LOVEMYSC3

I put a new 5000k HID kit in my 1998 SC400, and I can't see hardly at all with them. I have taken my headlights apart polished and cleaned the projector lens, sanded and polished out the lenses, and they look better but not as good as my Silverstar Ultras. I put the Silverstars back in and drove it tonight, and it is way easier to see with them, than the HIDs. They are aimed perfectly and everything. Anyone else had this issue?

Blkexcoupe

iTrader: (8)

I don't find that hard to believe. The HID kits in the stock lights don't produce enough usable light. I bought a HID kit to use, and when I fired it up the first time I never wanted to drive with them. The light is scattered all around and isn't focused directly in front of the car.

LOVEMYSC3

Exactly! With my Silver Star bulbs I can see a much wider view, and farther as well! With the HIDs I have a very narrow and short path that I can see. I honestly think I am going to just send them back. I had this problem with my previous 2000 SC300 as well, so I know it is not just this one car. On one of my BMW's they told me that the bulb was too long and that it was not putting the light where it needed to be on the reflector, and I got them to send me a shorter HID bulb and it was much improved. I am wondering if that may be the same thing.

eknine9

iTrader: (8)

It sounds like the bulb is the wrong size or may not be seated properly.
The beam pattern should not change when you change bulbs, since in these cars it's determined by the shape of the projector and cut-off. Which are independent variables that didnt change.

NickTee

If you are using an HID bulb in a halogen application, it is no wonder that it is brighter. Even with halogen projectors, they are not designed for an HID bulb. The light spread and beam focus are entirely different, so you get poor lighting when you do it that way.
Moral of the story: if you want to swap to HID, do it the right way and put in a HID projector.

LOVEMYSC3

That is what I was thinking as well. The bulb is definitely seated correctly. I have the exact same Hid kit in my scion FR-S and my 2000 MR2 and they work great in those cars. The FR-S has projectors but obviously a much newer design. I've put aftermarket HID kits in every car I have owned since they were available reasonably, and never had this kind of result other than my last SC. I was just hoping to find someone else that had the same issues so I knew I was not crazy.

Photon440

iTrader: (3)

You meant to say "...it's determined by the shape of the projector and cut-off and where the bulb illumination is placed."

That third variable is the problem in this case, as apparently the HID arc is not in the correct focus point for the lens or shape of the reflector.

NickTee

My GTO, which also uses halogen projectors, had this same issue. The projector focused the light incorrectly and the light dispersion was horrendous. In order to rectify this I unscrewed the bulb mounts(which were secured with three screws) and manually moved the bulb back until I found a good position for the bulb(this was obviously done at night). I found that by placing two 1mm spacers between the mount and the housing, which moved the bulb back, made the light pattern tighter and brighter. It wasn't OEM HID good, but it was a large improvement over the horrendous dispersion of dull light that I had previously.
I am unsure if the design on the SC is similar, but if it is you can check to see if this same experiment improves the performance of the HID. Food for thought.

LOVEMYSC3

That does make perfect sense.

O. L. T.

iTrader: (17)

Most hid Kits are 35 watt kits. The silver star are 55 watt

Elroy19

I tried a few different cheap eBay HID globes in my OEM Soarer projectors, and one globe was horrible and scattered with no useable light, and the other was slightly better, and I did as mentioned and moved the bulb around slightly, use cardboard to shim top or bottom and tilt the globe up or down, and you may be able to get a good beam pattern. All the bulbs made to be plug n' play are not designed for a halogen projector or reflector, since the only true HID globes used as OEM are D2S, D2R, D4S etc, no OEM HIDs ever used 9005, H4, H7 etc globes. So you need to tilt the globe around to get a nice bright spot in the middle of the cutoff for it to be useable. The globes are all Chinese made and are never 100% accurate, most cheap eBay globes I have looked at you can see the glass is not even placed square in the holder, and is off at an angle.

Mine was quite reasonable with the bulbs shimmed in my RHD JDM projectors, but I eventually went the retrofit route as I was always going to and used some cheap Morimoto D2S 3.0 projectors and the beam pattern is 1000 times better. Even with proper HID projectors you still need to manipulate the globes slightly in their holder to get a nice hotspot of light right where the low beam cutoff step is.

Read up on HID Planet and I got all my parts from The Retrofit Source.

mikef

iTrader: (3)

ive tested a few and the ones I use are Volt HID kit 6000k, they work amazing.

dricacho

Had the same issue with my Z32, it has projector headlights but designed for halogen not HID. HID wasn't around back in the early 90s. HID retrofit is the only solution to effectively utilize HID beam pattern.

LOVEMYSC3

Thanks for all the input guys, it's good to know I'm not the only one. Looks like a projector retrofit is in my future.