If your projector isn't designed for it, you can't use that extra light. Now, I did just say that HIDs produce "more" light - they do, in the right application. In layman's terms? You're increasing the glare from your projector to oncoming drivers. That extra light has to go somewhere, and it's going two places: everywhere in the projector, and through the squirrel spotters. When you put an HID bulb in a Halogen projector, you might be adding "more" light. This creates a minor, but acceptable glare to other drivers. What they do is allow a very small amount of light out above the beam cutoff to illuminate road signs, traffic light signs, and other highway signs. The problem with HID kits in a halogen projector is inherent in their design: not all possible light is being utilized.įurthermore, all projectors are designed with something called "squirrel spotters." They don't actually spot squirrels though. This can be clearly seen when some HID bulbs project a "shadow" on their light pattern it's due to one of the components of the bulb getting in the way of where the light is supposed to go. The bulbs all have their own patterns, and the projectors (or reflectors, but those aren't applicable in our cars) are shaped around the bulbs in order to give the best output. What that means, is that when shaped differently, they project light differently. Halogen bulbs and HID bulbs are shaped differently, everyone knows that. Usually this isn't a "bad" idea, per se, but it's not a great one either. Many people throw "HID kits" into their halogen projectors, looking for an upgrade. If you don't know how HID bulbs and kits work, read here and here. If you're still unsure, continue reading.īefore we start, HID kits in non HID headlights are illegal, per United States DOT. If you've read this far, this is all you need to know. If your car comes with an HID D4S bulb, one upgrade option is the Osram CBI D4S. If your car comes with a halogen H11 bulb, you have three options for upgrading: an H9 retrofit, or a Philips Xtreme Vision H11, or an HID projector retrofit. Your car comes with one or the other, and they are not interchangeable. It's really a quite simple concept, but there's a lot of misconception around it that we'll clear up here.Īs we all know, our cars come with two types of headlights: projector-based halogen H11s, and projector-based HID D4S bulbs. I've spent some time on this forum, and if there's one thing I see come up time and time again, it's the conversation around the bulbs in your headlights.
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