HID/XENON Upgrade on Halogens (NOT LED) - anyone?

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lv2drive

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G4 lighting junkies!

having read plenty of threads about LED bulb upgrades... this is a NON-LED question.

interested if anyone on here has done an HID / XENON kit upgrade on the low-beam halogens, and if so, which one (morimoto? other? 35w?) how has it performed etc etc...

can't go the LED bulb route - for me the color temp & reflectivity too much for extended drives, and completely useless in snow or inclement weather in the northeast.. open to all non-LED options.

PS+ to add: anyone add NON-LED driving lights to their rig? (xenons, like the micro-de hella, or halogens?)

thanks in advance.
 
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Anthony DeVor

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No offense but hid is 10 year old technology Led is the only smart way to go. I can offer you good led brand options not hid sorry. To me hid sucks worse than halogen


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lv2drive

lv2drive

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thanks anthony, but not going with LED's this time.

it's a personal thing, call me old school - but i'm coming off of 20 years of night driving using only vehicles with xenons. its what my eyes can deal with for ultra-long night drives.

i remember a while back reading a post about one owner upgrading their halogens with an HID kit - just wasn't any details about which kit / how it worked out etc.

just curious if anyone has done any non-LED tweaks to their rig -
 

Anthony DeVor

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Yea no sorry I can’t help you. But I will do some research and get back to you with some good brands of hid


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Grover6

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I had an HID kit on my 2016. I got it from X-treme HID.com, with the 55w ballasts. It was there own kit. Easy install, pretty much plug an play. Just had to work out where to mount the ballasts. It worked really well for about a year, and then the igniter on the driver's side burnt out at the connector. For the cost I chose to try LED bulbs, and am still running them.

There may be better HID kits available. You can check out Headlight Revolution. They seems to have a large selection, and a vast youtube channel where they test different brands.

Having run both, I will say the HIDs were better than the LED bulbs, but the LEDs have proven to be longer lasting.

Hope this helps.
 
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lv2drive

lv2drive

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thanks grover6 - much appreciated for the feedback!
 

1111ExpyEL1111

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I have a G3 that has projector low beams. I read somewhere that you shouldn't use LEDs in projectors.

Anybody else ever hear this? Sorry to get slightly off topic!
 

Daniel Drew

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G4 lighting junkies!

having read plenty of threads about LED bulb upgrades... this is a NON-LED question.

interested if anyone on here has done an HID / XENON kit upgrade on the low-beam halogens, and if so, which one (morimoto? other? 35w?) how has it performed etc etc...

can't go the LED bulb route - for me the color temp & reflectivity too much for extended drives, and completely useless in snow or inclement weather in the northeast.. open to all non-LED options.

PS+ to add: anyone add NON-LED driving lights to their rig? (xenons, like the micro-de hella, or halogens?)

thanks in advance.

I went with the 55w morimoto on my 18 and they work great. Let me know if you have any other questions on it.
 
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lv2drive

lv2drive

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daniel -

thanks for the info - on your morimoto kit:

was it the 2.0 elite kit or the older style?

did you go with standalone canbus connection, or direct battery connection route?

did you need to use the add-on anti-flicker capacitor on your 2018?

1111expy: great question, not off topic at all - that very subject is no small part of the reason i'm leaning towards an HID kit or a ++halogen bulb upgrade on the projectors instead -

i'm sure i'll get flak from the LED people, as i'm sure some folks are super happy with their LED's... and we can all agree that the stock halogen "long life bulbs" are pathetic in every way, so anything is an upgrade to be honest... there's no argument there.

apologies about the essay but -

you are correct in what you've heard, the lighting guru's have recommended NOT to use LED bulbs in projector housing... according to the "deep tech" of the halogen projector design, all LED diodes are technically "too large" to maximize the insanely small focal point of the projector, and thus does not provide a "downroad hotspot" as good as a halogen style bulb that has a super small element / surface area for the projector to focus on... even with advances in LED technology in this area, unfortunately the diode size cannot be made smaller, and only makes for a great "wash" light - but not an optimal downroad hotspot.

most LED drivers may not even notice this due to how bright their new "6k color" bulbs are in general, but i've tried them for comparison and immediately noticed the lack of hotspot & downroad distance focal point - most notable on wet or adverse weather conditions. that's one of the reasons why i pulled them out & am avoiding them, personally. (the other reason i'm staying away from them is inflexible color temp - scientifically speaking, 4300k is optimal color frequency for the human eye in general & is superior to cut through precipitation & reduce "reflection". plus my eyes can't take the 6k blue for super long night drives.)
 
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