HID's Installed, Before and After
 

Just had a vision HID kit installed in my 87 Carrera. Wow the difference is amazing. Pictures really dont justify the change in lighting.

A friends brother owns a electronics instalation buisiness, he did the install as he is a distruter for Vision HID Kits, he also installed an alarm with keyless entry, which is nice to have.


Before with regular H5 lenses and bulbs.

http://img157.echo.cx/img157/8793/dsc000481wn.th.jpg

http://img157.echo.cx/img157/6258/dsc000507gl.th.jpg

http://img157.echo.cx/img157/7084/dsc000511zx.th.jpg

After: With New H4 Lenses and HID's.

http://img157.echo.cx/img157/648/dsc000570me.th.jpg

http://img157.echo.cx/img157/3268/dsc000595sa.th.jpg

http://img157.echo.cx/img157/234/dsc000610rr.th.jpg

http://img128.echo.cx/img128/2292/dsc000663lb.th.jpg


Once again, pictures really dont show the improvement, ill try to get some better pics later on.

What does that cost. Just putting new lens on the car improved the light I was getting. They were pitted on the front and cloudy inside. I could get the inside glass clean but not the inside reflector. nor obviously could I remove all the years of sand and rock blasting the lenses received.

It cost me $1,200 installed, but that price was including an alarm. I think it was around $900 or so for the Hids including labor. It took him all day to do the HID and alarm install. He started at 11Am and Finished at 10Pm. He has done many other cars before with the same setup, but it was a difficult process with the 911.

The new H4 lenses i got made a huge difference. The orignal H5's that were in the car were completly pitted, and full of rock chips and such. When i recieved the new lenses from Pelican, i was amazed to see how clean the new ones were.

Do you still have a hi and low beam ??

Wil

I've seen HID kits for my 'other' car for less than $400. You just need the ballast, wiring and bulbs, AFAIK. If you have the H4 setup, I think you'd just be adding the ballast to the circuit, and using different bulbs in the same housing.

(I am not an HID expert, though.... )

I hope he has high beam for that price. I got my Hella HID kit for my car for 495.00 and installed it myself in about 1 hour. Coming from a custom car audio background as an installer probably helped that time a bit!

What do you think of your beam pattern? Mine got really nasty but hell with that much light who cares right? (LOL)

In response to Wil, In my case I do not have high beam but I really havent missed that feature to much with this much light output on low. I think they are pretty offensive but noone ever flashes brights at me for them so they cant be too bad.

And to Matt, Not all HID kits are created equal. Buyer beware of cheap stuff! I felt very comfortable with the Hella brand on mine!


Just my .02.....................................C;)

Yeah, the price seemed high to me, too. My HID kit (H1) cost me like $350 (it was on clearance) and took an hour to install. It would've been a lot faster if I could've gotten the HID wires themselves through the existing cable channel to the headlight buckets.

And an alarm shouldn't cost more than a couple hundred bucks installed.

That said, the kits that FrayAdjacent911 are talking about are not street legal. You can not run an HID conversion bulb legally in a housing that wasnt' certified to run an HID bulb. A kit that is grandfathered with this recent law change must include a DOT-certified replacement housing as well. Although selling those is now illegal (or will be soon), its the sale, not use of them that is illegal. The bulb adapter kits, though, are illegal to use.

Cost notwithstanding, it's just a bad idea to stuff HID bulbs into regular lights. As Gumba11 noticed, the beam pattern is wrong. As to who's going to care? Everyone else on the road, which is why the kits are being outlawed.

Stef

Do you really need HID . I think that since the lighting has improved from the old sealed beams HID is not really necessary. How many of you (us) are really going so fast in the USA that we are seriously outdriving our lights....

Yup, lenses are specifically designed for HID. Retrofitting is not optimal.

Well, more is better. I'd definitely spring for HIDs on a new car and have always upgraded older ones to euro lighting with overwattage high beams. Biology is against us in that you loose a huge amount of night vision as you age - and you don't have to be particularly old either. Also, we probably have a few more deer to worry about up here than in Ft. Lauterdale. Also a major advantage of HIDs is the light color, which is much closer to daylight than incandescent bulbs - and again our eyes are built to work better in daylight.

Stef

The HID upgrade sounds like a nice subject title for Wayne's new 101 book! Biff

What color is that? Appears 4700K.

You can make all the excuses you want about not wanting to spend the money on an HID kit but until you drive with them on a regular basis, you cannot even begin to imagine the benefits. Even with the wrong beam pattern they are better!

Stef hit the nail on the head in saying it is the spectrum of light that is close to duplicating actual daylight. As for the irritation to others on the road, I have as much problem with conventional lighting as I have had with HID systems being bright. One of the biggest killers on the road is the early 90s Ford trucks. Just one good example. I also havent mentioned the crowd that apparently knows nothing of how to AIM their headlamps! (LOL)

I think as HID retros become more common, and new lense technology comes with this progress the people that have so many issues with modern lighting technology will eventually admit and maybe even purchase a kit with new lamp housings because they are so much better.

Just my .05.......................................C:)

As for being illegal, they have not been banned in Oregon! (hehe) :) But I am also blessed with special interest registration which means no emissions, noise, or equipment laws apply to my car. It is pretty nice to be left alone in that respect. Now if I could only be immune to speeding tickets! (LOL)

I can't imagine these would beat H4s with 85/100s. Or put another way, I can't imagine needing anything brighter than my H4s.

That's what I have. (With the Sucro relays,) Never felt like I needed more light.

Besides being brighter, HIDs have a much more sharply defined beam (great for seeing the side of the road w/o blinding traffic), and use less power. The transformer seems to add a little wt.

Again, I would challenge anyone to say that any standard lamp is brighter. My lamps cover up my friends 100/150 PIAA ceramic base H4s. No need to argue the obvious, but try a set out if you dont beleive me.

As for stray light, yes there is alot of stray light but nothing that offends other people on the road like the non HID users explain here. If you dont use them then how can you make a valid decision on there performance? Just a thought.

I have however when I noticed the stray light issue installed my own hand made bulb shield to go in with the HID bulb to help this issue. Without the use of some kind of a bulb shield more than just the stock in the H4 housing, im affraid you would be in trouble. (Getting flashed all the time)

The only thing I have ever driven that had more light was my UR Quattro rally car that was equipped with 4) 8" round fog lamps 2) 10" round spot lamps, and 2) 100/150 primary lamps, all from PIAA


Again, just my .05..........................C :)

I've done a conversion on my 993, which has projector lenses with a cutoff from the factory. I would never do it to a non-projector setup. If you read the forums at hidplanet.com, you will see it's a big no-no because you WILL be blinding oncoming drivers at night.

Sorry to sound negative, but I get annoyed at the people in my area running these kits without a proper lens. It's dangerous and inconsiderate, IMO.

I agree with that.

PAGs Litronic system includes self-leveling for just that reason - and it is required with HIDs in some markets.