Yeah, you lose your high beam fuction. But to tell you the truth, The lights really light up the road. Not everyone likes HIDS, thats cool. I just wanted to post pics and tell you guys I think its a good investment.

As for HIDs with the high\low fuction, the only way possible for that to work in our vehicle is to get some bi-xenon projectors. Some out of an audi, and retro fit them into our headlamps. Those projectors have a shield, (which makes the cut-off sharp) that raises up when u hit the hi beam. Yeah it can be done and will be alot of work.

Here's a link to a site that sells an hid kit that will allow the use of low and high beams...... www.gethids.com . Apparently the "bi-xenon" kit is equipped with dual inputs,the low beam is 35w and the high is 50w. The optional dual input kit is about $455, a bit pricey for a hid's but well worth it if you want to use both low and high beam.

Well, they've come up with ways to solve the high/low beam functions now. Ive seen HID kits where they place a halogen bulb next to the HID bulb at the base in order to achieve the "dual" beam function ( click here for pic ). Another way to do it is to put the bulb in an electromagnetic base ( click here for pic ).

Ive also heard the cosntant on/off between high and low beam will cause the bulb to lose its charge and not last as long. Im not real sure but have heard others people talk about it. Thats why I suggested the shield, the light stays on all the time, but the shield blocks only half of it. when you hit the highs the shield raised up the all the whole beam the shine.

hollywoodstylin, that is a good idea. thumbs up man.

Just thought I would chime in on this thread. These HIDs that brandonboyd installed are a cheapo, conversion setup. They are NOT real HIDs, nor is this something I would recommend to ANYONE.

Yes, they function as HIDs with xenon gas capsules and ballasts, but they are off brand rebased capusles. They will not provide the beam pattern that a real HID setup will provide. beam patter and spread are very important with an HID setup.

He has put in a xenon capsule into a housing designed to work with a halogen bulb. The way the assembly was designed to work was with the halogen setup and by him installing a rebased xenon capsule he not only lost his high beams, but also has severly messed up his beam. He now has hotspots and random scatter and glare that is dangerous to oncoming drivers.

If you want HIDs, do it the right way and buy a car with them from the factory, or do your homework and retrofit in true HID projectors that use a D2S capsule.

The setup talked about in this thread is crap IMO. No reputable manufacturer (hella/philips or osram/sylvania) put out a capsule rated higher than 6000K. Kelvin is the color rating and Lumens is the light out put. For your reference, a 6000K rated capsule puts on 20% LESS light than a 4300K (oem rated capsule). going with these offbrand setups is asking for trouble. Questionable quality may lead to premature failure, odd color shifts to red, orange, or green, capsule flickering, or worst case scenario, the capsule explodes.

cliff notes:
What brandonboyd installed on his X is a poor substitute for real HIDs and I would not recommmend ANYONE buy/install a similar setup.

2nd.

I actually retrofitted a pair of BMW 7 Series bi-xenon projector housings into my Z32 headlight housings. I completed the setup with Hella Ballasts, and Philips 4300k bulbs. It was a B*T$H to make it work. It required a dremel, some glue, urethene sealent, and probabily over 12 hours, as well as some guessing as to where to aim everything. I got all the parts (projectors, ballasts, and bulbs) on eBay for about $340 I believe. I am VERY pleased with the upgrade, and by looking at the car in daylight, you would never be able to see a difference from the factory projectors. At night, the light output is amazing. Keeping high beam functionality it nice too... There is a little auctuator on the BMW projector that moves a piece of metal blocking the light for high beams. I wired this into my high beam wiring, and everything works like it came from the factory. The lights at night even look OEM. I would do it in the X, but I honestly don't think it would work out as well going from a reflector housing to a projector. I would probabily buy a pair of headlight housings from a junkyard, and experiment on them before taking out my factory lights and tearing them up. The projectors looked pretty much like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2005-BMW-...sspagenameZWDVW

Correct me if I'm wrong, which I often am. The blue, more natural light produced by HID's have a shorter wavelength than the yellow light produced by standard halogen lights. The shorter wavelength is easily scattered when there is an atmospheric disturbance such as rain or fog, thus the reason for true yellow fog lights.
I may be completly of base here, but it seems that the standard halogen lights on my X, would preform better the 11 months out of the year it's raining here in pdx... help me sort it out.

You are definitely on the right track. Scatter doesn't become an issue until you get into the 6000K+ range. HID output should be just under white light at around 4300K. The surrounding light is much more yellow thus giving oem HIDs a bit more of a blue look. Also, the refraction off the projector lens and the projector cutoffs are what give oem HIDs a blue look at certain angles

Again, you are definitely on the right track in terms of scatter, though it is a bit optimistic to think your halogen setup will outperform a OEM rated HID setup ANY months of the year. If you compared yours against an 8000K rated setup, then yes, then things would be different.

Chart for reference

I do not notice any "loss in performance" of my lights in the Z durring rain. Again, I have "stock" 4300k heat range bulbs. The HID's are definately better in any weather conditions than my stock bulbs in the Z.

I bought a new Chevy along with having my X and the Chevy has HID's and I love them. It is like a night and day the difference in contrasts from the old yellow bulbs to the new HID's. I will convert my low beams on my X to HID's very soon. Thanks for the pics and the info.

Mark

I switched my motorcycle over to HIDs. It is an R6 which has two seperate sets of projectors for Hi and Low beams. It was a "rebased" kit but the light source was positioned the same as a stock 9007 bulb and the cutoff on my low beam still works perfectly. I will be honest, I went for a very high temperature (12000k) because I don't ride much at night and it is more of a safety feature on my bike (that's right, when a motorcycle is aggravating you with it's exhaust or lights the rider is saving his own life, cars really do try to KILL us). However, when I do ride at night the power from the beams is unbelievable. I have not ridden in rain at night so I have no experience with scattering. I have ridden through fog and I had no problems with scatter or the intensity deminishing. I personaly am a big advocate of HIDs and clean cutoffs but I don't think it can be done properly without using projector beams and I think BMW has the right idea by having seperate projectors for Hi/Low. I don't plan on trying to convert my X to HIDs but I do plan on fabricating some HID off road lights.

As for Zivmans response, I don't think I am alone in thinking that giving the 'factory' credit for being the only ones who can do it right is NOT what this forum is about.

if u install HID tho....
wouldnt u lose your HIGH beams...???

why dont you just not worry about what I put In my vehicle. I happen to like my the hids I installed. Nobody is twisting your little arm and making you get some. By the way mr know it all, I retro-fitted tsx projectors with ds2 bulbs and phillips hardware. I would post pics but people like you will just find something wrong with them. Get a life dude.

Not everyone is going to pay out the ass, for retro-fits. If you want hids, then by them. No the housing wasnt designed for hids, but my old set up had great lighting out put, and It didnt blind anyone. I never got bright lighted. Installing the kit in halogen housings can and will be done by many car and suv owners. So save your little hids are bad speech.

IMO this is pure ignorance. yes it can and will be done, should it be, no. You can do a retrofit yourself for the price of the crap setup you bought. If you care to educate yourself on HIDs, then we can have a conversation.

Good luck with your setup. You might want to keep your fingers crossed they don't color shift to orange or green

OK
here is a set of 7500K HID conversion kit in a halogen housing:


And the real deal - with modified shields for color:

actually I am very well educated on hids. I dont guess u read my thread did you? I said I did retro-fits!! I dont know who you are, or if you think your some kind of hid guru. You sound like a huge floppy you know what. If its any or your concern, and im sure it is it cost more to retro-fit, then buying the kit from xenon depot. There is nothing wrong with putting hid in stock housings. Its just pricks like you that find something wrong with them.

Thanks for the kind words. If you actually knew as much as you think your did, you wouldn't make comments like this:
And you wouldn't even consider an offbrand kit like xenon depot offers.

You can go here to get a little info on HIDs

You very well may know what you are talking about and may have retro'd in a set of true hid projectors, but your commments in this thread display ignorance and immaturity -

Edit:
Just took a peak at your profile. You have listd the 6500K xenon depot HIDs as a 'mod' along with a defi AFR gauge. You want me to give you a little education on the narrow band AFR gauges vs wideband? I suspose you are well informed about that too, since you installed a basically worthless gauge.

Dude, how long has it been since I started this thread?? And you just now decided to "chime in" Look man its no doubt projectors and hid go hand in hand, but You need to chill on bashing other people's threads. Your the one just jumping in acting like you know all there is to know. Yes I installed a gauge, because I got tired of looking at the blank I got from the factory! No I dont need your 2 cents dude, because I already did the research. Ive already done the retro-fit. Yes they are alot better than the xenon depot kit. I dont need somone like you just jumpin in picking out things you wouldnt do, or things you dont approve of. If people want to spend there money on a hids for there stock housings, then let them. Yes my kind words for your arrogance. Thats an even trade.

It is more to it than one's preference when someone buys a conversion kit and installs it in their stock X housings. Safety issues due to glare and the loss of high beams arise when someone chooses this route. Not to mention the questionable quality and most likly premature failure of the conversion kits that are on the market. Then there is he legality of it. Those are the points that I am trying to get across.

If you want to puff up your chest like an Alabama redneck, be my guest. Don't get upset with me when I came in to point out the obvious issues with running these types of HID conversion kits.

IMO anyone that recommends a conversion kit like you have and runs a narrowband AFR gauge obviously has a lot to learn. Your reasoning for the gauge is pathetic IMO. There are a number of other gauges that would be much more useful than the one you chose to install - oil temp, voltage, a real wideband AFR, etc

have a good one

Im a previous owner of an Rsx-s, and I kept my ride nice and clean. No big wings no altezza tail lights, no rice. Nothing Major just full greddy evo, dc header, aem intake. The basics. I had the factory lip kit, lowered on true tein coilovers, ingalls camber. No big ass speakers in the back, or graphics down the side. My point is there is alot of guys and girls that like just the opposite of what I like. But you know what, im not going to bust up in a thread and just trash there ride. I see alot of stupid crap on cars. If you would have came at me like a person, instead of just picking apart things ive done to my ride, we could have had a nice little thread going for some folks who want to know a little more about Hids.

Just because Im from Alabama doesnt mean Im a redneck. You dont even know my ethnic back ground. Im half korean. The gauge was given to me, and its just on for looks, not fuction. It matches the interior perfect.

Why dont you just keep jumping from thread to thread pointing out other things you dont approve of. This thread is all yours dude. You can keep talking about how stupid stuff is, but somewhere somone will still be riding with some hids in there stock housings, A huge tach on the dash, and an apc sticker on the window. Its life. If you can afford the retro-fit, then do. If you cant then get the hid kit. Some brands suck, some dont. My old kit never had glare, or blinded anyone. It was way better than stock IMO. Funny thing is I just retro fitted my 2006 gsxr 600 with tsx projectors and phillips hardware. I guess im just a stupid Alabama redneck.