HID cutoffs

[Grafton]

To those who have HID's installed in the stock JDM projectors could you post up some pic of the cutoff and what kind of HID you're using?

Given my "anti-HID in halogen light" stance this feels odd but I'm curious as to what current bulbs put out.

[mycargoesvroom]

I don't have any picture of mine at the moment but I can take some this evening. I will say that I'm not usually a fan of HID's in Halogen applications either. When I bought my car the PO had a 6k HID kit installed and the output was good, but I was convinced it would be better with a halogen unit. I went out last week and bought some Hella units, and to my surprise I after driving around for a few nights I went back to my HID's.

[ouch1011]

The light output difference between the halogen bulbs and HIDs is almost literally night and day.

These are the pics I have. I used the same camera at the same distance and the same backdrop, and used the same settings according to the EXIF data, so the light output comparison should be valid even though there is a huge time gap between when these pics were taken.

This is the original JDM projectors, modded to eliminate the step in the cutoff, with DDM Tuning 4500k 35w HIDs.
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2011/06/98lgtold-1.jpg

This is my current setup, with the JDM projectors replaced with Infinity FX replica bi-xenons.
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2011/06/98lgtnew-1.jpg

The comparison is actually kind of interesting. The JDM projectors with HIDs are out of focus, so they create these really bright hotspots right in front of the car, but the peripheral lighting is much darker than the JDM projectors. See how much darker the gate is to the left of the garage in the JDM projector pics vs the FX projectors? The JDM projectors also create a noticeable glare. I did get flashed when I had the HIDs in those projectors, which is what prompted me to do the retrofit. And if you don't mod the cutoff, you will be projecting the light higher towards on coming traffic since the cutoff is setup for RHD.

And, just for fun, here is my 06 LGT with HIDs. Only mod is that the light box is blocked on the cutoff plate.
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2011/06/06lgt-1.jpg
See how they tend to create hot spots as well? But the glare is not as bad. This is with 5000k DDM tuning HIDs.

[Grafton]

Ouch, your the man that's 100% what I was looking for.

[ouch1011]

Happy to help, I just happened to have those pics on my computer :)

The glare from the JDM projectors is not anywhere near as bad as putting HIDs into a typical halogen reflector housing, but its still bad enough to not use them in my opinion.

I should also mention that the retrofit of the FX-R was done by heresmymind on the forum. Great quality and absolutely worth the price IMO.