The headlights on my '97 work well -- better than I expected, in fact. When I bought the truck, I immediately swapped the bulbs for a pair of GE Nighthawks and the lighting is very good. But there's no shield in front of the bulb inside the housing. Most modern headlights have a shield in front of the bulb, which helps to define a sharp upper cut-off for the beam down the road. The headlight housings on my '97 have no shield at all. And while the lighting is good, or even better than average for a halogen setup in my opinion, there's also not a nice upper cut-off, which I would like. Our '07 Town & Country has a very distinctive upper cut-off, and it's a similar type of setup (halogen bulbs in a reflector housing). Our '01 STS also has a distinctive cut-off, but it's a slightly different design; halogen bulbs in a projectorfor the low beams.

Can someone with a later 2nd generation Dakota (like 2000 or beyond) check their headlights to see if there's any shield included? On mine, you can look right into the headlight housing and see the naked bulb. Of course, the bulb has the black paint on the front tip of it, but a shield would improve the optics of the bulb, like the aftermarket "jeweled" headlights have.

For that matter, can anyone with those aftermarket jeweled headlights provide feedback on the optics? Did they improve over stock? I'm specifically interested in the "jeweled" halogen reflector design, using the stock 9007 bulb, rather than a projector setup.

Thanks.

 

i have an 01 club cab v6 and its just bulb.

 

I don't know if this would be any help, but I got a eBay HID kit for mine with stock headlights and I have to say, I am impressed. Beam pattern is good, I don't blind people going down the road, and definately the best $75 I have spent so far.

 

I heard that those ebay ones are junk. I was lookin into them and some people told me that they crap out after a few weeks. I have the projection housing and its pretty bright. I just want that true HID look.

 

I'm not sure howa light housing can crap out after a few weeks. The bulb is independent from the housing, and I don't want to put a ghetto blue bulb in it, like a SilverStar or something. I've got GE Nighthawks in mine now, and they really provide a LOT of light. I'm just looking to see if I can find a light housing with better optics. But I don't want a projector housing.

 

It wasn't the housing I was talking about. It was the HID kits on ebay. I just don't want to spend 75 and have it crap out after a bit. The housings are awesome on ebay. Lots of different designs.

 

I was suprised with the ones I have had. I had a kit in my old maxima and in the truck I have now and haven't had any trouble with either of them. You do have to watch the quality of the kit tho, I wouldn't buy from anybody other than a dealer. I got both my kits from the same company and even though it took a week to come from China, they were still good kits.

 

What was the company? I really want to get a good kit, but don't want to pay out the a$$ for them.