_Kansei_

SUVs with HIDs make me cringe. .. aside from the new escalade which made a good attempt at keeping the glare down by putting the projectors at the bottom of the long headlamps. Basically SUVs just need foglights.. give them HID foglights and then they won't blind everyone on the road.

eggynatey

Here's my contribution: Do NOT buy McCulloch HID kits. I went through 4 ballasts (3 of 'em at 80 bucks apiece + shipping) until I gave it up and put in a set of Silverstars.

Plus, it sucks having brighter low beams than high, IMO.

_Kansei_

My highs still project out way further than the lows. The lows have a nice wide beam pattern

J-Protege

So, Xenon Expert seems to be selling lifelong warranty on their kits. Thoughts?

eggynatey

Ask about shipping.

TheDirtyGoatee

So here is something I have a problem with. My right light is aimed a little high and can irritate my GF when I am following her. How do I lower the aim? Also, is it even worth buying Silverstars for just a regular headlamp or would it be worth it to get HID? On that regard, does anyone make a clean and easy bolt on app.?

_Kansei_

Plenty of quick and easy bolt on HID kits exist, but none of them are legal. There's actually no legal way to have HIDs on the car, sadly. --not that it stops people.

As for adjusting your headlight. There's a 10mm nut on the back of the headlamp (well it's 10mm on the P5 headlamps at least) that you can turn to adjust the beam angle up and down. Just use a 10mm socket and small ratchet and have at it! Be careful if the car is on, it's way easy to get the ratchet caught in the belt/pulley at the power steering pump :P

_Kansei_

eep, HID woes! I've had them for over two years now, but as of yesterday my passenger bulb started just.. going out. I'd pull up behind a car and notice it in the reflection, and a quite off and back on of the light switch and it would be fine until the next light and it would be off again. I tested it back at my house and with the car motionless and the HIDs 'cold' (not on for at least a few hours), they came on (the passenger side one did have an extended ignition sequence) and stayed on for 5 minutes until I got bored with the test. I swapped the easiest part to swap (the igniter --I have separate ballasts and igniters with the Helios kit) and tested again today. Yup, passenger side still went out. I'll swap the ballasts sometime tonight or tomorrow morning and see if it's still out of whack.

If it's dead, I don't think I'll buy a new bulb (I'd want two anyway to keep the color the same and move to 4300K or 5000K) though. I'll just slap in some cheap sylvania bulbs and hope they last me the winter, and then move on to a new headlight project.

My choices at this point are:
-- buy a single, cheapest I can find oem P5 drivers side headlamp and a new black housing canadian passenger lamp, then take my two canadian headlamps and work on them over the winter retrofitting projector, auto-leveling HIDs into them.
-- buy a set of OEM 323F HID headlamps (which I recall being told were auto leveling, but they came with a headlamp level adjuster **** that goes next to the interior light dimmer ****).. it'll be like 1600 for the pair plus international freight + ballasts + bulbs + I don't remember if they are black housing.

I think the costs would end up being close either way, and both ways are still not legal. One would be an in-depth fun project, the other would just take a little wiring fun.

TheDirtyGoatee

I 'preciate it Kansei.

_Kansei_

I'm now running HIDs on one side and a ghetto-tastic Luminics 'ultra white' bulb on the passenger side. Aside from the intensity, during the daytime they match surprisingly well (color temp).

Light output from the Luminics is as expected for a blue-painted halogen craptastic bulb --just absolutely dreadful. I'll get nighttime pics comparing the light output and beam pattern between H7 halogen and re-based HID later if I remember.

J-Protege

Ouch, that sucks

Are your HIDs warrantied at least?

_Kansei_

Not sure.. I'll have to check with Helios. I can get new bumps for a good price though. I probably won't --probably will just get EDM headlamps, do a S2000 retrofit, or just get a new car.

TheDirtyGoatee

Just FYI, on the MSP, this is what you turn to move the headlight aim apparently. It didn't require any tools besides my two hands. It turns pretty easily.

THAPRO1

i don't think i have any pics left but the sedan is pretty good with the hids but you need to aim them low to reduce glare and oncoming traffic flashing their highbeams at you.....

basically what i did was sat my car behind another car at about 3 or so feet and aimed both lights until they were about level with the top of the rear bumper on the car in front of me.(a lil higher works fine too)

with that setting your pretty good, i never got flashed again and light output was still good enough that i could read street signs and see down the road very well.

_Kansei_

That's about where mine are aligned.. basically they just need to be pointing downward a little, so if you measure the distance from the bulb to the ground the light cutoff should be a little bit lower than that if you project onto a wall or garage door. That way, the farther away you are the lower they project and you don't blind people as much

THAPRO1 --now that's a car I haven't seen pics of in a while, cool to have you around