Freise

I'm on here for a friend and don't have direct access to the car atm, otherwise I wouldn't be asking this:
She's got a 2007 Mazda 3, it looked like she had stock projectors and HID's, did they ever come with them stock? Google doesn't turn up any good results because everything I search pops up "HID conversions..."
What size bulbs do they use?
Thanks guys.
-Tim

djs2571

I got them stock in 2007, think it was only on the GT model if I recall. D3S bulb I think, the number is available at online replacement part places, napa etc... I've seen them on ebay recently too - in the $40 range, quite reasonable.

Freise

To be honest I'm still new to the HID world, I myself own a 240sx and I'm swapping in an HID setup soon, but haven't had the time to really do in depth research on headlights. I guess basically what I'm asking is if they look like they are projectors, can I assume they are HID's as well, or does the non-HID mazda 3 have what appear to be projectors that I could have mistaken for HID's? (it was dark and raining when I checked them out lol not the best time)

djs2571

I am not sure if the normal halogen lamps have a projector lens, but they easily could, i've got a set of foglights that have a projector lens - some hondas do as well, so that's not a definite way to tell if it's HID or not.
Have a look at http://www.danielsternlighting.com/ for more lighting info.

Mediarocker

Yes, The 3's come with Projectors but not all came with HIDs and HID projectors. All models normally came with Projector Halogens (H7). Only the GT model came with Factory HIDs and HID projectors (D2S). They also have a "Auto Leveling system". (which is more manual than automatic)

HID's in a Halogen Projector wont be as bad as putting them into a Halogen reflector housing, but the cutoff wont be as sharp and your output wont be as great if you used HID projectors.

This can be fixed by replacing the Halogen Projector lens with a genuine "Clear" HID lens. While you have it apart you can "colormod" it to make the cutoff have that "rainbow" effect.

Feel free to look this up as I'm not explaining everything.

Good luck!

Freise

Yeah, thanks for the replies, I've got it all figured out now, I'm about 75% of the way through my own HID conversion on my 240sx, my friend is going to pass on the HID's for now, they are just halogen projectors so she doesn't want to screw anything up on her mazda 3...

Mediarocker

Just to have closing, I'm gonna say you can run HIDs in your Halogen projectors. They WILL have better lighting than halogens but they wont compare to HID projectors if you lined them up next to each other. Matter of fact I got 6k HIDs going in my Halogen 3.