hi, I just bought a set of the 9006 HID kits off ebay just for the low beams on my 200 camaro.
First, has anyone experienced any problems with these melting the stock headlight lenses or anything like that???

Second, I have done the mods where you solder the low beam/ high beam wires together under the dash so all 4 come on at once when you turn on the high beams, I did this 4 years ago and have had zero problems.

But what can I expect when I install the HID's on the low beams??
The HID's are only 35 watts a piece. So I figured since they were lower power than the regular bulbs I shouldn't have any problems right??

Has anyone done this before? i plan on installing these thursday night.

thanks

 

You can expect much better light output with using the high beams less. In addition to that you can also expect more people to flash you since the light isn't going to be controlled like it should be in a projector housing.

Typical halogens are around 900-1200 lumens with HID's depending on color upwards of 3500-5500 lumens.

As far as the housing goes you should be fine. I personally would be a little hesitant of an Ebay kit, but that is just my opinion.

 

well I installed them and they are freakin awesome, I haven;t had them on at night yet but can tell already they are atleast twice as bright, I thought I had really good haogen bulbs in my high beams but these make my blue high beam bulbs look yellow and dim, I will probably end up getting a set for my high beams too in a few months if I dont have any problems with these, they are suppose to have a 10 year warrenty.

I will post pics sometime as well.

 

Here are some pics

looking back the brackets that came with the ballasts were not the best, i should have just bent up my own set but I didn't have material anyway. I might go back and make better brackets later.

http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/x...DonCamaro2.jpg

http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/x...IDonCamaro.jpg

http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/x...DonCamaro3.jpg

 

Imo its pointless to do hids in the high beams. Since it takes a minute to warm up by the time you need the high beams to see itll take the hids to warm up... Just not worth it

 

yeah, I think you have a point, plus it would probably not be good for them to be constanly turning them on and off. Infact I will probably disable the automatic headlights on the car now because it flash them when I start the engine.

BTW I drove around tonight with them and they are awesome,

 

Put in a projector retrofit in your housing. I picked up some for my silverado which has HID's all the way around. The projectors have a relay that pulls back the shroud for the projector which acts like a high beam.

Your headlights are freaking awesome because they are probably 3x brighter as far as lumen output- like I said before, it is nice for you, but expect to get flashed by other drivers because they are so bright- not to mention you might get some attention from the fuzz because your headlights are so bright.

Despite what anyone says- I am a firm believer that if you are going to do something do it right. Putting HID's in a halogen housing isn't safe for the other drivers on the road. There is a reason all manufacturers put HID's in projector housings.

I say that because I did have my HID's in the halogen housings for a brief time- I could see great but constantly getting flashed wasn't worth it. After doing the projector retrofit the light output is not only better and more controlled, at least I know I'm not 'that guy' driving around pissing everyone else off. Not to mention the cut-off on the projectors is a nice added touch.

 

I don't like the projectors, they just spread out the light so the lights are less effective and I denfinitly not looking to spend more money and time on this. I would like to buy new headlights just because mine look aged but they are over $200 for the cheapos on ebay and then you have to worry about what pieces of junk they are. Believe me, I bought some of those clear turn signals on ebay for $26 about 20 months ago just for the looks and those SOB's are already fallling apart, the clear lenses are coming off the housings on both of them. The sad thing is they are great looking , if they would have just used better glue they would be awesome. I might try to put them back together with model airplane glue that melts the plastic together.

Anyway, my headlights don't bother anyone because the car is lowered and they are about 18" off the ground, unlike a truck where the lights are over 4 feet off the ground in everyones eyes.

I already tried to wet sand my worn headlights but I didn't get all the scratches the first time, I need to do it again.

 

Have you had someone in another low car verify that your lights don't bother anyone? There are plenty of people in my area that have lowered cars with HID's and there is plenty of light scatter that is definitely noticeable even when I am in my truck. Just trying to make sure you look at all the angles of your HID's before you get a nice ticket.

I wonder why you say projectors are less effective when all the light is concentrated on the road instead of being scattered like it is in a stock housing. The light is also projected wider too which adds to safety. I guess the 98+style housing must be magical and are unlike every other stock halogen housing that people put HID's in and shed a ton a glare...

 

frankly I give a crap whether they bother anyone else or not, I can see much better and that is what is important to me, Every other dick head in a pick-up truck has lights 4' off the ground right in my eyes and no matter what bulbs they have they blind me.

And there is no laws about having headlights that are too bright, any ticket you get in bogus.

The projectors are just a gimic to sale cars, they don't work, since they are round most the damn light goes into the sky.

 

1.)Clearly you know nothing about high quality projectors and haven't seen them in use. If you did you would know all the light is projected at the road and none of it goes above the actual headlight when they are aimed properly. With stock bulbs people would flash their high beams at me in my truck. Now with 55 watt HID's and quality projectors I have yet to get flashed once. Hmmm....must be a gimic huh?

2.) Yes there are laws about headlights- do some research. Most states have a catch-all clause for "dazzling headlights" for those people who don't aim their headlights properly and are blinding other people. And when you get a ticket its your word against his in court. Me personally I wouldn't want to do anything to attract any more attention from the fuzz than I have to.

And here is some proof- This is from the Maryland Vehicle and Traffic Law

22-230(c) USING LAMPS OR EQUIPMENT - A person may not use on a motor vehicle, trailer, etc., a Headlamp, Auxiliary or Fog Lamp, Rear Lamp, Signal Lamp, or Reflector which reflector or lamp is required under this title, or parts of any of the foregoing, which tend to Change the Original Design or Performance.- There is your catch-all clause...

Do I agree with it, no. I personally think some of the laws are pretty petty and prevent us as car enthusiasts from having fun sometimes, but it is what it is. Seems as though everything we do to our cars is a risk of getting a ticket for something.

3.) I will agree that they are used to sell cars, and personally I think are overpriced. But they DO work- take 5 minutes and look on Youtube even. There are plenty of vids showing what projectors do and how they change the output pattern.

I honestly don't care what you do- I won't be passing you on the road. Just don't get pissed when people start flashing you...

 

I used a 6000k hid kit in the stock housings for a while, didn't get flashed once, but there was definitely more glare, though not as much as some people would have you believe. I can see why some people get pissed off though- I thought I was blinded by cars with headlights aimed way too high many times before, but you'll never know true blindness until you pass an oncoming car on a dark road with hids aimed right in your face. I couldn't see anything...

Just make sure your headlights are properly aimed and go with a lower temperature setup (5 or 6k)- blue light may have lower output but it's also much harder on people's eyes at night.

I have since upgraded to projector style housings, you can pick up a decent set on ebay for 150 - 250 depending on options you like. I'd recommend a search here and on ls1tech before buying though, there's two different manufacturers and the sonar assemblies are considered much better than the eagle eyes ones- it will be difficult to determine which is which from the sellers' listings but sonars usually have an h1 bulb while eagle eyes use an h3. FYI the assemblies I picked up said h1 for low and high but it was actually h1 low and hb3/9005 high, so after converting I was only out $13 for two h1 hids. Everything else was plug and play. An added bonus to the projectors is new crystal clear headlight lenses (covers), and halo/led add-ons included if you're into that sort of stuff. I just left mine unplugged, projector hids on a fourth gen is already more than enough attention for me.

The first thing I noticed after swapping to projectors was that the light was much more evenly spread out and not just dumped onto the road right in front of me- I'd have to say that it was really too much light directly in front and not enough elsewhere. With the stock reflectors you'll be able to see the road awesome- but it will tend to obscure other stuff.

Also, properly wiring up your hid low beams to remain on with the high beams requires the use of a relay and a diode. Running both lows and highs off your high side wiring is overloading it. Basically I wired a relay to turn on with the low beams, and stay on with the high beams, so there's no overloading and no power interruption that can wreak havok with hids.

And don't run hids on the high beams. They'll be useless for the first several seconds and will burn out much quicker. If you want brighter high beams do a search for an hir 9011 bulb on google. Lots of info.

Here is a quick lumen output chart- all values are of course approximate, bulb output can actually vary a lot depending on age, brand, tinting, etc.

9006- 1000
9005- 1700
9012 HIR- 1800
9011 HIR- 2500
HID 4-5K- 3000
HID 6K- 2800
HID 8K- 2500

Another tidbit of info- if you do a search you'll probably see a lot of people bragging about how sharp the cutoff pattern from their projector lenses are- however, a lot of designs now have fresnel rings installed in order to reduce the cutoff sharpness. Newer designs may also have features to direct some light upwards to illuminate signs. So don't buy into that sharp cutoff pattern crap. All it means is that when you go over a bump your lights go from super dim to full blast in other driver's faces. A dispersed cutoff pattern will actually help give a smoother transition from dim to bright for both you and other drivers. There's no such thing as a headlight that never causes glare- the only problem with reflectors that have hids is that they usually do it all the time, even with well aimed headlights on smooth roads.

 

Texas law..

Sec. 547.333. MULTIPLE-BEAM LIGHTING EQUIPMENT REQUIRED. (a) Unless provided otherwise, a headlamp, auxiliary driving lamp, auxiliary passing lamp, or combination of those lamps mounted on a motor vehicle, other than a motorcycle or motor-driven cycle:

(1) shall be arranged so that the operator can select at will between distributions of light projected at different elevations; and

(2) may be arranged so that the operator can select the distribution automatically.

(b) A lamp identified by Subsection (a) shall produce:

(1) an uppermost distribution of light or composite beam that is aimed and emits light sufficient to reveal a person or vehicle at a distance of at least 450 feet ahead during all conditions of loading; and

(2) a lowermost distribution of light or composite beam that:

(A) is aimed and emits light sufficient to reveal a person or vehicle at a distance of at least 150 feet ahead; and

(B) is aimed so that no part of the high-intensity portion of the beam on a vehicle that is operated on a straight, level road under any condition of loading projects into the eyes of an approaching vehicle operator.