Hids And Common Decency

Spurshot · October 1, 2009

Lastnight, I was headed over to a friend's for dinner and encountered a number of irritating, clearly retrofit, HID vehicles.

First one was when I was going down Pacific Coast Hwy in the city of Lomita (stop and go in heavy traffic) when I was blinded by an incredible amount of light from Chevy 1/2 ton (2005-6 ish) with HID fogs and Lo beams. The truck was 2 lanes over, headed in the opposite direction, but stopped at a light. This is in a densely populated city on a 4 lane street with signals every 1/4 mile and street lights every 30 yds or so. The friggin lunitic didn't give a rats axe about anyone else, but thought he looked cool. I'd have paid good money to see that idiot get a ticket.

The next one was when I was going home and as I rounded a right corner at a stoplight, I saw a driver in the leftturn lane holding his hand up to block the light from a ricer with HIDs across the intersection. As I went aruond the corner, the HID car was behind me and the light was glaring in my mirrors.

On the freeway, I could spot the HID retrofits among the factory HID cars going in the opposite direction. They were clearly the ones with huge amounts of glare.

It's really getting very prevalent around LA to retrofit vehicles with HIDs. It's also getting very distracting and irritating. Frankly, I think there's going to be a major crackdown on them soon. They're getting out of hand with people that are abusing the crap out of these things.

There, I feel better.

brims · October 1, 2009

Ya, here in LA we are getting them like crazy and like you said, people just don't care if they are blinding people. I sure do hope they crack down on those HID retrofits. They are worthless in the city, and dangerous. Hell, even the factory systems are pretty annoying. Those projector housings, you're a city block away and you see this bright light way the hell down there and you think "turn your high beams off jerk" you get to the car, there's nothing wrong. The projector housings give a very intense beam far away.

C. Charles Hahn · October 1, 2009

I agree 100%, people who do an improper retrofit of HIDs on their vehicles and don't adjust the lights/test them adequately should be given hell for it. However I still am NOT going to say that HID retrofits are universally a bad thing. Done right, they can absolutely improve night safety in situations with low ambient lighting from other sources WITHOUT being a nuisance for other drivers.

mkelly · October 1, 2009

Lastnight, I was headed over to a friend's for dinner and encountered a number of irritating, clearly retrofit, HID vehicles.

First one was when I was going down Pacific Coast Hwy in the city of Lomita (stop and go in heavy traffic) when I was blinded by an incredible amount of light from Chevy 1/2 ton (2005-6 ish) with HID fogs and Lo beams. The truck was 2 lanes over, headed in the opposite direction, but stopped at a light. This is in a densely populated city on a 4 lane street with signals every 1/4 mile and street lights every 30 yds or so. The friggin lunitic didn't give a rats axe about anyone else, but thought he looked cool. I'd have paid good money to see that idiot get a ticket.

The next one was when I was going home and as I rounded a right corner at a stoplight, I saw a driver in the leftturn lane holding his hand up to block the light from a ricer with HIDs across the intersection. As I went aruond the corner, the HID car was behind me and the light was glaring in my mirrors.

On the freeway, I could spot the HID retrofits among the factory HID cars going in the opposite direction. They were clearly the ones with huge amounts of glare.

It's really getting very prevalent around LA to retrofit vehicles with HIDs. It's also getting very distracting and irritating. Frankly, I think there's going to be a major crackdown on them soon. They're getting out of hand with people that are abusing the crap out of these things.

There, I feel better.

+1

What really kills me is that they dont make the vehicle look high class or provide any more light, they make the car/truck look like crap.

I would love to see these vehicles towed and impounded(they are illegal after all) when they get caught......

mkelly · October 1, 2009

I agree 100%, people who do an improper retrofit of HIDs on their vehicles and don't adjust the lights/test them adequately should be given hell for it. However I still am NOT going to say that HID retrofits are universally a bad thing. Done right, they can absolutely improve night safety in situations with low ambient lighting from other sources WITHOUT being a nuisance for other drivers.

Not without changing the housing to a projector style housing that is designed for HID lights. That is why hid kits that mount in regular housings designed for halogen lights are illegal.

No matter how low you aim the lights there is still more scatter than is acceptable. There is a reason OEM dont use the same reflector housing for HID lights as they do for halogen..........

jtupper · October 1, 2009

I agree 100%, people who do an improper retrofit of HIDs on their vehicles and don't adjust the lights/test them adequately should be given hell for it. However I still am NOT going to say that HID retrofits are universally a bad thing. Done right, they can absolutely improve night safety in situations with low ambient lighting from other sources WITHOUT being a nuisance for other drivers.

Not without changing the housing to a projector style housing that is designed for HID lights. That is why hid kits that mount in regular housings designed for halogen lights are illegal.

No matter how low you aim the lights there is still more scatter than is acceptable. There is a reason OEM dont use the same reflector housing for HID lights as they do for halogen..........

I was seriously considering converting to HID's on my Tahoee, but I was worried about scatter issues so I recently modified some 9005 cool blue bulbs to fit in my low beam housings (9006). That alone made a huge difference. They are so much whiter that my OEM bulbs. Now I'm considering moving those over to the high beam side and modifying some 9005 silver star ultras to go in the low beams.

steiny93 · October 1, 2009

personally,

I've only been adding the hid retrofit to the high beams, I'm not following the advantage on the low beam side.

mkelly curious where you found your info

"That is why hid kits that mount in regular housings designed for halogen lights are illegal."

2000 Z71 · October 1, 2009

I second that. Who needs that much on road WTF

mkelly · October 1, 2009

personally,
I've only been adding the hid retrofit to the high beams, I'm not following the advantage on the low beam side.

mkelly curious where you found your info

"That is why hid kits that mount in regular housings designed for halogen lights are illegal."

Straight from the nhsta, they violate fvmss no 108.

http://isearch.nhtsa.gov/files/deetz.ztv.html

amtz.zero · October 1, 2009

Yes, I hate this too. I have to drive a long road to work everyday and it is so annoying! And like someone else said, it doesn't make the car look any cooler at all. I would LOVE to see a big crackdown on them sometime soon. Oh, and what I really think looks bad are the "euro" taillights. Ugly as hell if you ask me..

vdubmurray · October 1, 2009

I'd like to see companies come out with a NICE looking projector headlight. The ones on the market now are very cheap looking.

I don't want halos around my bulbs! This isn't a BMW!

[ / end my rant ]

Heysdad · October 1, 2009

I love my HID's...They light up the road much better than stock and that makes it safer for me and my family. If you don't have them, how do you know they don't give more light? I found a huge difference....They do need to be aimed though after install.

I was in LA 1 week ago and I think y'all have a much larger problem with people texting while driving. It seemed like every way I looked on the 405 and 101 people are texting while driving...What a bunch of losers....I think that needs to be addressed over HID's. Just my 2 cents....

P71_CrownVic · October 1, 2009

My HIDs are great.

And I marked where the reg. beam hit on my garage door and found that the HIDs are almost exactly dead on.

I don't see how a tube of light (HID) and a tube of light (reg. bulb) could spread light differently. It certainly would have been a waste to have the lights properly aimed...in fact...I bet they wouldn't have even touched them...

C. Charles Hahn · October 2, 2009

My HIDs are great.

And I marked where the reg. beam hit on my garage door and found that the HIDs are almost exactly dead on.

I don't see how a tube of light (HID) and a tube of light (reg. bulb) could spread light differently. It certainly would have been a waste to have the lights properly aimed...in fact...I bet they wouldn't have even touched them...

Actually, there IS a difference in the light spread because instead of light being emitted by a hot filament (halogen) the light is emitted by an arc between two electrodes in a gas filled chamber (HID). That is why there can be issues with scatter in some housings.... the "arc" may be brighter, but it isn't as concentrated which can cause light to "scatter" in a housing that isn't well designed.

However, I would like to point out that a few years ago there WERE some OEM manufacturers using reflector housings for HID lights, GM included. Remember the GMC Envoy based on the S10 Blazer platform? Or the GMT800 Escalades? Both were using HID setups in reflector housings. In the Envoy's case, I don't think the housing was any different than the one the Jimmy/Sonoma got.

So again, a quality kit installed the right way is really not much different than an OEM reflector setup as long as the install is done properly and adjustments are made accordingly.

brims · October 2, 2009

I love my HID's...They light up the road much better than stock and that makes it safer for me and my family. If you don't have them, how do you know they don't give more light? I found a huge difference....They do need to be aimed though after install.

I was in LA 1 week ago and I think y'all have a much larger problem with people texting while driving. It seemed like every way I looked on the 405 and 101 people are texting while driving...What a bunch of losers....I think that needs to be addressed over HID's. Just my 2 cents....

We have laws about using the phone while driving, the cops just don't give tickets. For about a month after the law was passed people weren't using their phones much. Now people are using their phones, pressed up against their ear more than before the law was passed.

And if any of you believe the HIDs aren't any different than halogen lights, you need to take your truck and park it next to a truck with halogens and have both sets of lights on and look at them. Anyone that can't see a difference is blind and shouldn't be driving in the first place.