HID's in US ellipsoids?

[stamar]

ok gotcha.

I wasnt thinking about doing it anyway but now its off the table.

[george graves]

Well, I guess in 20 years all new BMW with HIDs will have to have their HIDs removed. :/

I don't think the hazing of the reflector (pics? - it's not something I've noticed) is an issue at all. I don't follow your argument. HID are fine. The housing may not have been "made" for HID bulbs, but light is light. There's no magic happening here.

If you want to make an argument about focus, or bulb placement I might listen....but hazing and "not DESIGNED" for hids is a bit odd. And the beam pattern proves how well HIDs work.

That being said - Is there something *better* then stock housing? Sure - there always is....and I love the work you were doing on your headlights - top notch work.

[stamar]

ya Im not doing that either. Coloring lines and carving with a dremel tool.

[bmwman91]

Well, I guess in 20 years all new BMW with HIDs will have to have their HIDs removed. :/

I don't think the hazing of the reflector (pics? - it's not something I've noticed) is an issue at all. I don't follow your argument. HID are fine. The housing may not have been "made" for HID bulbs, but light is light. There's no magic happening here.

If you want to make an argument about focus, or bulb placement I might listen....but hazing and "not DESIGNED" for hids is a bit odd. And the beam pattern proves how well HIDs work.

That being said - Is there something *better* then stock housing? Sure - there always is....and I love the work you were doing on your headlights - top notch work.

If you take another look through my other thread with the FX-R retrofit, I had some pics of the used BMW reflector dishes. They were super tarnished & hazed, when they should look like perfect mirrors. Others on Bimmerforums have also noted this over the years. One guy worked at a dealer and somehow got new reflector dish parts. It made a 100% increase in light output with the halogen bulbs.

The issue with HID bulbs in halogen housings has to do with the shape & position of a halogen bulb filament versus the shape and position of a Xenon arc in HID bulbs. The former is generally laid horizontally, perpendicular to the bulb's axis. The latter is parallel & centered along the bulb's axis. A decent re-based HID bulb will at least have the arc position grossly align with where the halogen filament was since that is absolutely crucial to getting the light to properly reflect & focus through the lens.

We are very lucky that the E30 projector lights are "good enough" as it is to use HID bulbs & not blind everyone. All the other cars with plain old reflector dishes that use HIDs are a much bigger problem since those lights do not do well with the different arc shape, and we all know how badly they blind everyone (you know, the full housing is lit up with annoyingly bright bluish light).

I do run 4300K HID bulbs in my Euro ellipsoid housings. From what I can tell, US ellip housings actually put out more light with HIDs because of their softer cutoff. I would switch to that, but I am already too heavily invested into my FX-R swap lol.

Anyway, the point is that it is OK to use HIDs (but still not LEGAL) in E30 ellipsoid housings since it isn't posing a danger to anyone else, with one MAJOR caveat: make sure your lights are properly aimed! You would also be very wise to just use 35W ballasts since 55W ones really do blind other drivers, even with properly aimed lights. And finally, use 4300K lights since they put out the most light that is usable by the human eye.

Yes, the human eye is more SENSITIVE to BLUE light, but our eyes also have a hard time focusing on and tracking moving objects in blue light...which should make it pretty obvious why no OEM headlight is blue! In the end, you won't be able to drive safely with blue headlights because of this. 4300K bulbs put out white light on the road, with maybe a slight twinge of yellow, and that is BEST FOR THE HUMAN EYE. Now, looking at the front of the car, it will have the obvious white-blue look of HID lights, so for those that want to look cool to other drivers, yes 4300K bulbs will make it obvious that you have HIDs installed. You don't need 6000K bulbs to do that.

Much of this information can be found in long, detailed write-ups over on the forums at http://www.hidplanet.com.

[lylefk]

This thread got r3v'ed quick...

Thought I'd chime in. I have the DDM 55 watt kit in my vert with euro smileys. Great light output (unbelieveable improvement over stock sealed beam), and zero worry of blinding others. The cut off is pronounced and easily adjusted so as not to be interfering with other people. I've had them in the car for...what...3? 4 years? I've never had a single person flip their high beams or anything of the sort at me. Also, the bulbs have been flawless. Temps match, etc. I've never had a single problem with the kit.