D3Audi

Just passed a 2009-ish Q7 S-Line this evening that had halogen headlights with bright blue HIDs in the reflector housing. Why do people do this? What an idiot, took a nice car and made it into a ricer. The bulbs had to have been 8000k to 10000k in color, which negates any benefit of doing the HID kit in the first place.... Way to blue. Plus, if it had been darker, it could've blinded me right off of the road. It was more blinding then the sunset. Ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it was bad. I see this all the time with 90's Hondas, but it's the first time I've seen it on a late model Audi. Can someone enlighten me as to why anyone would want to do this? I somewhat get it if it's in a projector housing, but not in a reflector housing. So dangerous. Sorry for this rant. But just a tip to all owners of Q7s with halogen headlights looking to upgrade, Do it right, or don't do it all. you either need to retrofit projectors or retrofit the factory HIDs.

raj99

I'm 100% with you on this! I see this FAR too often in Civics and other cars which were never designed to have HIDs. It's because people like the "look" and don't give a crap that they are blinding folks. I did help a friend install HIDs in an older Prelude years ago, but we actually changed the housing so that the new bulb worked as per design and projected the light vs. simply dispersing it through the reflector.

Spend the extra few $$ and get the correct kit, if you want HIDs in your car.

jes

HID bulb conversions are illegal almost everywhere in the civilized world... so the true fault lies in lack of enforcement.

I always find the blue trend amusing, as most people can't see as well with blue light...

Info on why not to do HID conversions, including lab tests. Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply
Now all we have to do is educate the naive.

iconoclast

You can use HID bulbs in a reflector housing and many early model luxury brands did this... the bulbs they used are D2R and they were designed for reflector housings not projector... sadly the retrofit kits use bulbs that are not designed for anything except casting a blue haze in a broad stream of light that doesnt help the driver or on-coming traffic. it is worse in fog or rain. it is pure insanity that these are even sold let alone allowed to be on the road without severe enforcement.

arU4ic

This is a huge hazard, more dangerous than speeding by far. Not so bad when I'm in the Q7, but in the S3 it's super tough to see anything past the idiot with HIDs in his 1998 Sukuzi Sidekick.

iconoclast

hahaha @ suzuki sidekick. oh man. throwback.

D3Audi

Lol. Those Suzukis used to be everywhere. i think the worst are those egotistic maniacs who drive lifted trucks. they drive around regardless of time or weather with their 55W HIDs turned on in their reflector headlights, and reflector fogs. They will run you right off of the road. I wish there was more enforcement on aftermarket HIDs. i believe tampering with any lighting systems on your vehicle is illegal in the US. But IMO if you do it right it doesn't matter. Such as people who do E-Code headlights, nothing wrong with that because it doesn't affect other people in traffic. I was reading and some HID kits come with a "Glare Guard" which blocks light from shining downward in the lens, which if the bulb didn't have a glare guard the light would bounce up off of the bottom portion of the lense and cause the glare to oncoming traffic. In theory that sounds good, but in reality xenon bulbs are way to bright for the halogen reflector housing. Unlike the xenon reflector housing that's commonly found on older luxury cars, the halogen reflector housing has more of a mirror finish reflector to maximize the output of the halogen bulb. Xenon bulb reflector housings have a more matte reflector which helps reduce glare.


Here's a video explaining why HID kits are bad, it's in the UK:




Also, here's a video that shows how to retrofit a projector into the housing of a halogen light, the one in the video is a B7 A4 light to so it shouldn't be that different from the Q7 halogen light. I think this would be a fun weekend project, plus you could get a good quality projector with a clean cut off line, better then OEM :

iconoclast

i never saw kits with glare guards but glade they offer it. on d2r headlight housings they have those build in... if you look dead center around the bulb you can see it:

D3Audi

Yep, some of the newer more expensive kits have them, I never saw a lot with a glare guard before a few months ago though, they seem to be fairly new. but the price point is still really high because the only kits they are offered on are kits from companies that actually create high quality HID bulbs and ballasts. there are also aftermarket glare guards on eBay for xenon bulbs. but the reality of it is that the only reason HID kits are becoming more popular is because of their price point, some kits start at around $25 which is pretty intriguing to someone looking to do a basic mod to their car.

Here a video of a guy who made a glare guard:

iconoclast

great so most people who would do this won't buy these because of the price point. lol.