Im with you on this why this causes so much concern? love my hids got pulled in petrol station by police for my german plates and they starred right at my hids!
2 mots at audi no problem with them
each to there own
Awful dipped beam on my car. 2000 (Facelift lights) A4 TDi SE.
- Thread starter impster
- Start date
Im with you on this why this causes so much concern? love my hids got pulled in petrol station by police for my german plates and they starred right at my hids!
2 mots at audi no problem with them
each to there own
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2008
- Messages
- 18,708
- Reaction score
- 909
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland
What its saying about glare etc is my problem.
I've never been infront of a retrofitted HID car yet where i've thaught "thats a good install". They're always dazzling. The fact the OE HID's require the auto levelling and washer jets is precisely because of the glare issue, so running them without, plus running them in projectors with optics designed for completely different bulbs is entirely irresponsible in my view.
The fact that you can see better is irrelevant, when no-one else can. Thats no different to saying "i may as well drive around on Main Beam, as i'm sick of peoples HID's dazzling me"
A few people have already mentioned in this thread that even OE HID installs can be glarey, with all the added features to reduce the glare, yet claim their bodged up HID install thats missing all of them is perfect...
I've never been infront of a retrofitted HID car yet where i've thaught "thats a good install". They're always dazzling. The fact the OE HID's require the auto levelling and washer jets is precisely because of the glare issue, so running them without, plus running them in projectors with optics designed for completely different bulbs is entirely irresponsible in my view.
The fact that you can see better is irrelevant, when no-one else can. Thats no different to saying "i may as well drive around on Main Beam, as i'm sick of peoples HID's dazzling me"
A few people have already mentioned in this thread that even OE HID installs can be glarey, with all the added features to reduce the glare, yet claim their bodged up HID install thats missing all of them is perfect...
Thats not what im getting at. Other cars lights are good in the first place and the a4 ones were utter rubbish before,fact! I was sick of driving about having to guess where the side of the road is at times and risking hitting anything you cant see in time or anything. I would say my lights look standard fit as i have working washer jets and they are set low enough not to blind people. If i have a heavy load in the back or anything i just need to turn the little dial on the dash to bring them down.
thats because you haven't seen mine! ; )
granted some are crap, chavved up citroen saxos look crap and blind people, but it is not the same as saying "I've never seen a good install that has a proper beam pattern....so they can't exist or work properly".
mine have a perfect twin step in the beam, just like the stock ones.
the OEM headlight projector lens in the OEM HID unit are identical to the facelift headlight unit lens.
the only thing that differ is the loom, the fitting at the back of the lens to take an H7 and the fittings for self levelling. I know this as I bought a set of RS4 HID but one balast was blown so they never got fitted.
no one is saying drop a HID kit in some halogen glass non ellipsoid headlights. thats where the difference is.
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2008
- Messages
- 18,708
- Reaction score
- 909
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland
The actual lens geometry is different. The above link goes into it in great detail.
The lens is designed with the shape of the burner in mind, and the burners are completely different shape.
The plastic housing will be identical sure, but the actual projector lens is not the same. I'm sure if you pull your spare RS4 housing apart an analyse the lens you'll find that out. Bear in mind the geometry of these lenses is so precise, that even the Depo aftermarket units, which are insurance approved, will fail some of the more stringient beam pattern tests. Its not something your going to be able to notice with a bit of a squint thru the hole in the back of the light unit.
JCB: if you had actually read the link i posted, the guy actually mentions the beam cutoff line in projectors like ours giving the appearance of a "perfect" beam, when infact its not the case.
If you had RS4 HID's then you should have picked up an aftermarket ballast and installed them using the correct parts.
Your both conveniently ignoring the fact that the entire reason load levelling and washers are required by law is because HID's are glarey, and you dont have them fitted, meaning that not only is your car most likely producing more glare than a halogen car, but also more than an OE HID'd car, due to the missing components and the wrong lens fitted.
Its also perfectly fine to use them in reflector headlamps, as long as theyre designed for it. Vectra B's and facelift Corsa-C's have a HID option from the factory, both utilising normal open reflector headlamps.
The lens is designed with the shape of the burner in mind, and the burners are completely different shape.
The plastic housing will be identical sure, but the actual projector lens is not the same. I'm sure if you pull your spare RS4 housing apart an analyse the lens you'll find that out. Bear in mind the geometry of these lenses is so precise, that even the Depo aftermarket units, which are insurance approved, will fail some of the more stringient beam pattern tests. Its not something your going to be able to notice with a bit of a squint thru the hole in the back of the light unit.
JCB: if you had actually read the link i posted, the guy actually mentions the beam cutoff line in projectors like ours giving the appearance of a "perfect" beam, when infact its not the case.
If you had RS4 HID's then you should have picked up an aftermarket ballast and installed them using the correct parts.
Your both conveniently ignoring the fact that the entire reason load levelling and washers are required by law is because HID's are glarey, and you dont have them fitted, meaning that not only is your car most likely producing more glare than a halogen car, but also more than an OE HID'd car, due to the missing components and the wrong lens fitted.
Its also perfectly fine to use them in reflector headlamps, as long as theyre designed for it. Vectra B's and facelift Corsa-C's have a HID option from the factory, both utilising normal open reflector headlamps.
