I've found that I've never used my high beams except to test them. With HIDs I don't need them! They're like the vestigial back seats in the SC430...

 

When I get some guy in the left lane who is going ridiculously slow with no one in front of him and no room for me to ass around him but room for him to move over, I test my highbeams out otherwise I have only used them on roads without street lamps which has been rare.

 

This car has the strangest high beams on the market - when you kick them in, its as if you have a huge triangle in front of your car - try it on a tree-lined street or in a tunnel sometime to see the effect.

 

I tried them today, after I bought some Sylvania Cool Blues. Installed one to compare to the stocks. Not much difference. Oh, well, just $12. My sister lives in BFE, Washington, and I actually usd the highbeams driving back from there. It was like it was daylight again. Very bright. Even a rural road at night with the lowbeams and fogs (PIAA Platinum SuperWhites) is like daylight.
How does that song go? "I wear my sunglasses at night..."

 

Hm.. use High-Beam when I am running some 2-lane, back country roads with nothing in sight, and no light poles....

But the most usage of my high-beam is to flash back to those who flashed me and thought I had my High Beam on(which, in fact, is my HID)....

Andy Kuo

 

I use high beams whenever there's nobody else on the road, just to improve visibility.

The high beam dispersion pattern does look like triangles. They focus all their light along a straight path in front of the car instead of dispersing along the sides of the road. I find that the HIDs plus the fogs already give excellent illumination of the road ahead and to your sides.

Yes, the HIDs do throw quite a large portion of their of light upwards. I believe this is a DOT requirement, as many US road signs are unlighted. In Europe, for example, car headlights do not have the upward dispersion pattern as all road signs are required to be lighted.

 

I use them on deserted roads and interstates. They are bright. It's wierd seeing those two vertical lines of light 50+ feet up in the trees on the side of the road.

 

I use it when someone cut me off and my wife didn't let me use horn. So, I use my high beam and whenever I am in an open road at night.

 

What is it with not using the horn? Especially here in the Midwest! Yeah you can flash your high beams, but most of the time the guy in the car ahead of you is too busy eating his chalupa to look in the rearview mirror.

When a guy is driving 10 mph below the speed limit on the left lane right next to another guy going just as slowly in the right lane, I'll flash my highs a couple of times; if that doesn't give him a clue, I'll give him a couple of short beeps on the horn. That usually does the trick.

 

I use the HB when travelling on local road with limited lighting.

 

Yup yup... I use them to say "MOVE OVER!!!!!"

Have you ever noticed that only the top half of our headlights light up?

 

I only turn on my high beams twice in my life to test them out. Otherwise, never had the need to use them since I put on the HIDs and the fogs.

 

I haven't used the HB's yet, but I did see the HID's and Fog's in a window the other night, and they looked so different.

What can you do to make the fogs look more like the HID's - is that what you've done Daverman with the PIAA Superplasma lights??

Just curious...

 

Yup, the PIAA Superwhites make the fogs look closer to the HIDs. Not a perfect match, but pretty close!

There are other bulbs that appear whiter (Xtreme Whites I think), but they're not DOT legal. Since I don't want to get a fix-it any time soon, I went with the PIAAs.

 

Cool, Dave - thanks for the info!

Superwhite, super "plasma" - oops! :o

 

use it when alone @ night and when someone is going really really slow in the left lane! I get by fine with the HID's and my fog lights (yes I'm one of those who leave on the fogs in clear weather!) what I have noticed was that the hid's don't go off when the high beams are on...........

 

Actually, you are right, too. The full name for PIAA bubls should read "Super Plasma Superwhite"....

The first HID-Look bulb from PIAA was call "SuperWhite"... SuperPlasma was an improved version of SuperWhite...

Andy Kuo

 

The box says "Platinum -- PIAA Super White"

 

High beams? we have high beams? oh, yeah, I think I used them once.

I need to take my car in and see how much the headlights are off after the spring kit.

Anyone tried those Eurolite Xenon's fog bulbs?

 

daverman,

I don't know. My wife just doesn't like to use the horn and my baby doesn't like it, too.

 

I us HB when coming home @ night there is a mile and half long stretch of road behind my subdivision, and there is nothing back there but trees so i use them to make sure nothing jumps out in front of my car. I don't want to make a damn animal a hood orniment and i don't want to hit anything to mess my car up.

 

...you mean the anti-SUV photon cannons?

I *LOVE* the teardrop dispersion pattern on those badboys. If some jackass in a Fordzilla won't get the hell out of my lane (or, last weekend, some fool in a Hyundai doing 60 in a 65 zone fast lane, refusing to move), he gets some energetic photons in his retinas, courtesy of everyone's favorite Nipponese engineering team.

Downshift, blind em, swing out and fly by. Yee-haw.

...oops, open <rant> tag.

 

Twice, I'd turn it on once recently cuz I've been ready posts here about how yellow the OEM one's look, the 2nd time when I changed them.