What would be the best brand of headlight bulb to give me the HID look? Iknow better than to use higher wattage bulbs and i have had blue bulbs but now i want the HID look that the newer bettles and tiburons have any opinions?

 

well you have BMW like my friends BMW in my sig in the upper right corner. He had these PIAA's Super Plazma Blue. They looked good but they kept on blowing out and they were pretty expensive then I bought him the HID plus.

 

what ever. HID "bulbs" suck

 

what kind of bulbs do you have?

 

...is one you will no achieve. E36 BMW lamps are etched glass reflectors, while Beetles, A4s and the Tiburon have projector headlamps. At some angles, projector lenses split the white light into it's components, blue being on of them. That's why they appear to look like HIDs.

 

i have real HID

 

check out these. I don't like purple I like blue.

http://forum.dtmpower.net/showthread.php?threadid=40787

 

are yours OEM? or are they rebased wanna-be HIDs?

 

what do you mean rebased wanna be HID?

they are real hid.. none of this HID halogen "bulbs"

 

are your bulbs running in a OEM projector set up, or a OEM reflector set up or are they rebased so they plug in to "900X" fitments?

 

Reflectors. You mean in back or the glass that covers the whole assembly. Most of the E36 bmw light assemblies I've seen are clear plastic ala later 4-gens. I don't see a beam pattern problem if some real hids were swapped in for the lowbeam side of the bmw lights

 

The beam pattern problem comes from the location of the focal point on the acutal xenon bulb. Rebased HID bulbs help aleviate the problem, but do not correct it. The only way to have a correct HID system is to use a OEM projector with its OEM bulb.

 

ie.. hids in their own seperate housings? I see.

 

when u go HID on a 9004 beam pattern is non existent.

only non projector set up with decent beam pattern would be a H4 option where you can mount a external shield/reflector to reflect the light correctly on the road.

 

What about the 9005/6 on the bmws w/ clear plastic?

 

the light output and pattern is okay, but nothing compared to an oem set up. in addition, the patter nand output are all dependant on the quality of the rebased bulb (all rebased bulbs come from a d2s or d2r bulb)

 

how are the light output and pattern ok?

ive already compared my HID to 2k2 maxima's, 2k2 BMW's, and supra MK4 with Aftermarket HID. And mine setup has a : wider view, is brighter, goes farther, and it doesnt blind on coming traffic. (as far as i know)

 

Mykizism HID when turned on is a super white, so thier is brighter and has a farther reach then my 2002 max w/ HID. So his HID are better then any OEM i've seen.

 

It is true that they have a clear plastic outer lens, but if you look closely, inside, for the 9006/9005 lamps, there are etched glass lenses, one for each element. An etched glass lens means that the reflector is perfectly smooth. For lamps like those on the 4th Gen, there are no etchings on the lens, but looking at the reflector, you'll notice that it's multi-faceted...not smooth.

If you've ever seen the beam pattern of the E36 9006/9005 version (there are Euro versions that use H4/H1), you'll notice that it has a DOT type pattern...not that good. Even if you were to find an HID retrofit kit that could match the focal point location of the 9006 bulb, your beam pattern would be no better than with the original 9006 bulb.

 

Doesn't mean that it's better. His lamps are most likely causing significant glare to other drivers. And once again, color doesn't matter.

 

in addition, a rule of thumb is the more "yellow" the light is, the better visiblity yo'll have.

 

His 2k2 maxima HID is blue mine arent they are a whitish yelloish w/bluish tint color.

haha like i said i dont think i cause glare to other drivers

 

If your beam pattern does not have a horizontal cutoff, you are causing glare.

 

What if I replaced the whole bulb/lenses w/ another hid bulb/lense? ie.. a prjector assembly w/ a hid bulb?

 

You should give Ken at Susquehanna a call, see if he can get you the version of these that use the D2S bulb. I know they exist, I'm just not sure of exactly where to get them from.

 

I would try to get the H4/H1 versions of the E36 lamps. I remember reading somewhere that the E36 318ti models had them.

 

Wow nice info on both! I remember seeing those lights before. E36318ti huh? I wonder why they have the H4/H1 while the E36s have 9005/6? Very odd.

 

There are no H4/H1 versiosn of the e36 lamps...

you've got the following options available:

h1 - euro projectors
h7 - euro free form parabolics
05/06 - us spec

h4 is a hb/lb bulb, and would eliminate the need for the h1 high beam...

if you custom fit a proejctor (OEM) with HIDs, you will have a non-ricey beam pattern as well as something you can adjust

 

Maybe I'm wrong about an H4/H1 (perhaps they used a pair of H1s), but before projector/ellipsoid and free form parabolic lamps came into the mainstream the H4/H1 combination was used. E30 BMWs, Alfa Romeo GTV6s, VW Scirroco, etc, those cars with modular lamp units used this combination.

I did however find this expensive little item here.

 

the lights you posted up are ellipsoids (projector) lights for the e36, they se h1/h1.

 

Having that H1/H1 version is better than the 9006/9005 version...

But here's a pic of an H4/H1 combo on an E30 BMW:

 

look at the pics i posted on pg1

it has a perfect cutoff

 

This isn't a good cutoff, once you compare it to this:


A good cutoff has a well defined cutoff. Also, a good beam pattern is where light has a fairly even distribution.

 

ok im going to jump in now. lets clarify this alittle bit.
H1'a are better than 9005/9006's because they have a better beam pattern.
you have to use the projector in order to use HID lights.

aside from ballasts, thats about all i know (well and wires are different, but thats easy).

how do you adjust vertical cutoff? if im looking to get the e36 housings, arent they all the same, if not, whats different?
besides searching the forums, which is what im doing now, where else is there good info/prices on this.
maybe make this a faq or something.
thanks
MrGone