Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill F  Hi
Are you thinking of buying an after market HID kit and replacing your bulbs??
The replacement kits do not provide proper reflectors to aim the light. The reflectors in a filament lighting system can not be used with a gas discharge bulb. The focal points are to different. Use a search engine and find out why. If you are looking for the HID effect there are H7 bulbs around that can mimic the colour, usually with shorter life expectancies and sometimes less light.
The HID kits might appear brighter but the light is not concentrated on the road and can be dangerous to other cars.
Bill |
This is not entirely true....well it is entirely true.....sort of LOL
No but seriously, first let me say this one important thing in caps so as to not confuse anyone....WHAT YOU SAID IS NOT FALSE, THERE IS A 100% TRUTH TO THE FOCAL POINT ISSUE YOU BROUGHT UP.
Oh and while Wikepedia is great, don't forget it's a public entry that is not verified by anyone.....the accuracy of the information is only as good as it's source.
Now with that out of the way, the bulb (fillament, gas, hay, copper...doesn't matter) doesn't create the focal point or light scatter for that bulb....the reflector and design of the housing creates that. The bulb itself emits the light in a 360 degree pattern (except for low beams which, as we know, has a metallic paint on the front to prevent the light being emitted directly forward)
Now with that out of the way, keep in mind that some of the housings, on certain model and year Mercedes are the same housing that was used wether or not the HID option was installed in that car. And this is true for other makes, and is especially true for cars that are 3 or more years old that were offered with a halogen or HID headlight option but did not use a projector style headlight. That housing and reflector is the same for Halogen or HID options.
The problem you speak of will occur more that if were purchased without HID lights use a non projector type housing, but use a projector style housing when the HID option is installed. And this is because of the lumens (light intensity) increase in HID's. Because the typical HID system is somwhere around 5500 degrees Kelvin, it's light intensity (lumens) are around 3x that of a conventional Halogen bulb they have enough light intensity to utilize the more focused beam that the projector housing offers. It has nothing to do with the bulb, and THE PROPER HID system will have little to NO noticable light loss effects.
If you want the real answer, it has more to do with this rather than your headlight housing or bulb type:
THE NUMBER ONE REASON AN AFTERMARKET KIT HAS PISS POOR LIGHTING IS
NOT DUE TO THE HOUSING, IT IS CAUSED BY THIS:
A. There are three basic versions of and HID ballast available, for aftermarket use: Low Grade (non digital) generally costing sub $300 for an entire kit, quality grade (non digital) generally ranging $300 - $400 for an entire kit. **a kit is: wires, bulbs, and ballasts that does not include a headlight housing**
both of the above mentioned kits only match a factory HID system to about 80% for low grade and 90% for quality grade
and the third, which most people are either not aware exists or don't want to spend the extra $150 which is a DIGITAL ballast.
And a digital ballast is the only type that will match a factory system...reason is simple, factory systems use digital ballasts. (they are far more reliable, have less failure problems because they have no voltage spike at turn on, and maintain a constant voltage to the bulb where non digital have a varying current due to the way it makes and stores the 20,000 volts required to ignite the Xenon gas in a true HID bulb, typical Halogen ignite on the 12v the car produces)
Oh and add in the fact that most people, let's be honest, who are buying aftermarket kits are buying them because all the "cool" cars have them....so they want to look "cool". And so, as I'm sure you have noticed, alot of people buy the bluer tinted versions offered in aftermarket kits.
***THIS IS IMPORTANT TO ANYONE RESEARCHING HID KITS***
HID kits come in several different temperatures, these temperatures are measured in "degrees Kelvin". Degrees Kelvin is not so much a temperature as it is a light wavelength/spectrum. HID's use these ranges generally 3000k (some makers 4000k) 5000k, 6000k, 8000k, 10000k and 12000k. 3000k is close to yellow, and 12000k is almost purple.
Daylight (natural sunlight at high noon), which if you don't know, is what HID's are designed to replicate, is measured at aprox 5500k. And most people are buying 8000k kits because they think blue is cooler, better, brighter...I don't know why, but 80% of all kits sold are 8000k kits. Factory kits are about 5000k - 5300k. A good non digital ballast at 5000k is only 90% matching to true 5000k, digital ballast will produce a much closer number 99.9% accurate.
READ THIS AND REMEMBER IT, LUMENS ARE INVERSELY PROPORTIONAL TO DEGREES KELVIN, SO THE HIGHER THE NUMBER DEGREES KELVIN THE LESS LUMENS PRODUCED.
WHEN PURCHASING HID KITS, IF YOU WANT HID QUALITY LIGHTING DO NOT GO BELOW 4000K AND DO NOT EXCEDE 6000K OR YOUR LIGHT WILL SUFFER (IF YOU WANT THE PROPER LIGHTING USE THE 5000K KIT), AND REMEMBER JUST BECUASE THE LESS DEGREES KELVIN THE BRIGHTER (MORE LUMENS) THE LIGHT DOES NOT MEAN GO ALL THE WAY DOWN TO 3000K Don't forget what I said about color of the light in relation to degrees Kelvin, if you get too far into the yellow (3000k) while the light yes is brighter, the human eye doesn't see light very well at that yellow spectrum.
B. HID's do not work well in older model cars, and sorry for all the Zinger cars but they don't work well in all the kid's Honda's and Acura's from 1995 that they want to make look like a luxury car....or a race car...hell I can't figure out which one they want LOL. And this is mostly due to the fact that the housings are cheap and aren't designed to focus light properly....I mean for christ's sake if you are putting a $400 lighting system in a $12,000 civic don't expect $30,000 Mercedes results. Simple economics, cheap car cheap parts, expensive parts can only work as good as the component they are installed in.
Or use my solution, save up the $2k and buy the factory projector housing, HID bulbs and ballast from Mercedes and you won't have any problems.
HTH
Linear Mode
