what is the deal with clear lights?

[DrEaM]

ok so i had a question.... i know for serious light outout these probly arent the best lights to get BUT at advanced auto they sell a set of clear 7"round lamps similar to these but without the projector and my question was does a clear lens produce that much better light output then the conventional lense and if so... are there any of you guys that have these installed on your car with pics? i'm just curious to see what they look like.. i have the silvania silverstar lights on my car now and they pretty much suck a@# especially compared to my blazer anyways heres a pic of the lights

 

[proxlamus©]

I really like these... I want to try them out.

[FJ 280z]

personally, i was wondering if these could be used in a HID setup, i think an HID bulb might fit, i saw these on ebay too and thought it might be a good idea. but how good can they be, 4.99 for lights, 25.00 shipping....

[Challenger]

i saw these on ebay too and thought it might be a good idea. but how good can they be, 4.99 for lights, 25.00 shipping....

 

Yeah I saw those also. Id like to try those to see how they work. Mine are shot and I like the bluish light better then the normal yellowish.

[DrEaM]

i think the reason why the shipping is so much is because thats how many of the vendors on ebay make most of their money... they sell products at a low price so that ebay only takes a small percentage out and then they charge an arm and a leg for shipping (which mostly goes into their pockets)

 

but about the whole hid setup thing... i'm pretty sure they would work but because the way the actual headlight housing is designed it would reflect light all over the place so i would give you that "crisp" hid look you see with most stock cars..

 

maybe if you took the front lens off and painted the reflective surface black and left the projector alone it might not look too bad..

 

there are 7" round hid kits out there but there is only one that i would think about putting on my car... i'll post a pic at the end... i was just wondering whether or not just having a clear lens would make a difference

 

 

 

 

both of these are bixenon headlamps and they last one is the style i want but they aren't projectors which is the way to go in my opinion b/c of the clean light output BUT the first light style looks so WHACK to me and it might look good if it was modified but the way it is for a thousand bucks it just doesn't do it for me

 

here's the websight http://www.xesighting.com/products_detail.asp?nav=1&cat=1&prod=93

[FJ 280z]

what is the little blue city light for? i don't get it, city light? is that light a bluish h1 bulb or something you can use as actual lighting while driving, then switch on the HID's when you wanna piss people off? can you hook up a strobe light to it and pull people over, i don't really get it. anyone know?

[AK-Z]

Those "seem" ot be better from what I have seem and installed (friends and other people, buy these off of ebay and ask me to install). (reffering to original post) Those appear to have a center projector lense, which most don't. I would question the quality of the glass though. Those bulbs can get mighty hot and cause the glass to crack. Has happend to a few of the people that I have installed for.

 

For what I'm doing, I need a HID kit for a Yamaha R6 (2003). BTW for those that remembered me posting something about this a while ago, I have it projecting properly now (many many many hours of frustration ). I'm going to have to re-adjust them when I can finally get started on fabbing the body work.

[frank280zx]

I got them and posted about them on zdriver

 

http://zdriver.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21765

 

anyhow this is what i found;

 

Well i did the test but left my camera in the shop! so pics will follow

 

Like i suspected .. these are bright .. but 100 w will do that.

The lens of the projector is a glass lens and has the same affect on the light pattern as my other two 'real' projectors' I have a maxima set and a BMW set i used for comparison, next to that a conventional set of h4 lenses

The only modification that has to be made is a metal plat that roughly runs like this:

............._____

________/

That blocs upper part of the lens to cut the light from seeding everywhere, this is what all 'real' projectors do have .. and it shows in the beam pattern.

I do have another worry, witch is the fact that the 'diamond' cut housing is plastic ... and 100 watts is allot .. so it would not surprise me if these units would melt, however i need to do some more testing.

HID in plastic is a def no go i would suspect.

 

I will cut a piece of soda can in the the above seen shape and will stick it in there for another test and post the results .. One thing we can state that without modification i'm very interested in what the upcoming traffic will think of you

So if with a small mod i can get half a decent beam pattern this might be a good cheap alternative.. but for real lighting use a real h4 lens! even the 'real' projectors don't give a nice cut pattern like real deal.

Also they would be great for driving lights ( elanore style) when you have a bumper less s30

 

So sorry for the hold up with the pics

 

so basically they suck without some modding

[AK-Z]

Is the glass tempered? I'm sure the glass will crack long before the housing melts.

I got them and posted about them on zdriver

 

http://zdriver.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21765

 

anyhow this is what i found;

 

Well i did the test but left my camera in the shop! so pics will follow

 

Like i suspected .. these are bright .. but 100 w will do that.

The lens of the projector is a glass lens and has the same affect on the light pattern as my other two 'real' projectors' I have a maxima set and a BMW set i used for comparison, next to that a conventional set of h4 lenses

The only modification that has to be made is a metal plat that roughly runs like this:

............._____

________/

That blocs upper part of the lens to cut the light from seeding everywhere, this is what all 'real' projectors do have .. and it shows in the beam pattern.

I do have another worry, witch is the fact that the 'diamond' cut housing is plastic ... and 100 watts is allot .. so it would not surprise me if these units would melt, however i need to do some more testing.

HID in plastic is a def no go i would suspect.

 

I will cut a piece of soda can in the the above seen shape and will stick it in there for another test and post the results .. One thing we can state that without modification i'm very interested in what the upcoming traffic will think of you

So if with a small mod i can get half a decent beam pattern this might be a good cheap alternative.. but for real lighting use a real h4 lens! even the 'real' projectors don't give a nice cut pattern like real deal.

Also they would be great for driving lights ( elanore style) when you have a bumper less s30

 

So sorry for the hold up with the pics

 

so basically they suck without some modding

[V8_DatZun]

i bought these a while back.. with tests on my car (not driving tests.. just sitting still) the lights arent really that great or bright.. OR blue... the light looks kind of normal... even w/the blue bulb.

[A. G. Olphart]

I know they are trendy, but the bluer the light, the more they screw up your (and the oncoming driver's) night vision. That is the reason astronomers read their charts with red filtered lights.

 

 

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[zero]

I have the version of these lights that have the halo (I know ...I know) and the projector lens...pretty much sucks. My lights were dim to begin with due to the old wiring and early style alternator and voltage regulator, but these definately didnt make them better.

[Guest Icebox240z]

I bought the cheap 5$ with high shipping cost Projector 7" lights off ebay awhile back, tried installing one, and found out that the 3 alignment tabs on the back of the lamp housing didnt match up to the 3 slots in the headlight bucket itself (was rather pissed about that, really looking forward to headlight upgrade, mostly just wanted to be able to put H4's in there {sylvania silverstars are the best H4's that are street legal}). I began wondering if maybe the really expensive Sylvania Xenarc HID kits would fit at all, or if it would be worth trying to mod some to fit the headlight buckets?? Anyone have any thoughts on the matter? That or trying to contact Hella (makers of the Angel Eyes) and get them to make a custom Angel Eye 7" to fit the 240z....again, costs would be incredible, but would it be worth it? Does anyone else think either of those sets would look sexy as hell on a Z?

[datofreak]

I never used them but I attached a picture of them installed.

[Brett6485]

I haven't tried these but sense I have an extra set of HID's i would like too. Also remember that HID's run cooler than Halogens since they are a lower watt bulb.

[capt_furious]

Blue lights or rather, blue-spectrum lighting, is about the worst possible thing you can use to drive by.

 

The ideal lighting spectrum for driving is yellow, due to its high contrast and

low glare. The blue spectrum will visually seem brighter due to the color temperature, but it produces the most significant amount of glare of all the spectra and less contrast than white or yellow.

 

A new headlight harness & relays, H4 conversion with standard halogen bulbs, and yellow foglights or a good set of halogen driving lights are as good as you get without going silly bling-bling and spending far more than you really need to in order to blind yourself and everyone else.

 

...this is, of course, my biased opinion, based upon a smattering of fact.

[Cruez]

I put some on a while back... but I installed new relays, wiring etc...

 

They were brighter, but it was probably because of the relays and wiring... not the lights..

 

BTW.. the locating notches on the housings were waaay off. I had to grind them off and make new ones..

 

http://www.cruez.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=17&pos=1

[Guest Icebox240z]

To Cruez: I like how you did that install, it looks clean, but where did you find the headlamp assemblies? off ebay? some other store? I was wondering about having to grind down either my taps, or cutting new notches in the buckets to fit existing tabs, but it just seemed like more work than I had originally intended (doesnt it always seem that way?) About how much did your headlamps run you?

 

To Capt-Furious: I do understand what you're saying, even though I dont think anybody has recently mentioned 'blue tinted' bulbs (unless you are referring to my suggestion of Sylvania Silverstars --- which arent blue tinted, they are actually closer to a white'ish/purplish tint). And as for yellow spectrum, I agree, however, they belong in the foglamps, not the headlamps (not to mention yellow headlamps arent usually street legal). Again, to each their own, it all comes down to how many tickets one is willing to get for their lamps.

 

To DatoFreak: Nice pic, looks like you did a good install....you got the easy part done though....now you gotta get the car on the road

 

 

PS: TO ALLLLL ---- Does anyone use the SMOKED HEADLAMP COVERS available from The Z Store? IF so, have you had problems concerning visible bulb brightness through the covers? Any suggestions?

[capt_furious]

To clarify, most of the 'Super White', 'Bright White' so forth labeled bulbs and HID systems emit light primarily in the blue spectrum. They may appear white, or have a slight bluish tint, which is primarily the reason for their marketing and popularity. However, the human eye is not as effective at discerning objects and maintaining low-light clarity(night vision) when lit primarily in blue spectrum light, the ideal spectrum is yellow, which will also appear white at higher color temperatures.

 

Remember Blu-Blockers? They filtered the blue specturm of light to reduce glare. Looking through them gave everything an amber tint. Most 'driving' sunglass lenses have the same effect.

 

The reason blue lights / blue coated lights / HIDs have caught on is marketing and appearance. They look brighter, and most people associate a yellowish or warm hue of light to a standard bulb with not enough wattage being delivered. I'm not sure of the exact dates, but for a period from the 1970s to the '90s, French lighting standards specified selective yellow lenses as opposed to 'white' or clear lenses.

 

Here's my source:

 

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/images/S-Yellow.pdf

[Cruez]

Mine came off Ebay a while back. The notches were not too big of a problem.

 

A dremel tool and some plastic tabs cut to shape and epoxied together to make new tabs.