HID Headlights

[Neuad]

Ever see those really bright white headlights, sometimes with a tinge of blue, coming at you on the road? Those are called HID or High Intensity Discharge. Properly installed they will brighten your drive considerably without blinding people around you.

If you have any trouble seeing at night, I highly suggest investing in an easy to install set.

3B Specialties : Home - All the websites I've read reviews on and these guys are recommended the most.

There are a few methods you can go with, straight plug-and-play which requires only the knowledge of securing 2 ballast boxes somewhere in your engine compartment, and changing your headlights.

Or a relay harnass, which is wired straight into your battery.

I can't speak for other cars but the Scion tC's stock headlight wiring isn't strong enough to handle the surge of power required to turn HID's on, and while it may not happen soon, will eventually short out and not work. . So I went with a relay harnass.

The visability boost at night is great with 8k. Also keep in mind the higher temp you go, the less visable light there is. 6k-8k is all I recommend as its near daylight, and 10k borders on illegal and doesn't give off more light.

5000 - White with a tint of yellow
6000 - Pure white
8000 - White with a tint of blue
10000 - Blue with a tint of white
12,000 - Almost a violet color

Edit - Personal exp. with 3bspec, my relay harnass got wet or something and started shorting out, called them. . they asked for an email with my name/address. . they next day aired me a new relay harnass from Texas to Michigan. . I sent the email at 6pm last night and got the part at 3pm today. Great customer service and great people.

[Eomer]

My only request is that if you're doing this yourself, make sure you know what the FUCK you are doing and that they are set up properly.

My BMW has some of the brightest headlights around, but they don't blind oncoming drivers because they only shine down on the road. If you point the car at a blank wall 10 feet away, you can see that the beams are slightly below parallel with the ground, and there's a very distinct line above which almost no light hits.

But so many idiots install these do it yourself kits, and then have their "low beams" with a slight up angle. Yeah, it'll illuminate more of the road for you, but it might also blind anyone that has to go by you on a two lane highway. Fucking obnoxious as hell.

[Neuad]

Originally Posted by Eomer

My only request is that if you're doing this yourself, make sure you know what the FUCK you are doing and that they are set up properly.

My BMW has some of the brightest headlights around, but they don't blind oncoming drivers because they only shine down on the road. If you point the car at a blank wall 10 feet away, you can see that the beams are slightly below parallel with the ground, and there's a very distinct line above which almost no light hits.

But so many idiots install these do it yourself kits, and then have their "low beams" with a slight up angle. Yeah, it'll illuminate more of the road for you, but it might also blind anyone that has to go by you on a two lane highway. Fucking obnoxious as hell.

Yes.

Again can't speak for other cars but adjusting a scion tC's headlights is a simple 10mm bolt ontop of the housing right in the open, so I'm not blinding anyone while I drive.

I parked my car against a smooth wall, about 15 feet away. . made a line where my stock halogen lamps were left. . put in my HID's and adjusted my headlights accordingly. . .it wasn't too big of a difference but still, I don't want to be a douchebag blinding everyone. . .just able to see better at night.


Oh and also HIDs don't work as Highbeams, sorry They take a 5-10 seconds to fully 'power up' and switching them on and off all the time can blow the Ballast Box extremely fast. . .it can be done but its not recommended.

[Neuad]

Colors of HID bulbs.

[Mageling]

Originally Posted by Neuad

Oh and also HIDs don't work as Highbeams, sorry They take a 5-10 seconds to fully 'power up' and switching them on and off all the time can blow the Ballast Box extremely fast. . .it can be done but its not recommended.

This isn't exactly true anymore. There are several companies that actually use a small electromagnet within the base of the bulb that will "flick" the bulb slightly giving you a "high beam" effect. This is assuming that you have a single bulb headlight assembly.

I don't have the link currently, aside a local guy who worked w/ Sylvania to create bulbs that allowed this change in bulb angle to work without having to physically light another bulb, allowing you to use two different light angles. It's pretty neat stuff.

[Eomer]

I have no idea how the high beams work on my car, I just know I could probably read a newspaper with them 500' away.

[Neuad]

Depending on what type of headlight housing you have it might be LED, Eomer.

LEDs can be just as bright if not brighter then HIDs, but you need the proper housing to make them work. . .a reflective housing will not do anything with an LED. . I put them in my running lights just to make it mesh well with my HIDs and they give off almost no light whatsoever. .even in a dark garage against the wall.


And that sounds badass Mage, the reason I probably heard nothing about that is because tCs aren't single bulb setups, they have seperate bulbs for Hi and Lo.

[Ryhian]

Originally Posted by Neuad

Ever see those really bright white headlights, sometimes with a tinge of blue, coming at you on the road? Those are called HID or High Intensity Discharge. Properly installed they will brighten your drive considerably without blinding people around you.

If you have any trouble seeing at night, I highly suggest investing in an easy to install set.

3B Specialties : Home - All the websites I've read reviews on and these guys are recommended the most.

There are a few methods you can go with, straight plug-and-play which requires only the knowledge of securing 2 ballast boxes somewhere in your engine compartment, and changing your headlights.

Or a relay harnass, which is wired straight into your battery.

I can't speak for other cars but the Scion tC's stock headlight wiring isn't strong enough to handle the surge of power required to turn HID's on, and while it may not happen soon, will eventually short out and not work. . So I went with a relay harnass.

The visability boost at night is great with 8k. Also keep in mind the higher temp you go, the less visable light there is. 6k-8k is all I recommend as its near daylight, and 10k borders on illegal and doesn't give off more light.

5000 - White with a tint of yellow
6000 - Pure white
8000 - White with a tint of blue
10000 - Blue with a tint of white
12,000 - Almost a violet color

Edit - Personal exp. with 3bspec, my relay harnass got wet or something and started shorting out, called them. . they asked for an email with my name/address. . they next day aired me a new relay harnass from Texas to Michigan. . I sent the email at 6pm last night and got the part at 3pm today. Great customer service and great people.

Thats kind of surprising. I had 6000k in my tC for 3 years and never ran into any issues. Obviously as you posted, you had to adjust the height of them (mainly the driver side) I didnt have any electrical issues at all. As a whole its a pretty ghetto step if you're not using any actual retro fitting in vehicles that dont come with HIDs or actual cars that have projection headlights to begin with.

[Neuad]

Originally Posted by Ryhian

Thats kind of surprising. I had 6000k in my tC for 3 years and never ran into any issues. Obviously as you posted, you had to adjust the height of them (mainly the driver side) I didnt have any electrical issues at all. As a whole its a pretty ghetto step if you're not using any actual retro fitting in vehicles that dont come with HIDs or actual cars that have projection headlights to begin with.

Shrug maybe you just got lucky. . the relay harnass really isn't that much more to hook up anyway since my ballast boxes are behind my bumper. . I needed a 10mm wrench out to take that off anyway, I just had to loosen an extra bolt on the battery to give it power. . better safe then sorry imo.

[Tallyn]

Fuckers around Atlanta put these things in Hummers and Land Rovers all the time. They may even be "properly" installed in terms of angle, but due to the sheer height of the vehicle I get completely blinded as they shine down into all my mirrors if they're closer than 50-75 feet behind me.

I hate these damn things.

[Jysin-DW]

For that reason, I love the auto-dimming rear and sidemirrors on my BMW. I think its standard feature on all of them now. I never have to put up with that crap anymore.

[Obsidian]

Originally Posted by Neuad

Yes.

Again can't speak for other cars but adjusting a scion tC's headlights is a simple 10mm bolt ontop of the housing right in the open, so I'm not blinding anyone while I drive.

I parked my car against a smooth wall, about 15 feet away. . made a line where my stock halogen lamps were left. . put in my HID's and adjusted my headlights accordingly. . .it wasn't too big of a difference but still, I don't want to be a douchebag blinding everyone. . .just able to see better at night.


Oh and also HIDs don't work as Highbeams, sorry They take a 5-10 seconds to fully 'power up' and switching them on and off all the time can blow the Ballast Box extremely fast. . .it can be done but its not recommended.

HIDs can and are used as high beams all the time. Generally inside the HID housing there is a mechanical reflector/screen that blocks light above a certain point. When high beams are used the reflector angles up, allowing additional light to leave the housing. This requires a more expensive housing containing this mechanical reflector and that's why a lot of cars come with HID low beams but halogen high beams.

BMW Technology Guide : Bi-xenon lights

Also, the biggest reason that HIDs can be blinding is because they require specialized housings. HIDs create a LOT more light than halogens and, if they are not in a proper housing that focuses the light, they simply throw all that additional light out onto the road and into people's eyes. In many less expensive cars that come with the option for HIDs you'll see the company simply throw HIDs into the standard halogen housing in order to reduce costs, thus causing this problem. The same issue arises when people purchase aftermarket HID kits and install them into their standard halogen housing. Finally, a lot of people with their blindingly blue lights are not actually using HIDs at all, they are simply using cheap tinted blue halogens. Blue light is significantly harder on the eyes than white light and these crappy blue halogens are marketed as "xenon" halogens and scooped up by people trying to make it seem like their cars have real HIDs.

[chaos]

The nature of my job requires me to sometimes drive late at night or early in the morning. These headlights on a Yukon glaring down into my shitty Cavalier, lighting up the entire interior of the car from 100 yards away, throws me into a rage that I cannot sufficiently explain without the aid of interpretive dance. Imagine waking up at 3 in the morning after getting 4 hours of sleep and heading into work only to be blinded by some jackoff... so many people are lucky that I don't believe in carrying a gun. At that hour, after a couple of weeks of it, your mind doesn't work the same and you start to justify things you otherwise wouldn't.

Anyway, now I have an SUV, it's not a problem. Maybe I should get them.

[Neuad]

Originally Posted by Obsidian

HIDs can and are used as high beams all the time. Generally inside the HID housing there is a mechanical reflector/screen that blocks light above a certain point. When high beams are used the reflector angles up, allowing additional light to leave the housing. This requires a more expensive housing containing this mechanical reflector and that's why a lot of cars come with HID low beams but halogen high beams.

BMW Technology Guide : Bi-xenon lights

Also, the biggest reason that HIDs can be blinding is because they require specialized housings. HIDs create a LOT more light than halogens and, if they are not in a proper housing that focuses the light, they simply throw all that additional light out onto the road and into people's eyes. In many less expensive cars that come with the option for HIDs you'll see the company simply throw HIDs into the standard halogen housing in order to reduce costs, thus causing this problem. The same issue arises when people purchase aftermarket HID kits and install them into their standard halogen housing. Finally, a lot of people with their blindingly blue lights are not actually using HIDs at all, they are simply using cheap tinted blue halogens. Blue light is significantly harder on the eyes than white light and these crappy blue halogens are marketed as "xenon" halogens and scooped up by people trying to make it seem like their cars have real HIDs.

Oh well nice info to know.

When I was reading info on HIDs I was on mainly tC specific enthusiast forums, and tCs come stock with projector headlights (the type needed for HIDs, I would guess) but no HIDs. . .and I guess these people don't know/can't find a place to buy/ignore completely the use of highbeam HIDs

[James]

Projection lights have little or nothing to do with Xenon or Halogen from my understanding. Many lights come with Projection lenses in either Halogen or Xenon, and don't switch over very easily. Most lights that have a Xenon option are also vastly different in design than their Halogen counterparts, and considerably more expensive. Bi-xenon lights (the ones with the high and low beam bulbs) are also much, much more expensive because they require two xenon control boxes.

To give you an idea, most Mercedes bi-xenons are in the upper 1k to 2k range, with some much, much more expensive. Lexus has a light on their 600h that is 5 grand and some change. Most xenons typically range from 600 to 1200 depending on what comes with them (for instance, TSX lights are a little under 500 for the assembly, but the assembly doesn't come with the box or the bulb which will be the bulk of the cost). Boxes are usually anywhere from 400 to 600, and bulbs are anywhere from 180 to 300 I think is the most expensive I've seen.

HID kits for low end cars usually end in disaster if just installed from my experience. A much cooler, and better option for the cost imo, is Angel Eyes and shit like that. You'd probably have to get them done at a custom shop that specializes in it, but that shit looks fucking cool. Here's a picture of some tC headlights with it installed.