I came across this link when searching through HIDplanet.com... This is a glare shield that apparently can be used to eliminate glare from HID bulbs installed in non-HID OEM housings by reflecting the light in a different place...

https://www.casperselectronics.com/M...Category_Code=



Explanation from people selling this product:
"This adapter allows the D2S or the D2R HID bulb to be used on a standard H4 headlamp housing, such as motorcycle or aftermarket automotive style housing. Has correct beam alignment shield to project light from the HID lamp to the road, eliminating upward glare. Perfect low beam disbursement is achieved with a clean cut-off point. Price is for SINGLE unit, order two for cars, one for motorcycles. Does not include D2S bulb, ballast or wiring."


Here's the explanation in the FAQ's of HIDplanet that includes the above link:

"H4 is constructed to use the upper portion of the reflector only when low beam filament is on. An internal shield in the H4 bulb will reflect light going downwords towards the upper portion. When you turn high beams on, low beam filament will turn off and high beam filament lights up. It is mounted a little away from the low beam filament, so the beam will hit the road further ahead.
So what happens if you slam an HID bulb in there, correctly mounted in the focal point? Very simply, the entire reflector will be used and even the orange light that normally emits from the lower portion of the HID bulb will be visible on the road. In other words total useless light. By having the HID return wire of the bulb turned down and using an appropiate shield made in stainless steel or aluminum should correct most of it. Both Phoenix MicroLite (Bob) and suvlights.com (Jen L) have premade H4 adapors/shields. Also be aware of possible stray light issues (See above). From time to time Caspers Electronics Inc. (located in Illinois, USA) stock some good quality H4 adapters for D2S bulbs. If you do not see them listed on the site (P/N 103016), inquire per phone. They will not be a plug and play, but it is an excellent basis to make a quality H4 HID retro."

I don't understand why this would not be a plug and play job though.. it seems like these things just stick right into the socket along with the bulb... could someone who has HIDs in a 5th gen and below do this without having to do a retro fit to correct glare issues?

 

Possible solution to aftermarket HID glare problems?

dont put aftermarket HIDs in a stock housing

 

it's not that simple.. there are those who want the benefits of HIDs without the expense/hardship of buying the entire 5.5 gen headlight housings, doing a retro fit, or buying a new car.. and this is simply being proposed as a possible alternative... simply saying "don't do it" is not solving anything because the fact is that the HID rate is growing everyday, and we need to take steps to protect the innocent drivers on the road.. so instead of advocating abstinence, which is foolish... why don't we take a real world stance, and advocate using protection since people are gonna do it anyway? (use condoms by the way.. lol) this is for the benefit of other drivers on the road

now... anybody else have experience with this or think it will work?

 

you need HIDs to be safe on the road

using HIDs in a stock housing is more dangerous to everyone involved...which is why its ILLEGAL

 

Hmmm...since you didn't come to Sonics with us...I didn't get to see how much glare you have from your HIDs. You saw mine and its not too bad since the kit I got came with glare shields.

 

yeah, mine have glare shields too.. but some dont.. and people keep bragging to me that their HIDs are so bright that other drivers flash them constantly like they're proud of it, and that bothers me

 

-sigh-.. not only did i not say that HIDs are needed to be safe on the road, but you missed the entire point of that post that i went through so much work to type! lol.. the fact is that people are GOING to put HIDs in stock housings no matter how illegal it may be.. so instead of simply saying "it's illegal, dont do it," we need to explore alternatives for the many people who DO do it in the interest of protecting other innocent drivers from the massive glare created without using anything

 

There is no substitute to a genuine projector retorfit or 5.5 gen headlights. Everything else is inferior and dangerous. Additionally, those casper shields have been around for quite a while, please search...

 

Don't let sooner get to you -- he's going to be devil's advocate no matter WHAT you say.....:stfu:

I appreciate the info -- I never would have found this in a search.

I agree that some retro-fit HID's would be very glaring in non-oem housings, but personally, I HAVE hid's retrofitted in my motorcycle -- and I LIKE the glare because people SEE me.
It's ALL about being SEEn on a motorcycle~!
I could give a ****e if their delicate eyeballs are temporarily offended by the glare -- my delicate brain and body are thankful that they saw me at ALL!!
I wouldn't want that in my car, however -- that's a different story.
gr

 

Your an idiot so STFU kthanksbye

 

+1 .

 

Back-at-cha Douchebags.....!
gr

 

did a few searches with various combinations of "HID," "casper," "shields," "glare," and all the threads i clicked on do not work.. thanks alot gotdamn hackers... what was found from previous discussion of these shields? do they work?

 

While Ghostrider17 did make a good point about motocyclist being seen, but I must say I agree more with Sooner. I was going to get some HIDs for my 5th gen stock headlight, but after a few observations, I decided not to. HIDs in non-HID housing will screw up your beam COMPLETELY + massive glare that can blind on coming traffic.

 

ok... aside from everyone's opinions that it shouldn't be done... it IS being done by many people.. since many people do it despite what they "should" or "should not" do, perhaps there is a way to reduce the glare coming from these cars with aftermarket HID kits so less people are being blinded.. what i'm trying to find out is if these shields will work on a 2001 max with an H4 bi-xenon kit and if they are effective in reducing glare

p.s... as stated above, i tried searching and none of the links worked, so can anyone offer their help on this topic?

 

I agree, even though I have 2k3 headlights myself.

Who cares if it should or shouldn't be done if it's going to be done anyway?Why not explore ways in which they can be made safer? Good effort man.

 

thanx man... hows the glare factor on your HID fogs? i was thinking about getting some

 

These caspers shields have been around for a LONG time. I think they were in use before people started retrofitting projectors as a safe(r) means of upgrading to HID.

The shield will let you use an ordinary D2 based HID capsule in a H4 housing. This way you can use an OEM quality bulb (rather than a god-knows-how-or-who rebased bulb of questionable manufacture). It should also cut out a significant portion of glare.

HOWEVER, this still does not cure stray light above the cutoff, especially if it existed prior to installing HID (only now, it'll be 3x brighter). There are ways to deal with that...the most popular - painting the bottom portion of the reflector flat black or some other non-reflective color.

Furthermore, you still get the same (generally crappy) beam pattern you had before you installed HID lights, just 3x brighter. That means 3x brighter hotspots, stray light, etc.

Finally, and I think pretty importantly, you lose your high-beams by using this shield. You can remedy that by installing some auxillary lights as high-beams, but most people don't go through that trouble, not mention it wouldn't likely be very aesthetically pleasing on the front end of a 4-door sedan.

I think most of this has already been said, but upgrading to 5.5gen headlights or doing a projector retrofit is a much better idea. This shield (method) has somewhat outlived its usefulness (IMO). It was a novel idea when everyone was new to the idea of retrofitting HID, but I fear it's become obsolete in light of newer (better) options.

 

Minimal. They also don't offer much better visibility though, just looks good.

 

thanx man.. that is some very helpful info... so since i don't have a D2 bulbs i can't use these reflectors? i have an H4 bi-xenon kit in an 01 max

i'm not so much worried about light stray (even though i don't know what that is.. lol) my lights don't have that much glare even with the HIDs, but they're a little bright, and i would like to lessen it as much as possible.. thats why i was exploring the option of these shields

they take away your high beams though? i didnt know that...

 

cool... you must have aimed them down then right? cause i hear bad things about HID fogs that arent aimed down

 

No you can't use "kit" bulbs with the caspers shields. The caspers shields themselves are "keyed" to fit into the H4 socket, and then the D2S/R bulb fits into the caspers shield (it's keyed to fit the D2 based bulbs).

And yeah, they would naturally get rid of your high beams. H4 bulbs have two filaments - one for highs, one for lows. Since D2S/R capsules only produce one arc, you only have low beams. Put one of those bulbs in place of an H4 bulb and you lose one of the functions.

If you want to reduce glare and still use your kit you could try to fabricate some sort of shield to go below the bulb to block light from hitting the bottom of the reflector. You could also try painting the bottom of the reflector flat-black. Still, the better option is to go projector or with OEM 5.5 lights.

 

$130 eBay projectors, $100 E46 ECE projectors from HID planet, AMP>D2S converter $25 on eBay, D2S HID bulbs $65 from GB section, good non-glare light setup: priceless.

 

i looked at the thread with your how to and pictures.. you did a good job man, but i dont think i would be willing to go through all of that now... what would happen if i were to just buy a set of ebay projectors made for my car, install and aim my HID kit in those projectors... would that work?

 

for example, could i use these projectors with my hid kit and have the light output come out looking nice?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/00-01...spagenameZWDVW

i just dont understand why all that work is needed for retro fitting TSX and other types of projectors when a set of projectors is available for an HID kit that SEEMS to be plug and play

 

Because those projectors offer a very distorted beam pattern. Ive had those and the light is scattered. You can say that you have better visibility with halogens in your 5th gen stocks then you would with those and HIDs. You need to find a quality set of projectors that disperse light sharply and evenly in order to get the visibility and effect of Acura's, Lexus', Mercedes', etc, you know what I mean? Good luck bro.

 

oh wow... thats interesting.. it says those projectors are specifically for HIDs.. good thing i asked before buying those things.. lol.. so it would actually be a downgrade from my current setup of HIDs with stock 01 housings then?

 

Yeah, not all projectors are made equal, lets put it that way. But if you decide to retrofit, you will be happy with the results on the road, both visibility and visual effect. You can do it with around the same amount of money you might spend on a set of 5.5 gen lights. Good luck.

 

The E46 ECEs are a DIRECT drop in to the eBay projectors, you just need to drill new holes on the bracket to secure the new projector.

 

crap.. i would think that any projectors would be better than no projectors.. thats ebay for you i guess.. oh well.. my lights dont give off a whole lot of glare anyway, and they have way better output than stock, so i guess i'll just stick with these cause im not confident in my ability to do a retro fit.. lol

 

that doesnt sound too hard.. but you're kind of talking in code though.. lol.. what exactly is an E46 ECE?

 

http://www.hidplanet.com/bosch.html

 

E46 is the previous generation 3-series BMW and ECE just means Euro spec, don't remember exactly what it is short for. So basically, E46 ECE projectors are projectors that were taken from a previous generation (before the current gen) 3-series. The retro job itself isn't too difficult bro, just open em up and remove the original ones and mount the new ones where the old ones were. You can IM me if you need help. Good luck.

 

hmm.. these wouldnt happen to be able to go into my stock headlight assbly would they? if i just cut out a hole the correct size and mount them correctly? or would i have to use ebay projector housings...

 

Welcome to the concept of retrofitting, visit HIDplanet.com for the help you'll need.

 

Follow n3985's advice and read up on it at HIDPlanet, but you've got the general concept. Those are single xenon projectors though, so you'd be lacking high-beam again if you put them in stock 00-01 housings.

However, using the same concept, if you put in Bi-Xenon projectors, you'd still have your high beams, and the only extra work you'd have to do is to connect 2 wires.

But everyone's suggesting retrofitting the eBay headlights because they're by far the easiest to retrofit and you would only need single xenon projectors.

 

Yup it can be done and I think it has been done. Of course you'd have to be more meticulous when doing the job because a slight tilt in the mounting of the projector would result in an uneven cutoff line. But it can be done. Good luck.

 

yeah, you know, i find i dont use my high beams with these lights anyway.. and im very pissed that i spend an extra $140 or so for something that i rarely use.. but whatever.. i also signed up to join HIDplanet but they havent send me my confirmation email yet.. thanx for all your help guys.. i'm gonna look it up and see what i can do.. but i have to admit that i'm leaning towards sticking with my current HID setup, as the light output is very good now with minimal glare.. unless its just THAT much better with projectors.. lol

 

It is THAT much better with projectors (provided you're using good projectors).

My car (and n3985's for that matter) came with OEM HID, and we both retrofitted projectors. We just like the beam pattern that much more now.

 

is the light dispersed farther ahead and at a wider angle now too?