Okay so I'm a bit confused on adding even more HID's to my GS. I have the stock HID low beams but want to make my high beams HID as well. Is this possible and will it still retain the "high beam" if I convert them to HID?

Seth

 

it's possible, but the follow things to think about

1) if you have DRL (day time driving light), then it won't work during the day coz' the power isn't enough. i am not sure if that will even damage the hid kits
2) hid kits need time to ignite, warm up, and get bright. the purpose of high beam is to shine high quickly in most cases. so putting hid totally defeat the purpose of high beam imho

 

I thought about doing this awhile back but this is partly why I did not do it. To be more specific, I don't think HIDs defeat the purpose of having highs. It defeats one of the purpose, which is flashing someone. Because of the ignite and warm up time, you can't really flash someone quickly.

If you really want to do it, PM GammaLex as he retrofitted HID projectors into his highs. The only way I can see doing this is to change the way the lights work. You'd have to retrofit BiXenon projectors into the highs and have them on in low mode all the time. This means you would have lows on (as usual) and BiXenon high beams on with the lows (in low mode). When you flash, the shield in the Bixenon will move to allow more direct light working as highs. In this scenario, the HIDs are already on so the warm up time is not there.

 

excellent explanation neo!

 

Both of your answers are exactly what I was looking for. I have a 98 Gs400 and while the idea of both high and low beam HID's sounds good to me I don't really want to retrofit anything. Guess I'm just going to have to buy some silverstars and use those. Thanks for the help.

 

Land Crusiers and LX470's both come with HID high beams.... man.. forget about vision after someone shines them in your rearview mirrors.

 

Thats weird they dont even have HID low beams. Where did you hear this from?

 

I know they dont have low beam HID's. I didnt hear this anywhere... my family/friends have loads of Land Crusiers. Not US spec though... They are in the middle east. They are VXR models (top trim level is called VXR).

 

HID highs and Halogen lows? What genius thought this up?

 

Thats what i was thinking, ask toyota not me. But when someone flashes you to clear the fast lane... it feels like a big powerful camera flash

 

Middle East? Me too Hows Ramadan treating u ? I lost 5 lbs of muscle already

 

That is a weird thing that Toyota did. I have not seen the headlights of the two SUVs but how do you flash HIDs? When I turn on my headlights and the ballast powers up the bulbs, it takes a few seconds to get bright. If the HIDs on these SUVS do the same (and I can't see how they cannot), flashing would not be very effective. Now, powering up the HIDs and shining it one someone would be awfully bright.

 

Oh man, today, we had a Lincoln meet (I’m the president of our chapter) so i had to be there, can you imagine I went out, bought all the food, grilled it, and fixed it up, watched them eat and drink ice cold drinks right out of the ice filled cooler the whole day?

It was VERY painful...I was up at 7am, and stayed out in the park until 5PM. Sunset here is at 7:00Pm.


I dont know if i lost any weight, because i pig out at night

 

I know why you would think that, your explanation makes perfect sense, but remember, high beam bulb doesnt have that cover at the end of the light, so it doesn't have a problem with glaring your eyes like a ****. The other thing is, we all know HID's light up instantly, forget about the warm up cycle. I'm talking about actual power up time... its faster then regular lights, so it lights up instantly...plus if you pay attention VERY carefully, you will notice HID"s are very powerful the first split second they are first fired, then they dim and warm up. I guess you'de have to be flashed a few times to know what I mean

As to why Toyota did that, I have no idea, but in the desert, and rural area's, you don¡¦t really miss the sun.

 

I'll have to try my HIDs later. I know what you are talking about as far as that initial spit second. For some reason, I always assumed it starts to warm up to the normal output after that flash but maybe the light output goes down to the normal output. I should pay attention next time to see. Halogens seem to come on to the normal output quicker. HIDs have that flash, then fade to normal output. This HID behavior does not seem optimal for flashing. I am not sure how good it is for the system to go on and off that quickly either.

Still, what seems to be optimal or not may have nothing to do with what thresholds the HID parts can have. They may do just fine.