I just finished installing the McCulloch 6000K HID kit, and so far it looks good. Installation was about as simple as it gets. I've got some pics up now, but since its daytime, its probably not what you're looking for. I'll update the gallery later tonight after I aim them. I got a pretty good deal on ebay.

Aside from the fact that its daytime, holee crap are these lookin' good.
http://www.ghettomods.net/gallery/HID

 

Ok, we're going to have to meet up again, I wanna see them!

btw, now you need to update your sig (oh, and didnt either you or John have a burnt out foglight?)

edit: Must have been John, I forgot you have the aftermarket ones.

 

wow looks very nice!!!!

 

Looking good. Definetely get night pics

 

looks great but what about the loss of high beams ? how do you pass inspection ?

 

thanks for adding more glare on the road.

 

Looks good, one of the best things I did to my car, HIDs. As far as inspection goes, where I go here in NYC they don't check for high beam.

 

There are no inspections here, and I live in a fairly rural area. Also DanNY, your comments aren't necessary. You will never see me and I will never see you, so just keep it to yourself.

 

uh oh.......

 

Here's my 2 yen. The 3-gen stock lighting sucks the big one. Even the new halogens are 10x better. We are crippled by the glass housings. So I don't blame you for upgrading to hids. But when you put hid bulbs into these glass housings, the light really disperses everwhere. That means more glare for everyone in your sights(oncoming and everone in front of you)

I'll tell you this, I want hids too But I'm gonna try to put them into a set of bmw lights. Those lights aren't the best either. But I think it's better than the stock maxima housings. Please correct me if I'm off base here.
The other way is to insert projector housings/hids into some bmw lights but installations I've seen don't look that great.

 

Its better than stock in my opinion.

 

Yes, everything is better and worse than stock.

Light output is great. But the glare is that much more severe also.

I've seen a CRX and some other Hondas with hid bulbs inside the stock housings. It looks like they have their high beams on.

 

ok then shine your HIDs on a wall..let me know if you see anything remotely called a cut off in the beam pattern...or do u just see 2 big splotches on the wall?

this is the #1 reason why aftermarket HIDs are banned..because people complain about glare. of course you don't give a rats **** because you see more light..but the driver in front of you will feel the pain.

my comments are not necessary but it's a discussion board and i'm posting under the terms and conditions of this site. if you post a mod you expect everyone to give u a pat on the rear and say good job?

no matter what people say 9004 is the worse housing to put a HID kit in. since the ban came down decent companies that make HID kits with at least some proper shielding is no longer shipping kits here...Catz.

 

the bmw headlights would probably be the best to do it in also because you still retain low beams. they also look much better on the car. how much did the kit cost you?

 

Yes, the stock headlights do no justice with any bulbs. Even my Silverstar's show the uneven and botched beam pattern of the stock lenses. What I plan to do is get some of the ZKW BMW E36 projector lenses and housing and use those with an H1 HID and H1 high beam setup. I doubt that I am going to do a bixenon retrofit because it would be about $800 total invested in just headlights (housings, $200, hella bixenon projectors, $400, ballasts & bulbs, $200). Yes, having a clear and focused light pattern ensures safer driving at nihgt, but $800 for only half of the day doesn't seem like its worth it to me. Insurance, gas, tires, wheels, brakes (almost any other mod) seem like a much better investment in a 10 year old car. At least I'll be able to use the insurnace, gas, tires, wheels, brakes, what have you every time I drive the car, rather than just at night.

 

He could always leave the lights on all the time =) You guys remember when daytime running lights started? that commercial on TV, "Hey, your lights are on!" ah, the days of old...

 

Looks awesome wish i had something like that.

 

spipe - the lights look great. can't wait to see the night pics.

i heard that there are two different types of hid bulbs. one which is mean't for eliptical lenses(audi projectors) and clear lenses(ie; 97-99 max). the other is meant for halogen reflectors(89-96 max). i don't know how good the dispersion patterns are but if these are the kind spipe has, his lights shouldn't be too offensive to other drivers.

since were somewhat on the topic:
even oem hids are quite distracting/blinding. i notice this even more since i've lowered the max. but if it was such a big deal...the oem hids would be discontinued as well. although i know there are plenty of hid manufacturers that plain and simple just make sh!tty products I don't feel that banning aftermarket hid manufacturers from selling their kits is fair. altezzas and euro tailights are distracting and hard to see sometimes as well. apc and tyc aren't being banned from selling their garbage. some piaa and hella fog lights are brighter or just as bright as hids and they are usually aimed even worse than the headlights.

meh...jus keep moddin'. do to your car what you want and avoid the fuzz at all costs.

 

HIDs are a good modification in theory but the stock housings do crap, have any of you even taken them apart and looked inside the housing?

im not even going to touch an HID kit until my bmws are in

 

The reason I went with these right now are simple.

a. Stock halogens suck.
b. I am getting the E36 projectors soon, and all I have to do are buy the bulbs that mount in the projectors, not ballasts and ignitors.
c. I got a good deal on them, and probably won't even like them, but I can sell them for at least what they cost me.
d. Knowing a fair amount about the way reflectors work, I wanted to experiment with blacking out certain parts of the reflector (i.e the bottom which causes light to reflect up) to keep glare down. They are only stock housings after all and I have an extra.

Basically, flame on to anyone who's got a problem with my car. Unlike 98% of the population, I'm aware of the problems with the retrofit, and I'm trying to minimize my negative impact on other drivers.

Come tonight, I may have a problem too and dump them tomorrow. I'm getting a friend to switch cars with me and I'll make passes alongside and oncoming to see exactly what the glare is like.

I'm not endorsing or recommending this mod, I'm just trying to make a well documented process, so people can see that 'oh okay, he did this, tried that, something happened here, and they aren't worth it.... or maybe they are.'

What I meant by my second post, even though it came across rudely was that I wanted this to be a constructive thread, not "thanks for ruining the roads *******".

also, if you read those 30,000 complaints on NHTSA's website, they all complain about those 'newfangled bright blue bulbs' not HID in particular. Most people who complained on that list couldn't care less what the difference between Nokya 80/100 halogens painted blue and HID arc bulbs.

 

D2S is for projector set up and it's a clear bulb
D2R is for free form headlights..there's a strip of black high temp paint on the bottom part of the bulb.

if a free form headlight housing is not designed for a HID bulb then it should stay that way unless the set up was properly shielded.

OEM HIDs have met DOT regulations in the way they shine and at what direction. if a owner changes that design then it's no longer a DOT approved beam.

well clear tail lights have been banned for a reason and APC had to issue a recall on them. the altezza and the euro tails meet DOT's requirements so they are still on the road. as ugly as one may think..it shines red when brakes are hit and it shines amber/red when it's turning.

aftermarket lighting (add on driving light and fog lights) also have met some approval...only problem is improper useage and improper installation is giving them a bad name.

 

DanNY I never knew

 

First of all, Spipedong90, nice appearing lights. I kinda want to get an idea of how they look at night on your ride (although Jay{N34JZ} DOES have a set and I've seen the vids on how his looks...)

And Jeff, I have to agree with you in ALL aspects of your post. I'm kinda-sorta looking for a decently-priced set to put in my BMW lights that won't present too much of that ever-infamous "cutoff" problem we hear about. I'm hoping the D2S HIDs will address that, but one never knows 'til one tries it.

And finally, DanNY... I haven't heard any further info on that supposed "ban", and I've got one or two close friends in law enforcement that back me up on this as I've asked them on more than one occasion. Although we've talked and talked about it here on the forum, and it's been mentioned on MSNBC a time or two, I'm curious if it was a nationwide ban or regional/statewide/citywide?? Cuz it ain't here where I live, is what I know for 100% certainty.

 

I dont notice glare when Im driving with my HID's on

 

thats because we got good kits Hey did you get a chance to find out the prices on those tires

 

your state/local law enforcement will not know about the HID ban..it's a federal ban on selling aftermarket HIDs not meeting DOT's standard.

some articles on this..
http://www.cars.com/news/stories/072...ory&aff=boston
http://www.enjoythedrive.com/content/?ID=25405 (scroll down the page)
http://www.enjoythedrive.com/content/?ID=25377
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/testin...trept.039.html (scroll down again)
CI NO. MFR/MY/MAKE/MODEL/FAILURE CAUSE
CI-108-010831 Astex USA/HID conversion/Headlamp/Electrical dimensional marking
req. MI
CI-108-030717A Fet/2003 Catz HID conv./light sources may not comply with dimensional and
electrical requirements MI
CI-108-030717B G-Garage/2003 Mcculloch HID conv./light sources may not comply with
dimensional and electrical requirements MI
CI-108-030717C JC Whitney/HID conversion/ light sources may not comply with dimensional
and electrical requirements MI
CI-108-030717D Kmi/2003 KMAX HID conversion/ light sources may not comply with
dimensional and electrical requirements MI
CI-108-030717F J. Liu LLC/2003 Suvlights.com HID conversion/ light sources may not
comply with dimensional and electrical requirements MI


I don't want to get into the legal context of this and how u feel about this. just want to inform you...and everyone else who doesn't know about this.
ok that's it i'm done.

 

Thanks for the support and constructive comments guys. I aimed these last night, and went around asking everybody I could find if my headlights bothered them at all, and I mean like complete strangers. Out of more than 20 people I asked, not one of them said they were glaring or irritating. The beam pattern leaves much to be desired, but it really isn't THAT bad, compared to some cars I've driven with sealed beam lights. Most of the pictures I took were glared out by the 'full brightness' cornering light mod, which used to look bright, but now it's all dingy and gross. I took out the forward lenses and left the amber in the side marker piece and it looks much better.

Here's a photo of the beam pattern BEFORE I aimed them.

 

yep I gave john a call, I need to know before 3:00 if you want them today.



also speaking of HID's Ive never really noticed the glare that you guys are talking about when people are behind me, I mean Tony Arrafio has 8000k's in his headlights and fogs and I have no problems when he's behind me and he's told me the same thing.

 

so tell me...how dark is the tint on that back window.

 

ohhhh, good point. I didn't even think of that.

Spipedong90- Do you have any pics of the lights after you aimed them? Also your sig still says you have Silverstars in your car

 

I have no tints DanNY and it doesn't bother me at all when my negihbor with my same kit is behind me.

 

I had no problems with my friend driving behind me with my kit either.

 

good point 20% but I was talking with Juan before and he said driving in front of me was fine.

 

Well.. here goes..

I had my HIDs at first in the stock housings... the color was cooler, but pretty much it was like driving with the brights on all the time. No cut off, the beam goes everywhere.. not good...

US. spec E36 lights are just as bad if not worse with HIDs and no projectors. The beam pattern is so bad, esp. because the lines on teh glass are verticle. If you want to do the conversion right, you need projectors.. i dont even like reflector HIDS..

and you need a cutoff like this

 

Geez, Spipedong, your sure have been hitting the mods lately. Our cars used to be like twins. Now I have the fat ugly sister twin...and you got the hottie.

Keep up the good work.

 

Damn Keelan, I didn't know you were going the HID route. I guess my title of flashlight on wheels in the NW got taken away! Either way, keep it up bro!

S

 

Is that the cutoff from the euro-spec E36? Me rikey!

 

He's got projectors

 

If buying the Ellipsoids I suggest the ZKW Euro-Ellipsoids since its made of a better quality compared to the other projector made by Hella.

 

I have never had a problem with jay's hid's or any ones elses except the BMW Projectors on a BWM SUV since the suv is higher off the ground and the lights is riat eye level.

I never got flashed for my HID's. I have lowered it and made sure that i wasnt blinding any one. And i have had my HID's for the past 3 months.

I can understand all the pointing fingers saying that this sucks and this is not appropriate for our maxima's. Yes its not oem. Simple mod, great results. Better than stock. Best bang for buck. Good job Spipedong90 . keep it up...

ot. now we need to get Juan and Joe in to the light of things like the rest of the nyc/li 3rd gen crew.