The best HID low-profile (sleepy) headlight mod for under $500

[cjsupra90]

looks good man!

below is picture of a low and high beam unit. there is or should be a difference in the lenses. The one on the top is the low beam and bottom is the high beam.

 

[tekdeus]

Thanks for the info Cj! Maybe now I can figure out which one is which. There definately is a difference in the beams, the left one is a fair bit brighter than the right. Here's some night shots for comparison:

First photo: Stock low beams on my Mk2 (same bulbs as a stock Mk3):

Stock hi beams on my Mk2:

HID conversion with 6000K color 9006 bulb in the camaro bulb housings(low beams)

Piaa 1100 driving lights by themselves (used as hi-beams)

Both the HID's and Piaa's together:

Street shots- HID lows:
Not quite as blue as this photo:

This photo is closest to the real color. Crystal white with a very faint hint of blue.

HID's with Piaa hi beams on also: Looks good in the photo but the hi beams are not as good as the stock ones were.

Once both lenses are as bright as the left one is, it'll be awesome!

 

[Yellow 13]

Just dont cry when I drive past you with my furture setup.

 

[Allan_MA70]

No offence but its dodgy HID conversions like this one that cause accidents!

The day your going down a narrow highway and blind a on-coming truck will sort that out tho! :/

 

[Jeff Lange]

Beam pattern is about what I expected, pretty terrible. I wouldn't be caught dead with a setup like that in my car. I think HID's in any non-HID housing isn't the best idea, the only way I'd ever even consider it in some sort of Halogen housing would be the Hella H4 housings with the tin shield in front of the bulb.

Here's a pic of my H4 setup on my car:

Sure I may not have the "uber-sweet" sleepy headlights, but I don't blind oncoming traffic either.

 

[IJ.]

Jeff: What you describe is exactly what I have with the 55w HIDs and it looks exactly like yours just brighter!

Without the tin shields it was horrible.

 

[NDBoost]

Spend $200 and get yourself a set of Low beam true H9 Hella Projector lenses, and bulbs..

another $200 for the high beams.. or use a smaller highbeam 120mm housing

http://www.rallylights.com/hella/90mm_modules.asp

Ive got a set of ecode Hella H4 lenses & Hella H4 bulbs, they give off a purplish white tint and are bright as fck

 

[KeithH]

Jeff - thanks for bringing that dose of realism back to this conversation. Regular lenses were not designed to house HID bulbs. There is a completely different set of things to take into consideration. This isn't even bringing up the topic of using driving lights as high beams - at least those aren't used as often so I am less critical about those.

Think about it... (yes, I've asked this question before)... would you install cardboard brake pads if they looked REALLY damn cool?

 

[tekdeus]

I was a bit worried about the glare, but after watching a couple of Mercedes and Porsches drive by, they had just as much glare in my opinion. After a few hours of night driving, I haven't had one person flash his high beams at me so I don't think they are too blinding to other drivers.

The main cause of the glare seems to be the light coming directly off the xenon capsule itself, and it is not blocked off even in many high-end cars.

No offence but its dodgy HID conversions like this one that cause accidents!

The day your going down a narrow highway and blind a on-coming truck will sort that out tho! :/

 

[KeithH]

So what you are doing, essentially, is taking a lower grade headlight lens and blasting light through it in a manner that it was not designed for.

Jeff's picture shows a beautiful cutoff - matching what I currently have in my 89T.

A better upgrade would be the Hella H4/PIAA combination - halogen.

Read this - http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/conversions/conversions.html - and then browse around that site for a while.

"Are we to believe that boiling water soaks into a grit faster in your kitchen than in any other place on the face of the earth? [.] Or perhaps the laws of physics cease to exist on your stove! Where they magic grits?" (Vinny)

 

[tekdeus]

You rock CJ, looking more closely I can see that the low beam bulb has an "L" on the front and the high beam has a "U".

The low beam bulb has extra beam shaping/diffusing surfaces in the glass lens. To my surprise, it is this lens that is causing the dimmer, poorly shaped beam pattern with the HID conversion(the one on the right). As you can see, the high-beam housing on the left offers the most even and focused beam pattern:

I'm going to get another high-beam housing to correct the imbalance and simply aim the lights a little lower to avoid glare. This will give me a nice even solid block beam pattern similar to the H4 photos posted earlier. Sure it's not perfect, but the best compromise possible with this type of setup. Cheers - B

 

[KeithH]

Sure it's not perfect, but the best compromise possible with this type of setup. Cheers - B

The best possible compromise with this type of setup is to leave the damn thing stock and not waste your time/energy/money.

Why would you endanger yourself, your Supra, and others by installing an inferior product just because it "looks" cool?

I have to ask again... "Would you use cardboard brake pads if they 'LOOKED' totally cool?"

Lighting is one of the critical pieces on your car. Remind me to not drive at night when I come to Vancouver for the 4th Annual PacNW Supra Nationals. I don't want to even have a remote chance of coming across your headlights at night.

 

[Jeff Lange]

Jeff: What you describe is exactly what I have with the 55w HIDs and it looks exactly like yours just brighter!

Without the tin shields it was horrible.

Actually that pic is with the Bosch ECE housings without tin shields. It's still a great cutoff, but I've got Hella ECEs in my AE86 with the shield and it's an even nicer cutoff.

(I've got 90/130w H4 in the Bosch and 100/160w in the Hella, both are great).

EDIT: Also, the amount of diffusing lines on the housing doesn't really mean all that much. DOT housings have so many diffusing lines and terrible patterns IMO. ECE housings have so much less and have an extremely nice pattern.

Here's a pic of my Bosch housing:

I don't have any pics of my Hella setup yet, suffice it to say, it's slightly nicer than the Bosch setup I have, but both are very similar.

 

[Joel W.]

Hmmm Red Permatex., I'll keep looking..

 

[tekdeus]

I think you're overreacting in this instance Keith. The output of these are better than stock and the glare is, in my opinion, equal to many of the high-end cars that I get glare from as I drive by(Porsche, Mercedes). The beam pattern is very focused and aimed at the road, not at other drivers. You won't drive into a ditch if you pass by me on the road I've driven in a car in the past that had misaligned headlights and got lots of high-beam flashes from oncoming traffic but so far with this setup, that hasn't happened at all. Cheers - B

Quoting KeithH: "Remind me to not drive at night when I come to Vancouver for the 4th Annual PacNW Supra Nationals. I don't want to even have a remote chance of coming across your headlights at night."

 

[KeithH]

I'll still stand by my statements. Please read the DavidStern link on the previous page.

 

[Jeff Lange]

Agreed. Though it's Daniel Stern, haha. It's a good article.

 

[sweetlikechutny]

SEXY!!!

 

[dwthomas42]

ok ive been looking everywhere and on every computer i have access to and the pictures on this thread will not appear. does anyone have copies saved they could pm me or something?

 

[rodama5anthony]

google supra cherry widebody. it will be obvious which one it is