Heres a great example of the difference in beam pattern between HIDs in a Halogen Reflector housing and HIDs in a projector.

Both pictures are the same car, same headlights. Only difference in HIDs, is the 9004 housings had a 10,000k kit in them, and the projectors have a 4100k OEM HID kit. Even with that 10,000k kit, being so dim, it gives off so much glare. Imagine a 4100k HID bulb in a 9004 housing, talk about glare!

9004 Housings:



Projectors:




I just figured this will help people on here decide if they want to do the right thing and save up for projectors, or just stick a HID kit into our stock 9004 housings.

Trust me, ive lived both worlds, Projectors are worth it. Notice how the 9004 housings reflect all the light to one spot, where as the projectors evenly spread the light. On the road, when that light is spread out, it makes a HUGE difference. Not only do you see the entire road; but road markings, signs, and cops reflect 10000x better.

Thought i'd post this after I came across old pics of my car.

Aren't 10K bulbs POS anyway? Compared to a 4.2k they already have less output. I know what you're saying though, I'd never stick HIDs in there without projectors.

where'd u get the projectors from? i got a HID kit 8000k but its for 9007 bulbs...

Oh god, when i took the kit out and put halogen bulbs back in, I said to myself "Holy ****, that wasnt much brighter than my halogens". No joke, anything above 6000k it basically worthless. But it proves my point, that no HID belongs in a halogen reflector. That 10000k kit created so much glare.

Projectors came off a wrecked 2003 Mercedes E500.

Do you have a write up on this? Like what kind of projectors, a good place to buy them, what to do on the stock headlights, and any other useful info? This would be much appreciated as I am slowly, but surely going to do a 97+ upgrade on my 96 and would like to incorporate this too. Thanks a lot!

Dub

Looks nice!!!!!! How much were the projectors and hid kit ?

here's a pic of 4100k HID's in a 9004 housing.... BTW: I did sell them

nice pix, HID in stock housings are pointless.

1. i love my hid's in stcok housing. i mean i would of course take projectors over it , but they were worht is, better ight ouput, maybe not the most effcent use of light, but it does make a great inprovment.

2. and they look bad ***

say i get projectors off a car that didnt have HIDs, but had halogens....would it matter if i put HIDs in those projectors?......
for instance, say i take projectors of an integra or something, and put HIDs in it...will it make a difference?

$280 shipped. All I can say is, search ebay, some good deals on there.

yeah, those projectors were made for halogens so they'll still put out a lot of glare. probably better than our stock housings, but still bad.

I wonder how much better HIDs in our stock housing are than swapping in 9007 bulbs? Everyone who has 9007 says they are tons better than the 9004 so how are they compared to HIDs in our ****ty reflector housing?

well Dave, I will say that my hid's were bright as hell.... i don't think there's a comparison to 9007 . . BUT....once I drove my friends car & he was behind me in my car... I took the hid's out because it annoyed me the whole way I was driving...

BUT....
with all the SUV's driving around with blue bright as hell hid's, we in our sedans shouldn't care much...

why are 9007's much better than 9004's?

Ok, I did a simple search on ebay for Projectors and came up wif a lot of different stuff. Do you have any pointers as to what exactly I should be looking for in a projector set up? Or is it as simple as buying a set for like a BMer and robbing the components I need? If thats the case those things are pretty cheap. Thanks a lot for the edumacation!

Dub

more power and a much better design.

didn't I tell you to read the How To's when you PM'd me?
Taken straight out of the How To section.
I wanted to change my wimpy 9004 bulbs to 9007. At first glance the bulbs look identical, but in fact they are quite different. The 9004 bulb has a wattage rating of 45 watts on low beam and 65 watts on high beam, where as the 9007 bulbs have 55 watts of low beam power and 65 watts of high beam power. Already we know that the extra 10 watts are going to help. Differences don?t end there. The socket looks the same but the wiring is different. For a 9004 bulb the terminals are high, low, and ground. For a 9007 they are high, ground, and low. Also, the bases have different indents for the nubs that stick out inside the headlight housing. The bulb like a key and it only fits into the headlight one way, and like keys they are not interchangeable. The 9004 bulb won?t fit 9007 housing and vice versa. The upper one is the only one in the same location. Now the biggest and most significant difference is the orientation of the filaments. The 9004 bulb uses transverse filaments meaning they are perpendicular to the bulb base. The 9007 bulb uses axial filaments, meaning they are parallel to the bulb base. Plain and simple the beam patter of a 9007 is superior to the 9004. If you haven?t noticed, Nissan doesn?t use 9004 any more. This should mean something. I should also mention that out 9004 housings were not designed for 9007 bulbs. Now this in a way is a bad thing. We are not getting the full potential out of the much-improved 9007, but the improvement is still very noticeable. Also the output is not uncontrollable like a HID conversion kit, which is actually very dangerous. Our housings cannot be aimed properly and because of this HID retrofits produce terrible oncoming glare. 9007 is the next best thing. Now that you know the story lets get modding.

instructions here on how to do it....i cut it out....

I drove last night and this morning in the pitch dark. The low beam is much brighter, spreads better, and the cut off is more abrupt. The high beam patter is totally different too. It?s like having high beam and low beam on together. The light is great with visibility much improved. My fog lights are not really needed anymore. I will take beam pattern pictures soon, with a comparison between 9004 and 9007 high and low beam. One huge note is that I?m using 9007 Sylvania Xtravisons that are supposed to be 20% brighter anyway. The color temp is the same as stock but it is much brighter. I do like he color of my 9004 Wagner Truviews but I?m sure they are not as bright as the Xtravisions.