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HID's for Old Subies?


beataru
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Hey im a sucker for HID's (for those old folk the the blue xenon lights you see on richcars" I know there expensive and all but does anyone know if you can fit them from a newer subie onto an old subie like my Gl-10. If checked out all of the leading HID sites and they say NAY but cmon i know theres someone in here thats tried it before! just imagine..... highbeam and low beam thats worth more than your car!!....

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HID bulbs come in pertty much every type of plug, so you won't need to cut apart the headlight to make a bulb fit, unless you really want to. the other piece you have to worry about is the ballast. some companies have plug n' play ballasts that allow you to keep your factory wiring, but i'm not sure on our cars with the lack of aftermarket support.

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lately, i've been seeing ballasts with built-in ignighters. HID kits are expensive tho. i was talking to my brother (he's off at college) and he has a friend over there who just wired in more relays for the headlights, and now he uses a more powerful bulb. he wired in 2 more relays, cost him 20 bucks for everything. just a thought.

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there's a guy here in MN who put HID's from a BMW into his GC8. took quite a bit of custom fabricating, but it worked.

 

sooo....anything is possible. but it's hardly going to be plug and play.

 

you can, however, get sylvania silverstar bulbs. they use a bluish tint on the bulbs, and look like HIDs, and actually make it way easier to see. I have a set on every car I have (and my girlfriends). they sell them at many auto parts stores, and even Target. for only about $30 for a pair.

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well HID's also use way lower voltage sooo i am interested in those sylvania bulbs.. do you know how much voltage they are?

 

same as you're regular 9004 bulb. slightly lower wattage than you'd expect. they're not HIDs, they're tinted halogen bulbs. nothing too fancy. but they're just bulbs, there's no wiring/cutting/fabricating involved.

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I hope I can help educate. Please don't take this in a negative way.

 

 

'HID' bulbs with the blue tint REDUCE the output of useable light. Specifically the lumens produced. Furthermore, the light is filtered to be in the blue spectrum of light. This is horrible for night vision.

Please don't install a HID conversion/retrofit kit into the existing headlights! The light scatter is tremendous. The glare produced by this scattering of lights is blinding to other drivers on the road. A well focused HID is amazing.

Retrofitting projectors is by far the best way I have seen for the best results. If you can, get the Bi-Xenon projectors. They have a moveable cutoff shield so that you have low and high beam headlights. The lens has to be clear (i.e. no fluting to refract the light)

Hope that helps! embeer.gif

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^^ all true.

 

with that said, I'd like to clarify about the silverstars. they're not just tinted bulbs, they do burn hotter (a touch more likely to burn out....unfortunately), and most definately do put out more light than a regular Halogen of much higher wattage (I back-to-back tested it! DEFINATELY better!)

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Hehe. If you guys are interested.. I've actually started importing HID kits. I'd like to get information on the headlight bulb sizes on the subies...

 

If you guys want... drop me an email of your bulb size and I can check on the price of the kit. Since I usually bring them in in group buys.. I can get them to those interested for a pretty decent price... and the bulbs are sized for the housing... instead of retro-fitting other oem units into the housing. If you have a sealed beam incandescent headlight.. I would recommend switching to like a H4-style housing. It makes installing the HID's much easier and also helps with lighting.

 

The bi-xenons are a little bit more than the regular ones... $230 for the regular and then $320 for the bi-xenons. Honestly the non-dual beams ones work fine enough for me.

 

They work good off-road too. :)

 

Drop me a line on bulb size if you guys are interested or have any questions.

 

eugene@manchesterhid.co.uk

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^^ all true.

 

with that said, I'd like to clarify about the silverstars. they're not just tinted bulbs, they do burn hotter (a touch more likely to burn out....unfortunately), and most definately do put out more light than a regular Halogen of much higher wattage (I back-to-back tested it! DEFINATELY better!)

The equipment to actually measure whether the bulbs are better is very rare and very expensive. With that said you can cannot objectively say they are better. If you LIKE them, then go for it. But anyone that really knows about lights (ex: beyond their own personal experience) will tell you that blue bulbs are not better, despite what our brains tell us otherwise. :cool:

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The equipment to actually measure whether the bulbs are better is very rare and very expensive. With that said you can cannot objectively say they are better. If you LIKE them, then go for it. But anyone that really knows about lights (ex: beyond their own personal experience) will tell you that blue bulbs are not better, despite what our brains tell us otherwise. :cool:

 

my equipment was point the car at some trees, turn on with regular 9004s. then swap to silverstars. WAY more detail. same thing in my girlfriend's escort. HUGE noticable difference, no expensive equipment needed.

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im not an expert and rely mainly on my eyes but I feel that yellow light is generally eaier to see and use for lights on cars. White light may appear brighter but (to me at least) all it does is increase contrast between light areas and dark. Also silverstars and others like it in general feel like they cast alot more shadows compared to a softer "yellow" light. I think runnin some sylvania halogen xtra bulbs and a decent pair of hella driving lights is what is needed. My plan is to run 2 Hella Rallye 4000 compact halogens for driving with paired halogen xtra bulbs for the stock lights and some hella 550 Amber fogs. I just need to get the body kit first and RX grill :banghead:

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  • 3 weeks later...
what do you do for work??? you a one of the many europe manufacturer techs??? or Japanese tech??? or a tire guy whose really smart at taking things?? :banana: thatll be me soon enough!
i do heavy collision bodywork.the hid units are from broken headlite assemblies.i strip them down to just the igniter pack and bulb socket.from there, they can be retrofitted to almost anything.cut a hole in the back of whatever headlite housing you choose,epoxy bond the bulb socket area from the hid assembly.find a suitable place to mount the igniter pack-and thats about it.KEEP IN MIND you will loose your hi beam.if you have fog lites it shouldn't be a problem.
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It's really very simple - our eyes work best in the spectrum of the sun, which is a white light, but somewhat towards yellow as well. Blue lights look cool, but are definately not better of the human eye.

 

The silverstar's are not all that blue - they have a slight blue tint on the bulb surface, but the light itself is more white. They aren't the rice-tint blue you see on the hondar's.

 

GD

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