On Dec 21, 11:56*am, George wrote:
ransley wrote:
A few years ago it cost nearly $1000.00 US to convert to HID, now I
see "kits" avalaible for $40-50 USD. I saw a Bosch kit for maybe $45
US , [ Bosch is well known to not make anything junk] are these any
good. if so for a person with aging night eyes, it sounds like a cheap
and great way to get " light"

We have a lot of two lane roads around here and it is really a pain to
drive at night with the glare from HID lights. I really wish they would
ban them unless manufacturers can come up with a better design.

The problem is the crappy DOT beam pattern. ECE regs require a
sharper low beam upper cutoff and also self-levelers for HIDs so glare
is only a problem when an oncoming vehicle crests a hill etc. However
NHTSA will not adopt the ECE beam pattern, possibly because of NIH
syndrome. Too bad, because they really are superior. I have ECE
halogens (H4 bulbs in a Cibie E-code reflector/lens assembly) in the
Fabulous BeaterPorsche and I couldn't be happier with the results;
excellent light output on both low and high beam with no glare (I've
had people follow me while I was driving another car on several
occasions, and I'm a fairly glare-sensitive person; a Ford truck, say,
will make my rear view mirror pretty much unusable.) The only
downside is that my setup is technically illegal although it would be
perfectly acceptable in Europe.

If you do buy E-code lights, be aware that the beam pattern is
different depending on which side of the road you drive on, as the
beam pattern kicks up on the curb side on low beam to illuminate
roadside signs. So a light from Germany, say, would work well in the
US but a light from England would not.

nate