The Great Quest for Headlights

[KKaWing]

You remove a plastic tab at the connector (google h9 to h11 and a certain impreza forum will have a diy guide). Oh does the fiesta need the metal tab trimmed to or just the plastic one?

 

[MMMTRBO]

I actually brought a xenon depot led kit from jproy.. They are great! I'm constantly getting high beams flashed at me because people think my high beams are on.

Please aim your headlights correctly. If others are flashing you it's a safety hazard that needs to be addressed.

 

[blurred]

You remove a plastic tab at the connector (google h9 to h11 and a certain impreza forum will have a diy guide). Oh does the fiesta need the metal tab trimmed to or just the plastic one?

Needs both. I have a nice set of snips that cut it like butter.

 

[TheStig]

Crap just got an email from Xenon depot, the lights are back ordered and wont ship for a week.

Oh well get to wait.

 

[Chris G]

Crap just got an email from Xenon depot, the lights are back ordered and wont ship for a week.

Oh well get to wait.

Same here.

 

[TheStig]

Guess their 4th of July sale was popular

 

[Chris G]

Yeah I am in no rush so it's all good.

 

[TheStig]

I was hopeful to get them in this weekend, but I will likely get the fogs by then and can install them. Just wanted to do them all at once.

 

[C. love]

I personally threw a set of cheap HID's in mine. They work ok for the 39 bucks I spent. I only did the low
beams as making the high beam HID's work would have entailed cutting splicing and maybe even drilling a hole for the wires to run in and that was no bueno.

I may need to check these others you guys are talking about out

 

[TheStig]

I personally threw a set of cheap HID's in mine. They work ok for the 39 bucks I spent. I only did the low
beams as making the high beam HID's work would have entailed cutting splicing and maybe even drilling a hole for the wires to run in and that was no bueno.

I may need to check these others you guys are talking about out

I would remove those ASAP, they are potentially blinding other drivers with hot spots caused by lenses not designed for HID setups. Factory HID is 99.99% of the time using a projector to help harness and focus the extreme amount of light output, people will argue that there WAS factory "reflector lens HID's" back in the day, which is true but obviously you see that trend did not catch on.

Ive done it myself, two different cars before i dropped in HID kits then when i traded one of them in for a factory projector HID equipped car, it was a revelation. No longer were large highway signs painful to view at night or getting flashed by other cars. The fatigue drop in HID kits can cause for the driver is staggering.

The sample size of these LED drop in kits is small, so take anything with a hefty grain of salt, but they appear to be a very good solution until one of two things happens. Those being either A. Aftermarket makes a worthwhile (and not ricey) replacement light set that features projectors OR B. The price of the EUDM projector headlights in the proper cutoff become more affordable. I guess plan C would be getting a retrofit done but at likely around $1,000 cost, its up there as the most expensive plus weeks of downtime or buying a spare set of headlights.

 

[C. love]

To be honest dont care, but for what its worth havent gotten a single "hey asshole turn off your brights" flash or have I ever gotten "blinded" by reflective signs. I appreciate the input though.

 

[DirtyBlueshirt]

What's the lumen output of the LED versus the stock halogen? Last I researched a few months ago the "headlight" LEDs still did not match the lumens of stock halogens (resulting in a dimmer light output).

 

[blurred]

To be honest dont care, but for what its worth havent gotten a single "hey asshole turn off your brights" flash or have I ever gotten "blinded" by reflective signs. I appreciate the input though.

You should care... These headlights do not have a good enough reflector to attempt hids. There is a big ball of glare around your car and of course people know you don't have your high beams on they just close their eyes and put up with it until you're past then try to readjust their eyes so they can see again.
You also are seeing less because the light is just spread out in a ball and have 2 tall hotspots (a projector has only a narrow hotspot under the cutoff that gives the good distance lighting) that shine brightly on the road in front of you but you lose out down the road... It's unfortunate that you choose to be ignorant... But your lights suck.

 

[blurred]

What's the lumen output of the LED versus the stock halogen? Last I researched a few months ago the "headlight" LEDs still did not match the lumens of stock halogens (resulting in a dimmer light output).

Technically they are about double, however that light isn't projected forward properly because of his LED light behaves and also that the light source is not 360deg as the reflectors were designed for.
H11 - 1300lumens
Led - 2400 lumens (claimed), more likely 1500-1800
H9 - 2300 lumens
HID 35w in projector - 3200-3500 lumens
HID 50w in projector - 4000-4300 lumens

 

[C. love]

THE SKY IS FALLING THE SKY IS FALLING.


I know all the theories and reason but I CHOOSE not to care. I appreciate your long draw out responses but you would think with my short mostly to the point answers YOU would choose not to be ignorant and realize I wont be changing my thoughts or meter of give a shit any time soon.

Thanks for the input though

 

[DirtyBlueshirt]

You should care... These headlights do not have a good enough reflector to attempt hids. There is a big ball of glare around your car and of course people know you don't have your high beams on they just close their eyes and put up with it until you're past then try to readjust their eyes so they can see again.
You also are seeing less because the light is just spread out in a ball and have 2 tall hotspots (a projector has only a narrow hotspot under the cutoff that gives the good distance lighting) that shine brightly on the road in front of you but you lose out down the road... It's unfortunate that you choose to be ignorant... But your lights suck.

Damn, man... Abuse horses much? Just let it go.

 

[praecurvo]

Still looking for a sweet headlight solution with LED DRL's and HID projectors under $500.

BAM! Let's do it!

 

[TheStig]

Still looking for a sweet headlight solution with LED DRL's and HID projectors under $500.

BAM! Let's do it!

I wish, last i checked just getting LHD cutoff euro headlights was around 500$ without VAT and shipping. Then you can either drop in an HID kit with decent results or do a complete retro with a similar sized projector making it a fairly straight forward swap. Either way you would likely have 600-1000$ into the setup as a whole depending on how you make it go HID.

 

[D1JL]

As I have seen before, many people make comments without any knowledge on the subject.

Just because a light assembly is a projector type does NOT mean that it will work correctly with HIDs.
The light assembly must be built to use HIDs.

Personally I don't care as I have used HIDs in both types of assembles but at least I have tried.
That is my point I HAVE TRIED.

HIDs in the Euro Fiesta projector head lights DO still distort the cut line.
The good thing is that the light is so much better with these projectors that you don't need HIDs.




Dave

 

[frankiefiesta]

You should care... These headlights do not have a good enough reflector to attempt hids. There is a big ball of glare around your car and of course people know you don't have your high beams on they just close their eyes and put up with it until you're past then try to readjust their eyes so they can see again.
You also are seeing less because the light is just spread out in a ball and have 2 tall hotspots (a projector has only a narrow hotspot under the cutoff that gives the good distance lighting) that shine brightly on the road in front of you but you lose out down the road... It's unfortunate that you choose to be ignorant... But your lights suck.