You have some absolutely very valid points, so first let me say thanks for updating me on some things. I'll admit forgetting about the H4 HID bulbs & the cars that had factory HID without projectors. I was flat wrong. I may have come off sounding like I want people to avoid retrofitting HID like the plague. I'm not. Uncountable guys have done it, using both the cheapo Ebay stuff & well thought out systems like you mentioned. They are obviously happy.
I didn't mean to have Daniel Stern's link there to try to prove my point. I just put it there so the OP had access to the info about the relay kits & incandescent upgrades.
As I do now & then, I'm just throwing in my $.02 playing Devil's Advocate because I just want all our members to get to hear as much info as possible from both the "pro" & "con" points of view to help them plan their stuff.
I'm still not being argumentative, but now let me make my friendly rebuttal. :lol: Those H4 HID bulbs indeed have a reflector, but I'm pretty sure they're not designed to be a drop-in replacement for an H4 incandescent bulb. Do they work? Yes. Are they brighter? Oh yeah yes. Are they optimized? Probably just a question of subjectivity, but I can't see how. In terms of proper optics, the housing must be designed for a HID from the word go. The Lexus & Prius you mentioned did not have projectors, but the housings were designed for HID from the beginning. It wasn't just a standard H4 incandescent bulb housing they stuck an HID into. Both the G35 & the Prius use H4 Halogen bulbs on the standard headlights & HB5 HID bulbs for the HID headlights. The bulbs are not interchangeable. They both have different part numbers for the HID & Halogen headlight housings, too. All I'm saying is if it were as simple as swapping the bulb & adding the ballasts, the OEMs wouldn't have two different assemblies.
I didn't say you will completely lose your high beams or low beams. I just said it would be a lot more expensive to do it.
In the long run, I always say "it's YOUR car, do what YOU want with it". I firmly believe that just because someone wants to do something I may not do doesn't make them "wrong" or stupid. I also love the fact that we can disagree on issues here & put our points forward without hurling insults & hopefully everybody finds out what they want to know. That's one of the reasons why MalibuRacing.com is the best G-body website on earth.
Thanks for airing things out with me. Hopefully we got decent info out for the members.
Tommy
I didn't mean to have Daniel Stern's link there to try to prove my point. I just put it there so the OP had access to the info about the relay kits & incandescent upgrades.
As I do now & then, I'm just throwing in my $.02 playing Devil's Advocate because I just want all our members to get to hear as much info as possible from both the "pro" & "con" points of view to help them plan their stuff.
I'm still not being argumentative, but now let me make my friendly rebuttal. :lol: Those H4 HID bulbs indeed have a reflector, but I'm pretty sure they're not designed to be a drop-in replacement for an H4 incandescent bulb. Do they work? Yes. Are they brighter? Oh yeah yes. Are they optimized? Probably just a question of subjectivity, but I can't see how. In terms of proper optics, the housing must be designed for a HID from the word go. The Lexus & Prius you mentioned did not have projectors, but the housings were designed for HID from the beginning. It wasn't just a standard H4 incandescent bulb housing they stuck an HID into. Both the G35 & the Prius use H4 Halogen bulbs on the standard headlights & HB5 HID bulbs for the HID headlights. The bulbs are not interchangeable. They both have different part numbers for the HID & Halogen headlight housings, too. All I'm saying is if it were as simple as swapping the bulb & adding the ballasts, the OEMs wouldn't have two different assemblies.
I didn't say you will completely lose your high beams or low beams. I just said it would be a lot more expensive to do it.
In the long run, I always say "it's YOUR car, do what YOU want with it". I firmly believe that just because someone wants to do something I may not do doesn't make them "wrong" or stupid. I also love the fact that we can disagree on issues here & put our points forward without hurling insults & hopefully everybody finds out what they want to know. That's one of the reasons why MalibuRacing.com is the best G-body website on earth.
Thanks for airing things out with me. Hopefully we got decent info out for the members.
Tommy