I agree with having the LED 3rd brake light. It would have looked much better then the one they used that doesnt even reflect light that well depending on the angle. Even better if they put it in the spoiler, although I know they wouldn't for the spoiler delete crowd. Heck, even my '93 Isuzu Trooper had an LED brake light, the 1st year SUVs required them by law.

 

That's ok, I guess we will see soon enough

 

 

is that the new boss? if so they need to stop using the california special bumper for every special edition they make

 

I like the dark inserts on the fanblade wheels

 

+1

 

does anyone have a part# and im sorry if its posted and i didnt catch it

 

My son bought me a HID conversion kit for my car. He got it from American Muscle http://www.americanmuscle.com/hid-du...m-kit-h13.html.

I had problems before I even installed the kit. #1. The three wires on the harness don't say where to connect then. #2 the tabs on the bulbs wouldn't let me install them. I had to call the manufacture for the anwsers. Only after that I was able to complete the install. I have a write up about this kit on another forum (S197forum).

Here's what they look like at night, video's are not that good.


Low beam, then high beam.


One high beam wasn't working, but got it working after getting home.


Bulbs with and without tabs. Tabs had to be cut off to be to install.


These three wires had to be connected to the stock harness. The manufacture will have a plug for it later on.


After finding out where the wires connected, had the tape them to keep them from touching each other. Plus used a tie wrap to hold wires in place.

As of now the kit isn't complete, the directions suck. Once installed the kit works ok. Still trying to get use to the light.

My fog light will now need to be upgraded also.

 

Sorry to say dude but you got a pretty poor kit. Correct 9007 bulbs and harness that truly PLUG into the wiring harness are availabe from folks that take the time to properly engineer the kit. That kit should have gone right back to the vendor. No excuse for that on a car that has been in production for 3 years now.

 

I don't see the VT study as valid for what I need bright lights for: night time driving in BFE! ALL of there study was focused on seeing things (people or bike) on the side of the road up close with low beams.

Who would have thought that a beam pattern that is designed to put light out close to the front of the car and OFF TO THE SIDES of the car would actually be best to see things OFF TO THE SIDE of the car??? If all you are doing is driving around a dark neighborhood at night, then normal halogen low beams are the way to go.

But when I need MORE light is when I am driving in the middle of nowhere at high(er) speed. I need to be able to see something a 1/4 mile away. When you are talking about things in the road, having more of a spot beam works MUCH better than the low and wide beam of low beams for seeing things you are coming up on.

Case in point: On one trip in the middle of New Mexico, I was passing another car on a divided 4 lane road (two lanes in each direction). He had his high beams on (normal stock halogen lights) and I had my low beams on (normal stock halogens). When my car got passed him (I was only doing a few mph faster than he was), I turned on my driving lights.

These are 100w 7" European driving lights that sit where the stock fog lights USED to be. The instant these lights came on, I VERY CLEARLY could see a doe deer standing in the middle of the road about twice as far as I could see with the stock lights. When I hit the driving lights, we both slowed down and the deer decided to actually get out of the way. You don't want to high 200+ lbs of deer at 80 mph...

Now, I know that most of this discussion has been about HID vs halogen, but I just wanted to post to point out that the VT study is really only looking at ONE thing: objects on the side of the road. For an urban environment, this makes sense. But it doesn't help at all when you are out on the highway and need to see DOWN the road instead of BESIDE the road.

 

Except from 660 feet away, stuff on the "side of the road" is going to be in front of your car. Their study found that halogens outperformed HIDs in early detection of objects, with Halogen + UVA edging out regular halogens, and thermal imaging being the best.

I ran UNECE compliant H4s on I-80 in PA (no road lighting) around 0100 hours. While the H4s did a great job lighting up the front of the vehicle (with bright white light from Narva Ultra Efficiency bulbs), it wasn't enough to make me feel confident driving at 70+ mph. HIDs still offer only about 800-1000 lumens, and I've seen figures for the latest halogens producing the same amount of light.

So far everyone in this thread that has bashed halogens has used a subjective evaluation of HIDs as their sole claim (which is useless). Quantitatively speaking (you know, with science, numbers, math, physics, etc...) I haven't seen any evidence indicating HIDs are absolutely better than Halogens in terms of lighting performance. In terms of lifespan, the HIDs have the edge, but LEDs are expected to outlive HIDs and produce the same amount of light as halogens (Audi R8, Lexus LS600).

 

I am sure that you can find German TUV testing (very stringent testing BTW) if you spent enough time that shows that HID's outperform Halogens. Why do you think that Audi, Porsche, MB, and BMW run HID's? It's because they provide better lighting and farther detection, which is critical at Autobahn speeds. Also, a good indicator is what endurance race teams are using.

 

It *is* subjective.

My 'Stang has HID headlights and HID foglights.

I rented a V6 while traveling and wondered WTF was wrong with the dull, weak headlights that barely illuminated the road.

I'll continue to bash halogens, they suck azz no matter what some "scientific" study says.

 

But here is the problem: They (VT study) are claiming that halogen LOW BEAMS are better then halogen HIGH BEAMS! The ONLY what can be true is if the objects they are trying to see are way off to the side of the road. I don't care what kind of VES they are testing, if low beams are better than high beams, they ARE NOT testing what I need to have tested.

It can be the best test in the world, but if they are testing a senario that is not relevant to ME, then the data is worthless.

Again, this is saying NOTHING about HIDs one way or the other.

 

For aftermarket kits that are truly plug-n-play, check out xenondepot.com. I bought a H11 kit from them for my wife's Lexus and they're quality and customer service is outstanding. If the '08 factory setup won't retrofit on my '07, I'll go with another one of their kits as they now have the H13 kits.