Headlight/Bulb Upgrade

[Roadhog]

Sure thing Spence. I'm assuming you mean 640x480 (for message boards)?

BTW, E-Codes will be arriving tomorrow!

nah not that low res. like 1024x768 or so. Just so they aren't 3MB+ a pic. my 1.5mbit net cries. lol

[Rennwagen1]

my 1.5mbit net

WHAAATTT!!!???

Oh yeah you do live down the valley. I am surprised you have the internetz.

[Johnny Chopsticks]

Okay, all previous pics in this thread are resized, and all latter images will follow suit.

So, I got my actual wiring harness from DDM in the mail the other day, even though I thought I already had it! Thing is, I already wired up the harness that came with the HIDs and have no issue, so I'll only install this if my HIDs are having trouble igniting on the first try. Besides, the harness that came with the HIDs is already wired directly to the car battery.

Also, I just got my Hella E-Codes in the mail! They look SOOO much better in quality than the pos's I currently have installed.

Front


Back


Side

So, to protect my investment, I bought some 3M headlight protectors by X-Pel. I bought these years ago, knowing one day I'll have a worthy pair of headlights to install them on...


And here they are, just freshly installed on the Hellas.


These Hellas with the HIDs will be the third set of headlights I will have installed on my car. #1 were sealed-beam Hellas, and #2 were cheap "blue lights" from China (and had a rating of 90/100W, which I'm surprised didn't fry my harness for the 3+ years I drove with them ). I'll be sure to take pics of all three at night and post them for everyone's enjoyment!

[Johnny Chopsticks]

So I went to the park next to the Gallatin Valley Mall last night with some tools, all my headlights, and a camera. I never moved my car as I swapped out the headlights to show how each pair illuminated the same area differently. Sorry about some pics being blurry; the aperture time was 1/2 sec. Enjoy!

Original Halogen sealed beams:

Low


High

Cheap Lenses with "Blue Lights":

Low


High

Cheap Lenses with HIDs:

Low


High

Hella E-Code Lenses with HIDs:

Low


High

I could not believe that I actually drove around with the cheap lense/blue bulb combo. It's easy to see a intense hot spot directly in front of the car, while the brights seem to hardly work at all. This is because the brights would actually point more upward than outward. So I had to sacrifice my headlight positioning as shown in the pics.

As for the Hella E-Codes with HIDs, it may appear that the sealed beam halogens are brighter, but this is most definitely not true. The halogens disperse more light to the sides of the vehicle, making the very front area of the car bright. However, the E-Code/HID combo throws the light in a more narrow beam, giving the driver much more viewing distance ahead. This is apparent when comparing the High Beam pics from both the Halogens and the E-Code HIDs (look at the trees!).

After I finished installing the E-Code HIDs, I took a drive around Bozeman. I was blown away at how much I could see, and never got flashed by oncoming traffic. The cut-off for these lenses are superb!

[Mikewire]

I'm at a loss of words - very nice writeup!

[73veedubya]

man i need to do this on my beetle

[MT-Getto]

How about the peeps coming at you? Can they see too?

[Johnny Chopsticks]

Yes, they can see quite well. The Hella E-Codes have an excellent cut-off to prevent my headlights from blinding oncoming traffic. However, brights are a different story...

[Johnny Chopsticks]

So I tried to test out my foglight HID bulbs over the weekend, and ran into a problem. The bulbs that were included in the 35W Raptor set are too long for my foglight lenses! The bulbs come into contact with the metal housing inside the lens that hides the bulb, preventing me from installing the bulbs flush in the enclosure. I submitted a return ticket to DDM, since these bulbs won't work for my application (unless I drill out the metal, which I really don't want to do to OEM foglights)...

EDIT: Or perhaps make a spacer of some sort...

[Johnny Chopsticks]

BTW, DDMTuning.com is having a sale on their HID kits right now, so get them while you can!