Xplosiv

So my 02 GT when I bought it, the chrome off the inside of the headlight was all burnt off. I assume the previous owner put larger/hotter bulbs in it trying to get some light out of it and that was the end result. I ordered a set of new headlamps from American Muscle and they look awesome. However, and granted I may have been spoiled by my HID projectors on my Evo, but the headlight output still sucks out loud. My wife's Xterra has better light output than this thing. Is there a reccomended halogen bulb for this thing? Has anyone put HID kit's in the stock headlights? How bad is the spray?

Glenn

look for the HID GUY around here. Search his user name.

Glenn

https://themustangsource.com/f811/

several light bulb suppliers here

Xplosiv

Searched his user name, said no matches.

No shortage in places to buy bulbs/lights, looking for personal use recommendations/suggestions.

StangMahn

I got the Silverstar Ultras in mine. They're not the best thing ever, but they're one hell of an improvement from before.

Xplosiv

How long do you usually get out of a bulb? I had silverstars in my Camaro and they burnt out about every 4-5 months.

laserred38

The only way is a projector retrofit. HIDs in the 99-04 housings help, but still, projectors are the best. I think it's HID_Guy. He does retrofits and there's another guy out there, Yuke's Retrofits that does good work.

Joeywhat

http://www.americanmuscle.com/9904-l...ors-black.html

Put HID's in the low beams. Problem solved.

laserred38

No. Don't. Those are garbage. If you want lighting like you had on your Evo, you need OEM projectors retrofitted. Something from Morimoto or Hella etc, one of the mfgs that OEMs the projectors for BMW/MB/Infitini/Acura/Ford etc

StangMahn

I've had the silverstars in mine for the better part of a year with no issues.

Xplosiv

Ill take a look. Definately not putting those projectors on it. They look like they belong on a civic to me. Might look into doing a retrofit, depends on how long I keep the car.

laserred38

There's another guy on Instagram who's just starting on the retrofit business. He's offering $375 plus shipping for his intros...

Xplosiv

Honestly more money than I feel like putting into this car at the current time. But I'll look into it, thanks.

laserred38

Yeah that's as low as you're going to find for a full retro, but it's the best. Other than that, just a bi-xenon HID kit in your new halogen housings will help.

Joeywhat

Those were about all I could find that were ready to go...but yes they do look pretty ridiculous. A retrofit with quality parts is generally ideal but you don't seem to want to spend the cash on it.

Please don't do this. It blinds other drivers, and makes you look like a ricer. If you don't want to look like some riced out Civic then just don't.

If you aim the headlights down far enough to not blind others, then you get almost zero usable light. There's a reason no vehicle manufacturers use HID bulbs without proper projectors. The light output is not ideal (projectors really focus the beam and turn it into some good, usable light) and it blinds the **** out of oncoming drivers.


Another consideration regarding light output is that it is a car that is pretty close to the ground...most any SUV/truck will have more light on the road just from being higher up. So don't expect to get a lot of light from any halogen bulb in your car. Even HIDs will only do so much, as the cutoff has to be aimed low enough to not blind oncoming vehicles.

FWIW, before I put HID/projectors in my Focus I used modified H9 bulbs (H11 was stock) which used 10 more watts and put out a fair bit more light. Even with a different bulb style the light output wasn't that impressive. There might not be a whole lot you can do outside of modifying your headlights for projectors and HID.

Joeywhat

Also, what bulb size do you have? If it's a 9007, something like this MAY work:


That's a 100 watt bulb (up from I think 55 watts stock). You'll want to make sure that the reflector housing and stock wiring can handle the near double increase in power, however. Also, you want to make sure it's not so bright as to blind oncoming drivers. They are marketed for off road use only, so they might be way to bright for public road use.

laserred38

I know what you're saying, and it's pretty much true, but the fact is the halogen light suck. Adding brighter halogen bulbs doesn't help. The 99-04 lights are decent with HIDs. I've ran them for almost 10 years now. I don't blind people. And manufacturers *used* to put HIDs in regular housings until the EU mandated HIDs to be in projectors so they could self-level. The US doesn't have the self leveling mandate, but did follow suit with the projector requirement.

Xplosiv

I had HID's in the factory housings on my MazdaSpeed Protege. Drove that car behind and towards plenty of people at night, the worst I ever got was the occasional blip of brights from someone coming towards me, mostly on country backroads where I was the only other light source. Aimed properly with certain housings it can be done. One reason civics and most trucks with HID's in the factory housings "spray" is because they have crystal cut lenses, not clear cut like the ones I have now.

laserred38

Exactly. Plus if you stick with 4300-5000k bulbs, you get less scatter. Glare is worse with blue light, so anything past the white colors of the spectrum makes glare that much worse.