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05-16-2008, 01:51 PM | #1 |
Scooby Newbie
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2008 WRX HID upgrade
Hello,
Just got my '08 WRX couple months ago. The only one thing that really sucks - low beams performance. I was thinking about upgrading to HID's. Should I just install a kit or go with different projectors? Thank you!
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05-16-2008, 02:19 PM | #2 |
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it's so easy to put hid projectors in, do a real retrofit. you just take the old projector out and put the one with hid optics in, if you get one that matches sizewise all you have to do is drill some holes.
hid kits in 08's have a lot of glare and hotspots. you should retrofit. |
05-16-2008, 02:26 PM | #3 |
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^^^Follow this advice^^^
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05-16-2008, 07:19 PM | #4 |
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i used apexcone HID conversion kit from xenonexpert.com for my car. try them for urs. urs will be better than mine b/c u have projectors already.
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05-18-2008, 04:43 PM | #5 | |
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Quote:
Halogen projectors are not designed to take HID drop in kits and WILL produce lots of glare and poor results. |
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05-18-2008, 04:53 PM | #6 |
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You can't say all halogen projectors are not designed for them. Yes the output will be much better with hid projectors. I wouldn't go so far as to say they will provide lots of glare, if a proper temp bulb is chosen as most of the time glare is caused by the headlight housing which wouldn't change if you swapped projectors. More often you'll see hot spots in the beam but that doesn't really harm anyone as they're usually minor. Again a lot of it depends on the projector. I haven't seen any results for an 08 with a kit.
Last edited by ptirmal; 05-18-2008 at 05:05 PM. |
05-18-2008, 07:29 PM | #7 |
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I can't imagine the projector change would be cheap. Anyone have part numbers or prices?
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05-18-2008, 09:16 PM | #8 |
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In an 08 it would seem to be easy since it already has projectors... so if you were to do it yourself you could spend anywhere from 100-300 on projectors and 20 on hardware just for the projector swap.
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05-19-2008, 12:37 AM | #9 | |
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Quote:
Your statement about color temperature is also inaccurate. The cause of "glare" comes from the improper optics caused by using an HID type bulb in a halogen headlight (reflector or projector style), not a bulb with a higher Kelvin rating. Just because you have a 4300K bulb in your halogen projector, doesn't make it magically work. And I don't even know where to being with your hot spots statement. If hot spots even need to be brought up about someone's headlights, something isn't right in the first place. And finally, just do a search, there are already pictures on here of 2008 Impreza projector headlights with drop in kits in them, and the output looks terrible. |
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05-19-2008, 04:17 AM | #10 |
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As steverx05 has stated, color temp represents color and intensity of the light output. It isn't directly associated with glaring. The glare is caused by improper projection (or reflection for those with reflector housing) of the light source. Regular filament bulbs has a cylindrical light source (the coils), where as HID bulbs have an arc light source. Projectors may look the same from the outside, but halogen projectors are designed only to use with halogen bulbs (and vice versa). Throwing HID kit into halogen projector are mediocre at best (using it in reflector gives poor lighting at most). You may like the extra light, but cars in front of you might not appreciated it as much as you do.
Human eyes tend to fixate onto an object that is brighter than its surroundings. When car's headlights glare oncoming traffic, it decrease oncoming drivers' visibilities because the intense light output is unintentionally glared onto the drivers' eyes. When eyes receives too much light, the iris will close up to allow less light going to the retina to protect it. This will cause them to lose visibility of areas that are not as bright (ie. the road ahead). I highly recommending reading Daniel Stern's input on lighting before spending any money. http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...nversions.html |
05-19-2008, 11:02 AM | #11 | |||||||
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Quote:
Output isn't that great compared to others but the cutoff is razor sharp and lots of color. Quote:
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All I see is bleed off above the cutoff probably caused by the housing and a narrow beam in an overexposed picture. Not really harmful but not the best use of hid. Quote:
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I am by no way advocating getting a kit for your car for the best performance, I'm just saying results are not always harmful to others, it may just be mediocre results, maybe even poor. I would try to find some well taken pictures of an 08 for you to decide. As you can see above the width is minimal which is where the good hid projectors step it up (and intensity, distribution etc etc). |
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05-19-2008, 11:59 AM | #12 |
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Where I can get the projectors for '08 WRX? Any links?
Do they come with instructions? |
05-19-2008, 12:37 PM | #13 |
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For those of you with no first hand experience with the new '08 headlights, may I suggest that you stop guessing based on other cars with projectors and stating it as if your opinions of what will happen are facts?
I actually HAVE DONE an HID retrofit with H-11 drop-in HID bulbs on my wife's '08 Impreza base model wagon. Guess what? No hot spots, no glare, no other problems. The output is still anemic but better than the halogen bulbs due to the higher lumen output of the HID bulbs. I can take pictures, but I find that photographs of headlight beams turn out to be mediocre. I'd also need to find a nice flat space with a wall parallel to the front bumper to get a good picture. However, the beam cutoff is about the same as stock. As long as the gas discharge area on the HID retrofit H-xx series bulbs is in the same relative position as the filament in the halogen bulbs, the light distribution pattern will be similar. I have an aftermarket H-7 HID kit on my '02 Hyundai Elantra, too. Other than adding a glare shield to block the bottom of the reflectors to block some of the glare (open reflector headlights, not projector), they work great, too. |
05-19-2008, 01:10 PM | #14 | |
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Quote:
it really has nothing to do with a specific vehicle. A reflector designed for a specific bulb isn't going to work well with an entirely different bulb, just simple physics. You will have hotspots and glare no matter what you do, best case is that it is within some acceptable limit. |
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05-19-2008, 01:16 PM | #15 | ||
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Quote:
Quote:
Going to have to see a picture to believe this one. |
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05-19-2008, 01:23 PM | #16 |
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Here's a picture of a 2008 with tons of glare, just as expected.
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05-19-2008, 03:27 PM | #17 | |
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That picture you posted is worthless. It's 2 ft from the wall and no description of what was used is given. Maybe 25 ft back like the one I posted. |
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05-19-2008, 03:58 PM | #18 | |
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Quote:
And the picture isn't worthless. It's a drop in kit in a 2008 WRX, I don't understand how you missed that . And even though the car is at a strange angle and the light is on an uneven surface, you can STILL CLEARLY see a TON of glare coming from the side with the kit installed. |
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05-19-2008, 04:11 PM | #19 |
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Here's some more worthless pictures for ya ptirmal...08 WRX with 8000k drop in kit installed.
I rest my case. |
05-19-2008, 04:24 PM | #20 |
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^^
I call it "blob of light" +1 for showing what PnP HID kit really is -1 for buying it in the first place |
05-19-2008, 05:31 PM | #21 |
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05-19-2008, 07:14 PM | #22 | |
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Quote:
If anyone wants a retrofit done on an 08, contact me for a discount. We havent done one yet |
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05-19-2008, 08:04 PM | #23 | |||
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The only reason I said it was worthless was because it's so damn close, any projector will look like it has glare that close, and it looks odd because the right side is very blue and the left is whitish/yellow? - Didn't know just from looking at it that close one was hid and one was halogen, this is why a farther shot is needed. No description of temp bulb etc.
The second set is much better. Pretty sure the light bleed above the cutoff is from the "squirrel finders" in the projectors which would make it a bad candidate for an hid kit, but unless you remove the projectors and see for yourself you can't be sure it's not just reflection from the housing (doubt it but still possible). And it also looks overexposed so everything looks brighter including that bleed off. Quote:
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05-19-2008, 08:57 PM | #24 | |
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Quote:
And FWIW, I also have a retrofit that I built myself. I can show you a picture of what an HID projector cutoff is really supposed to look like. |
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05-19-2008, 09:37 PM | #25 |
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I posted a picture of a valeo h7 projector above, it was used pretty often in retros back in the day and although the d2s version was better it did well. I can find just as many crappy pictures but you apparently don't understand the word always.
Here is an old thread from when h7 valeos were used in retros often, http://hidplanet.com/forums/viewtopi...ighlight=valeo No glare at all. No bleed off at all. H7 Halogen projector. About 25ft Yamaha R1's come with projectors, everyone is too lazy to put hid ones in so they all throw kits in them, results are better than most. Stock HID Yea it's crappy blue but output is even... picture was taken with flash as you can see from the reflection above the cutoff (not bleed off) So now you can see that even though ALL halogen projectors are not designed for HID NOT ALWAYS create lots of glare. That's all I have left. |
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