Erling G-P

+1

When I was driving my car home from Germany after purchase, and darkness fell, I got a true "WOW" moment first time I switched on the high beams.

Have only driven my own Euro at night, so dunno how it compares to U.S. lights though.

Cheers,
Erling

Lizard928

You should try the 8" H4s with a true Hi/Low HID system.



They REALLY light up the road.

SharkSkin

Lizard, what system is that? The only thing close last time I looked was a setup with a little motor that moved the location of the arc.

Angel84-928

Are these the light you guys are talking about?

http://www.rallylights.com/hella/7in.asp

Alan

Erling - not a fair comparison - you already have the good ones. H5's are OK - much better than the old sealed beam DOT units - but its still a stupid focus pattern and hard to aim well - and very poor with upgraded bulbs (more light but much more glare for others too).

From what I have seen so far HIDs suffer from poor focus due to the arc orientation, size/shape & placement. Maybe some of these issues have been solved - but I think in general the best solution is an optical system that was designed for HID's.

Given the excellent results possible with uprated H4's I think its not worth any compromise. I do have HID fogs with reflector modifications and with a lot of work it was possible to get these well adjusted and with a good cut off (much easier replacing a single filament).

I'm interested if there are HID units that have solved the previous issues - but I'm a bit sceptical on how good it is... can you show how your low beam projection looks on a wall...

Alan

Lizard928

This is stock H5 w/ 55/60W halogon beams. They look really nice here, but they really didnt throw light at all compaired to the H4 w/ HID


These 2 are of the 8" H4 w/ HID



the cut off is pretty good, not as nice as a projection lense, but still good. high beam makes everything alive.

As to how it gets high vs low, the bulb actually moves in and out. Putting it in the proper position for throwing the light.

I can actually purchase another kit locally made by HID technologies which is DOT approved. I may get that in the future, but these are very nice and give excellent night vision.

Alan

Do you have a version with more like a 20 foot distance between the car and wall - close placement like this is not really the way to see what pattern you have.

Its not very meaningful to me like this - I can't really determine the pattern differences between them so much... (e.g. though wider the H4 pattern looks rather similar to the H5...)

(BTW those H5's seems strangley tilted up to the left?)

From what you can see here the HID H4's don't seem to have the correct focus pattern...the cut off looks far from flat in the middle? it should be a straight line ... but again hard to tell up close like this.

Did you ever try the H4 with halogens before the conversion?

Alan

Lizard928

I will take a couple pics further back from a wall or something probably tonight.

I ran the H4s with haloegen bulbs for along time before going to HID, I will never go back!

The part which is up on the H5 pic is not the H5 lenses, it is the H3 fog/driving lights.

Alan

At that distance from the wall it seems hard to believe your fogs are contibuting to the pattern given how much lower down the fogs are mounted... anyway kind of irrelevant now!

I'm interested to see the distance pattern.

Alan

RyanPerrella

Sorry i am uninformed in this but what i see in the second pic above the main projection of the light is a bunch of "crap unfocused light" all over the place. Specifically the area which is showing something like a crystal pattern on the middle part of the garage door. Where does that light go, it sure isnt helping light up the road, i would think that could be what you mention Alan about glare for other drivers.

Lizard928

I believe that crystal like pattern is just the light bouncing off the garage back onto the lens and back again.

RyanPerrella

interesting point, yeah i suppose that could be.