What have you done to your car today?

[Joey D]

Mobile HID looks to be just another internet company that takes OEM kits and "hacks" them together with various parts to make it work. At least they are smart enough to say don't use them on the street.

The Acura RL and Lexus GS300 have projector HID's in them. The IS300 has specially designed non-projector headlights with a different reflector system then the halogen one. If you look up the IS300 headlights on a parts website you'll see one is made for HID's and one is not. There are cars that used to have non-projector HID's in them, however the headlights were still designed to accept the bulbs. Automarkers then found out that by putting them in projectors then could make them actually useful. Not everything that has been put on cars from the factory is automatically good.

In the first picture you posted you just confirmed my belief that they aren't going to work in the fog, rain, other inclimate weather at all. There is way to much glare off the ground and it would scatter in the fog or reflect weird off a rain/snow covered road. The second picture you posted it is hard to tell without any point of reference but their range appears to be awful. By adjusting your lights low, you might be preventing the blinding of other motorist but you are making your visibility awful. If you read the article by Daniel Sterns that I posted it explains everything to you.

As for what I'm trying to get across? Well I asked why you put HID's in your fog lamps, you said you like the look, which is fine. Then you said that your headlight HID's makes it so you can see further, which isn't correct. I'm pointing out errors in your claims so you can at least be educated on it and adjust your driving accordingly. I don't ever want to see a thread "I hit a deer/log/person last night", which is entirely possible with poor headlights. Over driving your headlights is extremely dangerous.

I've been here, I used to think all this fancy lighting was cool. Just look through the pictures of my Blazer and you'll see I had all sorts of weird lights on it. Because of this process I learned that I was an idiot for doing all this crazy lighting stuff. I basically ruined the light out put and made my night driving way more risky then it should've been.

 

[misnblu]

I see it all too often where cars are retrofitted with HID's in their stock housings.
They blind the crap out of you and are aggravating to other drivers. What makes it worse is that people are using 10,000K illumination instead of the proper 4500 to 6000K illumination that comes from most factory HID lighting.

If my personal vehicles didn't come with Hid's, they won't become Hid's.
I do go with slightly higher wattage bulbs that are direct replacement bulbs for my rides which does help with the brighter paths the beams have on the road.
They still don't blind because they're made to the manufacturers specs for that type of bulb.

Hid's are nice for cars that came with them but too many people use them thinking that they'll see more on the road or purchase them to 'show off' their vehicle with overly blue lighting which hurts their vision.

My take on it.

 

[TorqueHappenS08]

Mobile HID looks to be just another internet company that takes OEM kits and "hacks" them together with various parts to make it work. At least they are smart enough to say don't use them on the street.

The Acura RL and Lexus GS300 have projector HID's in them. The IS300 has specially designed non-projector headlights with a different reflector system then the halogen one. If you look up the IS300 headlights on a parts website you'll see one is made for HID's and one is not. There are cars that used to have non-projector HID's in them, however the headlights were still designed to accept the bulbs. Automarkers then found out that by putting them in projectors then could make them actually useful. Not everything that has been put on cars from the factory is automatically good.

In the first picture you posted you just confirmed my belief that they aren't going to work in the fog, rain, other inclimate weather at all. There is way to much glare off the ground and it would scatter in the fog or reflect weird off a rain/snow covered road. The second picture you posted it is hard to tell without any point of reference but their range appears to be awful. By adjusting your lights low, you might be preventing the blinding of other motorist but you are making your visibility awful. If you read the article by Daniel Sterns that I posted it explains everything to you.

As for what I'm trying to get across? Well I asked why you put HID's in your fog lamps, you said you like the look, which is fine. Then you said that your headlight HID's makes it so you can see further, which isn't correct. I'm pointing out errors in your claims so you can at least be educated on it and adjust your driving accordingly. I don't ever want to see a thread "I hit a deer/log/person last night", which is entirely possible with poor headlights. Over driving your headlights is extremely dangerous.

I've been here, I used to think all this fancy lighting was cool. Just look through the pictures of my Blazer and you'll see I had all sorts of weird lights on it. Because of this process I learned that I was an idiot for doing all this crazy lighting stuff. I basically ruined the light out put and made my night driving way more risky then it should've been.

Well i have a pair of Projector lens lying around, The ones i had on my old neon, They were excelent, i use to pull up next to walls and i had a cut off beam so sharp no lights was over flowing, i plan to put in the projector lens next week, as i do not have time this week.

These are the ones from my old car,Only ones i could find with out thoughs stupid halo lights(i wanted a clean factory look with chrome finish, i got them from ebay, they are very good, and i mean very, in my old car, i use to test them by having my friends drive towards me at night, and sure enough i would see that natural HID beam pattern, looked exactly like standard HID in a BMW coming towards me, even the whole color adjusting thing, and at night when i drove, they preformed very well, right now my srt4 does not preform any where near as well as my old car did in lighting up the freeway and dark roads, not to mention driving at night in the rain, which my old car could see very well, even my dad was impressed.

As soon as i switch out the Halogen housing i expect them to preform just as well as before.

i also plan on purchasing these, these preform even better then my old car.

A pare of Bi Xenon Projector Retrofit for SRT-4.

An srt4 with the same projectors installed. They preform very well. and they will in my car.

 

[Joey D]

Halogen projectors are not the same as HID projectors. When I had the Blazer I tried HID's in a halogen projector thinking they would work, they did not and they made the light output worse. You need a projector lens that is designed to work with the way an HID bulb arcs. Yes, they might work better then just cramming an HID bulb in a halogen housing, and depending on how well they are made you'll probably get an OK cut off line, but you are still not going to get the distance and there is still going to be glare.

The best thing to do if you want to run HID's is to take a set of projector lamps like the one you posted and retro fit lens from something like a Corvette. You'll need to find something that fits closely, MK1 MINI Cooper HID lens are pretty small so they'd probably fit. It's still not going to be as good as the factory installed ones but you'll get 90% the distance, reduced glare, proper cut off line, and proper beam spread. I was going to do something similar in the Blazer, but ended up selling it.

Doing the retro fit is still illegal but I don't think you'd ever get any flak from anyone for it because it's 9/10th the way there.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

I installed my 12" Polk Momo Aluminum subs, Panasonic deck, and MTX amp over the weekend into my 05 Subaru Impreza. Took about 3-4 hours after removing a fair amount of the interior. Sounds pretty good but lack of air space in the trunk is killing the subs performance. I need to make some ports in the deck or customize something to make the rear seat fold down to allow more space. Also wired my 3rd brake light on my rear spoiler. That only took about 10 minutes.

 

[Stotty]

Porsche had it's annual service and MOT yesterday... sailed through with no issues, but it still cost £500 FFS.

GT3 tail pipes arrive early next week... photos to follow once fitted

 

[chilledant]

Modern BMW fog lights (not sure about old models) are designed to work with an H8, halogen bulb. Cramming an xenon HID blub in the housing is still going to make the light behave incorrectly, cramming a xenon look bulb in there is either going to melt the housing or burn out prematurely due to excessive heat

Hi Joey
1. Not all modern BMW use H8 fog light globe's only some use H1 our a globe with its own rear end plug adaptors, like the E39 our E60. The FO1 new 7 has night vision, lane departure warning so on...Great car bye the way.
I dont quite agree with you on xenon lights getting to hot, they dont, high voltage yes, heat not much. Think of fluresiant globe's, now xenon works similar, fluresiant globes take high voltage to start up but after run on a much lower voltage, xenon the same, fluresiant globes you can touch with on you fingers wont burn, xenon the same, They are gas filled both of them. I know it takes 12000 to 15000 volts to light up a xenon, after runs on 6v to 8v...

 

[Joey D]

Hi Joey
1. Not all modern BMW use H8 fog light globe's only some use H1 our a globe with its own rear end plug adaptors, like the E39 our E60. The FO1 new 7 has night vision, lane departure warning so on...Great car bye the way.
I dont quite agree with you on xenon lights getting to hot, they dont, high voltage yes, heat not much. Think of fluresiant globe's, now xenon works similar, fluresiant globes take high voltage to start up but after run on a much lower voltage, xenon the same, fluresiant globes you can touch with on you fingers wont burn, xenon the same, They are gas filled both of them. I know it takes 12000 to 15000 volts to light up a xenon, after runs on 6v to 8v...

Maybe just all the modern BMW's I've come across have H8's in them, oh well, live and learn.

And the xenon bulbs I was talking about were the xenon looking ones that you can get off of eBay. They are halogen bulbs that have xenon gas in them and typically require more wattage to light up. They are cheap and awful. Real xenon HID's aren't any hotter then normal bulbs as far as I know.

 

[chilledant]

My day with cars everyday..
I replaced a exhaust cam and bearing ledge plus lifters on a E90 N52 engine.
I repaired a A/C on a E46 318i M43 engine, Faulty expansion valve.
I fitted a new engine harness and throttle on a E88 1 series N45 engine.
Plus i reprogrammed a E70 3.0sd, M57TU2 TOP engine. With higher softwear level,
I have fun with cars everyday

 

[chilledant]

Hi Joey,
In za xenon are not cheap. If a xenon goes on a BMW you must replace the control unit plus globe. The globe is about 2000 rand,(200 euros) control unit 8000 rand(800 euro)
The ones on e-bay dont have the same light quality and they are cheap yes.
Nice two met you bro have fun.
Ant

 

[Thatman]

I put the one on the right in.....lol....lights
Oh and im getting a freind to finish the Eclipse's exhaust

 

[Slicks]

Oil change on Tuesday - Fresh Mobil and Wix filter.
Wash + polishing on Wednesday... Spent some quality time with a rotary buffer.
Wash + wax today.

All ready to go get dirty again.

 

[CyborgGT]

My driver side headlight hasn't been sitting right since I installed it after the accident, fixed that. Installed my DIY grille, though I need to raid a junkyard for proper mounts (also broken...), zip ties will work for now (pics soon, looks sick, imo!). Finished routing sound system power wires into engine bay. Looked around bay for unnecessary parts to get rid of for a wire tuck once I get the new engine; cruise control is going, probably deleting power steering, likely getting an Optima battery to relocate to the trunk. Gotta think of a way to mount a 10-12" sub, small amp, battery, and small 'essentials' toolbox back there.

Tomorrow I'll finally have enough for the Prelude tranny, so hopefully my days off next week are before the weekend so I can install it. Explicit Speed Performance is offering us Accord tuners at CB7Tuner.com a 'tax season sale' on motor mounts and crossmember/torque strut assemblies; if my return is enough, I'll snag some mounts.

Also replaced a blinker bulb in my mom's '98 Cavy.

 

[Stotty]

New tail pipes just arrived...

Off a 996 GT3 mk1 and at least double the size of the weedy looking standard ones.

Will get them fitted this weekend and hopefully get some photo's and a sound file complete with the sports exaust

 

[misnblu]

You better.
Nice tips though.

 

[ND4SPD]

New front pads and discs. And getting my wipers finally fixed after someone vandalized them on halloween.

 

[Stotty]

Bloody hell, how difficult should it be to fit 2 tail pipes?

Skived off work yesterday afternoon to fit them... thought an hour would be plenty. Unfortunately it didn't work out like that but I finally managed to get the 2nd one tightened up in the pitch black last night, but I'm missing most of the skin on my fingers and hands, and with some fair sized bruises on my wrists and forearms. There's just zero room to get at the clamp (reaching between the cats and exhaust inside the rear bumper), and when you get to it, the socket handle moves about 50mm in each direction... stupid German design

Anyway, pics... they still need a bit of adjusting, but I didn't have the motivation to do it today.

Before

After

Video (just finished washing it, so a bit of water vapor)

And a post wash pic too...

 

[mustangGT90210]

Lookin' good; now get them puppies aligned and you'll be crusin' in style! Are they just tips, or a new muffler with tips, or what? Any sound differences?

 

[Stotty]

Tips, and they make virtually no difference to the sound vs the standard tips (just look better IMO)... the big difference came when I had the sports backboxes fitted last month.

 

[Slick Rick]

I love that shape especially the Carrera 4S and the turbo. Yous should get a turbo rear spoiler they look sexy. Is the Turbo wider than the regular carrera too? Like the arches come out more....

 

[misnblu]

Looking really good Stotty.
Other than having to align them up a bit, they look so much more like something Porsche would have as tips than what was on the car originally.
And hey, I hear you on the German engineering being a pain but that's what we expect from the Germans and their cars.

 

[TheBook]

Figured out why my drivers' side power mirror wasn't working.

Some muppet replaced the factory power one with a factory non-power one, and neglected to tell anyone about it.

 

[McLaren]

Haven't been done yet, but got some new stickers for the TL. 1 chrome, 2 anthracite, & 2 stencil (looks like it's etched into the glass).

The 2 stencils are going behind my rear windows, but I can't decide where to place the chrome one.

 

[Stotty]

I love that shape especially the Carrera 4S and the turbo. Yous should get a turbo rear spoiler they look sexy. Is the Turbo wider than the regular carrera too? Like the arches come out more....

Yes, the 996 C4S and Turbo both have wider rear wings and track... so 12" rears with 315/30 rear tyres as opposed to 10's with 265/35's or 11's with 285/30's. They are both fine cars (the turbo inparticular, is a great car), but I like the purity of the RWD chassis, and the performance of the NA versions is more than enough 90% of the time (300bhp and c.1,300kg).

Ideal for me would be the wider body with the RWD chassis, but that combination is only available on 993's (C2S and C4S) and also the 997 in GT3RS (c.£100K) and sports classic (c.£140K) guise.... both of which are slightly out of my price bracket.

 

[Sureboss]

Porsche powah!

Looking and sounding good, sounds better from inside though 👍

 

[Barracuda]

Got it a bit muddy. Went down this small dirt road I like and got to a 90 degree turn, put it in second, got the ass end all the way out and even kept oversteering for part of the straight bit afterward. Then there was a nice big puddle which I drove (dove is more like it) through and got the Volvo decently muddy.

Now I just need to wait for my paycheck and I can really get her muddy the next time it rains... after I fix the billion things that are wrong with it of course.

 

[opendriver]

Removed part of the suck-box that Mitsubishi calls an intake. Somewhat increased performance, also sounds better too.

 

[mustangGT90210]

Found an extra spark plug rolling around the engine bay last week, it was a platinum plug, so I went about checking the plugs in the head to see if they were plats or the stock coppers. Long story short, I took my intake off, got to a plug, found that it's either a 3/4s or 9/16s size plug, not a 5/8s. I didn't know there were different sizes at the time, so I got mad, and didn't drive her all day

 

[Barracuda]

Found out later when I went down to my car that I broke the right fog light mount on my off-road adventure

Oh well, will have to get one when I go to the junkyard. She's really starting to give me a ton of problems but somehow I still like her, even if she is a bitch sometimes.

 

[mustangGT90210]

Sounds like your typical woman.


If it's got tires or tits, it's gonna give you problems.