What dictates the beam pattern the headlights will make? I was under the impression that it was solely dictated by the headlight housing and reflector, not the bulb. The reason I ask is because the HID kit I have in my 03 cobra looks great, but the light pattern is a bit scattered. I just installed a similar but different brand kit in my buddy's 95 cobra and his light pattern seams cleaner. Do the 95 and 2003 cobra's have different headlight refelctors? Both out kits are true dual beam HIDs. The main difference being mine has 2 seperate filimants in the same bulb to switch between high and low beam, while his has a magnet and solnoid mechanism that repositions the beam.
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Headlight Beam Pattern With HIDs
- Thread starter Oh Three Cobra
- Start date
In pretty much all applications. Halogen or HID. It is the pisition of the Filamant (halogen) and the plasma arc (HID) in relation to the reflector and the reflector itself that dictates the beam pattern.
In an OEM application. The reflectors are different between halogen and HID.
Halogen and HID's are different. In a hologen bulb, you have elecrical current that passes through a tungston filament. The halogen gas in the capsule adds brightness and cooling, preventing the filament from burning up.
For HID's. Through the use of a ballast and igniter, you produce a plasma arc between two electrodes in a much smaller gas filled chamber within the capsule.
If you ever noticed the light and especially the color from a tig welder, you will notice it is pretty close to the HID light. This is bacause you are basically doing the same thing.
Don't get caught up in the terminology. Some halogen bulbs have "HID" written on the package. These are not HID's. This is written because the color of the bulb is supposed to match the color of HID's. True HID's have no filaments in them.
The problem you run into is that you are installing an HID capsule in a halogen reflector.
There is two problems I see with this.
One. Like I stated above. The reflector you are installing the HID into was designed for a halogen capsule. This I believe causes a lot of light scatter.
Two. The verious aftermarket manufacturers are retrofitting the HID capsule itself into the halogen base. This is so that you can install the HID capsule into your reflector. OEM Hid's have a different base and will not fit in your reflector. The issue with this is that you have to make sure the arc chamber of the HID capsule is positioned in the exact same position as the halogen filament was in relation to the base. This will ensure the same position in the reflector. If the arc chamber of the HID capsule is not located exactly in the same position as the halogen filament was in relation to the base and therfore the the reflector, the beam pattern will be way off.
If the arc chamber is positioned right. You will still probably notice some differences in the beam pattern due to the fact you are installing a HID capsule into a halogen reflector.
A lot of OEM HID applications use a projector lens. This is to combat the light scatter issue.
These problems are just something you will have to live with i guess.
In an OEM application. The reflectors are different between halogen and HID.
Halogen and HID's are different. In a hologen bulb, you have elecrical current that passes through a tungston filament. The halogen gas in the capsule adds brightness and cooling, preventing the filament from burning up.
For HID's. Through the use of a ballast and igniter, you produce a plasma arc between two electrodes in a much smaller gas filled chamber within the capsule.
If you ever noticed the light and especially the color from a tig welder, you will notice it is pretty close to the HID light. This is bacause you are basically doing the same thing.
Don't get caught up in the terminology. Some halogen bulbs have "HID" written on the package. These are not HID's. This is written because the color of the bulb is supposed to match the color of HID's. True HID's have no filaments in them.
The problem you run into is that you are installing an HID capsule in a halogen reflector.
There is two problems I see with this.
One. Like I stated above. The reflector you are installing the HID into was designed for a halogen capsule. This I believe causes a lot of light scatter.
Two. The verious aftermarket manufacturers are retrofitting the HID capsule itself into the halogen base. This is so that you can install the HID capsule into your reflector. OEM Hid's have a different base and will not fit in your reflector. The issue with this is that you have to make sure the arc chamber of the HID capsule is positioned in the exact same position as the halogen filament was in relation to the base. This will ensure the same position in the reflector. If the arc chamber of the HID capsule is not located exactly in the same position as the halogen filament was in relation to the base and therfore the the reflector, the beam pattern will be way off.
If the arc chamber is positioned right. You will still probably notice some differences in the beam pattern due to the fact you are installing a HID capsule into a halogen reflector.
A lot of OEM HID applications use a projector lens. This is to combat the light scatter issue.
These problems are just something you will have to live with i guess.
You mentioned in your post that you have two filaments in your bulb. If you have filaments, I don't think you have a true HID setup. Like I posted above, you might have bought halogen bulbs that have "HID" written on the package. If this is the case, it would explain the difference.
The two years do have different housings and reflectors. Both are designed for halogen bulbs.
All HID's have a single chamber, thus a single beam pattern (as far as the capsule is concerned) This means a low beam application only. In a halogen application, you have two filaments in one capsule in different positions thus different relationships to the reflector. When you switch from low to high beams, one filament goes out and the other lights up.
Since HID's have a single chamber, some manufacturers employ some sort of movable shield to block some of the light from hitting the reflector. When you are in low beam, the shield is in one position. When you switch to high beam, the shields moves, allowing more light to hit the reflector. The bulb never operates any differently. It's basically on the whole time. You just manipulate how the light hits the reflector. Basically if you were to remove the shield, you would have low and high beams together.
HID's need a little time to worm up also. HID's in a typical high beam application wouldn't work good for constant on/off operation. In a low beam application, your turn them on, they warm up and you leave them on for some time before turning them off.
The two years do have different housings and reflectors. Both are designed for halogen bulbs.
All HID's have a single chamber, thus a single beam pattern (as far as the capsule is concerned) This means a low beam application only. In a halogen application, you have two filaments in one capsule in different positions thus different relationships to the reflector. When you switch from low to high beams, one filament goes out and the other lights up.
Since HID's have a single chamber, some manufacturers employ some sort of movable shield to block some of the light from hitting the reflector. When you are in low beam, the shield is in one position. When you switch to high beam, the shields moves, allowing more light to hit the reflector. The bulb never operates any differently. It's basically on the whole time. You just manipulate how the light hits the reflector. Basically if you were to remove the shield, you would have low and high beams together.
HID's need a little time to worm up also. HID's in a typical high beam application wouldn't work good for constant on/off operation. In a low beam application, your turn them on, they warm up and you leave them on for some time before turning them off.
Mine is a true dual beam. I have seen the kits that have a halogen high beam built into the hid low beam bulb. This is not the case with mine. IT has a high and low beam capsule built into the same bulb and 4 ballasts.
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Hmm. I have never seen a kit like that. The only dual beam HID conversion kit I've seen is one that uses a movable shield to manipulate the light getting to the reflector.
I work for a automotive lighting manufacturer. The paticular plant I work for manufacturers pretty much all the OEM exterior lighting for Honda/Acura. We also handle a couple of Nissan models as well. The company I work for has many plants in Japan that manufactures OEM automotive lighting products for many of the foreign automakers.
I know in the instance of the Acura TL. They employ a movable shield that does not manipulate the light hitting the reflector, but instead blocks the light exiting the lens. In the low beam operation, this shield creates a horizontal cut off line at a height that does not beam oncoming traffic. When switched to high beams, the shield raises and thus the cut off line goes away. In this paticular application, the function of the HID bulb itself never changes.
I know of other applications where they use a HID capsule for the low beam, but use a standard halogen bulb for the high beams. The halogan bulb does better at instant on/off operation that is required of the high beam application. I know in our situation, customers were complaining about the color difference between the halogen and HID colors between the high and low beams. Our bulb dept. ordered blue colored quartz glass from the place that supplies the glass tubes we use to manufacture the 9005 and 9006 bulbs. They ran many trials with this blue glass to try to match the color of the HID low beam, but for some reason, never went into full pruduction with it. To this day, we still only make the clear 9005 and 9006 bulb.
I would be curious to see that kit you have. It sounds very interesting to me.
The only experience I have with these conversion kits is that I converted my Hayabusa over to a HID low beam. It origanaly used a H7 for the low beam and a 9005 for the high. I bought a H7 6000K kit for the low, and just left the OEM 9005 halogen bulb in there for the high beam. I know when I switched to the HID, the beam pattern changed a bit.
If I understand you right, and you basically have two HID capsules mounted to one base. Maybe the presence of high beam capsule being so close to the low beam is effecting how the light is hitting the reflector, and vise versa for the high beam.
I work for a automotive lighting manufacturer. The paticular plant I work for manufacturers pretty much all the OEM exterior lighting for Honda/Acura. We also handle a couple of Nissan models as well. The company I work for has many plants in Japan that manufactures OEM automotive lighting products for many of the foreign automakers.
I know in the instance of the Acura TL. They employ a movable shield that does not manipulate the light hitting the reflector, but instead blocks the light exiting the lens. In the low beam operation, this shield creates a horizontal cut off line at a height that does not beam oncoming traffic. When switched to high beams, the shield raises and thus the cut off line goes away. In this paticular application, the function of the HID bulb itself never changes.
I know of other applications where they use a HID capsule for the low beam, but use a standard halogen bulb for the high beams. The halogan bulb does better at instant on/off operation that is required of the high beam application. I know in our situation, customers were complaining about the color difference between the halogen and HID colors between the high and low beams. Our bulb dept. ordered blue colored quartz glass from the place that supplies the glass tubes we use to manufacture the 9005 and 9006 bulbs. They ran many trials with this blue glass to try to match the color of the HID low beam, but for some reason, never went into full pruduction with it. To this day, we still only make the clear 9005 and 9006 bulb.
I would be curious to see that kit you have. It sounds very interesting to me.
The only experience I have with these conversion kits is that I converted my Hayabusa over to a HID low beam. It origanaly used a H7 for the low beam and a 9005 for the high. I bought a H7 6000K kit for the low, and just left the OEM 9005 halogen bulb in there for the high beam. I know when I switched to the HID, the beam pattern changed a bit.
If I understand you right, and you basically have two HID capsules mounted to one base. Maybe the presence of high beam capsule being so close to the low beam is effecting how the light is hitting the reflector, and vise versa for the high beam.
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Mine are made by a company called Co-Way. The bulbs look similar to the third one all the way on the right if you click on the lamp productshttp://translate.google.com/transla...t=result&prev=/search?q=co-way+hid&hl=en&sa=G
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Wow. I've never seen those. Thanks for the link.
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