BSiegPaint

We had a great time in Plano, TX last night at the local Bone Daddy's, and as we all were leaving I noticed a Z with really bright headlights, but stock housings. It happened to belong to Toque - awesome ride! Anyway, I asked about the lights and he told me they were the "eBay" HID's and that he had posted up about the install several months back. I have a set of the projector HID's, and thought it would be an excellent opportunity to take some pics so those who wanted to see the difference between the setups could do just that. Toque also installed HID's in his foglights, and I didn't realize until I looked at the pics that they were on at the same time I was taking the pics - they really add to the overall light in front of the car. I have the PIAA's, and with the HID lights you can barely even tell they are on from the driver's seat. So here we go!

eBay lights versus stock headlights



Projector lights versus eBay lights - note the projectors have 4300k and the eBay have 6000k. I think we all agreed that the 6000k was a nicer, "whiter" color than the 4300's. But look up once more to see the stock lights - they look like candles held in front of the car. Keep in mind also the "defined" beam in front of the eBay lights is from the HID fogs, not the headlamps.



From behind - you can see that the overall distance the light is thrown is very similar. Note on the back of the cars on the left there is no light thrown, while the cars on the right are lit up pretty well. This is the real difference between the two setups - one has a much more directed beam and the other scatters light in the same pattern as stock - obviously because they're in the same stock housing. This is what causes some to have concern - that they will get "flashed" when driving towards someone because of the scattered beam, but Toque told me that he has had very few instances where that has happened. The light scattered at the upper edge of the pattern is much less intense than that focused on the road.



And from the front. You can see that the projector is much more defined and you see a bit of the scatter from the stock housings, but in person, this was hardly noticeable.



It would have been nice to have both bulbs the same color, but you take what you can get! We thought it was a nice comparison and showed the differences for those who may be wavering between one or the other. I think we all agreed that whatever you do, replace the stockers!!!

mcgilles

good info! thanks for posting. next time get a couple for comparison without the fog lights on, and do a hi vs. low beams shot. I have my sights set on projectors but not in the near future.

BSiegPaint

I'll try and do that soon. The high beams are not much to look at - it's not legal to have two HID's in the same housing, so highs are only halogen... yellow and lacking.

old stingray

Thanks,Good write-up.

jdmvette

good job!

roushraven

Thanks for the comparison. Could the difference be a result of one car having the headlamps aimed higher?



-RR

spiral04

Nice review This is a future project for me and it looks like the hid's from ebay are the way to go? I doesn't look like the $700 or so is worth the difference.

Toque

BSiegPaint:

Great meeting you, and thanks for these pics ! Your ride looked great too ! I agree, either setup is the way to go, just get rid of the stock light setup ! Honestly I have never had a person flash me with the Ebay HID light setup. Its one of the coolest mods I have done for sure.

Here is my post where I installed C5 fog lamps in my Z06, and installed the HID 6000K Ebay bulbs in my low beams, and 6000K Ebay lights in my fog lamps. In this post I have some shots with just the low beams on if you wanted to see.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...p?p=1560030284

Roushraven:
I have never adjusted my low beam angle. I made note of where the stock beam pattern showed on my garage wall, and the HID install seemed to be the same. So I did not adjust my low beam angle at all. I did have to adjust the fog lamps... mostly because I installed them from scratch and fogs had never been on my car before.


Toque

Toque

I know what you mean. Its scary turning on the Silverstar high beams when your driving down the road. Its a HUGE reduction of light in front of your car. The HID setup is that good ! I will never go back to regular lights.

Toque

roushraven

Thanks. I was just wondering out loud that maybe the difference in the light pattern could be attributed to one car having headlamps that was higher adjusted than the other (which is what it appears to me to be) rather than a difference in light dispersion.

-RR

FreddyG

Nice looking lights and Thanks for the comparison!

The beam scatter could also be caused by putting the HID's in the stock headlight capsules, or the European capsules (glass lenses instead of plastic ones). Optimum HID design uses a projector lens.

Also the difference in brightness might have been the difference in the driving/fog lights. A fair comparison would be driving/fog lights off and just headlights. In reality, the 6000k's aren't as bright as the 4300k's. That's why the OEM's put in the 4300k's because they have the highest lumen output of the HID's (believe it or not, there are 3000k's that put out high Lumen numbers, but look Very yellow, and could easily be mistaken for a VERY Bright halogen bulb).

I like the HID's in the fogs! They look like they do a heck of a job and appear to have a nice sharp beam pattern! I might have to copy off of you there! Great Idea!

Gray Fox

Bob,
Thanks for adjusting mine!!!

mcgilles

yeah, especially since you lose your fog lights when the highs come in (pretty easy to fix that however, ask me how I know

going from 2 6000k HID's to a single set of halogens? no reason to ever use your high beams I guess.

by the way, what's all this stuff about it being illegal to have two HID lights in same housing? I've never heard of that before?!?

Dr Octane

OK, how do you know?

jrpedraza

I took some pics awhile back with my phone from the drivers seat; the kit I bought was from ebay and seems to the job nicely. Both the fog and low beams are 6000K.

Below are the Low Beams only


These are the hi and low beams together


These are the lows with the fogs


And finally just the halogen Hi beams, what a difference...


Oh, and one last shot after a nice coat of ReJex....


JR

Toque

I'm not sure about that one... ??? I just heard it the other day also.

Toque

mcgilles

the wires are pretty easy to access in the underhood electrical center to get a 12V signal when the highs are on, use that signal to energize a relay, use the relay's contact to supply ground to the fog lights command relay and there ya go! few bucks for a relay and a bit of time is all there is to it. one neat thing about it I hadn't even thought of is that since the fogs come on with the highs, when I flash my highs with the headlights off the fog lights flash. it really improved visibility

mcgilles

jrpedraza, all I can say is wow! what a difference! it should be illegal to have lights as dim as the stock ones. I've gotta get HID's

BSiegPaint

If one or more of the features of a headlight kit do not meet the Federal FMVSS No. 108 lighting standards, it is not a legal system and cannot be imported or sold in the US. Therefore the kits that are sold have a halogen bulb as the "bright" light so as to conform with the standards set, which require a filament-type bulb in the original design of the factory equipment as a replacement. Placing two HID's in the same housing would not meet these requirements and therefore would be illegal. Technically, the sale of the replacement HID bulb lighting kits is completely illegal in itself, but I think they get around it by making them "generic", and not use-specific. It's not legal to make a replacement light for a halogen that is not a halogen or another filament-type bulb. But if you don't specify the vehicle it is to be installed into, I think you "pass" when it comes to selling it. Also, the DOT does not "approve" or "disapprove" these - all they can do is tell you whether or not they meet the FMVSS No. 108 standard and they can regulate the import and sale of these items in the US.

That's it in a nutshell - there are many different ways of saying the same things form state to state. Each is slightly different, and some states have specific laws involving aftermarket lighting kits. Also keep in mind that your changing of your lights is not "selling", so I'm not sure anything could actually be done to you should you make the change to HID's. You must be in compliance with the "white" or "yellow" standards at all times, no matter what. 4300k bulbs meet this standard - I can't speak for the 6000k. If you are emitting blue light, you can for certain be ticketed. There are other regulations on light brightness that are related to the ones that eliminated those monster driving lights people used to have on their trucks and such - one of my friends used to have aircraft landing light on his pickup - but I'm not finding the references anymore. Hope this doesn't confuse anyone too much - it's tough digging through regulations and actually getting the correct info...

Just a few comments -

Oldvetter

I never heard of two HIDs being illegal either.

Usually, when you have seperate low and high beam lights, and the low beam are HID, the high beams are halogen. This is because it takes a while for HIDs to light up AND it shortens their life when they are used for short periods of time (like high beams are). The C6 has this setup, BUT to prevent lower light on high beams, the low beam HIDs stay on all the time and the high beam halogen provide additional light.

Where HIDs use one light for high and low beams, they have a mechanical "shutter" in them that moves to allow more light out up high for high beams. These are effective, my Nissan Murano has them.

BTW, I ran aircraft landing lights as high beams on my 1964 VERT, they were bright.