Lighting?

I love good lighting and creating an "environmental daylight effect" as much as the next guy. But I'm noticing more and more poor HID conversions that simply puke tons of light everywhere. I understand the bulbs aren't designed for typical stock housings. Then again I see lots of very nice new cars with HID that seem to have lights that are aimed seem to be aimed improperly. But these cars have super duper alignment systems, right?

My Miata has simple round Hella 7" H4s with 100/55w bulbs... They seem safe and illuminate an appropriate amount for nighttime speeds....I'm not tempted to overdrive the lights at night.

SWMBO drives a P38 Rover with a couple of extra Hella pencil beams with 100 watt bulbs. The factory driving lights are a broad pattern when in low beam. In high beam, the driving lights turn off, and the mains work like typical quad lights + the added Hellas. All said....it's more light than we've needed even on dark road winter road trips. But a Rover seems to look less like a mall queen with extra lights.

What do the rest of you folks use to see at night?

I am a city boy. I spend exactly 0.01% of my time in rural areas at night. In my situation my headlights exist for the sole purpose of helping other people see me better. 10 watt city lights would be more than adequate on the lit streets I drive.

I like a nice beam pattern with a sharp cutoff that eliminates glare for oncoming traffic. I use Hella or Cibie 7" H4's with 55/60's or 55/100's.

People with HID's in reflector housings or 100 watt low beams make me seethe with rage. Worse when they are in lifted trucks.

I ride a motorcycle with 6 volt lights, so not much.

yes and yes.. a proper beam pattern and a proper aim are required for HIDs.. something the local kid down the street with 100 ebay lights has no access too

If I could be king for a day, I'd bring back the old rules from the 60's 4- 5 3/4 round headlamps, or two 7 inchers. berkeley the stylists. Make the bloody things work properly first. I would allow H4/H1's though, and make poor aiming a capitol offense.

I have an XC90 with the HIDs, and they work...Ok, I guess, as long as its real dark out. At dusk, you get very little illumination for some reason. Once its fully dark, they illuminate an awful lot of road, just not very brightly. Trying to do too much with the reflector design, maybe.

The thing I really hate is the $125 bulbs that are supposed to last forever. Ha. And don't get me started on the asswipes who design a car so the front bumper has to be removed to access said burnt out $125 bulb.

The stock HIDs in my Mustang are excellent IMHO. They have a good pattern and are decently bright. I don't get people flashing their high beams or otherwise acting like there is a lot of glare.

My Alfa 164 uses 9004 light bulbs, which are universally derided as teh $uxX0rz. I have GE Nighthawk Platinum lights for it, which are the best 9004 bulbs out there. They are decent but not great. European-market 24-valve 164s used projector headlamps but they are $400-500 a set! If/when the Alfa is fixed I will keep an eye out for any deals on the projectors. In the meantime the GEs stay.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?246249-Best-headlights-for-9004-bulbs-95-Mazda-Mx6&p=3133352#post3133352

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?281316-Best-bulb-for-9004

The biggest problem I see with HID conversions is that they are often high beam only replacements for multi filament bulbs, BUT there are bixenon conversions now with a servo'd shade that covers the upper portion of the bulb when in low beam mode. available from DDM tuning iirc.

the strange thing was. I ran euro projectors on my old E36 with an HID conversion. The -only- people who ever flashed me were the really tall pickups and SUVs. Never -ever- had a car flash me.

I had them set up properly too.. and with a car parked 100 feet or so away, the light never made it above their headlight area, There was no stray upward light, so i never did figure out why the taller vehicles would flash me. I could only guess they were getting bounce back from the road?

I work in automotive lighting (and you can too!) and yes OEM cars that typically have HIDs (gas discharge bulbs that require ballasts) have leveling motor (servo type) that are controller by one of the modules on the vehicle or if it has swivel (left/right movement) it will have a computer for the headlamp to keep it level and steer as you turn.

high beams are typically bulb but the bi-function is becoming more popular which works similar to what carbon'd explained above except the shade is operated by a solenoid typically, not a servo.

the elipsoid lens gets light from the bulb that projects it on the road, the shade covers part of the light between the bulb and that lens, hence why you have such a sharp cut off line on those whereas bulbs are kinda blurry cut off in comparison

Whats wrong with the basic $10 halogen bulb? Now we have light module that cost $1000 are run by computers and have moving parts. Now wonder I can't afford a new car.....

I think I've got Silverstar lights. Good for city use, but plenty bright when the high-beams are on. I've got 100w lights when I need them.

soon HIDs will be a thing of the past as LEDs get cheaper and cheaper. We are really starting to use them in theatre as they begin to replace the venerable PAR can and now the leko

In reply to mad_machine:

For us, HIDs are a thing of the past. :) 2013-2016 vehicles are having high grade designed as LED instead of xenon. Hell the 2014 corolla uses an HID low beam and thats a standard feature.

LED headlamps require large heat sinks to dissipate the heat and require a driver module (like HID needs ballasts) but they require far less electrical power and you have more freedom for styling/design because you can package them in smaller areas so you have more underhood room.

I'm a lighting whore....

The driving lamps are vintage Hella DE2000, they were available in the early 1980s. Eventually this light design led to the BMW projector lamps of the mid/late 80s. These are equipped with 100 watt H1 bulbs...

The photo above shows the sealed beams... but I've recently acquired a set of Cibie BOBI/"Z" Beams. these will be equipped with 90/55 H4 bulbs

fidelity101 wrote: In reply to mad_machine: For us, HIDs are a thing of the past. :) 2013-2016 vehicles are having high grade designed as LED instead of xenon. Hell the 2014 corolla uses an HID low beam and thats a standard feature. LED headlamps require large heat sinks to dissipate the heat and require a driver module (like HID needs ballasts) but they require far less electrical power and you have more freedom for styling/design because you can package them in smaller areas so you have more underhood room.

yes, it is all cool stuff. I have a pair of LED headlights I built for my bicycle. Low beam, I can see quite some distance, kick on the spot and I can get cars to flash me in annoyance

In reply to mad_machine:

I'm working on 'retrofitting' my rx7 with LED headlamps, but very steathily...

fidelity101 wrote: I work in automotive lighting (and you can too!) and yes OEM cars that typically have HIDs (gas discharge bulbs that require ballasts) have leveling motor (servo type) that are controller by one of the modules on the vehicle or if it has swivel (left/right movement) it will have a computer for the headlamp to keep it level and steer as you turn. high beams are typically bulb but the bi-function is becoming more popular which works similar to what carbon'd explained above except the shade is operated by a solenoid typically, not a servo. the elipsoid lens gets light from the bulb that projects it on the road, the shade covers part of the light between the bulb and that lens, hence why you have such a sharp cut off line on those whereas bulbs are kinda blurry cut off in comparison

The ones I was talking about may very well be solenoid actuated as well, I was kind of using "servo" as a generic term.

The only thing that sucks about LEDs is that they don't look right on retro builds, they're too futurey looking. Otherwise they rock, killer output, low draw, compact.