I know this has been discussed time and time before. But ive come across a problem which is very unusual.


I have OEM headlights, with 8k hid's.

The passenger side headlight looks to be dead perfect. The majority of the light is about 100-125 feet away but is just a large square of light.

Now the driver side's majority of the light is about 25-50 feet away and is more evenly spread,rather than collecting in a small area.


I have spent hours behind a building trying to correct this. Today I took it to merchants to have them aim the headlights. Come to find out no change.


Is there something im missing? I mean seriously it is driving me insane, side to side seems to be pretty accurate but height and actual light visibility sucks



for better reference the passenger side collects such as this while the drivers (no reference picture) covers more road with less visibility.

 

Welcome to HIDs with halogen reflectors. The true way to go HID is to retrofit projectors into your headlights... I know I'm absolutely hating my HIDs right now, and have even considered going back to halogens since they're pissing me off so bad...

 

original halogens are even worse, trust me
with my halogens i couldn't see any light being projected onto the road, during normal lit streets (at night obviously)
but with the hid's, i could actually see light on the road, although it isn't great it's better than nothing
and having HIDs in a halogen housing doesn't work well, that's why you have "hotspots"(i think it's called) and stuff like that
mine sounds similar to yours, probably not as bad though

 

It would probably help if you went to a lower temperature like 4300k or 5000k, 6000k. It won't be as blue as you like but the light visibility will be better. Still, as mentioned the only way to get the intense, pure and focused light is to get retrofitted projectors.

 

Well I have tried to aim them with my 6k bulbs and oe silverstars. The only thing that bothers me is both headlights wont give the same pattern which is very very odd. I have seen several CL's around my area with HID's which look absolutely great. Ill try to take a picture tonight.

 

If both of your bulbs are the same, and your headlight lense is not all crapped up, then there's nothing else to do but aim them.
Since you've aimed them, there's nothing else you can do.
Either your eyes are playing tricks on you, or that's just the nature of the reflectors.
Get some projectors

 

hmm, my 12ks have never had this problem.. they were a bit outta wack when i put my head lights back in after blackhousing. but as far as wacked out light projection i just aimed em and it was good. like shnee said thats about all you can do. projos ftw. i need some.

 

I took out the headlights shields. They are much easier to get accurate and I was surprised the pattern can actually be controlled and is not scattered across the road.

 

You opened them up and took out the bulb shields??
That must be bright as shit.
Think about oncoming drivers or those driving in front of you!

 

i was gonna say that but then i thought, "no he wouldnt be that dumb he must have done something else"

 

No actually there not,5k bulbs. There still not as bright as many of the cars on the road. They are about a 6/10 when comparing them to a set of lights with projectors. That why I said even I was surprised when I didnt gain much brightness just accuracy.

 

You've got big problems then. Taking out the bulb shield should give you a massive spread of light that would blind 99% of the people on the road. The only people that would be kinda safe would be those in what are effectively monster trucks...

 

5000k refers to the color they put out. 4300k is OEM HID color, so 5000k is pretty much as close as you can get to OEM without buying OEM bulbs. 5000k is what I have in my car. The closer they are to that 4300k, really, the brighter it should be. The higher in the color spectrum you go, the more brightness you lose. You're pretty much as bright as you can get as far as aftermarket HID goes.

 

ya how do you figure? The shield does noting but refracts the beam back into a reflective pattern. Your acting like without the shield the beam has no intended path. What your saying would make sense if I remove complete housing and just stuck a bulb on my front bumper. Are you TRYING to say that a flashlight has no specific course because it has no shield above the bulb? Your statement is completely false,the shield does nothing but controls the direct path of the light.

 

What I'm saying is that your headlights don't look like a flashlight, obviously, that's why you're hear asking for help. You obviously don't have the crazy light output that you should if you pull the shield out. So I stand by my statement that you have big problems...

Your headlight should be acting like a flashlight right now. Don't know what flashlights you're using, but all the ones I use have a nice big circle of light with a hotspot in the middle. That's about what you should be getting right now, which obviously you're not, or you wouldn't be here...

 

Basically, a lot of that light should just be shooting out forward, in all directions. The shield is going to reflect the light back to purposefully designed, angled sections. So, without the shield, a lot of your light should just be a bright, open spread, since it is not being directed in any particular direction. Notice how your high beams don't have a bulb shield? That is going to give it as much light output as possible, and it isn't necessary for your beam to be directed in any specific direction - unless everywhere is a direction.

 

Thats how my lights look NOW,before only one did. For what reason I can explain. The shield is not as important as you think,if it was it would have been designed sooner and put in early model vehicles. Notice the picture I posted,go figure those headlights dont have a shield yet the pattern is 2x as good as half the cars on the roads.

 

??? I won't even touch that one.

Anyway, all headlights are designed differently. You are taking something out that was put there for a reason. I'll leave it at that.

Just out of curiosity, did you only do this to one headlight? And you actually opened it up and removed the shield? How did you remove it?

And just as an aside, since we talked about it previously, and as you probably know since you saw the inside of it, the inner side of the shield is black. So I'm guessing its purpose is more to prevent the direct forward spread of light as opposed to deflection back to the actual reflector.

 

a flahslight does not need a cutoff line only a couple feet of the ground in order to not be shining in people's eyes
i don't see why you would do that at all
especially seeing as how hid's do not have painted tips like a lot of headlight bulbs do, i would think this would cause a whole lot of glare

 

double post, wtf

 

Ohhmiigod. Someone please tell my I read this thread wrong and he did NOT just take out his reflector sheilds...
Our lights already glare like a mofo, not to mention with 8k hids and no reflector sheild...that's worse than driving around with your highbeams..

 

wow... just... wow..

 

No both shields are out,took the headlights apart to remove them. With all of this criticism I sure as hell hope I am talking to either ASE certified techs or State inspectors. I know exactly what is required for having proper and safe headlight pattern. I worked in the most strict Virginia inspection station in my area. I assure everyone on this site my lights are far better adjusted,and accurate than any one with any set of bulbs in stock housing headlights........... I adjusted my headlights using an adjustment machine and set to legal position and pattern.


So since everyone on here has hands on experience with shield-less headlights will one of ya'll explain how removing a shield which deflects the DIRECT beam of the headlight would cause the beam to be scattered all across the road? When actually it does the exact opposite since less of the headlights output is reflected off the shield.. If I have time tonight I will snap some evening shots of the lights on a dark enclosed street.

 

Look, obviously you are feeling attacked or whatever. I am not trying to piss anyone off or cause any ill feelings.
But why would they put a shield in if they didn't need to? Your point that "it would have been developed sooner" doesn't really make sense. Vaccinations must not be that important, or else they would have been developed sooner. Anyway, I'm just trying to prove a point. Check this out.

Here is an unobstructed bulb.
It is just going to put out light in all directions.

Here is the same bulb, same brightness, same everything, only there is a shield in front of it. Obviously it is not shining in my face anymore.


Here is the shield in another position. You can see how it is not shining at the wall behind the shield.


I don't think anyone is claiming to be an expert in headlight shielding, it just is kind of common sense. If you are shielding a bulb, it's not going to send light in that direction. If you unshield it, it's going to go in that direction. Since the shield was in the front of the bulb, now it's going to shine out freely in front of you.

 

You need to drop the attitude man, you ask for help and then flip out about the answers you get. Of course people will have different opinions about something that you do, a lot of people disagreed when someone did a similar thing so that they could drive around with their highbeams all the time, and a lot of people didn't like that idea. Shnee made a good demonstration as to what people are talking about, by removing the covers, you are allowing more light to shine straight ahead into peoples eyes, and some of us would consider that inconsiderate or dangerous. On the other hand, since you are using 8000K your HID's aren't that bright and are more blue than white so it's probably not as bad as some think. But remember, opinions are like assholes, everyone has them, on a forum like this, they are offerred freely. Perhaps some pictures of how your light shines on a wall would help show people what your likght output looks like.

And yes a number of us know a lot about light dispersion and headlights having done projectors and dealing with cutoffs, there's no need to cop an attitude about no one knowing anything, especially when you're asking for help

 

^ i wanna see how these look before any other speculation by either side of this "argument"
i think both sides could speak a little more calmly about the situation as a whole
and i would really like for you to prove us wrong OP

 

I am curious to see some good photos of this. However, you can do a lot with lighting depending on the camera, brightness, and angle.
I'd also like to see this from straight on, and up against some other cars, walls, etc.

 

I didnt mean to come off as a dick. But everyone saying that its dumb to do without any explanation as to why.


The fact of the matter is:

When I had the shields I couldnt see a thing and the lights couldnt be position to meet my standards. Now that the shields are off I can see directly in front of me,with the hot spot being about 15-20 feet in front of my bumper. They are high enough to see but low enough to the point where when pulling up behind a vehicle my lights come directly to the rear bumper support. Now they have an evenly distributed pattern and shine more directly to the street with a controllable center.

This is the first set of Honda/Acura headlights which have given me such a problem. My old beater 96 accord had a similar designed headlight which absolutely had no problems with being aimed. Then again HID's can easily show imperfections with them being much brighter.

 

I think we have explained why it seems like a dumb idea. But as it has been said, post some pictures and prove us wrong. Maybe it's one of those things where the theory and the practice turn out differently. I'm genuinely interested to see how it looks.

Do you have 8000ks like you said in the first post or 5000ks like you said in the 11th post? I'm just confused and curious, not trying to call you out or anything.

 

They are 5k. Pictures are junk I don't know what happened but its way to late to go out and try to take better ones. I know the beams aren't perfect and I shouldn't have to explain why the passenger beam is higher than the drivers.


So my argument still stands,how do these headlights cause harm to oncoming drivers?

 

^we can't judge from that kind of picture, what we are asking for is a picture of your car facing a wall with the headlights on, to show the cutoff line of the light on the wall
the problem that we are talking about (with having no shields) should only be a small amount of light bleeding over said cutoff line, but this small amount of light is very dangerous when it is directed at someones eyes while driving at night, this is where our concern is. but again this is all speculation of what we think would happen...
we would still need proof to either prove or disprove this theory

 

The only way you can really know is to park someone else's car maybe 4-5 carlengths behind your car with your car's headlights on, and then check by looking in the other car's mirrors. Oh and of course the other car shouldn't have super dark tint on the rear windshield or have the rear view mirror dimmer on, if applicable. Sometimes the light on the ground doesn't seem that high but glare reaches farther up and hits people in front of you right in their eyes.

 

ehh it was late you can tell by my post. Ill try to get out and get some tonight.


Did that,just went on a ski trip this weekend and followd a friend of mine the entire time. He didn't jump out and say anything about my lights.

 

I can't find the pics from hidplanet, but that looks about right for HIDs in a halogen reflector. The way to fix this is to retrofit projectors. Hate to tell you...

 

Like I said, a number of us DO know about light dispersion and output from these headlights because we've messed with them. Basically, there's a reason that projectors have a cutoff, and that's to keep the light from refracting into on-coming drivers' eyes. Looking at your pics, it doesn't seem like your output is that bad, but I have seen with some HID pnp kits where the bulbs don't fit in all the way, hence why you could be having aiming problems with the shields in. Either way, like Matt said there's no comparison to HID's with a projector cutoff

 

damn you I would love to get projectors but theres no market for them. Seeing as this is my daily I cant afford to drive around without headlights in order to have some retro-fitted. How much and who did your headlights?

 

What do you mean there's no market for them?
Buy some projectors, almost all of us used TSX projos. Then either do it on a weekend where you won't need your car, or buy a spare set of headlights to work on at your leisure.

 

Like Shnee said... Buy yourself a kit (theretrofitsource.com would be a good place to start) and ebay for some new headlight housings... If you don't feel like buying a kit, look around for all the parts you need and just start piecing stuff together.

And Chris did his own. As have schnee and Ghettoninja (Fred) and some other OG guys that I can't remember...

 

I mean I would much rather prefer to buy headlights that are already fitted with projectors. Serious question, how exactly are the lenses fitted and held into the housing? Will one of ya'll post pictures of your lights?

 

If you do a little searching, you'll find pics of their setups... All of these guys have posted pics of their retrofits. Check the projects thread, as that's probably your best bet for finding them quickly...