When are those lights going to be banned.

Mister Man wrote: »

I put a set of HID's into my car the other week. They're the normal white light ones, instead of the blue tint ones. Only in the headlights, so it's not effecting anyone really. The standard ones were terrible, and it was a cheap enough add-on.
I haven't noticed, or been bothered by anyone with them before though. I do find large vehicles (4x4's) can be blinding, which I assume is more so down to them installed the HID kit and not getting them aligned

They are blinding people. Take them out. There's no "aligning" a retrofit HID kit, they simply cannot work in halogen lamps. Anybody who says otherwise is just wrong, there's not one single kit available which is road legal. Try and NCT it, it will fail as there's no proper pattern in the output.

This goes for putting HIDs into halogen projectors also. The cutoff pattern will be fine as projectors have a shield that blocks any light above the cutoff. But the output will be all wrong, as the focal point of a HID capsule is not in the same place as a halogen bulb. It usually results in too much foreground light right in front of the car, which fools the driver into thinking the lights are brighter than halogens. This is wrong though, as this means reduced distance lighting. When you're flaking along the M7 at 120 km/h, you do not need all your light 10 metres in front of you, you want to be throwing it as far down the road as possible, right at the cutoff. The difference is obvious when you drive something with OEM HID projectors, you notice how even the dispersion is right up to the cutoff compared to a retrofit.

keithsfleet wrote: »

Think You mean projector lens and not reflector..

I'm not familiar of any cars having used HID on reflector units as factory. If they are factory it will have the representing markings on the casing of the unit glass/plastic

There are lots of cars that came with D2R reflector HIDs from the factory. Off the top of my head, Citroen C5, Volvo S40, Volvo XC90, Lexus IS200, Nissan Maxima, etc. The reflector bowl is designed to properly reflect the HID arc though, rather than a halogen filament. Putting a halogen bulb into a D2R reflector will have the same effect as putting a HID capsule into a H7 reflector, it's going to scatter light everywhere as the focal point of the light source has shifted.

H3llR4iser wrote: »

On a separate note, what about LED bulbs, like an H7 but made of a matrix of LEDs? Will they mistake it for HID in the NCT?

LED bulbs do exist, but they're as bright as your parking lights. They're all Chinese made parts with small SMD LEDs. They'll also have the same problem as HID retrofits, in that light will scatter everywhere. There's no possible way to get LED retrofit bulbs for reflector housings. There's some chance for a projector setup if you're able to make a custom reflector bowl and have a novel way of getting a couple hundred degrees of heat away from the LED. OEM LED designs seem to be going in the direction of special side reflector housings that bounce the light off the LED at 45°, so the actual LED chip is not visible. The Leaf is probably the best example of OEM LED headlights. Look at one up close and you'll see it's a completely different setup to a halogen lamp.

pudzey101 wrote: »

I Disagree with this thread . I have my HID's fitted with correct lenses and reflectors , all aligned 100% and give me much more vision on the road . completely safer . And past the NCT last week no problems asked anything above the 6000k is a no no though

In the DC2? That has halogen projectors. See my earlier post

Mister Man wrote: »

Better take them out so...Someone on the internet told me too. :rolleyes:
They're in my full headlights. Explain to me, how they're effecting anyone other then myself...? They're off when traveling behind someone, in around towns/cities, and when approaching other road users. Only time they're in use is when it's dark, and no one is coming towards me or I'm behind someone.

You didn't mention full beams in your original post. I'm not psychic. But they're also useless as full beams as they take ~20 seconds to come up to temperature, and you lose the ability to flash your lights. 100 W halogen bulbs are a far better idea for your full beams, they'll put out way better light than your retrofit HIDs and are (slightly) less illegal.

Mister Man wrote: »

My Civic, which has failed the NCT (On emissions) passed without a blink of an eye with HID's fitted. They're fitted in the standard front headlight. (Purchased car with them already fitted) So either the NCT center I went to is really nice, or they're road legal

The NCT is not a test of road legality. Your headlights are not type approved for HID burners, making it illegal.

I'd love to see that setup, as they should have been failed on numerous reasons. There's plenty of skanger civics doing the rounds with HIDs, it's fairly obvious there's no pattern in them just by the glare they put out. They have to be the worst serial offender for HIDs.

Mister Man wrote: »

Rarely, if ever do I need to have full headlights on when travelling along the motorway. Even if I had the standard bulb fitted, I'm sure I'd piss oncoming traffic off, and the other person infront.

Again, I wasn't referring to full beams, only now have you said they were full beams. The same point still stands though, the reflector is not tuned for the focal point of a badly rebased HID capsule, meaning all that extra light generated by the HID is being scattered where it's of no use to you. You don't have the same output as the original halogen bulb. It's simple physics, no matter what kit you have it is not going to match up to a halogen reflector. But hey, don't take my word for it.