary headlights, "All headlights should be aimed up and to the right!"

Have used Narva Plus30s and Plus50s for years, which do help and are legal. However they do tend to have a shorter bulb life, measured in seconds if your alternator overvoltages-confirmed in practice. Haven't tried the even brighter ones yet.

And sorry, they won't may your vehicle look 'sexy'.

ALso, if you have a close look at recent VWs you will note the bulb cover in the headlamp unit shows the "VW" logo- a neat touch.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sun Aug 07, 2011 3:01 am

Gannon wrote:A good effort on the projector retrofit, but i dont think it would be legal. You could of course have it inspected and approved, but this is likely to be costly.

It's got to be better than just dropping the HID kit in there from the stock headlight unit... But then again - the way lighting is policed in Australia I doubt you'll ever be busted for it - even in victoria my 3 driving lights are deemed un-roadworthy due to the number I have up front. If I had 2 I'd be ok, If I had 4 driving lights I'd also be ok - but three... apparently that's not on! Go figure!!

Cheers

Bennie

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Sun Aug 07, 2011 8:37 am

I was thinking about the project retrofit in a L series headlamp above, and although it looks good and if you were pulled up by the fuzz for them, you could easily say they were OEM lights from Japan, and may get away with it.

I cant see how a pair of universal projectors could achieve the correct cut-off, given it is different for each car in height and width.

This is what a projector cut off is supposed to look like (this is LHD so opposite to what we would have

Also, because HID's dont achieve full brightness straight away, there is normally just one bulb for both high and low beam, with a shade that changes the cutoff of the light when you dip your beams

Anyone with H4 HID's care to elaborate how the transition from high and low beam is, is there a dull in between?

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sun Aug 07, 2011 10:52 am

The number of lights Bennie mentions - the ADR for reverse lights is - maximum of two - so the extra spottie wired in you essentially need to eliminate the factory light on same side as spottie.

NachaLuva · Post by **NachaLuva** » Wed Aug 31, 2011 5:28 pm

steptoe wrote:to me, those lines, won't 'see' them after a whle, surely?

Sealed beams in the Vortex or H4's? thought the latter was in them.

I'd be going them purely for that bounce back reflector thnking it may do a better job.

Got a link for them and how much?

May need to add relays to your circuits to unload the light switch

just bght my 1st subie...a '98 Forester

i hav sum 130/90 super white (6000K) bulbs to put in but need to add relays 1st. hav just discovered are POSITIVE SWITCHED!!! CRAP!!!
relays are easy to do usually...wth normal wiring lol

can any1 help me with how to do the relays for +ve switchd headlights?

thx,
matt

Post by **Alex** » Wed Aug 31, 2011 6:15 pm

swap the neg and +ve around.

what size globes are they?

if its a h4, this can be difficult, but ive never heard of this problem with a h4 globe.

youre probably playing with h7 globes?

alex