Recommendations for headlights?

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Asmara said:
HIR - cheap compared to HID and easy. Check my sig.
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I have been speaking lately with Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy, and his recommendation is not just a simple swap of bulbs to HIR's.

Apparently, the housings in the 03-05 4R's are not engineered to take the increased luminance from the HIR bulbs. A simple swap of bulbs is not recommended b/c the new bulbs will generate "dangerous and illegal levels of glare and backdazzle, no matter how they are aimed".

His suggestion for moving to HIR's and staying legit, is to get the '06-09 housings, then put the HIRs in; and you'll still need to do the tab mod. All told, about a $600-700 mod.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.
 

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Those are the Spec D lights right?

Did they come with the bulbs? If so, are they the whiter/normal looking light or the bluish light?

Personal opinion, I don't care for the bluish light and am curious what they come with. Halogen looks like a typical OEM brightness/color correct?
 
DDM 35W 5000k's. Love them to death! Although the 1st pic makes them look much more blue than they actually are. There is only a very slight blue tint
 

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boondoggle said:
Those are the Spec D lights right?

Did they come with the bulbs? If so, are they the whiter/normal looking light or the bluish light?

Personal opinion, I don't care for the bluish light and am curious what they come with. Halogen looks like a typical OEM brightness/color correct?
Click to expand...

Yes they come with regular halogen bulbs just like the 06-09 housings have stock. I did a 6000K HID conversion which makes them significantly brighter and because they are 6000k they have a hint of blue.
 
haute said:
I have been speaking lately with Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy, and his recommendation is not just a simple swap of bulbs to HIR's.

Apparently, the housings in the 03-05 4R's are not engineered to take the increased luminance from the HIR bulbs. A simple swap of bulbs is not recommended b/c the new bulbs will generate "dangerous and illegal levels of glare and backdazzle, no matter how they are aimed".

His suggestion for moving to HIR's and staying legit, is to get the '06-09 housings, then put the HIRs in; and you'll still need to do the tab mod. All told, about a $600-700 mod.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.
Click to expand...

I don't doubt his expertise and maybe with a computer and a bunch of testing equipment one could find minute increases in "glare and backdazzle" but frankly it has to be minimal. If one looks at the pictures in my thread, one can see that the greatest increases in lighting is where the light is supposed to go. Where it doesn't effect other drivers. The edges are just filled out a bit more but not significantly. Definitely more friendly to your fellow drivers than HIDs. Real world results; I have never been flashed in the U.S. or overseas (where people drive smaller, lower cars). My car passed the German's infamous TUV test (vehicle inspection done by engineers) so I think I'm good to go.

I highly recommend this conversion if you want a bit more light without going HID.
 
These are easy threads to get opinionated. There is a ton of info on different kinds of lights and many companies who claim light output that's nowhere near reality.

Personally, I'm not a fan of HID. I've driven a couple of vehicles that came from the factory with these, and was unimpressed. I'm thinking it had to do with the heat color rating (believe industry standard is around 3600k) but at the end of the day, turned me off.

Now, companies that claim that their headlight bulbs improve beam pattern and increase range, etc are full of ****. You cannot change the beam pattern without modifying the housing. These "increases" are achieved by filters on the bulbs, which in effect increases beam scatter so that you catch a reflective sign 50 yards sooner. Your effective light area is actually dimmer. These halogen bulbs claiming HID-like light are just color filters applied to the bulbs. (Also, it's been about 7 years since I've done major modifications, so perhaps technology has caught up.)

I'm a big fan of halogens, and maybe it's just how my eyes work with the color of the beam at night. I've spent hundreds upgrading wiring harnesses and housings on previous vehicles. With my T4R, I'll probably go the HIR route on the low beams, mainly because I can't stand the fact that my fogs are brighter than my low beams! Not sure if I'll upgrade highs, but time will tell.

Again, to each his own. I'm sure there will be plenty on here who claim HID is the way to go, looks like a lot of guys have gone that route. I'm just not sold on them quite yet.
 
I will say colors of 4300k or lower are much easier on my eyes. I asked my eye doctor and she indicated yellower lights cause less eye fatigue.
 
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