that_guy, maybe alot people install the aftermarket HIDs that way, but the factory ones cut a nice straight line across the top on the low beam (my moms x5 came w/ them from the factory), your picture looks more like the throw that i would expect from them, so as i guess the possibility that something is off in that video is right

i would probably convert mine over if i could do it for under $150 for everything, and would definitely do it for under $100

and the real reason that fog lights go off w/ the high beams is because of the law, in most states it is illegal to have more than 4 bulbs (parking lights dont count here, just bulbs that you can use to see by) lit up at once, and most cars have a different bulb for low and high beam, meaning that when you turn on high beams you would have 4 bulbs lit up w/o the fogs, adding the fogs would be 6.

 

it was pretty unnerving to put new headlights in the oven for me too. Just make sure you keep the temp low, I set mine at 225, others say up to 250 but I wouldn't go any higher than 225. It's not that ridiculous when you figure that a halogen bulb gets even hotter than that. You just need to keep putting it in for 10-15min at a time, then see if you can get more and more of the lens off slowly.


Yeah a lot of people do just throw in the pnp bulbs. On some cars it works out better than others. I've seen people that put pnps in our stock housings and I do have to say they're not too bad for beam pattern and glare, they have pretty much the same beam pattern as the halogens, but are just a lot brighter. Then there are others that are just terrible, we've all been blinded by some tool in a riced up honda with blue headlights.

I forgot about that 4 headlight law too, and I'm sure that's a big part of it, but I still think the distance vision is part of it too. I know a lot of cars with separate high and low bulbs still shut off the low beam bulb when the high beams are on. And when you think about it, it makes sense for them to turn off with the highs: If it's foggy and you need your fog lights, you'll have your low beams on because the highs will just glare back at you, so if you have your high beams on you mustn't be in the fog and therefore you don't need your fog lights on.

You might be able to stick to that $150 dollar budget. The retrofit source will sell you "value" (open box or something like that) projectors for $60. I didn't have good luck with vvme, but others still say they're the best cheaper hids, they're supposedly hella clones. You could get a kit with ballasts and bulbs for around $45 from them or ddm (another somewhat decent cheaper company). Then you'd just need a relay harness, I got mine on ebay for around $16. You don't absolutely have to get clear housings, but the guy I bought parts from threw them in with the projectors when I bought them.

That same guy tried the projectors behind his stock fluted lenses on his Durango and they didn't look too bad. They actually would be pretty nice because noone could see that you have projectors in your headlights. They still had a cutoff and no glare above it. If anything it kind of spreaded the light out more evenly:

 

I was actually checking the aim of my lights this evening (my fogs were not showing much past the hood from the drivers seat, they were aimed low based on the FSM) and my drivers side low beam actually went out WHILE i was standing there adjusting it, talka bout luck, going to get myself a set of silverstarts for $30 for now, and see what kind of difference they make and ill go from there.

 

You might want to try the Phillips xtreme vision bulbs instead, the silvers stars are a bit brighter, but the Philips are way better.

 

if the silverstars are brighter, what makes the phillips 'way better'???, the lens(and built in reflector) is what controls the throw, flood and distribution of the light

 

Just the brightness. Although since the light starts to fade away towards the extremities of the be and it makes them brighter, it makes it seem like the beam is wider and longer.

 

if the silverstars are brighter then that would make them better, yes brighter bulbs = shorter life, however as stated above the light distribution is not controlled by bulb, all it controls is how MUCH light there is,

as you stated above
and now you say that the phillips are better bc
so now which one is brighter??? you are giving out conflicting information here, all of my research points to the silverstar ultras being the brightest halogen bulbs available.

this says that, all else being equal, the silverstar ultras will give you better illumination,

 

Sorry, I should have been more clear when I worded that, I meant the silverstar ultra is a bit brighter compared to a normal bulb and the philips xtreme power (the philips xtreme power is brighter than the xtreme vision, I had them backwards) is brighter than the silverstar ultra. I've personally used the silverstar ultras and I will say they were somewhat brighter than normal bulbs, but not nearly as much as I was expecting them to be. My dad put them in his wrangler and said the same thing. If you look at the silverstar ultra bulbs you'll see that they have a blue coating over the whole bulb. This is where the whiter part of their claim comes from, however because of that coating the light output will be less than it could be because of the wavelengths of light that it blocks. The philips bulbs also have this coating, but only a small stripe of it at the top of the bulb. I had found a good comparison online a while back where someone did a really good bench test of the two bulbs and the philips bulb actually put out more lumens than the sylvanias, (which I wasn't too happy with at the time since I had just bought silverstar ultras ). I just tried to find it quickly, but I didn't find it. I've never personally used the philips bulbs, but a few people, who I'd consider trustworthy sources, that I know have used both the silverstar ultras and the xtreme power and all 3 of them preferred the philips.

 

Hi JTracing1,

I have a 6k kit in my D and love it, I paid 60 bucks with a two year warranty from a local shop in my area. It really comes down to the proper adjustment of your lights. I have them where to cutoff is even with the height of my hood at 60ft in front of me. I can see clearly at night with no issues. I agree with the glare of some housings but I think the Durango housings do pretty good at giving light where it is needed.

 

yeah, since our headlights have a smooth reflector and fluted lenses they work better with the hids than other housings, plus they have that little metal shield in them that keeps most of the glare away.

Here are some comparison pictures I found of halogens vs hids in our oem housings.

Halogens:


HIDs: