Just put in HID's today but headlight brightness still dull

[brandnew161]

I bought my tsi with aftermarket single projector headlights already installed. Since having the car I hated driving it at night because I could barely see anything. The street lights were brighter than the headlights. So I bought, and just installed today, a set of H1 5000k 35w hids. I noticed that the old bulbs were H3 Hella-Blu 55w bulbs. I did manage to get the H1 bulbs installed btw, just tweaked them a lil with the dremel. Anyways I still cant see crap with the new bulbs either. When I installed a set of 8k low beam and 3k fog light hid's on my focus the difference was like night and day. With the talon however I still am having trouble seeing. The projectors are aimed a little too low but still, I can barely see the light hitting the ground or the garage that the tsi was facing. Any suggestions? I dont see how the projectors themselves could limit so much light passing though. But hey who knows.

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[viperbenz1]

are those ebay headlight because i bought them too and i couldnt see sh*t so i traded them for oem

 

[brandnew161]

to tell you the truth i'm not sure. Along with the car came a binder full of receipts..i'll search for a part name

found the receipt. He bought the headlamps from nopi.com on 7/31/2001. The product is not on their site anymore so i coudnt see any specs etc. Part description is "eclipse 97-98 headlamp CHR/ION Projector style" Retail $580.75, on sale $360.95

For that price they should be the best headlights in the tri county

 

[chico904]

Any nighttime shots against a wall?

 

[97 GSX 97]

I'm no expert but I know the projectors that come in those headlights are garbage. Buy some TSX projectors and install them into those headlights and your light output will be amazing.

 

[brandnew161]

-there is not much light being cast on the wall to even bother taking a picture. The cutoff is faint.

- I was just thinking about doing a retro-fit actually. Not sure if i want to buy high end projectors or try my luck with a decent pair of ebay headlights.

 

[blackGSX2g]

Buy a set of OEM HID projectors...shouldn't be more than $100-150. Once you did, you will wonder why you hadn't done it sooner. It's like switching to a 16g from a t-25.

 

[azdave]

- I was just thinking about doing a retro-fit actually. Not sure if i want to buy high end projectors or try my luck with a decent pair of ebay headlights.

There are no "decent" ebay projectors if you expect anything like OEM projector performance.

The lights in the pics are just some projectors that are commonly found on ebay for $140 and the same exact thing in speed shops for double that. The projectors are crudely engineered to look good but do not perform well. They have a known issue of a small nylon adjusting pin popping off, creating really bad alignment issues too.

You will only really be happy when you get creative and install a pair of true OEM projectors (TSX) inside your housings.

 

[brandnew161]

i guess retro fit it is. I bought a set of projectors off ebay for my focus..costs just over $200 and the things are wonderful. Oh well time to do some shopping

 

[InfiniteGSX]

+1. I did the retrofit on my old 98. Went from having more light out of my cig... to having some kick ass headlights. I used BMW Projectors. But I hear TSX projectors rock.

 

[rock1t]

You could always take out the projector glass bubble (or what ever it is called) Then just drive around on HIDs with no projector, that will scatter a whole lot of light. Also it will agitate other drivers.

 

[brandnew161]

eh i'm not into pissing off other drivers. I hate when SOB's drive around with hid's in their halogen housings. cheap bastards. Anyways out of curiosity i took some pics of the talon and the focus to compare the hids. TSi is on the left, zx3 on the right. Sorry for the small pics but you get the idea.

Oh and idk wtf type of cutoff shields are in the talon's projectors but i'm speachless, looks like a hackjob.

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[blackGSX2g]

You could always take out the projector glass bubble (or what ever it is called) Then just drive around on HIDs with no projector, that will scatter a whole lot of light. Also it will agitate other drivers.

Absolutely not. That would be like taking the lens off of your eye and trying to run around. Not to mention the cut-off shield is on the bottom side of the projector. The projector lens (glass) inverts the light as it passes through.

Quick cheaping out people, the retrofit is far from expensive, and really not that difficult. Quit trying to duplicate the real thing, and just go for it. Please trust me, it is worth it. The very worst OEM HID projector is better than the very best eBay projector.

 

[brandnew161]

Alright so I took your guys' advice and bought a set of oem xenon projectors. They are out of a 98-03 Allroad Audi A6 and only cost me $74.00 shipped (used). They arent going to be as good as the TSX ones but i dont have that much money to throw into headlights. Hopefully these are a hell of a lot better than the ones I have now

 

[JLJ]

Stay away from eBay projectors! Don't even think about it. Someone backed into my '95 Tsi and broke one of the OEM headlights. It cost a fortune to get a new OEM headlight, so I bought the projectors on eBay.

The install was time consuming, having to pull the bumper and all that, but not that difficult. The eBay projectors would not aim properly, and the bulbs suck (H3 and H1 bulbs). After a week the halo rings burned out. After a couple of months one of the high beam projectors broke loose and was aimed downward.

I ended up buying a set of used OEM headlights and they are so much better. Even though the projectors look cool, they are dangerous and very low quality. Stay away!

 

[gst707]

yeah its because of your projectors... get stock headlights and it will be way brighter!!

my car came with those ebay projectors... looked ### but thats in my opinion... so i got stocks and put h.i.d.s... looks way better

 

[BoostedinSoFla]

Yea the Ebay projectors are shit with HID's installed...

 

[TJCTalon]

Yeah i have this same problem with my talon!
I havnt tried to replace anything yet, but I seriously cant see sh*t!
I have some sort of halo headlights, like what the BMW's have.
I think im going to go back to OEM