Yeah, I need to get new fog lights too. I tried restoring mine, but they're way too pitted to completely save. Glad those depos worked out for you.


You wouldn't need to, that's for newer vehicles that's computer can tell if bulbs are burnt out. They way you wire the hids only has a trigger relay that actually uses the power from the standard headlight socket and that relay has much lower resistance than a halogen bulb, so when the computer checks the resistance it thinks that the bulb is out. However since our computers don't do that, we don't have to worry about that.



First I'd like to say once again that I'm not going after you in any way, I'm just trying to keep the information here accurate.

Plenty of things people do to their car are illegal. And projectors aren't going to blind other driver's if they're properly installed and aimed. That's because of the light above the cutoff being completely blocked. I promise that if you keep reading down that page you'll find that it says putting hids in halogen housings are illegal too, which it is by the way. I've never heard of this coating requirement before (honestly I think it is just legal bantering), but I can say that I did put UV blocking film on my headlights to prevent them from getting yellow over time. I'm assuming they're getting at the uv that can be produced by the electric arc, however all hid bulbs have a uv blocking material within the glass of the bulb, so I really have no idea what they're going on about.

And no, it is not illegal in any state to have projector headlights, in fact a while back there was talk of the federal government requiring all headlights to be projector type by 2015. Saying that most cars only have projector beams as high beams is about as far from accurate as possible. Most cars with projectors have them as low beams and have reflector high beams. This is because projectors have much better beam control than reflectors and don't glare into other drivers eyes as much because of the cutoff shield. Why else do you think most if not all high end cars have projector headlights? Projectors are simply better, even these new led headlights popping up are still using projector technology.

What it seems like is going on with those numbers is that the test was inaccurate and or biased. They probably used a terrible projector or maybe even a halogen projector with a pnp hid bulb in it. A well designed projector meant for HID bulbs will always outperform hids in a halogen reflector housing or any reflector housing in general hands down.

Here are some visual aids:

first 2 pics of each one are low beam, 3rd is high beam.

Ford F150 with stock halogens:




Same truck with pnp hids:




now with a MMH1 hid projector:




with a lexus LS460 hid projector:





To sum things up here, the MMH1 (which is what I have) is essentially a budget hid projector, while on the other hand the lexus lx460 projector is considered one of the best hid projectors out there. You can see that even the budget hid projector outperforms the pnps in halogen housings hands down for width, evenness of light, beam control/glare, and distance. Like a I said before, I'm not sure what exactly it was, but something was wrong with that test that rit did.


Yes, HIDs do have ionized metal salts in them, that's essentially how they function.

Straight from wikipedia on hid lights. You'll find this same information on any other good site if you look it up.

I know wikipedia isn't typically thought of as a good source, but it actually has very good information on it.

55w hids do make more heat than halogen bulbs, which is why some people that put 55w pnp hids in their halogen housings sometimes end up melting their headlights. If you don't believe me feel free to look it up.

I'm not going turn this into a debate over hid kits either. There are plenty of fakes that claim to be german made or whatever. I'm not really sure of the quality of that kit, but it's not really relevant here.

 

I understand that, but why would a quality website lie to its potential customers?

 

I don't know, they probably just looked it up somewhere. Maybe other 99 Dodges had the bulb out warning thing.

 

Well they technically aren't metallic salts. They are the alkaline and alkali metals, first two columns of the periodic table, in ionic form. They would have to be attached to something else like Cl-, NO3-, ect. to be "salts". So that is mis-information since it is just the alkaline in there. I couldn't tell ya much more except how the temp ranged tells what energy level the electrons of this alkaline atom jump too. The fall back down is when light is emitted hence the different colors for the different wave lengths cause of the temp.

So as for moparman I would go with a lower temp range cause the more white/blue the light is I've noticed sucks in snow storms.

 

Yeah, I guess you're technically right about those salts. Stick with around 4300k that way you'd get the most light and in the snow you'd still be able to see since there is a slight hint of yellow in the light. If it's an issue to, you may want to consider some yellow bulbs for your fog lights too (halogens of course).

 

I was a bit skeptical about that company after looking at their site, because everything they're selling just looks like rebranded versions of cheap chinese hid kits being sold on ebay. I looked them up with the better business bureau and found that they have an F rating! BBB page on them. The BBB actually has an alert on them them saying that they consistently refuse to help customers after sending them the wrong parts, and refuse them their money back and they are advising people not to buy from them. The business apparrently doesn't even exist at the claimed address.

To answer your question moparman, they're clearly not a quality company.

krupaeric, I don't know what research you did or how you determined them to be good, but they're clearly a bunch of frauds.

 

Yeah I put in some really white phillips bulbs, I think it was the crystal vision, and noticed the snow thing immediately. Same with fog but I have some 55w tractor flood lights next to my fog lights that make up for it. So yeah I would go with more yellow on the fogs, helps you spot ice also.

 

How is the light brightness and pattern? I drive through a forest every day and in the dark need to see the Bambi's. the stock lights are the craps on my 02 Dakota.

 

Well I have the silverstars in mine so the light is pretty bright from those alone. As far as clarity, they're excellent. The Light pattern is also fantastic. Nice straight beams unlike the Anzo housings I had before these. The only think I don't like is that the horizontal aim can't be adjusted but honestly they're pretty spot on. I did have a small issue with install though. One of the mounting holes must have been almost the same size as the screw head so the screw pulled right through the bracket. I had to tear the headlight out and replace the plastic spacer with .5" of washers, and also put a washer on the front of the hole. I should have just used a washer to begin with since the bracket was plastic. but other than that, I love the things. Maybe some day when the slush isn't so slushy i'll get a car wash and snap some pictures of it.

 

Do they have daytime running lights?