Headlight options

[AllAlaskan]

I just picked up a 04 Bonneville SE and was thinking of putting in some HIDs as I have used them in the past in my old 99 Silverado I use to own and they worked great. How ever I keep reading that isnt the case with the Bonneville with people saying they are blinding to oncoming traffic. I seen a post earlier about HR12 bulbs and another one for replacements for the stock bulbs.

Could some one spread a little more light on this for me, no pun intended? Which bulbs Do I need for my 04, and another the car I have use to belong to my mom and she said that she always had an issue with bulbs going out every 7-12 months with the car and could never figure out why. this is another reason I was thinking of possibly going with HIDs since they run off their own power line from the battery using only a relay switch off the head lights to turn them on.

Im fairly new to owning this specific kind of car (have had a few 3800 powered GMs in the past all great cars btw) and I am not familure with what would be the best route to go. I live in Alaska (If you couldnt tell by my name lol) and up here one of the #1 accident causing crashes are Moose, they like to come out of no where, and they are as large or larger then some horses if you are not familure with them. Have GOOD headlights can mean the difference when it comes to avoiding or hitting a 1200-1600 lb animal.

[yonkerse]

I'm currently running HID in my Low Beams (the bulb is a 9005) and in my Fog lights. I have been VERY pleased with mine as the light output is much better than stock. In the summer, I do lots of night driving and these lights have given me much more confidence. I actually prefer to run my low beams and fogs over my high beams since my lighting range (width) is much greater and allows quicker reaction to animals etc.

I do get others flashing their brights at me often. I would say my high beams get used more from flashing others back to show my brights are off than actually running them. I know there's people around the forum who don't like the HID and prefer the HIR. I was actually looking into the HIR but couldn't get them in the 6K color to match the rest of my lighting.

All in all, I'm pleased with my HID's. Have never had an issue in the two years they have been installed.

As far as your lights burning out, is it your low beams or your fogs that burn out? The fog lights are known to burn out regularly since the wiring on the bulbs is pretty weak. I haven't heard of many issues with low beams burning out...

[00Beast]

Eric, you get people flashing you because your lights hurt their eyes, because the Halogen reflector is not for HID's, and scatters light up and into other's eyes, which is why you should NOT run them in a halogen reflector. HID's need a reflector/projector with a cutoff to focus the light onto the road and where you need to see, not up where it doesn't matter.

I wish more cops knew and enforced bulb laws, as HID's in a halogen reflector are not DOT legal.

[Mad Myche]

I will pre-qualify this with the fact that I have only owned a Bonneville for a week. The knowledge I draw upon is what I have learned on previous vehicles augmented by online research. I have not as of this time played with any of the options available for 9xxx lamps, as the last vehicles I owned which used them had the entire assemblies removed and replaced with the assemblies designed for the European version of the car which have better optics and use H series (H1, H4) lighting. If I ever get around to upgrading headlamps on any car, this is what I look for first

HIDs: The only way I would recommend installation is if it is a complete lamp assembly. Retrofitting into halogen/incandescent fixtures has a few issues; the first being that it is illegal. All lamp assemblies that are legal for on-road usage are certified based upon a specific the light source. The change from filament lighting to arc lighting (or vice-versa) effectively removes that certification. Halogen fixtures either have the filament orientated in a vertical or horizontal plane. Discharge lamps actually are curved, and the emitted light is not in a place within the assembly that can properly control the aim the light that is generated. This ultimately leads to bright and dim spots that are not within the specs. It also leads to light glaring into the eyes of oncoming drivers

HIRs: I have no personal experience with these bulbs. From the research I have done in the past I see these as a viable solution for improving the lighting of your vehicle. They are still filament lamps and they are of the correct orientation and location to be controlled properly by the optics of the headlamp housing. They are more costly and need to be trimmed to fit. Legality I am unsure of.

Overpowered bulbs: I would not recommend. Reason 1 is that the optics of the lamp are not designed for the amount of light being produced. Reason 2 is heat, which can melt plastics and cause heat cycling of glass assemblies beyond their mechanical designs. Reason 3 is they are illegal.

Blue bulbs: I stay away from these as well. Blue artificially makes you think they are brighter than they actually are. Light refracts when transitioning through clear materials (moisture, lens covers) just as in a prism. Blue light has a higher refraction index, so it strays more from its intended direction. This leads to glare for you and oncoming traffic. Also, the human eye reacts differently to blue light than to other colors, and the pupils constrict less which multiplies the effect. A perfect example is police cars. All blue lighting coming from a squad car is a fraction of the red lighting, yet blue is more visible at night due to refraction and the human eye. These bulbs also run hotter as the coating absorbs non-blue lighting and dissipates as heat.

Silverstar: I put these in a category by them self as there are actually 2 different brands of these. These are a creation of Osram, which is a reputable company and these bulbs are perfectly fine. Unfortunately they do not make 9000 series bulbs. Osram also bought a company we know as Sylvania, who markets a blue bulb under the Silverstar name. These are the ones you find in most parts stores.

Others: Their are a variety of other bulbs out there that are legitimate. Most of these companies are lesser known such as Narva. They market various bulbs using a variety of different halogen gases (such as Xenon) which do perform better than the 5.99 Great Value at Walmart. They also cost more and are harder to find.

[yonkerse]

Eric, you get people flashing you because your lights hurt their eyes, because the Halogen reflector is not for HID's, and scatters light up and into other's eyes, which is why you should NOT run them in a halogen reflector. HID's need a reflector/projector with a cutoff to focus the light onto the road and where you need to see, not up where it doesn't matter.

I wish more cops knew and enforced bulb laws, as HID's in a halogen reflector are not DOT legal.

That may be. I am satisfied with the increased range of my HID's and am very confident driving at night with them. I have had them installed for 2 years and I would say half of my 32,000 miles is night time driving. I have never had a real close call with any wild life as I see eye reflections from animals well in advance. (This may be to the fact the light is scattering which is fine by me as I spot things sooner).

I have had my car all over the place in "strict law enforcement" areas and never had an issue....maybe I have just been lucky..

[00Beast]

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=22004&p=228417

[LeSabreUltra]

What Ed said ^

Pretty much everything I have to add is covered in that topic one way or another. Mad Myche covered a lot of the main points as well.

If you want HID, get yourself a quality set of HID projectors and install them into your headlamp assembly. Best option for upgrading your lighting. HID kits are just sloppy and cheap looking, and don't really help you see as well as you may think they do.
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[AllAlaskan]

One thing I will say just so you guys know about this too, about %25 of cars up here have HIDs in them and most in stock headlight housings, so as far as them being Illegal they do not enforce it up here what so ever. I even know of cops who use them in there personal vehicles lol.

That being said I do not want to blind oncoming traffic either but I dont want to hit a moose doing 55mph because I didnt see it either. I have had some close calls, once missing a moose by no more then 2 feet......I pretty much needed to change my briches after that one.

[00Beast]

HIR's are for you then. Or projectors.

[AllAlaskan]

Do they make a replacement housing for the Bonneville that has built in Projectors or would I have to fab something up?

[locowbl]

I've been looking for replacement housings to no avail so far.

[repinS]

Eric - next time I'm in Michigan, I encourage you to drive the GXP with the projectors at night. You'll see...

I just picked up a 04 Bonneville SE and was thinking of putting in some HIDs as I have used them in the past in my old 99 Silverado I use to own and they worked great.

Friend of mine has a setup in his 99 Silverado, and I always give him *shoot* because they are among the WORST glaring setups I have ever seen when it comes to adding HID kits to stock halogen housings. Up here it's a common fad for tow truck drivers to outfit their Silverados and Sierras with these setups, and they are just as bad. I had the luxury (misfortune) of having to drive this truck at night for 3 hours straight, the beam quality was terrible - none of the light reached where you wanted it to go, you basically had this super bright blotch right in front of you making you THINK that your lights are brighter. One could aim them higher but they were already throwing massive amounts of glare the way they were. The thing is, some cars are worse than others. Some glare lots. Some glare little. It depends on the way the factory housing is designed. General rule of thumb - if the stock housing uses ONE bulb for both high and low beam, or has fluted glass/lenses, it will glare worse.

As for projectors... this will be a custom deal, nobody makes anything for Bonneville. I suggest reading up and purchasing from http://www.theretrofitsource.com to see if it's something you want to tackle. I have the Morimoto Mini H1 (Stage 3) kit currently and retained the GXP HIR high beams - it's full fab and not easy plug and play like they advertise for other cars with larger headlight housings. I was going to write a guide but stopped because stuff got way messy. I will be repeating another swap in the coming months with FX-R projectors in another pair of headlights. Hopefully I can document that one cleaner and better.

My swap: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=25703&hilit=morimoto

[yonkerse]

Jerry,

I do plan on doing a projector retro-fit in the future. Just need to gather the parts and do the research so I don't screw them up. It will likely not be in the next year or so, but eventually.

[AllAlaskan]

That makes sence, I did actually aim mine lower in the silvarado. I never had any problums, not sure why they are so bad and not in some. I had several friends tell me that my Ford Focus was worse with stock bulbs then my Silvarado was witht he HIDS

I am definitly going to look into the HIR bulbs though, only thing that concerns me is the fact that it goes through normal bulbs in less then a year so I wonder how it will handle the HIR bulbs. I guess if it came down to it I could use a Relay switch and run a power wire with an inline fuse for the HIR bulbs kind of like the HID kits run a seperate power wire for the ballest and not draw its power directly from the headlight power plug.

Eric - next time I'm in Michigan, I encourage you to drive the GXP with the projectors at night. You'll see...

I just picked up a 04 Bonneville SE and was thinking of putting in some HIDs as I have used them in the past in my old 99 Silverado I use to own and they worked great.

Friend of mine has a setup in his 99 Silverado, and I always give him *shoot* because they are among the WORST glaring setups I have ever seen when it comes to adding HID kits to stock halogen housings. Up here it's a common fad for tow truck drivers to outfit their Silverados and Sierras with these setups, and they are just as bad. I had the luxury (misfortune) of having to drive this truck at night for 3 hours straight, the beam quality was terrible - none of the light reached where you wanted it to go, you basically had this super bright blotch right in front of you making you THINK that your lights are brighter. One could aim them higher but they were already throwing massive amounts of glare the way they were. The thing is, some cars are worse than others. Some glare lots. Some glare little. It depends on the way the factory housing is designed. General rule of thumb - if the stock housing uses ONE bulb for both high and low beam, or has fluted glass/lenses, it will glare worse.

As for projectors... this will be a custom deal, nobody makes anything for Bonneville. I suggest reading up and purchasing from http://www.theretrofitsource.com to see if it's something you want to tackle. I have the Morimoto Mini H1 (Stage 3) kit currently and retained the GXP HIR high beams - it's full fab and not easy plug and play like they advertise for other cars with larger headlight housings. I was going to write a guide but stopped because stuff got way messy. I will be repeating another swap in the coming months with FX-R projectors in another pair of headlights. Hopefully I can document that one cleaner and better.

My swap: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=25703&hilit=morimoto

[00Beast]

Do the relay harness, but the HIR's have a really long life.

[AllAlaskan]

So should a local shop carry these or would I need to order them offline?

[Mad Myche]

How dare me; I forgot an option which I remembered when projectors and replacement housings got brought up.

Projector Assemblies, which could (if space allows) be retrofitted into a stripped out OEM assembly.

[AllAlaskan]

Here are some good examples of why I want good lighting, This is also why most vehicles up here are SUVs and Trucks.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rRQTHbKbS8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSMAF27Z1dI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBzLlcIayEk


People die up here every year from hitting moose, And I have had my fair share of close calls.

[LeSabreUltra]

If you're looking to retrofit projectors, I recommend this site more:

http://www.theretrofitsource.com

These are designed for D2S bulbs and will perform better. Some of the projectors posted above would make great high beam only projectors if you did a quad retrofit, however. I did something similar on my late LeSabre.



My truck is retrofitted with bixenon projectors, meaning it has high and low beam in one unit. Output:





I doubt you'd have any trouble spotting moose.
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[LeSabre in Buffalo]

For a halogen setup, getting a relay harness along with a full set of HIR bulbs is the best option. I had full HIR bulbs on my old LeSabre. They rocked at night, especially the high beams. Those let me see things 20 seconds down a straight road.

The relay harnesses for these cars are cheap. A 9006 "HID relay" harness is just fine, and is $15 shipped on Ebay. The harness has 9006 plugs on the end that plug into the headlight bulbs, and draws power from the battery.

HIR low beams are rated at something like 1500 hours life. They're crazy bright, and crazy long-lived. Highly recommended.