Hello - So I great agree that the stock halogen bulbs in the TCH suck terribly ... I turned off my headlights the other night a few times to see if they were really doing anything, and they really weren't. I just ordered a pair of Luminics h11 Ultra White bulbs, and now a few days later I have found this very helpful thread. My question is - Those on here who have installed an HID kit, can you keep your Auto lights option or does that go away? Are the any disadvantages to the HID set-up? How much did you get yours for? Thanks much!

 

"..to see if they were really doing anything, and they weren't...."

There is NO headlight that will seem to be working in certain conditions, say a wet asphalt roadbed and especially with surrounding lighting "interference", street lights....

Most of the aftermarket halogen bulbs are pure "snake oil" and not much else, often being a detriment because of bulb external coloring which filters away some of the light that human eyes require for good forward night vision.

Remember Charlie the Tuna..

Starkist wants Tuna that tastes good...

Not Tuna that has "good taste..!!

Forget about "looking good" to oncoming drivers, drivers that mostly you will never meet or know anyway.

Most aftermarket HID kits plug into the existing halogen bulb receptacle(s), either for power or control, so yes, your "auto" lights will still work

 

Ok - So my Luminics Ultra White H11 55watt bulbs came today, and I tried them out tonight. Ultra white? More like Ultra Blue! I put in one Luminics bulb and one stock bulb to compare, and my eyes could not really pin point the difference.. but I swore that that Luminics bulbs had a lesser light output than my stock Sylvania bulbs. The attached picture shows that my eyes saw right. With us facing the TCH, on the right is the Stock bulb, and on the left is the Luminics bulb. Notice the stock bulb's light output is brighter and bigger than the aftermarket bulb. (Instead of being directly in at the center point of the car I moved more towards the Luminics bulb side and still got poor results from it!)
So bottom line.. is the previous post to this has it simply put. Aftermarket halogen bulbs do diddly-squat, at least these ones do. In the past I had better luck but that company is out of business due to some other things.
Hopefully I can save up some money towards a good HID kit now instead. .. For the HIDs, what color temp do you all have?

 

Talljetman2,

No matter what type of H11 bulb you use, the output will start with around 1350 lumens. Any coating applied to the bulb will reduce that output, not increase it. If you wish to stay with halogens and increase your light output, you will need to use a different bulb. The H9 bulbs available generate 2100 lumens but do require a slight modification to the bulb base to work in an H11 socket.

It takes me about 10 minutes to modify a set of bulbs (dremel tool on the flange and a utility knife on the plastic tab). These bulbs do pull 10 watts more than stock (65 watts vs. 55 watts) but with a fuse for each light on the TCH rated at 15 amps (capable of 185 watts+) there should never be a problem with "overheated" wiring. There is no need for relays, additional wiring or ANY modification other than a bulb swap.

They put out a whiter, brighter (50% +/-) light than stock for the price of a couple of bulbs. The only drawback that I have found is that they supposedly do not last as long as the H11 bulbs due to them being designed as a "high" beam. Mine have lasted for the past 10 months and I drive at least an hour a day with the lights on during the week.

As for modifying the bulbs, take a look at this thread from a RX8 forum.

http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=119161

 

Before installing any HID retrofit kit, you should be aware that they are illegal in all 50 states. The decision to make them illegal was made because they are unsafe. The color of the light, the glare, the uncontrolled distribution, and the excess amount of light all contribute to blinding the oncoming drivers. The inability of other drivers to see, in turn, causes collisions.

Police in many jurisdictions routinely issue tickets to drivers of cars that have these lights. Some also require that the cars cannot be driven but must instead be towed to the repair shop to have the OEM lights reinstalled.

More information may be found in the following links:
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...nversions.html
http://dsl.torque.net/images/techdoc..._Crackdown.jpg
http://isearch.nhtsa.gov/files/deetz.ztv.html

 

Steve,

If someone does a "true" retrofit by replacing the factory projectors with those designed for HID's, they will not have the glare associated with "drop in" kits prevalent on the roads today. Even using stock headlights, depending on whether they have a reflector style housing (very dangerous to oncoming traffic), projector style housing (with a horizontal cutoff to prevent glare but with the "squirrel spotter" style like our TCH's) or a projector style with the horizontal cutoff and no spotters they will still have differing degrees of glare.

The later style of projectors or a modified TCH projector (squirrel spotters covered) will still give differing amounts of glare depending upon the filament location in the bulb compared to a standard halogen bulb. Using a filament location other than stock will cause a different focal point on the housing and affect the beam cutoff. Some of this problem can be alleviated by adjusting the headlights after installation.

Most of the people modifying their headlights seem to be doing it for the "blue" or "purple" color that can be achieved (6000K to 9000K bulbs). Those individuals need to re-think what they are trying to accomplish. If the goal is more useable light, a bulb in the 4300K to 5000K range will produce much more light than stock and if done correctly, will not glare into oncoming traffic any more than factory HID's in other cars.

Either way you can still provide most of the benefit’s from HID lights by using an H9 halogen bulb (not to mention at a fraction of the price) without any legal problems. I doubt that ANY police officer will pull the bulb from the housing to check if you are running an H11. They can check for a HID setup though by looking for a relay harness or spotting the ballasts.

 

Yeah, a retrofit will have a sharp cutoff:





This retrofit used lenses from 300ZX HID projectors in an SC430 HID projector.

 

I have seen that modification posted on here before.. to tweak the H9s to fit into the H11s socket and whatnot. After looking into HIDs just a Little bit I really don't want to get involved with all the mess which seems to be out there about the retro fit kits. (Just learning they are Illegal in all 50 states, glare with the 'squirral flap' or whatnot, taking apart the headlight assembly to fix it, replacing the whole thing... No thanks). I'm going to opt for the H9s like I was orginally thinking about. I didn't get them earlier because I didn't want to hurt my stock wiring at all. So all I need to do is get a 15amp fuse from my local autoparts store and replace the current fuse in the box? Sounds simple enough. I only found one type of H9 bulb here in Las Vegas.. the base model made by Slyvania. Will any do?

I'll look around for some of those - another question. The 9005 highbeams do a pretty good job. Will an upgrade to a 'better' 9005 help out or do didly-squat like the aftermarket bulbs I tried with the H11s?

Thanks for the infos.

 

Brandon,

The TCH already HAS a 15 amp fuse for each light (4 total). You have roughly a 300% safety factor with the H9 bulb on the stock harness. All you need to do is replace the bulb. I am using the el cheapo Sylvania bulbs on my car (no need to buy an expensive bulb) and they work fine.

 

Ah ok - Sounds good. Thanks much for you help!