Write-Up: HID Conversion

So looking around online I have several ideas and interesting thoughts regarding lights on the Riv. I am planning to order some high Lumen rated LEDs for the interior soon and I'll post pictures when they're installed - they're not terribly expensive so I'll give them a shot.

Now while searching I found LED DRLs. Not much interest to me since I have no DRLs, but I saw on an Accord forum where someone had used some PIAA Tera 6k LEDs as DRLs and they looked cool but as DRLs they don't need to do much of nothing I suppose. Do you all think there are any LEDs or brighter bulbs you could use in the cornering lights?

I have also discovered something I have never heard of before - HIRs. These are supposed to be extremely bright bulbs similar to HIDs but require no special wiring to use and work with nearly all 9005/9006 cars. They're supposedly factory equipment on the Viper, BMW Z8, Infinity I30, Chevy Avalanche and the Nissan Maxima. Here's the site that sells them:
http://hirheadlights.com/

And here's what they look like:


The only thing I'm iffy on - they require some trimming of the bulbs (I think the plastic part) to make them fit identical to an OEM bulb). I was thinking of trying these out as high beams. Here's the bit on trimming them. They're brighter than standard bulbs without needing anything special so they seem well suited as brights.

Of course I'm still considering HIDs for the low beams, but I heard someone else bashing them saying you need special headlamp enclosures for them to work right. I know people here have done it - have you guys noticed any diffusion of the headlight pattern from using HIDs vs the standard bulbs? I also saw this which is discouraging and noticable even in the video as a huge difference. Has anyone else with the HID kits noticed this problem of people flashing the brights at you when driving by?


That said, has anyone ever managed to do a projector beam conversion? Here is one video that seems to explain how to make an HID headlamp assembly but in the process also a projector beam:


Where do you get a projector assembly to do it custom? I mean check this out - a custom Grand Am with projectors. They don't make them for that so how would someone make one for a Riv? Perhaps ambitious of me to say so but I might go ahead and do it and maybe make a write up depending on the cost. One problem I'm seeing though - what do you do about our lens? It has all those little ridges and stuff in the outer lens - how would you make it so it is simply a clear piece of plastic that fits over the headlight?

I'm not sure what they're categorized as, so can someone tell me the number type the cornering light bulbs are? I don't know what types of bulbs to look at to replace them with something brighter. One other lighting mod I'm thinking about, I want to get a strip of flexible LEDs 39" long that are white and mount them underneath the car right near the door. The ones I'm looking at are waterproof as well. My ideal setup would be to have these lights tucked away so you can't really see them and they will come on with the interior lights so that when you hit unlock they light up the ground next to the door but also they would come on if I turned the interior lights on via the dimmer. I think this would have a cool effect similar to paddle lights without looking tacky or ricey like neon lights would be. They sell tiny plastic mounts that you can screw in and I'd use a short screw to attach it on each side, although I might use some other adhesive or something - I'm just not sure how much I trust double sided tape to hold it up over time, but I know there are some heavy duty versions that might be suitable since no one will see them.

Any other ideas anyone would care to share or things you've done to improve the lightning of the car in someway (Interior or exterior)?

Cool Beans

I will say that I notice and HATE aftermarket, unaimed HIDs, and I usually flash my high beams at them oncoming because they are obnoxious and blinding. A proper HID will trim the upper portion of the light away, so it's not blinding to oncoming traffic. Just pull up in front of a wall in a car with Factory HIDs and compare the light pattern to that of an aftermarket conversion, which just has a big blinding globe of light. Nice for the driver, bad for everyone else.

Otherwise, go ahead and try a few things out. I'm all in favor of finding a better lighting solution!

There's definitely a lot of diffusion with mine, but I aim my headlights as properly as I can. Turtleman said that there was a certain bulb, like the H2S or H2D I forget, it has a ceramic coating on the tip to 'shorten' the projecting light and make it similar in length to a regular halogen light. Worth looking into as well, although they're a bit more expensive and hard to find.


Also, Shintsu, I believe one method was to get a headlamp assembly from a 1st gen CTS and cut the projecter bulbs and housings out of that...there's a video somewhere.

deekster_caddy wrote:

I will say that I notice and HATE aftermarket, unaimed HIDs!

I would say the same thing about unaimed or missinstalled halogen lights. I can't even tell you how many people I see driving around with one normal light and then the other light is obviously put in wrong because the beam is shooting up instead of at the road, but they either don't notice it or don't know how to fix it. The HID's that blind me the most are the ones in some of the factory equipped cars such as the Acura TL which apparently runs the HID's and the highbeams on at the same time a lot of hte time. And in general some of the auto-leveling systems just throw the headlights at you like a rave club, which is much worse to me.

Reflector lenses retrofitted with HID's is sometimes hit or miss, there. Some cars give you enough adjustability to make HID's behave enough and some lense designs are just better suited than others. I've never been flashed in the riv with HID's and I didn't adjust it. I would get flashed in my 00 eclipse though sometimes.

Ilan, it's called a D2R bulb (the "R" indicates reflector lense). That is a kind of universal part number that the OEM for HID systems use. I still don't know for sure if you can get a D2R lamp that fits a 9006/9005 socket.

Well i bought some used HIDs today only to get home to find out i was scammed. neither the ballasts or bulbs worked. Im short on money now but i feel the need for HIDs, im the only one in my "group" without them. Is there anybody that has working HIDs that would maybe cut me a deal, or would trade for them or something? i dont have money for new ones ATM.

texasfan010 wrote:

Well i bought some used HIDs today only to get home to find out i was scammed. neither the ballasts or bulbs worked. Im short on money now but i feel the need for HIDs, im the only one in my "group" without them. Is there anybody that has working HIDs that would maybe cut me a deal, or would trade for them or something? i dont have money for new ones ATM.

double check..... mine were messed up
turned out i hooked them up wrong

well i tried pretty much every possible solution, the guy said he would try to hook them up for me, and if they still dont work he would give me my money back. hes actually a decent guy. i thought he purposely ripped me off

texasfan010 wrote:

Im short on money now but i feel the need for HIDs, im the only one in my "group" without them. i dont have money for new ones ATM.

Now that's some serious peer pressure. Spending money you don't have on something you don't need. Good Luck with hooking them up. Hope everything works out.

Be sure to read my write-up carefully. The part that the factory harness plugs into is reversed on the poles. You gotta flip it over and connect it that way. The tabs won't lock, they'll be on opposite sides, but mine haven't budged at all since installing them.

IBx1 wrote:

Be sure to read my write-up carefully. The part that the factory harness plugs into is reversed on the poles. You gotta flip it over and connect it that way. The tabs won't lock, they'll be on opposite sides, but mine haven't budged at all since installing them.

I believe that is only on one side, the passenger side if I recall correctly.

Both for mine.

alright thanks guys i will try that

Obviously, any aftermarket mod isn't going to behave like stock. I'd like to see a shorter HID 'bulb' that would protrude the same length as a halogen, perhaps that would help fix some of the glare. I've been very lucky so far and my conversion has very little glare without me having to adjust the light aim down.


Personally I don't think there's any difference between the $100 and $500 kits besides pricing and brand names. Sure the more expensive one has a warranty and is more reliable, but for every one of the 4 Chinese ballasts I've had burn out, I got a free one for the cost of mailing the broken one to California. About $20 of shipping added to the $117 or so I paid, I'm still well below $500 and I get excellent, no-questions-asked service. Make sure the people you buy from are good in the customer service department and you should be fine.

Well, the good ballasts are made by Phillips (Ironic since their home electronics are subpar). The ballasts like those are what are used on cars that are factory equipped with HIDs. The $500 kits include projector housings as well as the quality ballasts. If there's one thing not to be trusted, it's Chinese circuitry and electronics. Consider if you will a lot of home audio equipment is made in China - the low end stuff. I have several pieces which are made in Japan, all the nicer models (and vintage) are made in Japan. I mean think how well something made in China in a sweatshop is compared to something that was carefully constructed in Japan. Given Japan's small size as a country, they don't have near the factory population like China does so they can't just toss people in a factory and pay them a dime a day or whatever. You have much lower chances of getting something just slapped together too quick since Chinese factories are all about speed and mass numbers than making high quality products.

Oh, I thought you meant just the HID bulbs and ballasts, not the projector housings and stuff too! I agree about the quality, believe me I prefer non-Chinese stuff, but for the price it works out favorably. If anything goes wrong, I can swap the halogens back in place in about 10 minutes.

I LOVE my HID's wouldn't trade em' for stock ever

What's more important? Looking cool or actually lighting the road up better? Poor dispersion patterns put out by HID bulbs in the incorrect housings are not as effective as standard halogens. If you're interested in it only for looking cool then go get some blue painted bulbs. Doing stuff like this for looks only (And by looks I mean the looks of your car over the function) is really ricey. Like: