I see all these kits but no idea what it all means. Can you take a look at this list and tell me what is best and why? Or if there is something else out there that is better...


http://www.carhidkits.com/volvo-517/...0-hid-kit-526/

Anyone have videos of their car with these kits?

Also i heard of this DIY projector HID deal that utilizes ballasts and projector HIDs from other cars...Anyone ever do that to an 850 or other Volvo?

Cheers

 

dont do it.
1. i know theres other problems to attend to first.
2. it looks bad on old cars.
3. cheap HID kits do nothing but blind and **** everyone off. you should see how i treat people with blinding hid's
4. The cops can see you coming from a mile away.
5. rice + cheap looking.

i sound like a jerk, and alot of people have HID's but thats my opinion and im sticking to it.

 

On a positive note. Go for the slim ballasts ones 6k. they will be nice and not look all rice.make sure you aim your light .

 

Cheap? Those are $80-$200 HIDs, those are expensive compared to the majority of kits that others are using. And they blind and **** everyone off because no one aims them, if you aim them properly they're better than normal headlights.

 

who switches HID's because they really need more light? and those are cheap. cheaper than 80$, only for a civic.
people who need more light simply get beastly fog lights.

 

And loose any long distance lighting? Nope, projector HID retrofit ftw.

 

Well in most states it's illegal to drive with your fog lights on all the time. And you don't lose long distance lighting! I have 6k hid on my car. I don't blind people as I adjusted them right. I didn't loss distance. it's a big improvement over the stock light out put. And oh yea my car dosent look like a cheap Civic. I respect your opinion on not likeing HID on older car or whatever but I don't remember reading him asking for your personal opinion on HID. But for help to choose the right one for him. Bealive me once you install HID you will never go back to original lighting. For high beams it's a diffrent story keep the hallogen bulbs in this case you will lose distance and light out put.

 

I wasn't saying HID fogs isn't a bad idea, it's that if it is too intesne, the intense foregroud lighting makes it harder for the eyes to pick up on the long distance lighting. That's why a lot of OEM HID projectors have a foreground limiter which limits the amount of light in front of the car so the driver can focus more on the light ahead

 

What? That's the sole purpose for HIDs, the light output and cutoff. I think you're just against them because you don't have them.

That's like saying who actually switches to round wheels instead of square ones just to roll better.

 

I like the way you think Sir.

In reality, what would you rather want in terms of lighting

This:




Or this:

 

actually i think that most places around here are quite well lit, we hardly even need headlights. On a back country road id sure rather have fog lights that waste sometimes up to 500$ on HID's.


also ledgends it looks like your lights are aimed WAYYY high, its really probably one of the worse aiming ive ever seen. as a matter of fact it looks like your trying to aim it into the other guys back glass. Im really not trying to insult anyone.
proper HID cutoff :


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i think if i had to have you HID's or regular lights, id definatly take the regular lights that are aimed at the road. It looks like you have a good kit, but aimed to high, lower it, especially for of is that drive cars.
Please not that the door handel on that door is at around 36" (3 feet) and its under that. Yours looks like its aimed 6-7 feet off the ground.
edit: like seriously, is your car parked on a hill? what are you trying to light?
double edit: its people like you that made me hate hate hate HID's in the first place.

 

Are you serious? He's obviously showing the cut off. His lights are properly aimed. Legend could do a projector retrofit in his sleep, he knows what he's talking about. And to say that you don't want HIDs because there's a lot of street lamps where you live is weird. Sorry, I'm not trying to sound like boostcreep or anything, you just give reasons not to have HIDs that are irrelevant.

And if you're fog lights are enough to properly light up a completely dark back country road, than your fog lights are not aimed properly and are probably blinding other drivers since the whole purpose of fog lights is to light up directly in front of you.

 

For future reference:

https://volvoforums.com/forum/showth...=29569&page=35

Why you wouldn't want that is beyond me.

 

he didnt show me those pictures, he showed me the one way the cutoff looks WAY to high. Honestly 90% of people dont spend the money and do it properly. Every other car around here has ebay HID kits. The OP posted a good example + didnt ask anything about cutoffs, and spoke nothing about retrofitting anything, what do you want me to do tell him to put that on his car and it wont help anything?those really do nothing but blind and ive seen alot of them now. I admit that i dont know anything about HID's or about the kit tested, however i do drive alot at night, and can spot a cheap HID kit from miles away, (almost 100% of the time i see a good one its on a new Merc/Bens) You must admit that alot of people DO NOT use proper cutoffs, or any cut-offs at all. I agree that legends cut off is there, and it looks good, but look at how high it is in that picture...
No, im not willing to spend that much money for something that would just attract attention to the beast cops around here. I honestly cant say ive ever seen anyone with aftermarket HID's that had a good cutoff.

ive honestly never been in a situation where i needed more light to be safe on the road. Never heard of an accident caused by headlights not producing enough light.

Back country roads it doesent matter how bright your lights are or where there aimed, noones around.

p.s. and yes montreal took the most efficient way of doing there highways and lights up everything... (sarcasm) unlike the states where they use reflectors everywhere, and even with my crappy non-HID lights i can see for miles with just the reflectors.

 

*Sigh*
I really do NOT want to start a flame war. Matt, this entire post might make me sound like a dick, but here is some information you may want to know. First off, in that picture that is an Honda/Kioto S2000 Projector with a Z-Tail flicker modification, which is one of the best performing low beam HID projectors out there. It was not retrofitted into a car yet, thus not aimed. That picture was purely intended to show the uniformity and spread of the projector, to show the difference between that, and the latter picture of just a PNP (plug in play) kit which do blind the living **** out of eveyrbody.. And kits do not cost close to $500, they are actually closer to $40. In OUR housings, we do not produce a defined cutoff unless you have E-Code lenses, however we do produce an acceptable amount of glare.

Thank you for showing a picture of what a proper retrofit looks like when it is aimed. If you need to know, or have not been keeping up with my progress log, here is what mine actually looks like.



If you would want more light for backroad driving, you want High beams, not fog lights. Yes, fog lights do produce more light, but the point of them is that they are aimed low. Low enough that in fog or bad conditions, the light can shine in FRONT of you, but low enough that it does not produce any glare which will hinder any driving.

Gilber:

Thank you.

As for the more light answer, it is more of preference. Most people actually realized that with more light that is produced, it can more easily see when night has fallen, but if you do not want it then you don't need to get it!

As for the fog light thing, you do NOT want over glaring fog lights. Over glaring fog lights will hinder any distance driving. Hell, I can barley seen my cutoff when I was driving back from Canada the other night. Here is a great example with the new Lexus RX-350 projectors. They have specific imperfections in the projector bowl that allows for better distance vision. If you take away any light in front of you, your eyes will allow more light in to let you see farther out since you are not being overwhelmed with light to begin with.






The only way cops are attracted to cars are the idiots and the Honda's that get 8000-Kelvin or higher (Such as a deeper blue) that actually distracts from lighting. I have seen many car's with normal PNP kits with colors with 4300K or 5000K, and honestly from a distance they look the exact same with a car with D2R bulbs, such as early Merc's, Acura TL's before they moved to projector, and Maxima's before they moved up to projectors.

[Rant/]

 

i havent recently looked at your progress log. all im saying is that you did it properly ( in the recent pictures, the first one looks high) and 90% of people dont, do we encourage them to do it anyway?

 

theyre nice if stupid people dont get ahold of them. people just put them on and are like hey im done and they blind people. so if you aim them correctly go for it and get them.

 

I know this thread a little old but I didn't want 2 start a new thread to ask a question related to lighting. I'm looking for any threads related to retrofit projection lenses and aftermarket projection lenses like the projection lenses ipd sells. Has anyone on this forum installed the ipd projection lenses? Do you have pics? Retrofit pics?