Improving Halgen projectors for HID
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2nd Gear
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 843
From: Kirkland, WA
Improving Halgen projectors for HID
Having just bought my first 99.5 A4 I was excited to see what the stock halogen projectors had to offer. Needless to say, I was less than impressed. with the light output.
I had a pnp HID kit laying around from a previous expirament and thought I would give it a try. Bulbs are 5000k with DDM 55W ballasts. The bulbs were 9006 base, but as they fit into the hole for the stock H7 I just plugged them in. Here is the result:
As you can see it is almost as bad as HID's placed in reflector housings. I am not sure about the rebased H7 HID bulbs that people are buying, but the 9006 are much too long. The filament needs to be at the focal point in the parabolic reflector. As you can see here, the HID capsule is about 3/8" forward of the filament.
To bring the HID capsule back to the focal point, I cut a 13/16" long section of 3/4" diameter conduit. I neglected to take a picture of this, but it should be fairly simple. Because the base of the bulb will now stick out further, a new retaining wire was needed. The original just slides out of the clips. I saved this in the event I ever choose to return to halogens. I fabricated the new retaining wire from a paperclip. Since the alignment tab on the bulb will no longer dictate the orientation of the bulb, be sure that the return wire is pointed down. The results are much better:
The cutoff is much cleaner and sharper with less light bleeding over the cutoff. All output pictures were taken at 12ft (max my apartment will allow) with the same ISO settings on the camera.
Overall I am fairly satisfied with the result. Eventually I will probably retrofit an HID based projector like the FX-R, but this will do for now. Hopefully this helps some others out there running HIDs in halogen projectors to improve their output and safety. I will try to get some better output shots tonight.
I had a pnp HID kit laying around from a previous expirament and thought I would give it a try. Bulbs are 5000k with DDM 55W ballasts. The bulbs were 9006 base, but as they fit into the hole for the stock H7 I just plugged them in. Here is the result:
As you can see it is almost as bad as HID's placed in reflector housings. I am not sure about the rebased H7 HID bulbs that people are buying, but the 9006 are much too long. The filament needs to be at the focal point in the parabolic reflector. As you can see here, the HID capsule is about 3/8" forward of the filament.
To bring the HID capsule back to the focal point, I cut a 13/16" long section of 3/4" diameter conduit. I neglected to take a picture of this, but it should be fairly simple. Because the base of the bulb will now stick out further, a new retaining wire was needed. The original just slides out of the clips. I saved this in the event I ever choose to return to halogens. I fabricated the new retaining wire from a paperclip. Since the alignment tab on the bulb will no longer dictate the orientation of the bulb, be sure that the return wire is pointed down. The results are much better:
The cutoff is much cleaner and sharper with less light bleeding over the cutoff. All output pictures were taken at 12ft (max my apartment will allow) with the same ISO settings on the camera.
Overall I am fairly satisfied with the result. Eventually I will probably retrofit an HID based projector like the FX-R, but this will do for now. Hopefully this helps some others out there running HIDs in halogen projectors to improve their output and safety. I will try to get some better output shots tonight.
3rd Gear
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 1,636
From: Morristown, NJ
Hat tip for you sir trying to make do with what you have. Even though this isn't desirable, it is a LARGE improvement over just throwing HID bulbs into a Halogen housing and calling it a day.
The only truly "safe" way would be to either buy new projector headlight housings or to DIY a projector housing as you also indicated. I'd love to see the output head on installed in the car. Congrats on trying to protect your fellow motorist.
The only truly "safe" way would be to either buy new projector headlight housings or to DIY a projector housing as you also indicated. I'd love to see the output head on installed in the car. Congrats on trying to protect your fellow motorist.
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