HID Headlight Conversion

Sweet! Nice job

 

Looks nice. I thought about better headlights when I was driving my 328 from Vegas to MD but other than that trip, I can't think of any occasion that I would be driving at night. But those lights do look neat and like a huge improvement so hmmm.... What specific kit/parts did you order and from whom?

 

The lights on my Mondial are fine. Im wondering if there is any reason I cant do this to my Fiat Spider. I drive this car more often, often times at night and the lights are really bad. Do you have any thoughts?
- Ron

 

As mentioned: parts numbers and suppliers please! I hate driving my 328 at night

 

I was going to go with the Eurospec Chibe(spelling?) conversion using high efficiancy H4 Osram Nightbreakers. This looks very promicing though, cost depending.

 

CIBIE, thats them.

 

I did this conversion on my BMW 850i several months ago and the difference is impressive. If you already have halogen (non sealed beam) headlights you just have to match the bulb type and its plug-and-play except for mounting the exciter/ballast. I bought my kit on eBay for about $50 - just bulbs, no reflector-projector-lens thingie (which looks pretty neat).

 

I am very, very interested as well. Could you please specify exactly what you bought as in the web site there are many options...
Even the projectors, please.
Ciao
Eugenio

 

Ok, I've gone from "I don't drive at night, don't need better headlights," to "I want these headlights!" Where did you buy/order them and what is the part number or whatever to ensure I get exactly the same set up that you have?

 

One thing just occurred to me...normally a headlight bulb has two wattage ratings, one for high beam and one for low beam. You might see something like 35/55W for the headlamp. I see two ratings for wattage based on the type of bulb but I don't see such a rating on the box for high/low beam. Do these lights HAVE a high and low beam capability?

 

And one more thing...I've done a lot of searching and I see some issues that everyone should be aware of re the conversion. Apparently it is illegal to retrofit an on-road car with HID lighting. If a car IS retro-equipped with HID it has to meet the same operational requirements that an originally-equipped car has to meet that frankly make it impossible from an practical standpoint. Of course there are plenty of illegal things done every day to cars - removing emissions equipment, etc. And whether a cop would issue a ticket for this would probably be more a bad luck thing that anything else.

But it probably is at least worth doing a bit of research on it. I found that the two primary issues involved are the brightness/glare and whether or not the units have a hi/low beam capability. Production cars with such headlights reduce glare to oncoming drivers either through lenses or, from what I can gather, some sort of mechanical shielding dievice. They also have hi and low beams, which is commonly accomplised by the bulb assembly itself physically moving back and forth within the reflector. Headlights without high an low beam are illegal everywhere in the US.

A search with "HID + legal" will bring up a lot of stuff and various related links. I'm not saying I wouldn't do this but it's good to understand all the potential ramifications AND liabilities if you were to be involved in an accident at night and the other party, or your insurance company, noted the glare to the other driver from the illegal lighting.

 

so this has high & low beam?

 

Here's a link to some info re this just for info.

http://www.sema.org/main/semaorghome.aspx?ID=57289

 

Mike - sounds good but are you EVER going to post the part numbers and such that we have all asked for?

Re the legality, and I am not saying I wouldn't buy them - just as a matter of knowledge, installing an HID system on any vehicle not so equipped from the factory is illegal per the US DOT regulations according to every site I can find, INCLUDING sites that sell the systems.

 

Just as a follow up, especially since I initially said I didn't see much need for them, at least for me, and I posted most of the stuff re legality.

I am ordering a set... What good is a mind if you can't change it?

 

If you don't mind, could you post a picture of light output? Specifically of the cut off of the beam?

No rush though. Just curious.

 

I was skeptical of a $200 Xenon system that had projectors that would fit in my 328, so I asked my dad. My father is a engineer with about 20 years related to this field and referenced me to Daniel Stern Lighting instead of this system.

FWIW, an expert in the field (not my father)...The "XenonItaly" items are worse than bad advice, they're a scam. Those are _NOT_ "BiXenon Projectors"; they're Chinese-made reflector headlamps with a pointless central eyeball lens, and an illegal, dangerous "HID kit".

More information on these types of systems are at:

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/conversions/conversions.html

Note: These are not my opinions, I am not an engineer and I am not affiliated Daniel Stern or XenonItaly, but I am affiliated with my father.

Regards,


Ron