i am a bit confused about projectors and HID's i understand that HID stands for high intensity discharge and i understand that the HID's emit a light that runs on a much higher frequency/temp than a standard style headlamp which gives more visibility, more accurate aim of light? but thats about all i know. i just got a few questions that i had a hard time finding!

When you look at an evo... one w/ HID's looks identical to one without HID's when the power is off. But when they are on how much different does the light emitted look? How do they behave? do the projectors have the bluish tint also?How intense can you make the light? ie. - if upgraded bulbs are installed into the projectors that come on gsr without HID's will they take on the high intensity blueish or purpleish tint look that the HID's have? does anyone have any pics to compare?

Also, i know the perfomance/mechanics of the two are completely different. Could anyone explain or link me to an explaination as to how they work and why they are better than standard projectors...ive googled it some but dont really come up with anything great. I would like to have high visibility as well as ill be driving at night a considerable amount working as a paramedic in boston (funny shifts)
I guess im just trying to use this to help me decide whether or not to go with SSL when i go out and get the IX in a couple weeks...Lighting on a car to me is very important as far as looks go it really defines the car IMO. TIA

 

Well there is a big difference between HID's and projectors. When the lights are off you can still tell when an evo has HID's by just looking at the inside of the headlamp. The projectors don't have a bluish tint. Projectors just use a normal halogen bulb so it gives off just a white light sometimes close to yellow if your headlamps are dirty. HID's are very crisp and give a much better viewing range than the standard projector bulb. You can throw an HID look alike bulb in but no projector bulb will ever come close to looking like real HID's. If you put one of those fancy PIA bulbs in it will give of a bluish white light but HID's are HID's and if you want them then you will need HID's. I personally don't like those fake HID bulbs because it just looks like you have blue headlights. It's hard to describe HID's they omit different colors depending on the angle. Sometimes they just give a very bright white, other times it's bluish, and other times purple.

 

^probably the most inaccurate post....

edit: ...ever

 

Here's a great write up on HID's.

http://www.intellexual.net/hid.html#quickover

 

completly different ways of making light a Hid bulb has two electrodes seperated by a gap the electronics start and keep a spark jumping between the gap. If you google an arclight this is a electrical version of that. halogen bulbs use a filament that is heated till it is incandescent the big problem with a tungsten filament is that it melts if you get it hotter than 3200 degrees A hid has a higher color temerature more blue than a standard tungsten bulbs. To get a higher color temperatue they mix in other gasses like halogen which give off additional blue light when it is excited and add it to the bulb.

The original projectors get the blue from viewing the bulb off axis where the projector lens makes a blue effect.

To replicate the the higher color temperature of Hids and the blue effect you end up with bulbs with color temeratures from 3000 yellow to 30000 violet

The other bit is the higher the temperature the worse the light penetrates fog and rain which is why most standard bulbs are 4000 to 6000 degrees

 

Totally different gas used in the bulb housings. HID's use a gas that takes a lot more power at startup (turning on the light) than halogen bulbs. That is why there is a ballast to supply the charge the HID bulbs require for startup. This is also a reason why if you have a car equipped with HID's not to turn them on and off quickly, as you can damage the ballast/bulbs.

Additionally, once the power is going, it requires much less power to keep them on compared to Halogen. The blue tint is the temperature of the bulb in combination with lens, projector housing, and cutoffs. The link posted by South Side Evo pretty much sums everything up in 1 page.

 

stick w/ hid much nicer =)

 

I had the same question i wanted to ask.. The audio shop here does HID conversion as well, it's about 500$ for both headlights and he said he can adapt it to the evo.. I was worried about the heat generation as well, though i know HID lights emit less heat than the regular bulbs..


Wael

 

Non HID Evos dont get projectors, they get reflector based halogen lamps. HID's also used to be avail in reflector based systems, both Nissan and Benz used them for a few years but now everyone goes to projector. Its a more compact and accurate lighting system with sharp cuttoff regardless of if your using a halogen bulb or HID bulb inside.

Examples:

Projector HID = Evo w/ SSL and MR's
Projector w/o HID = Lexus GX 470 (high and low beam)
Reflector = Mustang
Reflector w/ HID = early 2000's Benz w/ D2R bulb and earlier 350Z models also with D2R bulb.

Dont make the mistake thinking HID is different from projectors, one is a light source, the other is the housing around it.

Basically,

Projector system opposite is the reflector system
HID bulb opposite is the halogen bulb

 

wrong...all EVO 8+9 come with projector low beams...2003 EVOS and other year evos come with HID projectors with the SSL package. Other years/models come with a halogen projector. The high beam is the reflector type headlight you are referring to.

 

let me tell you what you should know. projector is a type of bulb and housing assembly. the projector is the BIG round glass bulb like thing in your headlight housing... looks like a huge egg that is semiclear. the difference between that and a normal style bulb? look at your foglight or high beam, that's a normal style.

now the projector housing works differently than a diffuser type housing. diffuser types don't aim the light very much, they just point the light forward and it diffuses outward to give you your light pattern.

projector housings shoot the light into the housing, the housing is shaped with VERY precise angles to create a VERY sharp cut off and VERY good light reflection.

why point out the difference? czu you can use non projector hids, you can run projector hids but not in a NON projector car becuase the HOUSING is not gonna aim the light correctly. ever seen a civic run hids? civics aren't meant to run hids, so if you ever seen one run them you'll notice you're not seein' much unless he aimed his lights down cuz you're getting blinded by the wildly diffusing light pattern.

that said you can still run a non hid bulb in an projector housing, you still get the sharp cut off but you don't get the same amount of light intensity or color quality.

and if you want to learn about how hids work, then read the link from the sc300 site posted above.

 

If the Evo projectors are anything like my Mazda's then the halogen projectors are way different than the HID equipped projector. In the back of the Projector, the HID equipped projectors have different reflector housings than the halogen ones. Thus, if you were to buy a conversion kit (In my case H7 bulbs) and put them into your Halogen based projectors, your light "performance" is worse. The reason is because of the housings and the bulb type which causes light dispersion to be all over the place and the cutoff is not as clear or straight. You will cause glare to oncomming traffic.

You should research a bit before plopping down that cash. Are they doing a projector retrofit or just installing bulbs from a conversion kit. Retrofit is where you would take projectors from another source (another car or oem) and install them into your headlights along with proper bulbs and ballasts.

Here's a site where you can learn all about HID's, Projectors and retrofitting:
http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/index.php
http://www.hidplanet.com/

 

non HID Evo accepts your basic $300-$500 HID upgrade quite well all things considered (9006 bulb I believe).

 

u lost manual aiming thumb wheel if u go aftermarket
and u will need to drill the headlight lid and let the wires hanging around

and dealer may starts to void ur warranty


btw , I havent seen any EVo 9 in MA w/o SSL anyway
u may just go ahead and low ball on the price instead of trying save from costs of SSL

 

I went with SSL because i cannot live without HID's plus i like leather.

I just swapped out my stock HID bulbs with a set of 6k Osram Xenarc bulbs i had laying around. Such a nice difference. Super white with a tinge of blue. I also put in some better fog bulbs with a little higher wattage to brighten up the road down low.