Just ordered some HIDs!

[yonkerse]

As far as I know, they all have a couple second warm up time...although I have not done any HID lighting research in 2.5 years when I installed mine. I'd imagine they have gotten better.

[repinS]

$40 > $400 + for the time being.

$270 shipped, actually TRS did some awesome Black Friday deals last year so it may be worth checking out

It is labour intensive on our cars, but for others with larger headlights there is no excuse really.

[yonkerss]

$40 > $400 + for the time being.

$270 shipped, actually TRS did some awesome Black Friday deals last year so it may be worth checking out

It is labour intensive on our cars, but for others with larger headlights there is no excuse really.

I have been looking at this a bunch off and on. Eric's car lights are very bright but not the lighting setup I want for my car, with the exception of the color. When we bought my car he was behind me and I made him pass me because the glare I had in the rearview mirror was rediculous. From what I have seen with the plug and play setups is they do appear to be brighter but it is mostly due to mis-aimed light. I drive around other driver's quite a bit at night and do not want to blind them with the plug and play HIDs...

I do feel the retrofit setup like Jerry's or other peoples is the right way to go with these but have not seen any in person. This combined with the labor involved in this project I have just left my factory bulbs in there for the time being.

As far as I know, doing the plug and play kit in the fog lamps is no concern at all.

[MattStrike]

I assume you haven't tried running the headlamps direct off the battery using a relay to switch them? I did this on my '86, and my sealed beams got easily 40% brighter, paired with the H4 conversion lights I could see very far. Thats with standard bulbs, standard color.

http://www.pontiacbonnevilleclub.com/fo ... 31381.html

I got it figured out at the end.

[repinS]

Ahhh. Makes sense. Are there no HID's one could effectively use as high beams? Or do they all have a couple second warm up time?

I missed this post. Your solution is the bi-xenon projector - have a look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFF2XoZJIBo

Mine has this function but I never hooked up the relay to do it. Just low beam HID + HIR high beam on the GXP.

[theax40]

I understand the attraction people have towards upgrading to HIDs, whether it's a PnP kit or a true retrofit. I'd love to do it because they look cool and the sharp cut-off looks great. But I've never had a problem seeing at night with the Bonneville's high beams, they're incredible and every person who rides with me at night comments on how good they perform. Probably the best headlights in any car I've ever driven. The headlights in my girlfriend's Cobalt are terrible.

[00Beast]

A lot of the "perception" of the HID's being better is the color. You see the color on the road and think they're "better" because it "seems" like they are going further out. In reality, it's not.

[sethjamesrimrodt]

I put my old hids in tonight.... I'm throwing them away tomorrow

[repinS]

A lot of the "perception" of the HID's being better is the color. You see the color on the road and think they're "better" because it "seems" like they are going further out. In reality, it's not.

Very true Ed, that's another common misconception to HID lighting.

Every factory HID low beam setup on the road is approximately 4300K. Definitely no more than 5000K. Period. The "blue" or "purple" effect that people see on high end cars is actually the COLOUR FLICKER of the projector as your eyes move above and below the cutoff line. Higher quality optics often create more dramatic flicker effects. The light output is still painfully ~4300K.

[Mad Myche]

A lot of the "perception" of the HID's being better is the color. You see the color on the road and think they're "better" because it "seems" like they are going further out. In reality, it's not.

BINGO!
There are 2 main reasons for this; being pitched towards blue in the color spectrum means that there will be a higher degree of refraction (aka The Dark Side of the Moon effect) and the other is that the human eye reacts differently to blue light. On public safety (aka police) vehicles, blue is the easiest to spot at night; even though there is only a fraction of the power output

[00Beast]

And Amber is the easiest to see in adverse weather conditions, which is why all modern emergency vehicles have at least one amber flashing light on either side of the vehicle. Which is why I think the "switchbacks" some people have is not only a bad idea, but dangerous...

[MattStrike]

And Amber is the easiest to see in adverse weather conditions, which is why all modern emergency vehicles have at least one amber flashing light on either side of the vehicle. Which is why I think the "switchbacks" some people have is not only a bad idea, but dangerous...

Not sure I follow that one. Turn signals on the front and side markers are amber to begin with?...

[00Beast]

Yeah, and the switchbacks turn white for "running" lights and go amber for blinkers. Look at nos4blood's pics.

[MattStrike]

Yeah, they only blink amber when you use the turn signal, and are white the rest of the time.

Not sure how this can be confused with an emergency vehicle light?

[nos4blood70]

I think what Ed means is that people with switchbacks are less visible in inclement weather cause they don't have a steady orange light going right Ed?

[00Beast]

I think what Ed means is that people with switchbacks are less visible in inclement weather cause they don't have a steady orange light going right Ed?

Precisely.

[MattStrike]

I can't honestly think of a time where I've noticed a tiny amber light before a headlamp, but I digress. Of course now I'm going to pay more attention to that.

[00Beast]

I'm referring more to vision from the side, etc.

[yourgrandma]

So youre saying the marker lights are providing you, the driver, with useable light with which you drive the car? Just trying to get this.

[00Beast]

No, I'm saying the amber light is important so others can see you, especially in inclement weather, especially when you're going through an intersection and they're approaching from the side.