$20 HID Kit FYI

[nortonfb]

On woot.com today there is a kit for headlight conversion for $20.
If you follow the link you wind up on eBay.
Has anyone tried these?
After reading the specs, I don't really see any advantage.

[tmontague]

Following...

[shepd]

HID conversion, unless it replaces the *entire* housing, is a recipe for blinding other drivers. You'll get high beamed and if you have a head on collision, your use of improper parts will help seal the deal for fault, should the other driver complain he was blinded by your car.

[tmontague]

Can you not just change the angle of the head light so that its not pointing in peoples eyes to avoid that issue altogether?

[shepd]

This site does a better job of explaining it than I ever could:

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/conversions/conversions.html

This site has some nice pix that illustrate the problem (mostly hotspotting):

http://xtremerevolution.net/are-hid-kits-legal-or-safe/

I honestly don't have an issue with HID kits that replace the entire housing. This will fix the dazzle issue and provide the benefit of having HID. It's not the technology that is the issue, it's the application.

Some video evidence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5n38wDe684

By the time you have the headlights pointed low enough that the hotspots are directed solely to the road instead of other drivers eyes, the benefits of an HID conversion kit are lost and you are basically installing another set of fog lamps.

[Kitt]

very interesting articles! I was also thinking on moving to HID and I tought it was just a matter of changing bulbs and re aiming the lenses. Never been so wrong.

I still have a question tho (and I assume the answer is the same): Will this apply to LED "bulbs" as well?