Headlight projector retrofit - HIDs to the max!

The D2S high beam appears quite dimmer, and also had a greenish hue to it in those pictures. The low's seemed about the same as far as brightness across the 3 (assuming I'm following his pictures correctly). However, the issue I have with the pictures is that they are either cropped on some or there's a zoom that was used on some. It's hard to get a true light output comparison, IMO, because of that. Maybe it's just me, though? Or did I totally interpret everything incorrectly in his pictures?

 

Thanks for the reminder. I almost forgot I had 55W ballast already installed. So I guess I need to go for the FXR set up.

 

I think the 2nd mini picture has a different white balance setup than the others.

 

As I read further in that thread, I believe he said they were cell phone pictures. That would explain that, I believe. I hate taking pictures with my cell phone for anything that I want to be good in the end. Even though my cell has an HD camera in it at 8MP. I just don't feel you get quite as good as with a good camera, but that's quite off topic!

 

Each picture has its own purpose in that regard. The blank tan wall is nice to show the cutoffs from specific distances, but the pictures in this other thread were great because they showed light dispersement (sp?) from a distance, including sides. My issue was that, it didn't give an exact comparison with regard to the "zoom" aspect, but I also don't know the exact conditions used to do the pictures. It looked like different zooms were used on the low beams in each picture. It could just be the pictures, etc, but I like exact conditions (as much as possible) when comparison pictures are taken. I know, I'm picky and it's kind of personal preference at that point.

 

One more comparison of the Mini H1 and FXR
from JVX's post @ HID Planet
I ordered the Mini H1 with 55w Ballast and Philips H1 6000k bulb.

 

I called TRS before I placed my order, and I was told that the FXR has 10% more output than Mini H1.
I think that 10% is not worth the the extra effort of cutting and grinding.
I got my Mini H1 with GG Shrouds for 100 shipped and FXR with GG shrouds goes 150+

The only thing I worry about is the authenticity of my Philips H1 bulb.

 

For my halogen H4 housing, the back of the headlight has a rubber boot. H1 is smaller than H4 so it goes through the hole with gap. I just filled it in and sealed it with electric tape.

weidake has package #6 so I assume he has OEM HIDs so he would be in the same boat as F8L.

 

I know this is off topic,but I have a question about the cut off. My car has the LED HID's and I feel the beam is lower then I'm used to from two previous HID lights.

If I'm parked in garage approx 6 feet from wall and have lights on ,How high up will the cut off be? I don't recall my mini cooper and Cadillac STS Hid's seeming this low.

 

Wait, so F8L, you are now recommending against using the Mini D2S?? I was just about to buy them. I don't understand the issue with the headlight cover.. Do you mean the projector doesn't fit inside the headlight housing?

 

Okay great. I just talked to a guy at TRS and he was kinda saying that you could try using a D2H bulb in the back with the D2S projector if there were some clearance issues. I'll have to look up what the D2H looks like so I can get an idea about that.

On their website it states that it gets an extra half inch of clearance behind the bulb.. so I don't know how much clearance you need behind the D2S for that to work out well.

 

Project starts this Friday. I will soon find out. Will keep y'all updated.

 

Just for the record, the way I recall it, the proper beam adjustment for low beams was a 4 inch drop at 25 feet distance, not 2 inches (2 inches to me could be too high, especially with modified, higher wattage HID headlights. If I had 1-2 people flash me on a level road, I'd adjust down to 3 or 4 inches drop, but it would depend on oncoming traffic's opinion). But the standard might be different with the newer dual-approved U.S./Euro beam pattern with the sharper cutoff. This was from back in the day when any sharp cutoff Euro beam pattern was technically not legal in the U.S., and all we had that was legal was the nasty, useless, fuzzy beam splotch from the original U.S. standard. That was a nasty standard, and too many cars are still using it!

And I want to thank you headlight guys for all the info, experimenting, and beam-shot pics of what you're trying out. That'll be a huge help to me later when I get a Prius if I can't get by with the stock headlights.