i dont think i will have a problem with the ballasts. they dont have a particular gap on them to seal at all. the whole thing is water proof and there is a video on youtube showing a guy dunking the whole system in a fish tank without it shorting out.
im fine with 8000k. my visibility on the road is 2x that of when i had the stock headlights.
yes i know about the retrofit and prolly will just switch out the projector itself if it proves to be an easy swap. the lights dont have the cleanest cut off, due to a different shield style, but its fine for me. if it causes problems later i will get new projectors for the housings.
not trying to bust on you, as it is your decision, however it sounds like you may have been mislead down the way on a few things...
A)your lenses as stated before-set up for a standard halogen bulb create a pattern that is unsafe no matter how cool they look with the lights off
B)You can achieve the same light output as your HIDS with upgraded bulbs and a pair of relays(8K bulbs will have 25-20% LESS output than an equally powered bulb rated for 4000-4500K)
C)With halogen bulbs you will maintain a sharp cutoff comparable to what you would get with the HID's and the PROPER projector...
bottom line is...it's your choice on what you want your truck to look like and how you think the lights work
up until you pull out on the road and become a liability...I have poor night vision and I may sure that I have more than enough light in front of me, both in the truck or on my bike, it's aimed properly and puts out more light than a standard HID.
When somebody comes at me with a bulb pattern like yours...it throws off my vision quite a bit and doesn't make me the happiest camper.
HID's have their place, they're great..when done right...
i dont really get what your saying by A. and with C the cutoff is the same as it was with my halogens in the projectors i bought that "were designed for halogens bulbs". theres a reflector that cast an overlay above the cutoff and i dont know why its there but i will look into removing/blacking it out. the cutoff is sharp but theres this piece i cant describe that you can see when you look into the projector and it casts light in the way its shaped above the cutoff, it looks like a crown, idk if thats normal in projectors or if its just an added piece for halogens. also what is implied by B? is it an upgraded halogen? what kind, like the ones that you buy at autozone or a higher wattage one?
i dont get what you mean by my bulb pattern, i put this side by side last night with a cadilac escalade and a lincoln navigator, we all had the same height for cutoff and just about the same quality. mine was just a little and i mean little fuzzier than theirs. the only other difference was mine throws a little light upwards from hitting that piece i mentioned
here is a good example of what an HID cutoff should look like...even lighting 160* or so from left to right, slight stairstep on the right side, sharp cutoff and you will get a bit of color bleed to the extreme sides....compare that to yours....what you're saying is exactly right, you're getting that pattern because the cone which covers the bulb is designed for a halogen...look a the halogen bulb, notice it also will typically have the tip darkened as well...anyway..here is a good example of a factory HID setup to see what he cutoff should look like
you can see in the one picture on the 1st page the cutoff is just like yours, i might have to adjust the right headlight because it looks like they are at a little bit of different hights but i dont notice it when im driving. but i will take another picture tonight against a wall this time. i know what a factory cutoff looks like, my mazda has HID's from the factory, and like i said i compared mine with a navigator and an escalade side by side. that is almost exactly what my cutoff looks like, im just talking about the cutoff line itself, not the overcast. the overcast has hardly any output, its about as bright as my fog lights. but my halogens that came with the headlights didnt have the painted tip but i know not all of them do.
you can see in the one picture on the 1st page the cutoff is just like yours, i might have to adjust the right headlight because it looks like they are at a little bit of different hights but i dont notice it when im driving. but i will take another picture tonight against a wall this time. i know what a factory cutoff looks like, my mazda has HID's from the factory, and like i said i compared mine with a navigator and an escalade side by side. that is almost exactly what my cutoff looks like, im just talking about the cutoff line itself, not the overcast. the overcast has hardly any output, its about as bright as my fog lights. but my halogens that came with the headlights didnt have the painted tip but i know not all of them do.
Why not pull your Excursion alongside your Mazda and take a picture of the two light patterns side by side?
I'm fairly impressed with the cut-off you are getting with the EBay "projector" headlamps with a HID kit installed. Better pictures would be helpful in comparing your setup to LaxPlaya21's Projector Retrofit setup.
yea when i get some time off from the fire department and work ill compare the mazda's to mine. i did mess with the position of the bulb in the holder and that seemed to improve it a little bit. ill post the pics. when i do get a little time off im going to just completley take the headlights out and open the projectors and see if i can make any more improvement but eventually im either going to replace the projectors with acura ones and just do a retro fit. idk tho cuz im looking at getting a car and feel it may be better to save the money because i will be driving the truck less so i dont wanna dump a bunch of money into it. i might tho. ill keep you guys up dated with what happens with any more improvements.
heres the cutoff up close after i changed the bulb position.
the left (drivers side) one done
the left side is the repositioned bulb and the one on the right is the stock position.
another shot of the before and after
both of them done
and just another shot of the cutoff.
as you can see there is still a hotspot above the cutoff which is why im going to take them apart when i have time to totally get rid of it. eventually a acura retro will go in im thinking.
While the light pattern isn't exactly perfect it's far superior to Johnny's H13 setup in the factory headlamp.
I can't see your setup being a problem for 99.999% of the people that look at it. I'm pretty sure my wife's OEM HIDs in her Navigator have some light scatter too. I'll have to check it out tonight and see how the factory Navigator HID light pattern compares to yours.
I'd still like to see better pictures of your light pattern up against a uniform wall or garage door etc...
heres the pics. my truck was about 25 feet away from the wall. and the type of bulb i'm using is an h1. its an h1 for the high and low beams. the halogen h1 is so dimm its pretty worthless. the hotspot is what i will take care of next. its actually kinda neat cuz on dark roads it hits the signs and i can see them better but i still wanna get rid of it. theres a metal reflector thats causing it which i will try and see if i can eliminate it when i tear the projectors apart. im also gonna mess with the shield to color mod it and get that blue cutoff line. anyways heres the pictures. sorry they are shaky, my phone is terrible for pics at night. but i hope you like them.
So, the two "eyes" above the cutoff line is what you're going to try and eliminate? Do you think that can be done and how?
Frankly I'm impressed with your setup given the price and so few other options we have to choose from. I was pretty dead set on NOT going with another aftermarket headlamp setup until now.
If you can get those two "eyes" above the cutoff to disappear then I can't see why anyone would have a problem with these.
I drive about 23 miles to and from work every day...half of which is dark, two lane country roads. I'm thinking a setup like yours along with HID high beams will suit me just fine.
Please post updated pictures if you are successful dimming or eliminating those "eyes" about the cutoff line.
yea my goal is to get rid of the hot spot "eyes". the light pattern they give off matches the shape of the metal piece i see when i look inside the projectors when they are off. ive never seen this piece in other projectors. one boring weekend im going to pull the headlights out, put the stock ones back in temporarily while i work on the projectors. i wanna take the projector apart to see if i can remove or paint over that piece. then ill work on bulb and lense position a little more to maybe try and get some more output thats more evenly distributed from left to right. hopefully it works. im more than satisfied with these headlights. ive seen alot worse. i was dissapointed when i got them because i didnt have hid so the output sucked but when i popped the hid bulbs in i was happy. then when i modded it i was even more impressed. if everything works out good and i can fix the hotspot issue i dont think you would be able to tell the difference between these and a retro. well maybe you could if it was compared to a TL or S2000 retro but anything else and it would probly be pretty close, im hoping. ill keep you updated.
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