Ah, gotcha. Don't laugh, I wasn't aware HID halogens required ballasts as well. Lot of learning going on here...

Just trying to figure out options to replace a broken pre-facelift headlight without breaking the bank. Figure its a good time to upgrade to the post-facelift projectors. How were the DEPO/helix halogens as they came (not HID)?

 

There is no such thing as an hid halogen. Two different things, that post a few posts back is kinda confusing. I'm not sure what he was talking about and I've done a ton of hid conversions on a bunch of different cars. It sounds like he means he's using halogen bulbs in projectors. Projectors are a type of housing. They can use halogen or hid bulbs.

 

Yowza, now I'm really confused. I thought projectors were merely a type of lens with cutoff. What were the ballasts he installed? Are those required for just regular halogens as well? If so, why don't they come with the Helix projectors from ECS?

 

Wait hold up I see what's happened.

What he means to say is that the projector housings he bought were originally made for halogen bulbs, but he has pulled the halogen bulbs and replaced them with hid which does require a ballast. So no, he does not have halogen lights anymore.

Projectors do exactly what they say and project the light out further which is bad for oncoming traffic, that's why they have the cut off built in to block light above a certain point on low beam. This is good for hid put out a lot more light, the projector also focuses the hid light much better than a standard reflector housing does. Reflector housings are designed for that specific size and shape of the bulb that fits into them. When people put hid bulbs in reflector housings the bulb is a different size and shape therefore shine at a different point on the housing and create a different, generally more dispersed and glaring light out forward.

Projectors focus the light better and cut off above a certain point regardless of the bulb, which is great for hid.

By the way hid stands for H.igh I.ntensity D.ischarge.

They are sort of like fluorescent bulbs in an office. The ballast is just an igniter to kick the bulb off to burning and producing light. Halogens do not need this. They work off the resistance of the coil in the bulb. That's why they put off so much more heat. And that's also why sometimes in newer vehicles that still have halogen bulbs but have systems to monitor when lights go out flip out when hid are installed. It reads the resistance different than what it's looking for and says must be dead!

 

Short summary. There are two types of light housings, reflector, and projector.

And two types of bulbs. Halogen and HID. (This is ignoring LED, that's a whole other can of worms)

Reflector housings are designed around a specific size and shape bulb. Projectors can use whatever fits in it.

The factory xenon lights (xenon being a fancy word for hid basically) was basically a reflector housing specifically designed for the hid system that it used.

He swapped his factory reflector housings for projector housings.

Still with me?

Then he replaced the halogen bulbs that came WITH the projector housings with HID bulbs.

The hid bulbs require a ballast to light. So when he added the hid bulb he had to mount the ballast.

Hope that isn't to confusing. It sounds a lot more complicated trying to explain it with text than actually installing it

 

I have depo projector housings as well. They came with halogen bulbs. I have everything required to swap to hid on the way as we speak. I will try my best to take tons of pics and explain what I'm doing as I go.

Biggest thing to take out of this. Please do not put HID bulbs in a standard reflector housing designed for a halogen bulb. Yes it will be brighter but will scatter more light everywhere just like a high beam. That's what's so blinding.

On the flip side you can use a halogen bulb in a projector no problem.

Projectors are backwards compatible basically. Reflectors are limited to the one specific bulb type, size, and shape it came with.

Yes people will say hid in reflectors are fine and will work. Yes they will "work" for you but not for other traffic.

 

Feel free to message me any questions you might have if you are trying to embark on this quest yourself. I can help you compile a list of everything for the swap.

 

Yes that what I believe also and in the pics, the Helix headlights are meant for halogen, people take it a step further and ad a xenon retrofit kit to those.

 

I'm with you now, thanks X757XVeritas and ECS!

I'm usually one of those people swearing at the folks with the blinding beams from hell, definitely not looking to join their ranks!

So, no issues putting HID kit into the Helix projectors because they have cut-offs, even though they were halogen originally?

I'm leaning towards putting the H7:Morimoto set into the HELIX projectors from ECS (Here:https://www.theretrofitsource.com/hi...l#.VvPnUPkrLtQ). Similar to your set up? Would love to see pics if/when you get them.

Beyond the blinding oncoming traffic issue, I'm still worried about codes/faults since my original lights were factory xenon with levelers and washers. Not too worried about losing either of those functions, just don't want to hear extra dings every time I turn the lights on.

Thanks again, really appreciate the help!

 

Welcome. Thats what people are doing, the fault will not be on a CEL or anything , but a stored code. And you can unhook the washers and take the fuse out for them so the pump does not kick on using the windshield wipers. I dont know about the retrofit, i think it might not flicker at start up since its coded for Xenons.

 

Well my HID kit showed up today, as soon as I get off I'm going to finish changing ball joints and control arm bushing on drivers side then install lights.

Will take plenty of pics from light install.

 

To be more specific, I have depo projectors, they currently have halogen in them. I will be replacing the low beam with 6000k HID bulbs, will be keeping halogen for high beams but went with the brightest I could find online. I also got some nice halogen yellow bulbs for my fogs.

You do not want hid for high beam, as hid bulbs have a warm up period before they get bright. It takes a minute or so to get there, not something you want when you need a lot of light.

 

Ta da, teaser pics of HID install. Working on a small write up now.

Low beam
*





Low beam with yellow fogs
*

High beam, now they put out a ton of light, and have a really far reach but I'm still using halogen bulbs for my high beams and I'm not pleased with the color of this set of bulbs so I'll have to do some more shopping.

*

 

Looks good. did you level them yet ?

 

Up and down yes, left and right, no. I need to adjust them a tad bit more to the right. The step up in the cutoff for road signs and whatever is still a bit far into the right side of my own lane I think. You can see in the low beam alone pic that the cutoff just nips the bottom of the garage door. At that distance and height it just gets hood level as cars are passing beside me. So it never hits anyone eye level unless there eyes are down in their grill.

 

Nice work Veritas, looking forward to the write up! Which bulbs did you use for the high beams?

 

Philips 55w +130% H7. They are really bright, and have a really good distance to them but they are quite yellow compared to my HID low beam, and that bugs me.

 

Oh man, glad I asked, that's what I was looking at. Would bug me too. Have you tried the ZIZA H7's?

 

I haven't tried anything else yet. I'm gonna be doing a lot of research before I buy a different high beam bulb.

 

Level surface and a garage door helps.

 

I live on a country back road, so I get a buddy and we go down the road and he parks facing me down the street and I adjust up till he says it hits him then down just as its below him and ta da lol. It's a little unscientific I know but it works great. Left and right I just lay a coat over a light and adjust the other side, then swap.

 

ok, just found the garage door an easy way to do it.

 

Thanks for this wrie up. I have the Halogens and am going to the Helix but won't be doing the upgrade to Xenons. What bulb do you suggest for low and high beam?

 

Bump. Still curious about adding the factory HID'S to these housings. I have xenons on the car now.

 

I haven't looked at the factory xenon bulbs but I'd assume you won't be able to swap the factory xenon bulbs into these aftermarket housings.