I may of been asleep at the wheel here, but with the stuff I have immediately noticed between the 07/06, not to mention the subtle job 2 stuff on the 07's, I noticed the headlights too are different. Since the headlights now come on when you unlock it, I have noticed a 'halo' around the headlight and in the reflection of of pickups in front of me in traffic, I thought it was just me. They did add serations to the outer lip to catch and reflect the light around the edges of the reflectors the 06 never had. Go figure. I'm bored at work and just thought I would share.....

 

Kevin,

Yes, they changed the reflectors in '07 Job 1. Not only is there the faceted rim, but they also changed the number of vertical lines in the reflector as well as getting rid of the bulb shield.

I wish they would have left the bulb shield in place. I wanted to get an HID kit from Xenondepot, but the light would be all over the place without the shield. I'm waiting to see what the OEM HID's are like for '08 and might retrofit it.

 

Yep... common knowledge for a while now...

Also you don't have a magnetic seatbelt "snap" on your passenger side anymore...

 

Uh oh. I just ordered a xenon kit. I didn't know about the shield. I wonder why they did away with it? I would imagine it would also have a detrimental affect on the halogens as well.

 

They switched over to the "button snap" halfway through the 06 models. I have the button snap on my 06 (Build date 5/3/06)

 

Heh, I really never paid any attention to it untill now. I'm not on the HID gimmick bandwagon so that other stuff doesn't bother me anyway. I like it just as you walk up to the car you can really see it. Pretty cool.

Yea, I always liked the magnent strap personally though.

 

05 light

 

06 light, anyone have a pic of the 07 to campare?

 

I'll have one for you tomorrow...

 

finally lol.

 

Not the best, but gives an idea of the 07 h'light....

 

It really shows with the lights on, but not so much from the front, just the 1/4 view.

 

Another '07 - I seem alot less vertical lines as well....

 

I don't know but that car is definitely a pretty color!

 

Here's a pic I posted when the '07's first came out.

Rob, whose kit did you go with? I put a Xenondepot 4300K kit in my wife's GX470 (factory projectors) and they turned out great. Totally plug and play. The factory harness only powers the relays, so the ballasts run directly off the battery.

The reason they didn't need the bulb shield anymore is that the H13 bulb tips are painted, so it acts as a shield. The only problem is that the HID bulbs don't have this shield, so even if it's a good kit that has the same focal length as the original halogen bulb, I'm afraid that there may be stray light coming from the bulb that will cause glare.

Please let me know how it goes when you get yours and please post pics. You'd be the first person I know that put HID's in the '07 reflectors. Thanks.

 

Thats what I am talking about.

It still amazes me how much trouble people go through for blue headlights.

 

HID has nothing to do with "blue" head lights, HID has to do with adding more usable light to the road. The color of the light produced is rated on the kelvin scale and is refered to as "color temp". For example a bright sunny day is aprox 4500k on the scale, an over cast but bright day is around 6000k, the clouds fliter out the red end of the spectrum. 6000k is considered to be "pure white" once you move above 6000k the light begins to shift to the blue end of the spectrum in say 8000k bulbs produce a slightly blue light. Some folks go as far as 12000k or 14000k which give you a purple light.

As far as the more light part of the HID bulb goes here is some more info. A standard halogen bulb is 55 watt low and 60 watt high, these bulbs produce 18 lumens per watt this includes high end bulbs as well assuming they are 55/60 watt bulbs. A HID bulb produces 72 lumens per watt and most HID bulbs are either 35 watt or 42 watt. Doing some quick math reveals that a halogen bulb produces 990 lumens a 35 watt HID 2520 lumens and a 42 watt HID 3024 lumens. Way more light for your money a 35 watt HID bulb produces 2.5 times the usable light that a halogen bulb does. It also produces less heat and tend to last 10 times longer as there is no filament to wear out.

The down side used to be that HID bulbs did not have a high/low beam built in so in car with 2 head light bulb setups like our beloved 05 and up stangs you gave up high beams. However there are new HID bulbs that move the bulb in the socket which adjusts the angle of reflection and gives you high beams.

I recently installed one of these HID high/low kits in my 05 and the night time driving difference is amazing. I had to adjust my lights down a bit due to glare, the install was a snap as the system is self contained and just needs signal from your factory harnes for on/off high/low.

I hope this helps clear up some of the myths about HID lights.

 

Cliff's Notes: HIDs produce a lot more light than replaceable halogen capsule headlights. It's not the color that makes it brighter.

 

+1! I'm not after the color. I want to see! I'm somewhat out in the country and it's very easy to over-drive your headlights. I upgraded the lights in my older BMWs (with OEM xenons) and the difference is unbelievable. I now shoot for xenon in all of my cars.

 

Just to add to this, there's a difference between Xenon replaceable headlamp bulbs (they actually inject a mixture of gas including Xenon to increase the lighting efficiency of replaceable bulbs) and HIDs.