Thread: "blue" headlights-illegal?

With you all the way 110.

See http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...nversions.html

and

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVuSSdZNsZw&feature=player_embedded"]‪Illegal HID Convesion Kits Explained‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]

Originally Posted by Sprint

skipping the legalities of HID's and "blue" tinted bulbs, i've found the higher the colour temp, the less i can see..... also makes reflective road signs agony to look at....

I think some people get carried away with the big numbers, thinking that a 12000K light must be better, 'brighter', than a lower number, but it's not correct. I think the European car HID's are mostly about 4300K. The high numbers just produce more blue, but reduce in visibility effectiveness.

Originally Posted by rijidij

I think some people get carried away with the big numbers, thinking that a 12000K light must be better, 'brighter', than a lower number, but it's not correct. I think the European car HID's are mostly about 4300K. The high numbers just produce more blue, but reduce in visibility effectiveness.

Yep ........... never seems to amaze me the number of people who think that the bigger the "K" number, the better lights they've got.

I've got HID converted headlights, both high and low beam, plus a pair of Hella Predators on the front of the Disco. Mine are all only 3600K and that's plenty bright enough.

I know that there are people on here who disagree with converting headlights to HID - but all that I can say is that they've never seen it done properly - either that or they've had one or two bad experiences with poor installations, and wrongly assume that all such installations must be the same. I have never had any problem with "blinding" oncoming traffic - have never been "flashed", and have been told by many on the radio when I've asked them that, while my lights appear to be very "white", they are correctly adjusted and do not cause any glare or discomfort to oncoming traffic.

Personally, I've experienced way more issues with incorrectly adjusted halogen headlights than I've ever come across with HID. One of the worst offenders (and pretty regular around here) is the muppet who drives with one low beam headlight globe blown - the remaining one is usually much brighter than it should be. When I was travelling daily to Kambalda a while back, there were at least a couple of vehicles like this that I saw virtually every day for periods of months or more. These are the people who should be pulled up and booked by the coppers - but they seem to get away with it.

And "fog" lights - no, I can't see the point of driving with them on at the same time as the headlights - but at the same time, they don't bother me. Maybe there's something wrong with my eyesight.

What you say may be true in your case but unless everyone who wants to convert to HID will pay for proper engineer based certification and then paint their car bright pink with blue spots so the cops know at a glance that it is legal, then ALL after market HID setups must go.

When I sold lights in the 4wd industry the reps for a major player told us that putting HID kits in normal headlights will never work properly because the refector pattern is based on a different light source pattern. Nothing will change that, the lights are dangerous.

Steve

Originally Posted by BMKal

Yep ........... never seems to amaze me the number of people who think that the bigger the "K" number, the better lights they've got.

I've got HID converted headlights, both high and low beam, plus a pair of Hella Predators on the front of the Disco. Mine are all only 3600K and that's plenty bright enough.

I know that there are people on here who disagree with converting headlights to HID - but all that I can say is that they've never seen it done properly - either that or they've had one or two bad experiences with poor installations, and wrongly assume that all such installations must be the same. I have never had any problem with "blinding" oncoming traffic - have never been "flashed", and have been told by many on the radio when I've asked them that, while my lights appear to be very "white", they are correctly adjusted and do not cause any glare or discomfort to oncoming traffic.

Personally, I've experienced way more issues with incorrectly adjusted halogen headlights than I've ever come across with HID. One of the worst offenders (and pretty regular around here) is the muppet who drives with one low beam headlight globe blown - the remaining one is usually much brighter than it should be. When I was travelling daily to Kambalda a while back, there were at least a couple of vehicles like this that I saw virtually every day for periods of months or more. These are the people who should be pulled up and booked by the coppers - but they seem to get away with it.

And "fog" lights - no, I can't see the point of driving with them on at the same time as the headlights - but at the same time, they don't bother me. Maybe there's something wrong with my eyesight.

It's good to see you have done your conversion properly, but unfortunatly most conversions are done by muppets who have no idea what they are trying to achieve, and have no idea how to set them up correctly, so I think they are rightly illegal. Had 3 people the other night coming back from Adelaide who has crap HID conversions that almost blinded me. Would have been ok in the Rangie, as I could have given it to them with all the lights I have on that, but, alas, I only had the puny dunny door lights to try and put them in thier place...

Originally Posted by Landy110

When I sold lights in the 4wd industry the reps for a major player told us that putting HID kits in normal headlights will never work properly because the refector pattern is based on a different light source pattern. Nothing will change that, the lights are dangerous.

Steve

Yeah - I've heard that one before, and basically it is crap.

Simple physics will tell you - light travels in a straight line, and when it meets a reflector, the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection - regardless of the light source.

So ............ provided that both light sources are placed in the same position relative to the reflector, the "refector pattern" as you call it cannot possibly be any different.

The "diffraction" of light at different wavelengths through the same lens however, may possibly give different results.

But I always have a bit of a chuckle when I hear the one about different "reflection" patterns off the same reflector from a different light source.

In fact I think you'll find that most of the "blue" lights that most people complain about are not HID conversions at all - but simply blue tinted halogen globes like "Narva Cool Blue" and similar that you buy from Supercheap for the **** factor. There's dozens of these things running around Kalgoorlie, and some of them are a pain in the arse. As far as light performance goes though - they are absolutely useless. My son's RX7 had a set of them in it when he bought it. Apart from him being unable to get it registered over here with these globes in it (they registered it without any issues in NSW) - he quickly took them out and replaced them with conventional halogen globes, because he couldn't see where he was going with them fitted.

Fortunately, "blue" lights will tend to get you a bit of unwanted attention around here - but the cops have got enough sense to not bother with converted headlights if they are set up properly and are not annoying to other road users (it is actually reasonably common here - you can either buy the kits or have the conversion done for you at most of the local auto electricial businesses - don't need to buy Chinese imports from e-bay). The "nanny state" mentality has so far not taken over so much around here.

Originally Posted by BMKal

Yeah - I've heard that one before, and basically it is crap.

Simple physics will tell you - light travels in a straight line, and when it meets a reflector, the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection - regardless of the light source.

That's true, however the problem is that the filament placement in a H4 or H7 globe compared to the location of the arc in a lot of the cheapass Chinese fleabay junk is quite different. This generates different angles in the reflector causing a lot more stray light and is the cause of a lot of the complaints people have about HID unfortunately.



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