Please post pics of HID lights (low beams and/or fogs) in the OEM light reflectors

[zimm]

if u look carefully, it lacks width and theres a huge hotspot.
heres my old pnp

I don't think you get much from pointing direct at a wall. What we really need is a picture with stock reflectors, HID in reflector, stock projector, and HID projector to make a proper comparison.

Having said that, at least the projectors have a nice cutoff so you're not blinding traffic with all the glare from reflectors with HID's in them.

Driving 50 miles a day on I-95, I can easily spot any car running HID in reflector housings (including 4runners) and it's glaringly obvious it affects oncoming traffic.

As the suggestion from another poster that most OEM HID on the road are not in projector housings- Show me one car you can buy with HID NOT in a projector housing.

 

[philsey]

To clarify: zimm has replaced his original headlight assemblies with '06 headlights, which are stock with a projector lens in them, hence they fit his earlier 4R. Stock, these were halogen projectors, but he has installed a Xenon Depot HID bulb kit in them. This kit has an HID bulb whose base is modified to seat in the halogen fitting. Purists would argue this is not a true HID projector, as they are not designed to go together, but his pic speaks for itself, (Very cool pic zimm) and this is a viable option.

You 4G owners have this as an option, I did not, and opted for a retrofit, which did indeed cost $1K for the best work and componentry available. Like alex, who has substantially modded his ride for off-road performance, (nice truck alex) I wanted the ultimate in lighting, can afford it, and went that route.

I too went the Xenon Depot route first. Indeed, a 4300K Philips bulb in stock reflectors is whiter and brighter than stock halogen, and at first quite impressive. I never got flashed once either (the yardstick of those who insist "it's OK") but all you gotta do is keep walking away and looking back and you soon realize this setup is wrong.

I no longer try to convince guys like alex and rockwall, that's useless. I jumped in here because at least 2 members have expressed interest in doing the job right, and willing to spend a few bucks to do so. Please read the links I posted, and inform yourselves, I too posted some great pics. So has Harper7 in the 5G threads.

@zimm. Go back and do some editing, eh? Bit uncalled for, man.

 

[zimm]

To clarify: zimm has replaced his original headlight assemblies with '06 headlights, which are stock with a projector lens in them, hence they fit his earlier 4R. Stock, these were halogen projectors, but he has installed a Xenon Depot HID bulb kit in them. This kit has an HID bulb whose base is modified to seat in the halogen fitting. Purists would argue this is not a true HID projector, as they are not designed to go together, but his pic speaks for itself, (Very cool pic zimm) and this is a viable option.

You 4G owners have this as an option, I did not, and opted for a retrofit, which did indeed cost $1K for the best work and componentry available. Like alex, who has substantially modded his ride for off-road performance, (nice truck alex) I wanted the ultimate in lighting, can afford it, and went that route.

I too went the Xenon Depot route first. Indeed, a 4300K Philips bulb in stock reflectors is whiter and brighter than stock halogen, and at first quite impressive. I never got flashed once either (the yardstick of those who insist "it's OK") but all you gotta do is keep walking away and looking back and you soon realize this setup is wrong.

I no longer try to convince guys like alex and rockwall, that's useless. I jumped in here because at least 2 members have expressed interest in doing the job right, and willing to spend a few bucks to do so. Please read the links I posted, and inform yourselves, I too posted some great pics. So has Harper7 in the 5G threads.

@zimm. Go back and do some editing, eh? Bit uncalled for, man.

Close- I didn't replace the headlights- I have a 2008 so it already had projectors. As to my comment earlier- I stand by it. I don't need some idiot telling me my mods suck and his truck is better, and that I don't contribute to the forum, blah blah blah- he sounds like a 5 year old.

 

[philsey]

....What we really need is a picture with stock reflectors, HID in reflector, stock projector, and HID projector to make a proper comparison.

***

Having said that, at least the projectors have a nice cutoff so you're not blinding traffic with all the glare from reflectors with HID's in them.

Agree.

Driving 50 miles a day on I-95, I can easily spot any car running HID in reflector housings (including 4runners) and it's glaringly obvious it affects oncoming traffic.

Absolutely.

As the suggestion from another poster that most OEM HID on the road are not in projector housings- Show me one car you can buy with HID NOT in a projector housing.

Absolutely correct.

*** I'll post this, give me a few minutes to find them.

 

[riceandpho]

ok, oem hid in non projector housing, what i remember was the older cadillac escalade, older toyota prius, older acura tl rl , lexus is300 before the new style like 98-04 i think. i thiink the oem non projector use like d1r and d2r bulbs. zimm although glare is reduce, its not by much, there is alot of glare.
heres my setup
morimoto 5five ballast
osram 66240 cool blue intense
rx - afs projectors
tsxr clear lens.
<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gxzy0bunk_k?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/v_xYy3xCByI?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Jeppi-BS5y0?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
its kinda hard for me to capture the flicker on my phone, its better to see it in person.

 

[riceandpho]

herez how the regular 66240 bulbs look like
<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/flRt2huJOYM?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xmis3jmlACA?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[philsey]

These are X-D 5300K Philips kit in stock 5G reflectors. Whiter, you bet... brighter, you bet. But nice? - not so much.






<<<< And now >>>>>>

 

[riceandpho]

phil your retro look better than my diy retro.

 

[zimm]

Thank you Philsey- that's exactly the comparison I was talking about. The reflector/HID sprays light all over. Projectors have a focused beam with cut-off.

As far as DIY vs factory projectors- from the pics they both look fine to me.

 

[riceandpho]

they might look fine, but on road performance is a big difference.

 

[CookieRoe]

Wow dude.....holy sht. Wow n that costs 1k??

$1K? If you have it done at lightwerkz with the components I chose yes. BUT, if you do it yourself, with high end components, it shouldn't cost more than $300-400. Realize they charge (labor) about $600 to rip the light apart, install everything, ensure it's all aligned, put it back together and seal then ship them back to ya. The guarantee they offer is pretty good. Yeah it expensive. I remember when HID kits were out WAY back circa 1998 (ish) MacCalluh HID kit cost something like $1500+ just for the bulb and ballast. Of course, everyone knows you can jump on ebay today and get a kit for like $30.

You get what you pay for. I use my cars heavily and move my family with them. I would HATE to have my lights go out for whatever reason in the middle of dark road. This isn't a stupid radio, these are LIGHTS. Serious mod in my book. Forget about what I paid for in labor cost, Getting robust components is totally worth it IMO.

 

[philsey]

phil your retro look better than my diy retro.

'preciate the compliment -- Bambi, over at Lightwerkz does good werk.



:naughty:

 

[rockwall]

1st of all, Zimm: T4R.ORG is a great forum and we are all luck to have it. I meant not to insult you, but to let it be known that I was offended. It is not cool to break the threads down into pissing matches.

2nd of all: I TOTALLY AGREE THAT PROJECTORS ARE MUCH COOLER AND THE RIGHT WAY TO GO!!!! OK???!!! I have dropped a lot of money into my truck and can't spend a large amount on such an upgrade right now. I always hated the stock amount of light and tried Silver Stars, HIR's and PIAA bulbs. I wasn't happy with the light so I went to the Xenon Depot HID kit. I love it, but am concerned that I will bother others. So far, it does not seem that I am. I take offense at people getting on their soapbox and screaming "unsafe". As best I can tell no one has skidded off the road so far because of me.

Let's just move on and not make this a place of conflict.

 

[CookieRoe]

'preciate the compliment -- Bambi, over at Lightwerkz does good werk.
:naughty:

Nice Philsey!! hahahh

1st of all, Zimm: T4R.ORG is a great forum and we are all luck to have it.
Let's just move on and not make this a place of conflict.

Totally Agree. This forum kicks @ss, I would hate to have animosity towards others here. At the end of the day, we all have the same truck we love and we'll all here to help. If there's a difference in opinion, hey, that's fine. That's what forums are for. Too bad we all can't meet and have a beer (or two).

Here are some OLD pics from my red Surf and white Surf with the Plug n Play HIDs (GOD I MISS my SURFs)

Man, I lit up the SKY with these suckers.........

Old ballast (when I lived in South America):

 

[SilverGs]

Thanks to all of you that have posted pics. I'm not a newbie to HID's and not to sound like an ahole, the first car that I modded to the ying yangs and some is a 99 Lexus GS400 that I bought back in 2002 when it was just 4 years old with less than 25K miles on it. I still have it (it has about 70K miles now) - its my summer car. It came with OEM HID's in a non projector housing. I'm sure some of you that mod trucks/cars will appreciate it

Here is a pic of the stock HID lights. This pic was taken about 9 years ago when I bought the car

Here's a funny picture with my son who was 6 back in 2003

A couple of mods plus the stock lights including fogs

I upgraded the fogs to HID's. Yes I did the same crap a lot of people do when they upgrade to HID's in a non HID reflector 6000K Philips - I remember this cost me an arm and leg back in the day.

My apologies for taking this topic off thread with the pics of my GS , but I got so carried away - here's an article that an auto journalist wrote in the Toronto Star back in 2003 after he drove my car ClubLexus Photo Gallery - Toronto Star article on my GS400 - Powered by PhotoPost

And finally, some updated pics taken not too long ago.

The CF hood and grille

 

[SilverGs]

Lastly here is a link to a video of the car driving towards you with the OEM HID's in low beams and the upgraded HID fogs

http://prudensconsulting.com/yahooitems/GS400_Revving.wmv

 

[zimm]

Wow, I stand corrected. But I do see that dome covering the bulb so all the light is thrown into the reflector before exiting the housing (like a satellite dish). Obviously it was made for HID from the start. When an HID bulb is put into a reflector without the bulb cover- then it throws light and glares.

 

[alex56]

Hahahaha. What a great post.

I am serious. Your a D bag for telling people to go F*** themselves on a forum for their opinion.

The only way to get respect on here, <B>is to give it back</B>. Figure that out before you decide to <B>belittle</B> someone again. <B>You OR your car is nothing special anyway</B>. You have little to NO room to talk.

This is over now, have fun wasting your time talking about your lights

 

[zimm]

I am serious. Your a D bag for telling people to go F*** themselves on a forum for their opinion.

The only way to get respect on here, <B>is to give it back</B>. Figure that out before you decide to <B>belittle</B> someone again. <B>You OR your car is nothing special anyway</B>. You have little to NO room to talk.

This is over now, have fun wasting your time talking about your lights

I looked at a few of your posts and they are full of crap advice and mis-information. So I stand by my previous statement and add the fact you are an asshat.

 

[alex56]

I looked at a few of your posts and they are full of crap advice and mis-information. So I stand by my previous statement and add the fact you are an asshat.

Allright man, thats your opinion. Our runners are on completley different ends of the spectrum, so you would not know if that advice is right or wrong anyway. Most my business on here is handled through DM as well.

Regardless, your a D bag for outright telling someone to go F*** themselves. <B> THATS THE MAIN POINT</B>.