Hey Guys,

I bought a MCS back in Dec. My previous car had Aftermarket HID and man, they would brighten the road. Going into a factory equip HID vehicle I thought I would have better lighting. Turns out my lights are as dim as regular Halogen bulbs. They have the color, but not the illumination! Any ideas ????

 

There is a very good chance your after market lamps were aimed wrong (to high). Did they have the correct lenses, did they blind oncoming traffic?

Mark

 

First off Welcome to NAM!!

A aftermarket HID kit is just that a kit and they don't include the proper lighting housing to project the light correctly. The MINI's Xenon lights are usually very bright. But if you got the MINI without the Xenon then they are normal Halogen bulbs.

I had a aftermarket HID kit in my MINI for my high beams. They worked wonders!! So I had my factory Xenon low beams and 6500K HID high beams :-D

 

HIDs are about color not brightness. Brightness is regulated by DOT. There is a legal limit. HIDs fall in that legal limit.

 

Aftermarket HID setups tend to throw light everywhere since they fit HID bulbs in the place of standard halogen bulbs. The light thrown from a HID lamp can be compared to a frosted incandescent lamp, where a halogen lamp is more like the clear version. The light from a halogen lamp eminated from the filament in a very defined space. A HID bulb has the light coming from a less defined area of ionized glowing gas. Put the HID bulb in a fixture that's been designed to focus the light from a distinct spot in a halogen bulb and the beam becomes ill-defined and unfocused. People driving such cars marvel at the light all over the road. The people that have the misfortune of approaching such cars get blinded. That unfocused light is a hazard for the driver in bad weather, and for everyone around them regardless of weather. The brightness (in lumens) is not much different at all between factory HIDs and halogens since this is a regulated spec. It's the perception of brightness due to the blue hue of the light. It's the same trick used by detergents to 'whiten' laundry. A slight amount of blue color gets left on the clothes, making them whites appear 'whiter'. The stains might still be left, however.

 

No, they are about light pattern. Just compare HIDs with Halogens in the dark. Look at which areas are lit and how well.....

 

Wattage is regulated by the NHTSA, not brightness. HID has higher efficiency so can deliver 3200 lumens from just 35w instead of 1500 lumens from 45w with the standard H7 halogen-filled incandescents. 100w halogens that deliver the same 3200 lumens are not legal for on-road use.

If it were brightness that was regulated then halogen bulbs would have to be lower wattage than the less efficient sealed-beams they replaced. They are not.

 

We have 2 MINIs, an 03 with Xenons and an 05 without. The light from the xenons is much better, with a wider spread, almost 90 degrees to the front of the car. It does take some getting used to the hard cut-off with the Xenons.

The other issues about the aftermarket HIDs is they do not self-level, this is not done so the driver can see, but to prevent on-coming traffic from being blinded by the lamps as the attitude of the car changes. Also the lamp washers are installed not to be some fancy option, but to keep dirt from causing the light from scattering as it going throught dirt on the lens. Both these "features" are required on all cars that come with HIDs.


Mark

 

If you want a professional education on hid's vs halogens check out this web site, the tech section. http://www.danielsternlighting.com/

NHTSA is an office belonging to DOT.

 

I was looking for that. I read it from one of the dozen or so HID threads here on NAM. Good reading, lots of info. Thanks for the link

Mark