Why cheap DIY HID isn't always a good idea...

[gotak]

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2849/9288003959_318bdda5ac_b.jpg

My neighbour has a daughter with a bf driving a fart cannoned celica (he comes around to pick her up to go out around midnight to 2 am and wakes everyone up on the street...) with HID mods.

He's a great example of why you don't just buy something off the internet and shove it into your headlight. He has no illumination as you can see. The other car's an infiniti with factory HIDs, worlds apart in the results.

[ottoyu34]

True.

Then there's retrofit applications which is on another level.

[Seshan]

How the heck does he drive that :/

[r4mi5awi]

How the heck does he drive that :/

Furthermore, why is he driving that? :/

[gotak]

Consider the typical fart cannon driver I suspect he's driving quite fast and quite blind at night.

Notice the light facing on coming traffic is pointed towards the traffic. Complete absolute face palm of an install....

[Seshan]

Furthermore, why is he driving that? :/

The more I look at the picture, the more I want to punch that guy in the face.

[maro3]

hes blinding everyone like this, i would hate this guy

[Dave_The_BMXER]

How the heck does he drive that :/

He probably doesn't even know.

[Aitch]

He probably doesn't even know.

"Yo, I can see those oncoming cars like WHOA MAN! Deez HIDs be LEGIT."

[Metal Wing]

I am really, really confused and disappointed :/

... 10 minutes later of trying to write something...

Nope, I am still just really sad at the fact that there are people like that =(

[FD22]

:facepalm

[Cab0oze]

Yeah, but its not so much about the light that he bought (which was kinda implied in the OP), its about the way the light is projected. Obviously it is not projected in any kind of useable way and it pisses everyone off. Also give people that install HIDs a bad rep because people just assume that everyone that installs non-factory HIDs does it wrong like this dbag.

[gotak]

Yeah, but its not so much about the light that he bought (which was kinda implied in the OP), its about the way the light is projected. Obviously it is not projected in any kind of useable way and it pisses everyone off. Also give people that install HIDs a bad rep because people just assume that everyone that installs non-factory HIDs does it wrong like this dbag.

As far as I know your bulbs should match your reflectors or you end up with scattered light. In this case I doubt his bulbs were any good, they were quite dim (as is the driver haha) as you can see compared to the other car.

I wanted to give an example of how badly it can go wrong so people don't rush off to get a HID mod without thinking. God knows we have tons of post from people who just got a Mazda 3 (and typically their first car as well) asking about where they can get a HID kit on the cheap. There are rarely cheap and cheerful solutions in life.

[Cab0oze]

As far as I know your bulbs should match your reflectors or you end up with scattered light. In this case I doubt his bulbs were any good, they were quite dim (as is the driver haha) as you can see compared to the other car.

I wanted to give an example of how badly it can go wrong so people don't rush off to get a HID mod without thinking. God knows we have tons of post from people who just got a Mazda 3 (and typically their first car as well) asking about where they can get a HID kit on the cheap. There are rarely cheap and cheerful solutions in life.Well you do need to buy the right bulbs, and you need to not install them upside down (ran into a guy at a mazda meet the other week that had done this by accident, he couldn't figure out why his HIDs sucked compared to everyone elses), but I think for the most part bulbs are bulbs (although i'm sure if you can indeed find stuff that is just garbage). I paid 30$ for my HID kit on my old mz3 and the light output was fantastic with the stock projectors, although if I had bought clear lenses it would have been better.

What REALLY makes the big difference is the light housing (so I guess in a sense you're right). If you put HIDs in a housing designed for halogens, you will just have light scattering everywhere and it wont work at all. High beams are one thing, it is another to have a kid with a cobalt that put a 55W HID kit in and blinds everyone. Or even a kid that goes the extra step and buys the cheap ebay aftermarket projector headlight housings with build in LEDs and angel eyes.... the quality is terrible and they don't do a good job. In fact, they are often cheap thermoplastic and melt from the HID's heat.

You need projectors to focus the light in the right places... luxury cars have high quality projectors and they do a fantastic job.

[silverstarmazda]

ehem...i have 55w hids and i hope im not blinding everyone aha. my light usually cuts off were the badge on a sedan trunk would be and would never reach the windows of the car. as for how i aimed them....something doesnt seem right with my head lights. if i aim is all the way up, it still cuts off where a badge on a normal car would be (which is a good thing i guess). if i aim it all the way down the light will cut off at the bottom of the trunk. which is what its suppose to do...but i rather have a mix of throw and flood and reduce overall light intensity than have all the light concentrated on closer to the ground.

i think it has something to do with how low i am since im on sportlines.. oem mercedes and bmw CUVs usually blind me even on a medium setting. ive been asking friends to drive in the opposite lane and drive in front of me to make sure my lights arnt blinding.

its funny because some honda civics (reflectors) have been able to use hids with amazing results but with very little glare

[rajin929]

i guess that's why they call 'em glare kits.

OEM HID projectors + 4300K bulbs FTW.

[2011mazdaspeed3]

I get really annoyed when people just slap in HIDs into their stock reflector headlights and blinding everyone in a miles radius. Those scatter light does nothing to lume at night, but blinds both incoming traffic and people in front of them.

I had a vehicle with standard halogen lights, when I bought HID, I also bought an aftermarket projector to be fabricated into the stock headlights to both function well and look OEM. I had also rewired to make my lights bi-xenon so a good portion of my time was to make sure the leveling were correct, so I don't blind everyone.

Spent the time to do it right or don't do it at all. Damn wannabes:flaming

[gotak]

The other thing about HID mods to me anyhow, is that no matter what you do if it's a reflector system (and yes there was a period of time when reflectors were used for HIDs) it just looks a bit cheap. It's like this:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef0154323ed96c970c-320wi

But for head lights.

[silverstarmazda]

i guess that's why they call 'em glare kits.

OEM HID projectors + 4300K bulbs FTW.

nothing beats OEM lol, except for upgraded OEMs

[Lactose]

This picture makes me realise how generic all subdivisions look.