He has different kits also available now. The cheaper kits are the regular old style ballasts, but the slim DDM kits he sells are still the same as they were before. I just got my latest set via Fedex, and it's the same Apexcone kit I got before. I got the 55W kit for $60. It's also really easy to retrofit it in our cars. I also got the 35W kit in yellow for the fogs. I'm excited to install them and see how they look. It's one of the best mods you can do, IMO.
You need to remove the foglights at bare minimum. The fact that you got HID fogs shows you have no idea how foglights work. They are simply too bright (fogs emit a wide, well disbursed beam as light reflects and refracts in water droplets). They would be the same as running with your hi-beams on, which will reduce both your own and other drivers' vision in bad weather, and there is no satisfactory cut-off on them, so even in good weather your are blinding people in front of you. There is a car near me with 55w 3,000k HIDs in his fogs near me and if you are oncoming within 1/2 a mile of him you simple can't see anything. Last time I turned my 100w driving lights on him, but even then I still think I got the bad end of the stick.
Ok cool i will give them a call and order the stuff over the phone to make sure i get everything i need. Just doubtful on the price because when i worked for a Honda dealer as a service advisor i had a Acura come in that had factory HID's and it needed a bulb. Last i remember the parts guy told me it would cost the customer $700 just for the bulb, this was roughly 3-4 years ago. I guess the market has changed alot in that time frame.
HID bulbs cost(ed) nowhere near $700. Quality ones cost anywhere from $30-80 apiece depending on what you're getting. An entire HID retrofit (optics, bulbs, ballasts, and harness) can be done for as little as $300 in our cars.
Ok cool i will give them a call and order the stuff over the phone to make sure i get everything i need. Just doubtful on the price because when i worked for a Honda dealer as a service advisor i had a Acura come in that had factory HID's and it needed a bulb. Last i remember the parts guy told me it would cost the customer $700 just for the bulb, this was roughly 3-4 years ago. I guess the market has changed alot in that time frame.
You need to remove the foglights at bare minimum. The fact that you got HID fogs shows you have no idea how foglights work. They are simply too bright (fogs emit a wide, well disbursed beam as light reflects and refracts in water droplets). They would be the same as running with your hi-beams on, which will reduce both your own and other drivers' vision in bad weather, and there is no satisfactory cut-off on them, so even in good weather your are blinding people in front of you. There is a car near me with 55w 3,000k HIDs in his fogs near me and if you are oncoming within 1/2 a mile of him you simple can't see anything. Last time I turned my 100w driving lights on him, but even then I still think I got the bad end of the stick.
I don't mean to be argumentative, but it's largely about aiming the lights. You don't turn on your high beams in fog because the light shines up and just reflects back at you. If your lights are also installed improperly, and aimed properly, you won't be blinding other drivers. The yellow color of fog lights, vs. driving lights, will also penetrate the fog as it's not as strenuous on your own human eyes as the white in inclement weather. The placement of the lights in the car (well below your line of sight) also makes fog lights ideal at any brightness for fog/snow, but not helpful for completely wet roads as they will just reflect off the road and blind others. It's all about using them for the proper conditions. I don't think anyone on this forum appreciates the tone/verbiage used in your responses to either bungalobenny or me.
Ok cool i will give them a call and order the stuff over the phone to make sure i get everything i need. Just doubtful on the price because when i worked for a Honda dealer as a service advisor i had a Acura come in that had factory HID's and it needed a bulb. Last i remember the parts guy told me it would cost the customer $700 just for the bulb, this was roughly 3-4 years ago. I guess the market has changed alot in that time frame.
The market has changed a little bit, but dealers still charge much more for factory HIDs. You almost always run a bigger risk getting something in the aftermarket, but that risk for less expensive parts is lessened with the lifetime warranty SharpHID offers. Please do make sure when you retrofit your car to aim your lights so you don't cause a driving hazard to other drivers. Also make sure that the HID bulb is correctly placed in the housing, or the beam will disperse incorrectly and blind other people without giving you the benefit of more light.
I don't mean to be argumentative, but it's largely about aiming the lights. You don't turn on your high beams in fog because the light shines up and just reflects back at you. If your lights are also installed improperly, and aimed properly, you won't be blinding other drivers. The yellow color of fog lights, vs. driving lights, will also penetrate the fog as it's not as strenuous on your own human eyes as the white in inclement weather. The placement of the lights in the car (well below your line of sight) also makes fog lights ideal at any brightness for fog/snow, but not helpful for completely wet roads as they will just reflect off the road and blind others. It's all about using them for the proper conditions. I don't think anyone on this forum appreciates the tone/verbiage used in your responses to either bungalobenny or me.
I don't think you understand the concept of glare. Just because the main aiming point is below the line of sight it doesn't mean you won't be throwing light in others' faces. That and the fact that light does not travel in a straight, single direction in situations like heavy fog. Your explanation works in the case of halogens, but when you install HID bulbs, which the optics weren't designed for, then a lot of that gets tossed out of the window.
No, they won't. Those are still halogen optics. And they are bad ones at that. I've previously dissected them with pictures but at the moment don't feel like looking them up. They use narrow beam optics (bad for low beams), have an extremely awkward cutoff, don't produce even light distribution (hit and cold spots), and produce glare with HIDs. As I previously stated, retrofits and STI headlamps are the only options you have.
And no offense, but those are not the most aesthetically pleasing option you could have selected. The people that tend to buy things like those tend to...well....
Uhh YOUR wrong, in order to use HIDs all one would need is this DDM Slim HID Kits (35w & 55w) but in order for them to function to their full capability you would then need to retrofit proper optics IE 04-05 STi Headlamps
WTF No offense, but you're arguing with someone with a high level of understanding in the lighting department. The fact that they will physically fit has nothing to do with the fact that they cannot and should not be installed without the proper optics. My suggested is to discontinue advising others to use HID kits. You're doing a great disservice.
it's the shaping of the mirrors to properly focus the light beam, the HID bulbs will fit into and work in your lamp, but there will just be increased glare and they won't have the proper cutoff
I have a bug eye when I bought it it had morrette heads and tails shortly after I tried a few aftermarket set ups but eventually went back to stalk lights then I bought a HID kit, I will admit the stock headlights are not the best for HID's like it was said before they don't focus the light properly and had almost no cut off. I was constantly getting flashed by oncoming traffic. so I went back to the morrette's which are projectors they are amazing. I did get a huge benefit with my stock headlights but at a cost to other drivers and those benefits were realized ten fold once I put in the morrettes. You can buy a cheap set of projectors on ebay that would work fine but if you buy an HID kit and you buy those headlamps you'll need to buy H7 bulbs instead. If your curious as to how I know this I bought them haha.
I used to have HIDs in my old Morettes. The results are absolutely terrible because they bring out their horrid optic designs. You have ECE regulations to thank for that. And you still have issues with the fact that the Valeo optics in those lights still can't focus HIDs correctly because they were not designed for them. In other words, you can't HIDs in Morettes either.
huh mine look great they don't blind on coming drivers and there are no hot and cold spots, the cut off is nice. all the problems I had with my stock headlights went away when I put the morrettes on.
I mean no disrespect in any way but please pay attention to the dates on these threads. This is the second thread I have seen you post in that is over a year old.
I don't think you comprehend the idea of stare. Just as the main directing fact is under the line of sight it doesn't mean you won't be throwing light in others' faces. That and the fact that light do not travel in a conventional, single direction in situations like heavy fog. Your explanation works in the case of halogens, but when you install HID bulbs, which the optics weren't designed for, then a lot of that gets tossed out of the window.
Hey man, it says URL not found when I click the link?!
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