Halogen/HID FACTS!!

[dipren443]

So is an H4, not an HID? For example: https://www.yearone.com/serverfiles/...ghts&SM=1&SC=4

H4 just refers to a dual filament incandescent bulb. It is commonly used in single halogen housings where one bulb needs to handle the low and hi beams. It is not HID.

[Sparky67]

Long term, the increased amount of UV light from the HID's will cause the plastic to break down extremely quickly in comparison with a good glass.

Rhino,

According to your post, you claim that HID's produce UV (Ultraviolet light). Sorry, but HID's produce light that is in the visible spectrum, not Ultraviolet light. Here is Photonic Spectrum Reference Chart.
http://www.imt.liu.se/edu/courses/TB...6.Spectrum.pdf
Xenon HID headlights produce some continuous spectrum white light, but much of their luminous power is generated as broadened spectral lines, including blue lines at 405, 435, and 475 nm.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/art...?artid=1771460

Also, most plastic housings now use an optical coating to protect against UV light from the sun.

Jeff

http://www.kodakgallery.com/67rscamaro

[Rhino]

Sorry, but HID's produce light that is in the visible spectrum, not Ultraviolet light.

I've heard the arguement both ways. The HID arc itself produces a very high level of UV light. According to what I've read, the majority of this light is caught by a filter on the bulb itself, although the remaining UV, or near UV, light that escapes is much higher than with a halogen bulb.

Here is an excerpt from one of the links you provide:

Glare countermeasures include adaptive headlights and ultraviolet headlight systems. Adaptive headlight systems monitor and compensate both optically and mechanically for changing traffic, road, and meteorological conditions. Ultraviolet headlight systems project invisible ultraviolet radiation, improving the visibility of fluorescent highway markers, signs, and objects without increasing glare for oncoming drivers. Ultraviolet radiation is especially valuable in fog because highway signs can fluoresce in the visible spectrum when exposed to ultraviolet radiation, but backscattered ultraviolet radiation is invisible so it can’t reduce the contrast and legibility of the signs. This situation is similar to retinal imaging in patients with asteroid hyalosis. Ordinary reflectance images have poor detail because back scattered flashlamp light reduces the contrast and visibility of retinal features. In fluorescein angiography, however, back scattered blue light from the photographic flash is blocked from reaching the camera by a barrier filter, and green fundus fluorescence provides good retinal image contrast.

To me that sounds as if UV light is getting emitted. To me it doesn't seem as if it's 100% related to HID's, but it's the only time Ultraviolet is referenced on the page.
Please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm simply basing this off of what I've previously read as I haven't done any studies into it myself.

[silver69camaro]

Art Morrison pulled it off with BMW projectors

Those are just early BMW projectors using halogen bulbs. No HID.

[kball]

This is a good thread that i've been too lazy to get involved with. I've toyed with this idea for years now. I'm a tech at a BMW dealership so I get to see all this stuff regularly. The bi-xenon is sweet and has been used since '04. I have some of these units from crashed cars that i've saved and kept for playing around with. I wanted to do something with them to fit my 71 chevelle. Currently, I use hella glass headlights that use regular h4's (halogen). They are a vast improvement over the sealed beam 7's. Grafting the bi-xenon to a glass lens is a huge project in itself and would require a clear front lens, which the hella conversion housings are not. The whole assembly is also very long, which would definetly require cutting the rad support like streetfytr said. Plastic lenses are not even a consideration for me.

[1FstChevy]

This is a good thread that i've been too lazy to get involved with. I've toyed with this idea for years now. I'm a tech at a BMW dealership so I get to see all this stuff regularly. The bi-xenon is sweet and has been used since '04. I have some of these units from crashed cars that i've saved and kept for playing around with. I wanted to do something with them to fit my 71 chevelle. Currently, I use hella glass headlights that use regular h4's (halogen). They are a vast improvement over the sealed beam 7's. Grafting the bi-xenon to a glass lens is a huge project in itself and would require a clear front lens, which the hella conversion housings are not. The whole assembly is also very long, which would definetly require cutting the rad support like streetfytr said. Plastic lenses are not even a consideration for me.

You don't happen to have photos of your Hella setup do you??? Thats what I'm aiming for since anything beyond that involving cutting and so forth doesn't seem worth it.

From looking at the Hella info it doesn't look like any cutting or trimming is required, just the glass lenses, H4 bulbs and a harness.

[CarlC]

I just finished up installing H4 Hella's in mine. The hole in the back of the headlamp bucket needed to be enlarged to fit the larger Hella bulb. I did it with the bucket mounted int he car by first using a hole saw with the same diameter as the stock bucket hole, then using that as a bushing to guide a larger hole saw to clear the Hella. Other than that, is was standard re-wiring and relays to get them running.

[1969CamaroRS]

I just finished up installing H4 Hella's in mine. The hole in the back of the headlamp bucket needed to be enlarged to fit the larger Hella bulb. I did it with the bucket mounted int he car by first using a hole saw with the same diameter as the stock bucket hole, then using that as a bushing to guide a larger hole saw to clear the Hella. Other than that, is was standard re-wiring and relays to get them running.

Hey Carl, you have the Hella Part numbers you used handy by chance? Thinking of doing the same along with my electrical system.


Thanks!

[CarlC]

http://www.rallylights.com/SearchRes...CategoryID=367

The 79562 E-code.

They have the connectors as well. After doing mine I highly suggest using the HL28001 connector vs. the ceramic part. Getting the rubber boot over the wiring on the ceramic part is incredibly difficult without tearing it. I also suggest getting the crimp-on ends that allow you to run a new correct-color wire into your relay plug and avoid splices. Del City carries these as well.

[kball]

Thanks, Carl. Looks like I was a little slow checking up on this thread.

[EL T1]

I just finished up installing H4 Hella's in mine. The hole in the back of the headlamp bucket needed to be enlarged to fit the larger Hella bulb. I did it with the bucket mounted int he car by first using a hole saw with the same diameter as the stock bucket hole, then using that as a bushing to guide a larger hole saw to clear the Hella. Other than that, is was standard re-wiring and relays to get them running.

Do you have a pic of your wiring job? Did you splice into the factory wiring harness?

[mc84_zz4]

Do you have a pic of your wiring job? Did you splice into the factory wiring harness?

To run the H4 bulbs you will need one tweak for the low beams, there are 2 pins you can swap, or just buy these pigtails and plug-and-play.

From: http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=120
Note: looking from behind the socket (both male and female plugs), where you have the wires, you have terminals at 9, 12, 3 o'clock, the 12 an 3 o'clock terminals swap.

You can pull those mentioned from the car socket and re-insert them. The high beams (on a 4 lamp setup) need no mods.

If your car has 4 beams, you 'need' to buy a wiring harness that can handle the added load the H4 bulbs will draw.
If you buy the wiring harness, you only need 1 pigtail, as the harness will power the 4 headlights based on lo/hi beam detected.

This is one sample of a wiring harness for H4 lamps in a 4 headlight setup, there are nicer ones by Bosch and Painless, but this is an example:

From: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/GR...3/?image=large#

Also, you can buy H4 bulbs that are Xenon gas pressurized, these are marketed as +30%, +50%, you can also find them on e-bay, they are brighter that regular H4s.
Search 'Osram +50'
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/OSRAM...Q5fAccessories


My appologies for the hijack, I thought I would contribute to the last posters question. Although this is really H4 related, not HID, but it seems there is some comparing of pro/con of HID versus H4.

[Motor City Impala]

So let me make sure I am getting this correct. Halogen and HID "Provide the same end result" , but the "Method of Implimentation" is worlds apart. Kind of like gas or electric water heaters. Both Provide hot water, but you can't "Retrofit" the new system into the old housing. As far as I can tell there are some things in life where the adage of "If it is not broken, dont replace it" should be the ironclad rule and not the exception. I for one have always felt that a proper twelve volts, excellent grounds and the best Halogen light assemblies equate to very good lighting. IMHO unless you are running a track event at night why do you need HID? I recently installed a headlight flasher on a 2010 Impala for a police department cruiser. Interesting to note that all that did was activate the beam cover and it did not "FLASH" the bulb. Untill the "SCIENCE" of HID is decoded enough for the average joe, Halogen is all I will use. Just my $0.02
Todd

[mc84_zz4]

More like different levels of performance (and cost)

The H4 housings with H4 bulbs will give you a great improvement over stock headlights, and much better light control in fog/rain, since the H4 has a sharp cutoff line. The H4 bulbs can range from 1,200-2,400 lumens of light output.
http://www.rallylights.com/Hella_H4_Bulbs.aspx


The HIDs are truly an arc type bulb, using a ballast, and they will produce more light with less heat. The 4300 Kelvin degrees color bulb (true white) produce about 3,000 lumens, so the HIDs are brighter. The blue-er and 'ice'/cool-blue bulbs in this case are still bright unlike those cheap painted bulbs you see at Autozone, and each jump into a bluer range is about a 15% light filtering effect, but still brighter than stock.


Now there are HID retro-fit bulbs, a true HID bulb with an H4 base (also called re-based) that will fit the H4 housing, but many experience glare, and fly-away reflections, that are annoying to the driver, and to others a true hazard, as you temporarily blind incoming traffic. In this case you are fitting a bulb that is not designed for use in a reflector dish, as HID was designed for a projector lamp, with an integrated light cutoff plate. HID re-based bulbs have a clamped on metal filter for a cutoff for the low-beams.
Note the D2R (reflector HID) has a metal band around part of the 'capsule' (bulb) versus D2S (standard HID)
http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=306

If you have more-budget-than-shame, you can buy some very cool, true HID projector lamps made to fit older cars, these are DOT approved, but will set you back $500 a pair, or $1K the set of 4. These are the only DOT approved HID lamp for older cars that I know of.
http://www.spitzkraft.com/catalogue.php?catID=1



You can also tinker with adapting BMW HID projectors into the 4 1/2" round style, or cut an H4 reflector and adapt a projector HID from a BMW, Infinity into an H4 base, but that will take some time and skill to make, but the results can be worth it (unless you buy all the parts at retail).