Anyone ever try H.I.D. Headlights?

[Camarogenius]

I'm going to take some action to get brighter lights in my truck, either by doing the relay mod, or going to HID's. I'm nervous about buying one of the "kits" off of ebay, not knowing what I'm getting.
What's the difference as far as brightness between the blues and purples?
Also, one of my lenses is a little dull. Not all faded out and yellow, like some I've seen, just a little dull. will I have to change that one to prevent heat build up?

 

[towcat]

most of the HID systems i've seen use glass lenses.
personally, since my front ends have an affinity for deer, a pair of new fishbowls and a pair of those sylvania "silverstar" bulbs would make the next deer kill more palatable.

 

[deanj]

Do the relay mod first, the stock wiring is to smaller guage.

 

[sle2115]

most of the HID systems i've seen use glass lenses.
personally, since my front ends have an affinity for deer, a pair of new fishbowls and a pair of those sylvania "silverstar" bulbs would make the next deer kill more palatable.

I have these, relay mod and new lenses. You can polish the lenses as well and I used higher wattage bulbs, VERY good light, much better than before, but on mine, just doing the relay mod made a big difference.

 

[Dsl_Dog_Treat]

Yep, them there new fishbowls make a world of difference.
I put a new pair on Goldie during the resto and WOW what a difference.
Kinda neat to get an oncomming vehicle flash their brights at ya when they're dialed in and a fresh pair of the Sylvanias as Calvin said.
Only problem, them there fishbowls cost me $250.00 but included new headlight buckets and hardware as well........Twas worth it tho.

 

[sle2115]

I bought mine from carparts.com and paid $70 each, aftermarket, but been in there a year and other than a regular coating of mud, they are as clear as they were when installed.

 

[zigg]

I've got an '86, so the headlight buckets are different. I did the relay mod, and then went to H4 lenses for my truck. I didn't notice much of a difference in brightness with the stock bulbs even with the relays and larger wire, but the H4 lenses did make quite a difference in the light pattern on the road. The H4 bulbs have a very sharp cutoff, and tend to put more light on the sides and I like to have light on the road in front of me, so I can see the lines and what's coming.
To each his own I guess. My buddy has a BMW3 series car, and we installed the exact same H4 system in his car, except the lenses are 5 1/2"round, and even with the stock bulbs, the light is way better, so I'm inclined to think it may have something to do with the square lenses as opposed to the round ones.
After that, I bought some of the higher wattage blue bulbs which made the light very white on the road(HID like)(and definately brighter) but they burned so hot, they melted the connector at the bulb, and I had to replace that part. So, now I've gone back to the stock white bulbs, and installed a pair of hella drivers in the center of my bumper, aimed slightly high and to the right. I replaced the h3 55watt bulb in there with an 85watt h1 bulb, and that seems to really make a nice difference. I do get the odd flash from oncoming traffic though, so I know they're bright out there.
I haven't tried the sylvania bulbs. I just get the sense they're gimmicky, and won't actually provide any more light on the road.(55 watts is 55 watts?!)
Anyway, I'm more or less happy now when I have the drivers on, but I'm still not really happy with the stock headlights.
I've now got a '93 that I hope to have on the road soon, and it has different lights and lenses, so I guess I'll be starting all over again soon with that one, and if I don't get decent light from that unit, I'll definately be thinking of going with an HID system.
At this time of the year, I drive hundreds of miles in the dark and especially in the rain, and being able to see makes all the difference.

Here's a couple pics:

Lens comparison ..pic..
H4 bulb ..pic..
My relay wiring diagram: ..pic..
My relays wired ..pic..

Zigg

 

[yARIC008]

HID would be nice, but it's real difficult, especially on vehicles like ours to get a good nice beam on the road.

The differences in the hids are kinda like this. The higher the color temperature the more blue and then eventually purple the color of the light will look. The higher temperatures give overall less light output in lumens. The lower the temp the higher the lumens. So if you want a bright light you want 6000K and below in temperature. If you use normal headlight housing, in order to be legal you'll have to build yourself a glare shield. They probably sell headlights for these trucks with glare shields, they just started selling them for vans.

Anyways, it'll be hard to get a light pattern like a new BMW without learning about photonics first and building mirrors i'm afraid...

So probably should just go with some higher wattage lights.

One thing that might be doable is to supplement normal or high wattage headlights with HID fog lights, that way the housing for the arc source bulb is already built and the beam aligned.

 

[adrianspeeder]

What's the best place to get these silverstar bulbs?

Adrianspeeder

 

[The Warden]

BTW, IIRC, adding HID's will make you lose your high beams. IIRC someone on here was talking about them a while back, and pointed out that HID's can only act as single-filament units, and that cars with HID's either have a second set of lights for the high beams or have some mechanical setup that actually realigns the unit (or something like that).

I dunno...I'm not going to say that HID's should be avoided altogether, but I don't think it's worth it to upgrade to them on a vehicle that didn't have them previously...

 

[Agnem]

Stay away from those hidious blue headlights I see on so many high dollar foreign cars. Nothing tips the scales for raising my ire more than a pair of those. They are immoral, illegal, AND anyone caught using those blue headlights will be arrested - and thrown in the dungeon. - The Burgermister.

 

[hheynow]

P/N 30816 Heavy duty wiring harness for 9007 headlights.

 

[RLDSL]

Before considering an HID kit, might want to read this : http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/conversions/conversions.html
and a few of his other tech articles.
This guy really knows his stuff.

in a nutshel, those things fake you out into thinking you have better lighting, while your distance visibility actually goes down.You realy can't see past the beam cutoff.

------Robert

 

[Agnem]

That's a good read. Even more reasons for me to hate those blue smerf eyes.

 

[RLDSL]

That's a good read. Even more reasons for me to hate those blue smerf eyes.

No Kidding. all those things do is blind you past the beam, and blind everyone coming at you so they have to get the #*@&%*@! things to try and see past those
It's not as bad in the truck, but driving the regular cars, especially on mountain roads, those lights are just plain dangerous. I regularly have to make a 2 hour drive through the Ozarks at night and it seems like every bozo in the woods has to buy those things . By the time I get home, the back of my eyeballs are fried off. Ought to be able to do something about it

--------Robert