Rep Power: 292

i found with my retro, a 1/4 turn of the height adjusting screw was the difference between between perfect and me being blind (cutoff too low) or me blinding traffic (cutoff too high) either way. if you put the effort in to get it perfect, you'll be happier. i know i was. i struggled to get mine right. when it was too low, i felt blind and was ready to scrap the retro. when it was too high, i could see great, but i was getting bright-lighted by everyone.

 
Rep Power: 244

yeah but you did the TSX retro. I don't have the skill to rebuild the shroud and stuff like you did and time is important. If I can just get the aim right with the valeo's before I seal it up, and then I am good, I will be happy.

 
Rep Power: 813

heres a graph i made based on info from this site about how fast a typical hid bulb ages. as you can see, light output goes down pretty quick. use them sparingly. at 1/2 its rated life, the hid bulb will only be as bright as halogen.

http://faqlight.carpassion.info/hl-hid-bulbs.htm

 
Rep Power: 244

Well isn't that depressing.

 
Rep Power: 279

The way I see it, a HID bulb will last longer than halogen anyway so c'est la vie

 
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ya dont buy used bulbs on ebay lol. but its not that bad, you wont get down to that low brightness for at least 4-5 yrs with normal driving. just try not to use em if you dont have to (like in daylight). makes me glad i went with 50w lol. halogen bulbs dont last that long (average 500-1000 hrs) but they keep almost 95% of their brightness for the life of the bulb.

 
Rep Power: 279

^yeah I usually don't have them on in the day unless it's raining.. I've really been pleased with the results of my setup, I can see the road very well now, and even though it's a PnP kit directly in my stock housings, I never get flashed by oncoming drivers I want to get some halogen high beam bulbs now that are a similar color, but is it illegal to have all four headlights on at the same time? (like they do now)

 
Rep Power: 813

4 headlights (lo+hi, or lo+fogs) is the max you can legally have on. but remember hi beam can only be used when no other cars are in front of you. you could get hids for the hi beams too if you want, but depending on how often you use it, may not be practical. they require some warmup/cooldown so you cant just flick them on and off too quickly.

 
Rep Power: 279

Good call.. I don't think I'm going to use fogs on this car, I recently got my front bumper repainted and they painted the plastic parts where the fogs go SSM.. and I like how that looks .. I'm going to take some pics as to how weird it looks having Hi/Low on at the same time.. the Low beam is a light blue, and the halogen hi beam looks almost orange in comparison Maybe I'll just get some white Hi beam halogen bulbs.. hrmmm

 
Rep Power: 292

my HID fogs are tied to my parking lights and a switch. i generally leave the switch on as i put my parking lights and fogs only on at dusk. so whenever i arm or disarm my alarm, the parking lights flash and the HID's do to. been doing this for almost a year with no problem on a PNP kit. i always relate it the cars that have OEM bi-xenons only. if you do a flash to pass with them, you're going to be pulsing the HID's on and off also. i think that xenon ballasts in cars are designed for this. i don't think it's as big of a problem as people think. as i said, my HID fogs have been flashing everyday for almost a year in addition to being on anytime my headlights are on (they stay on with low and high beams, yes, 6 lights, i know it's illegal). at a bare minimum if i only go to and from work, they get flashed 6 times each day. if i go anywhere else, its more. one for arm and two for disarm. i don't plan to change that either. i want to run them till they die so i can give a longevity report.

 
Rep Power: 813

with how cheap hid is, i would just get some of those. halogen bulb can cost upto $50, whereas a whole hid kit that will prolly last the life of the car is only $110. so idk, it will pay off in the long run.

 
Rep Power: 813

yeah, most new oem ballast and kit ballast support hot restrike. one way to test and be sure is, turn on the lights and let them warm up a few minutes. turn them off, wait a few secs, and then turn them back on. if they go right back to the warmed up white color (or whatever the color is), they they are fine to flash. but if the light comes back on very dim with red colors, then you shouldnt flash them anymore.

 
Rep Power: 279

yeah that's true.. but I rarely use high beams, and I like the idea of just flipping them on and off do you know of a good 9005 bulb to use?

 
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well, then even my cheap PNP kit has hot restrike.

 
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i am gonna have fun strobing my tl projectors at people lol. all it does is move the shield back to switch to hi beam.

 
Rep Power: 253

Just wondering if the decrease brightness is primarily due to the fact that most hid bulbs color shift after ~100 hrs of use? So are the 85122+ better since they resist color shifting.

 
Rep Power: 813

yeah well, i think that is a different thing. colorshift is just due to the salts in the bulb, whereas loss of light is due to the properties of the hid bulb. just like fluorescent, certain parts get worn away just by turning them on, and after a while it just continues to get worse. the + bulbs resist colorshift much better, but i dont think its tied to loss of brightness. they say it is, but im not so sure, and i dont know how much more life it would give.

 
Rep Power: 292

i run 85122+ in my TSX. i finished my retro last april, i think. even since then, they don't seem to have shifted color at all. i always compare them to other OEM lights. mine aren't as blue as color shifted bulbs. there was some posts over at HID Planet that i thought showed that there was some additional lumens lost with color shift that the 85122+ bulbs didn't experience. i can't verify that without many hours of searching though. the real test would be to get a set of new 85122+ bulbs and swap one at a time with my current bulbs. they've probably got at least 200+ hours on them. i think it's hard to seperate color shift and loss of lumens to age as they typically happen hand in hand.

 
Rep Power: 813

its crazy how many oem hid cars ive seen where the brightness was so dim, i thought it was a kit for a minute until i got closer. even an acura tl. dont people realize they barely have enough light to drive with? it looked scary to me and i wasnt even driving their car lol

 
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It's probably because they're not hid obsessed freaks like us.

 
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^hahaha

I'm thinking about these halogen bulbs for my high beams.. they might blend well w/ the 6000k HID light as my low beam..



http://www.tirerack.com/accessories/...perf_bulbs.jsp

 
Rep Power: 253

I think the high beam bulbs in the 04 to 05 is a 9005 not a 9006. Those don't look too blue at all, it would match 6000k.

 
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lol nothing will match dont even try. if you find toshiba HIR bulbs just use those. its alot brighter than halogen but not quite as bright as hid. im not sure what size they make tho.

 
Rep Power: 279

^cool man thanks for the heads up.. this dude's selling 01-03 sedan HL's if you're still looking

https://www.civicforums.com/forums/1...eadlights.html

 
Rep Power: 279

Found a pic of a dude w/ HID's hi and lo.. looks so bright.

 
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lol nice. nah ima just buy the ebay clear headlights for $100. i want brand new lenses.

 
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FUKKKKKKKK... now i have to read 22 pages of this thread...

i'm thinking bout installing HIDS cuz my friend had Audi HIDS installed on his 07 vic coupe.

 
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lol have fun, and choose a beter projector than audi/valeo lol they suck

 
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i cheated, i skipped to pg. 17 and watched the video. LOL

btw: ryox, dude u need to invest on a video cam... please. LOLOL j/k man.

 
Rep Power: 279

Hey Civicpran where's that JDM front lip???

hahaha jk