HID conversion headlight kits....

[gmachinz]

I'm posting this here to gauge interest level. I'm working with a vendor to get a good price on these HID kits. You would need to first swap over to a conversion style housing, then opt for an HID kit for use with a 9006 bulb. This would directly replace your H6024 or H6054 sealed beam assemblies-comes with ballists, wiring, hardware, etc. What is everyones thoughts? Past experience good/bad/indifferent? The specs read: 300% more light than a standard halogen using 65% of the power a halogen uses. The company is called Heliolite. Respond here with comments-good or bad. -Jabin

[Milow68]

I would have interest for my 68 Camaro and just picked up a 69 Chevelle and it sucks driving in the rain at night with the old yellow lights.
I would like to know if you could use your original switches with the more power they have.
Thanks
Brad
PS the reason I ask about the switches is a friend had problems in one of his street rods.

[gmachinz]

Yes-you can retain the use of OEM headlight switches. I would still run the headlights through a relay to turn them on, though. As bright as HID lights would be, they'd be even better ran through a relay. I'm working on the actual wiring diagram for one now to determine any drawbacks. I have a customer with an '89 Vette and a '37 Chevy coupe street rod that wants these installed ASAP. If I go with Heliolite, I plan to include the conversion headlamp housing assemblies also to provide a complete retro-fit package. -Jabin

[MoeBawlz]

Id like to get a set, depends on cost... I have a lot of other things i need to purchase before i look at these but if the price is right..

[69protour]

Hey Jabin, I'd be interested if they'd work on the 69 RS. I could even make a run to DM to check them out. Later. Trond.

[CamaroAJ]

i was looking around for some too, the thing i noticed was i was having a hard time finding ones with a high and low beam, it may not be able to do it i might just get some kick ass fog lamps and put them somewhere.

[1976SR71]

Most aftermarket headlight units use H4 not 9006 bulbs...
I have booth my cars set up...You loose your high beam with most 2 light set ups.
But the low beams are so bright that you hardly miss them...
You could also add driving to use as high beams.

[Happyfunballs]

Anyone have a cost? I could be interested.

[yody]

This is a sticky situation, i have done a lot of research on HID lights.
First, for the most part almost all conversion bulbs SUCK! There are a few at the most that make a quality bulb, but most of them are crap. You will lose your high beams, if you get a bulb that has both, i doubt it is a real HID. On stock setups they use a "flipper" that actuates when you hit the high beams and it makes the light output direct to a different part of the bulb which will shoot out the beam farther.
Next, wiring is a must, you MUST use a relay. A single 35 amp relay will due. Each ballast at the most will pull no more than 15amps if that, it is more like 13amps. If you have 4 headlights if you want to keep all 4 on when you hit the high beams you have to use a diode.
Ballasts are just like the conversion bulbs most of the aftermarket ones suck. There are more aftermarket ballasts that are decent compared to the conversion bulbs but i wouldn't trust them on my car.
The biggest problem with converting these systems to non OEM setups is glare. OEM cars use either projectors(look like a big magifying lense) or a special made reflector lense. If you merely put a conversion bulb in lets say an H4 lense you will get big time glare, possilby weird colors, and crappy output. If you pull up a car with stock projector HID's to a wall and look at the beam it will be a horizontal line that halfway goes down and over horizontal again, the reason that it goes down is to go below the oncoming traffics sight so they don't get blinded.
here are some pics i got from another site;
HUGE GLARE

WEIRD COLORS

PERFECT CUTOFF VERY GOOD SETUP

Another really good picture of a great setup



Comparison.. Pictured is a Acura TL-S with HID from the factory vs H4 6000K civic
See the difference?


So can you do a projector retrofit into a 7 or 5 inch housing? Probally wiht enough research time, I am using a setup like this
Hella 7" round H4 E code lenses(not dot approved but european, so there is better/more light)=$75
Caspers Electronics D2S shields(allow the use of a OEM phillips DS2 bulb to be adapted to a H4 housing, and it has a built in shield to reduce glare) I will also be modifiying it to work even better to reduce glare and weird colors)=#50
HELLA OEM ballasts with built in ignitors=$200 ebay/used
5000K OEM D2S phillips bulbs=$75 new ebay
I will do the wiring myself with a single Bosch 35 amp relay. That is the best you can get without using a projector, we will see how it pans out.
Also I should point out that all conversions are illegal in most states, and making and marketing them is illegal too. Most conversion bulbs come from China or are made in someones basement. There is a LOT more info on this, it isn't as easy as converting from sealed beam to H4. There is a lot more than involved. Save the crappy "i want blue lights" conversion for the immitation rice rockets. If you want to sell a good kit, get someone to retrofit a good OEM projector into a nice 7" round Lense and you will find a lot of interested people. Sylvania made some named Xenarc but they no longer offer the 7" round version, and supposedly they decreased the output to be approved by DOT.

[zbugger]

This is what I'm using.

http://www.iguanamotors.com/store_it...&category_id=6

I think it works great. Minimal glare to me, but the lights definitely get people to move out of the way while I tail up on them.

[yody]

Yes, that is just an H4 setup, which IMO is better than a poorly put together HID setup. However a well setup HID will blow that out of the water, but unfortunately there aren't many for the 7" lenses. I think if someone doesnt' want to do much work, something like zbooger has is a good idea

[gmachinz]

Hmmm....well, up until now, I've been using the Pilot retro-fit lenses for an H6054 style sealed beam-now it's a composite with an H4 bulb which exhibits no glare and it a beautiful soft glow all across the width-no sharp lines, but excellent vision compared to stock headlights. Heliolites aren't cheap-they are manufactured in Germany and the Kelvin rating of the bulbs are 10,000K-the higher the bulb temp., the more blue/violet the temperature range is. Lower temps. exhibit a yellowish tint-much like nasty 'ol halogens. Sure, there are some cheapy versions out there, but not from Heliolite or PIAA I can tell you that. All I'm finding is wholesalers-I'm looking for factory connections here. I'm looking into the legality of the kits, too. They are not illegal to sell if the dis-claimer of "off-road use only" is expressed-as is the case with nearly everything performance related it seems. I'm still digging.....

[CFster]

I understand these are the only ones that are legal?

Sylvania Xenarc

[Gonzostyle]

I actually have the Xenarc kit. I bought mine when they were blowing them out to meet a federal mandate about HID retrofits. I have just test fired them to ensure they worked but have yet to install them (will need to modify the head lamp buckets). They are very bright and have an interesting beam pattern, very similiar to the new Escalade.
HID lights are nice, but my Cibie's (E code also) with 90/110s are extremely nice to drive with. The light is super super white, and the light pattern is as crip as the pictures Yody posted of the projecter style HID.

Just something to think about if you do not feel like figuring out the balasts and all of that. The Cibie lenses are about 75ea and the bulbs are about 70 for the pair. Just make sure they are adjusted correctly...

-Jeremie

[gmachinz]

Well, I have found a manufacturer for quality HID kits. A company called Polarion makes the kits. They consist of Philips HID bulbs and Hella ballists (OEM on BMW's, Mercedes, etc.), both of which are German made so I'm not worried about the quality...they're not from India or Pakistan or somewhere crazy like that. Yes, I like my lights as is, but I'm willing to experiment. Anyway, I need a good source for HID's for my shop. They are going to email me a dealer package agreement so once I sort through the stuff, I'll post what I can do/offer. If anybody wants to, email me and let me know what you have and want and I'll respond as soon as I get the info sorted and entered in my database. -Jabin [email protected]

[yody]

glad you found another place a 10,000K bulb would be ridicolous, would probably have less light than a sealed beam, but would be really purple, the higher you go in the kelvin chart the less lumens or light output you get. Stock is about 4100K so going up to 10,000 would probably cut your output in half. There is a big difference between putting a halogen light bulb like an H4 in a reflector and putting an HID light bulb in a reflector, it is a totally different ballpark, so if you are happy with your H4 setup, you should either keep it or do a lot of homework. No one wants to be blinded on the road because someone wanted "cool light"

[yody]

also the xenarc kit was legal, but the light output was drastically reduced to meet dot standards and not create glare, also the wiring and ballasts looked cheesy, the lense itself did look like a quality piece, but with the reduced light output I would rather have a set of nice H4's

[kball]

First off, 99% of aftermarket kits are crap. I'm a BMW dealer technician and all of our bulbs are either Philips or Osram. If you're going to do this i'd rec. getting a used OE setup. Look for control units from an X5. They have the control unit and ignitor all in one unit for a cleaner install. The other BMW type is made by AL. They're used in 3-series. They have a separate ignitor/control unit. The only advantage is the ignitor is more likely to fail and it is serviceable separately. As far as wiring goes, the bulbs themselves are only 35 watts believe it or not. The ignitor will spike to about 20A to ignite the bulb, then taper off to usually about 8A. You won't have high beams. The '04 3-series and new 5's have the high beam as part of the xenon light. There's actually a small steel plate which flips up when you want high beam to allow more light into the projector. They still use the inner running lights for momentary high beam to use when overtaking someone in front. I've seen a lot of xenon conversions and the light is so diffused because of the lens. You lose the concentration of light and end up with a blinding glare that will eventually piss off a cop as well as everyone else. OE xenon lighting uses susp. travel sensors to tilt the lights down over bumps or cresting hills. For my Honda RC-51 i've been thinking of using the whole projector lens out of a crashed car and cutting up the OE lens to fit it. The problem is the aiming. It changes too much with acceleration. Aimm too low, it'll be scary @150 too high and it's useless at low speed. A few things to think about.

[yody]

yeah, basically what i said, good summary. I wasn't aware of the suspension travel thing, is that just a bmw thing?

[gmachinz]

Hmm. I like the input from people with experience on this. I haven't done an HID conversion but figured if there are good kits out there, I'll jump on them-but, I want to install one on one of my cars first to measure the benefits/drawbacks. I have a connection at a local BMW dealer-I'll do a little more homework on OEM BMW stuff and see what I can come up with. For now I guess the H-4's will be staying on the car...until I can come up with something. -Jabin