lightbulb and LED woes

[roushstage2]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

Putting HIDs in a halogen housing is a bad idea, and can also earn you a ticket.

[agp423]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

If I can wire up a Lexus, then you can do a Cadillac

It doesn't matter what the Kelvin is for a halogen bulb, it will not match the look of your HID Low beams.

You can find Performance Halogens with blue coating on them but they are very weak and won't perform as well as what you currently have.

I think you should take my above post into consideration with the HID's and other wiring.

Good Luck

Standard halogens do not need a ballast and HIDs do right? I'd have to take apart my car and see where I can put the ballasts if I want to do the conversion.

Putting HIDs in a halogen housing is a bad idea, and can also earn you a ticket.

I got a ticket because my plate frame covered up the bottom half of the word "New Jersey" printed on the bottom of my plate. I don't think it can get worse

[Peter.kelly]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

On the lights issue... God did a beautiful thing when he made us.. there is not a soul alive who can see that could not spot the difference in 4000K and 4800K lights. Typically, expect that people will have some trouble with +- 100K or so on a moving vehicle. less if it is stationary. If you sometimes cannot tell lights apart - trust your eyes rather than the manufacturer specs; you'll find that your eye/brain are really surprisingly good.If you can't see it - it doesn't exist. all the rest is sales and hype.

On the HID issue.. I would hold off going that way on a car not designed for them and stick to the high end Halogen/Xenon bulbs. HIDS are often considered distracting and irritating to oncoming traffic when they are fitted in a car that wasn't designed for them. Mercs and BMWs are made with these systems and they are only "OK." Retro fitting usualy results in a beam that appears to dance up and down and is blindly blue white to oncoming traffic.

You should really care about oncoming traffic as these are the people who are most likely to hit you head on when blinded and hurt or kill you and your family as well as themselves.

If you really need more light - fit additional lights that you can turn on as you need them. It is best not to push the boundary on your driving lights which are designed as a good safe compromise - step around them if you have special needs but leave them as they came in the car for your metro driving.

[Megafast13]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

Correct, Standard Halogen Bulbs do not need a Ballast or Harness. You simply unlpug the current bulb and plug the new halogen one in. I recommend Sylverstar Ultra's or PIAA Performance bulbs. (Get them online, not at an auto part store, way cheaper)

[agp423]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

Peter.Kelly mentioned Xenon bulbs, aren't they brighter than HIDs ? Or at least brighter than halogen since Xenons need ballasts as well?

[roushstage2]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

Xenon-halogen bulbs are ****. They are halogen bulbs with a blue coating that reduce light output, to make them appear to be bright white like HIDs. There is no replacement for a true HID system. Usually those Xenon bulbs come in those hard plastic cases with everything written in Chinese. If you simply want looks over performance, there you go: http://www.automotivelightingusa.com/

[agp423]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

So these should match the colors of my stock 4300K HID headlights?

[Peter.kelly]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

There is a lot of confusion of the Xenon/Halogen naming (especially as I am in Australia where the naming is slightly different from the US). But yes, the ones that roushstage2 refers to will match the 4300 HIDs about as well as not HIDS can. As he correctly points out, they do reduce the output so what you will need to do is by ones from the "+50" range of your favorite manufacturer. They are brighter for the same wattage and it will more than compensate for the cut in light output that the blue coat puts on.

P.S. Nothing against HIDS - they are great when fitted correctly with self dipping controls, etc.

[roushstage2]

Re: lightbulb and LED woes

I haven't ever heard about that +50 range thing. Nice! More info is always good!