Finally installed my Catz HIDs
07-31-04, 06:25 PM
#1
Original Gangster/Rotary!
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iTrader: (213)
Finally installed my Catz HIDs
Bought them on ebay last summer while hanging out in Baghdad, and they (along with the rest of my FD) had been collecting dust until recently. Mine is the 4500K Rising White low beam only kit, was ~$400.
The install was a breeze, by far the most uneventful install of anything on the rex in a long time. I am very happy with them, bright as hell, beams extend quite a bit further to the front and on the sides, really makes night driving safer. I still have to fine tune the aiming of the beams and will post pics once I do
.
The install was a breeze, by far the most uneventful install of anything on the rex in a long time. I am very happy with them, bright as hell, beams extend quite a bit further to the front and on the sides, really makes night driving safer. I still have to fine tune the aiming of the beams and will post pics once I do
.
07-31-04, 06:41 PM
#2
2/4 wheel cornering fiend
I just installed the same thing on my FD, except mine are the hi/lo beam kit. Took a little more time to install due to the extra wiring necessary for the hi/lo beam setup. The low beams are very good, although not quite as good as an HID with the proper reflector; high beams leave a bit to be desired, IMO, due to the reflector not quite focusing the beam correctly at that height/distance. Still a huge improvement over the stock halogens or the PIAA/Sylvania Silverstars bulbs that I had before.
The good part is that the reflector on the stock H4 light has a fairly sharp cutoff, which is a necessity with HIDs to prevent blinding oncoming traffic. You have to be pretty careful how high you aim the beams. There is also a bit of bleed-off reflection to the right side on my setup, so although the beam is positioned correctly to the front, someone a car length ahead in the lane to my right will catch a bit of glare. I'll be interested to see pics of your beam pattern.
The good part is that the reflector on the stock H4 light has a fairly sharp cutoff, which is a necessity with HIDs to prevent blinding oncoming traffic. You have to be pretty careful how high you aim the beams. There is also a bit of bleed-off reflection to the right side on my setup, so although the beam is positioned correctly to the front, someone a car length ahead in the lane to my right will catch a bit of glare. I'll be interested to see pics of your beam pattern.
07-31-04, 10:37 PM
#4
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Originally Posted by Kento
The good part is that the reflector on the stock H4 light has a fairly sharp cutoff, which is a necessity with HIDs to prevent blinding oncoming traffic. You have to be pretty careful how high you aim the beams. There is also a bit of bleed-off reflection to the right side on my setup, so although the beam is positioned correctly to the front, someone a car length ahead in the lane to my right will catch a bit of glare. I'll be interested to see pics of your beam pattern.
The lighting on my stock Miata is admittedly better. :/: The somewhat gay-looking barn-door lights really turn night into day. It lights signs at the top of the freeway for a good 1/3 mi.
08-01-04, 10:40 AM
#6
2/4 wheel cornering fiend
Originally Posted by mistaxko
hey kento how much did you pay for the hi/low beam hid kit??
and would you happen to know if the kit will work for the knight sport 4 beam headlight kit?
thanx
and would you happen to know if the kit will work for the knight sport 4 beam headlight kit?
thanx
This kit was a retrofit made specifically for the H4 halogen housing, so I'm not sure if they'll work with the Knightsports kit.
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08-28-04, 01:22 AM
#12
Original Gangster/Rotary!
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iTrader: (213)
Originally Posted by RXASSASIN7
where did you purchase this kit? and will it work with the r.e projection headlight kit if anyone knows?
08-28-04, 01:24 AM
#13
Original Gangster/Rotary!
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iTrader: (213)
Pic1
For this comparison pic, my fd with the hids is on the left and my dad's fd with sylvania silverstars is on the right. This is before my lights were adjusted.....they were quite a bit too high.
08-28-04, 01:27 AM
#15
08-28-04, 01:32 AM
#18
Original Gangster/Rotary!
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iTrader: (213)
Pic6
Last one, from the side. You can really see the difference right in front the car, really helps for around-town night driving, esp here in NJ with all the damn deer. As a matter of fact, when we were merging on the highway to take these shots, three deer ran onto the on-ramp in front of me. Good thing I wasn't wide-open throttle 
08-28-04, 10:37 AM
#20
Senior Member
Originally Posted by Fumanchu
Nice and bright but a terrible cutoff. I understand why they made it illegal to modify stock housings with HID's.
The "Cutoff" or "Beam Scatter" on the perimeter of the beam, while obvious to the human eye, proved to be difficult to capture on the digital..... For you old camera buffs, .... the difference in illumination brillance between the two sets of lights was like 16 f-stops apart... it was that dramatic.... Also, these HIDs, IMO, had remarkable perimeter coverage.
The beam color and kelvin-range of these lights, as seen from my rear-view-mirror, appeared to be easier on the eyes as opposed to some other OEM equipped vehicles I've been in front of... I suspect that's a lensing or parabolic-flairing effect difference caused by the focussing lense. You see this when viewed at different angles. Typically this creates sharp color shifts (rainbow effect) of the light beam, especially when viewed at different quartering angles (like when the vehicle is on-coming & approaches you on a turn) at night. That effect didn't occur as much with this setup.... Definitely easier on your night-vision overall.... Just my opinion..
Last edited by karken29; 08-28-04 at 10:42 AM.
08-28-04, 10:58 AM
#21
Originally Posted by GoodfellaFD3S
For this comparison pic, my fd with the hids is on the left and my dad's fd with sylvania silverstars is on the right. This is before my lights were adjusted.....they were quite a bit too high.
08-28-04, 03:01 PM
#23
Originally Posted by KaiFD3S
Are you not blinding on comming traffic, if you look at the beam it looks like it would, I want to do these to my lights too but I dont want to blind people with them and have them flash their lights at me always.
Kai, I'd rather have ppl flash their lights at me cuz my lights are bright, as opposed to why the flash their lights at me right now...
08-28-04, 03:12 PM
#24
2/4 wheel cornering fiend
Originally Posted by Fumanchu
Nice and bright but a terrible cutoff. I understand why they made it illegal to modify stock housings with HID's.
). It's actually very good with the FD lenses; the only problem, as I posted previously, is a slight bleedoff onto the upper right side, and even then the glare doesn't even come close to the type you encounter if you are looking directly at an OEM projector-style HID. As with any HID, however, proper aiming is critical to lighting performance.I've been too damn busy to take pics of my beams, and I don't have a stock headlight FD for a side-by-side comparison, but I'll try and get something together in the future.
I mounted my ballasts on the body ledge just beneath the headlight assembly. Fit fine, is close enough to the ignitor to avoid any problems, and doesn't have any clearance issues with the headlight when it retracts.
08-28-04, 03:19 PM
#25
2/4 wheel cornering fiend
Originally Posted by KaiFD3S
Are you not blinding on comming traffic, if you look at the beam it looks like it would, I want to do these to my lights too but I dont want to blind people with them and have them flash their lights at me always.