clear parking light or smoked?
- Thread starter mikeyboy
- Start date
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T3rry
Full Access Member
you really should not use HID's in OEM housing, you are blinding other drivers, your oem housings are intended for halogen bulbs, not HID's the 2 different technologies act and reflect differently.
drowndindreams
Full Access Member
in my taste, i would smoke the entire parking lamp, that would include your DRLs if equipped, and signals. So there wouldnt be any actual light that you would waste.
smoke all of it, for the mother ******* win!
smoke all of it, for the mother ******* win!
what happens if he adjusts the hids so that they don't shine upwards?
i would go with clear.
T3rry
Full Access Member
you cant "adjust hids" hid's are just a bulb
T3rry
Full Access Member
okay, the headlight housing then.
that's the problem, you cant. stock housing are made for halogens, which are made to scatter light, it goes all over, there's nothing you can do about it, where as HID's produce a light that is more of a beam than a lightbulb, and the stock housing reflectors shoot that beam right in to the other driver's eyes. projectors contain that beam, and prevent it from shooting up, that's why HIDS should only be put in projector housings.
i'm pretty sure you can adjust them enough so that they don't shine upwards towards other drivers. lot of people running hids in their stock housing with no problems from other drivers after adjusting them.
OP
OP
mikeyboy
Full Access Member
there not to bad i never get hight beemed
OP
OP
mikeyboy
Full Access Member
now tell me if this is domb or not another idea i had was to paint the parking lights the same color of the truck? whould the light come thro?
T3rry
Full Access Member
^^ not at all.
titanium02
w7's or bust.
projectors ftw.
And for the thread.. if your headlights are clear.. the bumper lights should be as well.
Smoke em all, or clear them all. Don't 50/50
And for the thread.. if your headlights are clear.. the bumper lights should be as well.
Smoke em all, or clear them all. Don't 50/50
ROBERTOcritser
Full Access Member
Ive heard that aftermarket headlight assemblies are prone to leaking water when it rains.... how true, if at all, is this?
T3rry
Full Access Member
depend son the set, people complain about the ebay projector housings, but i have them on my yukon and my civic and i don't have any issues with moisture in them... and if you do get moisture in them, there are a lot of how-to's that show you how to bake them to pull the lenses off and re-glue them so they wont leak.
SSmurdered
i know u see me
BOOO!! i love my hids in the stock housings, they give much better visability over halogen. i can adjust them the same way i used to with halogen bulbs.
BTW smoked lights all the way little homie!
Effeckt
Resident Cards Fan
My vote is clear all the way. I don't dislike smoked ones however I think they should flow with the rest of the vehicle. You have chrome wheels and the headlights aren't going to be smoked either so I think the bumper lights should be clear as well.
Eagle
Thansk for all the help -STAFF!
Actually man the problem isn't the "reflector housings vs projector". The problem is the DOT regulations REQUIRE upthrown light for sign illumination purposes. For that to happen at the intensities required with crappy 1000 lumen bulbs you have to allow the light to shine up directly... with 3000 lumens you can cut the light off nice and tight and let natural spillover take care of the upthrown light requirement.
A reflector made for a nice tight cut off, like an E-code, will work just fine with a rebased HID capsule. A bulb is a capsule is a light source. Focal lengths are pretty close on the rebased bulbs so the lights perform as they were intended... just 3x brighter.
For the record:
Projectors can be JUST AS BAD as a reflector as far as glare is concerned, particularly in retrofits and hid retrofits.
Often they are worse when the cutoff line isn't angled down enough. Remember the Celicas and how they would 'flash' you constantly as they were driving down the road?
(btw celica headlights were ultimately ruled illegal too, not enough upthrown light until the lenses got pitted and dirty)
in any case I'm going to try 9005 as lowbeams and I think I will be satisfied... though selective yellow fogs and amber DRLs do hold some appeal.
BlackDenali
Roof Rack ****
Eagle: If you get 9005's for your lows, consider getting HIR bulbs. They are a little more pricey, but very bright for a halogen.
The best explanation yet, right there. Any light, be it reflector or projector, can be aimed wrong and into on-coming eyes. It is harder to control a reflector's light, though. Projectors are designed to focus all of the light through (what should be) a high-quality optical lens. Most of the time, the lenses themselves are sub-par and don't do their job, especially in aftermarket lights. You get what you pay for, for the most part. However, reflectors with HID's tend to just have so much light it can be blinding, regardless of how much you aim it, because there is no housing to contain it like in a projector housing.
The DOT lighting laws in this country need some attention. They literally date back almost to the horse and cart days and haven't been changed much in the last century. Japan and Europe run almost exclusively HID or halogen projectors...just look at the imports. I think in Europe or parts of it, they are even now required because they a) have better light output, and b) are very controllable in where that light goes. As far as having light shine up to illuminate signs, most good projectors have what are sometimes called "squirrel spotters." It is a bit of reflector on the cutoff shield that specifically shines a narrow beam of light up to illuminate signs. The result is most of the light goes in front of your car, and there is a very sharp cutoff to keep the light out of on-coming eyes. Then at around 45 degrees there is another thin bit of light shining forward and up to illuminate signs. Reflectors, on the other hand, just shine light at all angles in front of the reflector.
