Rep Power: 812

wait you're covering up one side right? i think its due to the dot regulation or something, that the driver side can't distract oncoming traffic and is aimed differently.

 
Rep Power: 270

well uh i dont think its dot regulations b.c my driver side is brighter but not sure about the aiming stuff cause it looks the same..sorta...

 
Rep Power: 270

i took at look at the distance between the lens nd the headlight cover nd it does have a gap mayb an inch or so on both headlights. if i were to some how move the projector foward a bit would that help?

 
Rep Power: 0

I am not sure about the brighter/dimmer issue. The only thing I know is that, if you use some D2S or H7 projector (your's is ECE H7 I guess from the picture), you need to do a VOR aiming instead of VOL, especially on the H7. Otherwise the right side flares up and blinding everybody in your right side right of the center line....VOR means, from the horizontal and diagonal intersection, aim the higher side 2 inches below center line at 25ft away (as opposed to TYC stock which aims the lower side 2 inches below). It really depends on what kind of light pattern is put out, but I think if at 25 ft away if the right side cutoff is considerably higher than the left side cutoff, you have to switch to VOR.....

I had a Valeo D2S projector and when I did VOL, it lit up the signs and the all cars on my tight side for more than a mile...Then I got close to a wall and my passenger side cutoff flared up....Then I eventually did a VOR and the side wall reflection is going down with a slope....

 
Rep Power: 270

^uh how exactly would u do that? u mean i just aim it lower like crazy? i got the ___/----___/---- the only things i can do to adjust the beam pattern is up and down and rotation.

 
Rep Power: 379

HERE IS AN EMAIL CONVO I HAD AWHILE BACK WITH A NHTSA EMPLOYEE....


Dear Mr. Iderstine,
I have an 03 Honda Civic with Projector headlights that I recently retrofitted with Audi S4 HID Projectors. I really would like to be in DOT compliance in regards to angle of bulbs in order to reduce glare. Are there any standards that you could offer that I may base my lamp adjustments on? I had recently heard of the ban on aftermarket HID's due to improper alignment and Audi told me that the standard rule was to be within 1 degree of level. Any help would be appreciated.

Dear Mr. Hughes,
HID conversions have always been illegal for sale and installation. In fact, it is very likely that the headlamps that you fitted to the Civic that are not the OEM design, were also illegal to be sold because they probably to not comply with federal headlighting regulations. These regulations do not apply to vehicle owners, however, most states have similar laws that do apply to vehicle owners and drivers.

The problem with HID conversions is that most of them use an HID bulb in place of a Halogen bulb. Even if the arc is placed in exactly the correct location where the filament had been placed, the best result is a tripling of intensity everywhere in the beam. This means not only on the road, but also in the eyes of oncoming and preceding drivers. Done poorly, the glare to other drivers can be 10 or more times as intense.

Regarding aiming, presuming that what you did was to install a once complying OEM HID headlamp into your Civic, aiming should be fairly straight forward. The OEM headlamp should have had the letters "VOL" or "VOR" on the lens. That is to tell you that the lower beam is to be visually/optically aimed using the left side (VOL) of the beam pattern, or the right side (VOR). If it is a VOL lamp, then the cutoff on the left should be aligned to be 53 mm (2 inches) below the center of the lamp, when the vehicle is on a level surface and placed 7.62 meters (25 feet) from a vertical wall, and the beam is projected on that wall. If the lamp is a VOR, then the cutoff on the right side of the beam should be aligned to be the same height as the center of the lamp.
Richard L. Van Iderstine
Chief, Visibility and Injury Prevention Division
400 Seventh Street, S.W., Room 5307
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Washington, DC 20590
001 202 366 2720 V
001 202 366 4329 F
richard.vaniderstine@nhtsa.dot.gov


Mr. Van Iderstine, I don't think I could have gotten a more detailed response from anywhere. Thank you very much. From your e-mail I truly feel as though concerning myself with HID's legally is futile when the aftermarket headlamps they reside in may not necessarily be legal themselves. I will, however, do my best to keep them at the legal adjustment. From what I gather from your message, this is what I presume: (My projectors are not bi-xenon, just low beam, and are the factory issued for the Audi A4 and S4) I will determine which headlamp style it is (VOR/VOL). Then I will set the car 7.62 meters from a vertical wall on a level surface. I will measure the height from the ground to center of the projector itself installed on my vehicle. Finally I will make certain that the cutoff line on the wall is no more than 53 mm below the height of the center of the projector to the ground. I'm not quite certain why the projectors signify why they should be aligned using the right or left specifically (VOR/VOL). I assume than anyone would want both cutoff lines to be the same height (53 mm below level). There isn't much adjustment available from side to side on each projector so I will focus on the height. I will send you a photo when I'm done, not that it is really THAT important to you I'm sure, but at least you'll know you helped at least one person with retrofitted HID's from blinding oncoming traffic (or doing his best anyway). THANK YOU.

Dear Mr. Hughes,
Thank you for the compliment. I am a public servant, striving to be a thoughtful and dedicated one, and enjoy serving my Country. It is very simple.


Regarding the VOL or VOR, both headlamps from the same vehicle would have the same markings, and should be aimed identically. I suspect, knowing the manufacturers of Audi headlamps, that the original lamps were both marked VOL. The cutoff should look like this:


In either case, the reference in the beam would be the left hand side of each headlamp's beam (the horizontal part), and that should be placed about 53 mm below the horizontal line. The intersection of the black horiz. and vert. lines represent the lamp's center on the wall.

Rich

 
Rep Power: 0

I never got a single flash though.....

 
Rep Power: 320

sorry to bring this back from the dead, but i might have some new info on the intensity issue. Recently my stock POS battery died only after 2.5yrs and 60k miles on it. This is when i realized how crappy and puny our stock batteries are.

our stock batteries are only rated up to 200amps. I went to walmart and replaced it with a cheap $45 battery rated up to 560amps. I noticed after i installed it that the intensity on my passenager side increased. Now its similar to my driver side now. The driver side is still brighter but the difference has been reduced. I also noticed that the leds in my led dash is a little brighter as well.

I'm guessing maybe ballasts were being a little under powered since i have a amp, radar detector and leds wired to it on the stock battery. anyone else notice this or is it just placebo effect? I noticed that my passenager projector shows more blue now instead of the redish yellow on the outlines like it did before.

 
Rep Power: 0

I don't see much difference.....if you underpower your ballast, the system will just flashing (when extremely under voltage). The ballasts are rated at 11-16V DC so anything between them will work the same, given the power consumption is the same, unless you are draining your battery (high current draw) which will cause the ballast not powering up.....

 
Rep Power: 320

maybe underpowered is the incorrect word. I can't really explain it, the amount of light being outputed is about the same. But i did notice the intensity increased when you look at the projectors dead on and my leds are a little brighter. I know there was something wrong with my projectors because i would park next to stock m3's and e46 330ci's and they had more intensity then mine.

I was going to take a $100 hit and do a X5 lens swap to try to fix my dull projector, but i think this is fine.