Bad example of HID plug n play kit

spederman

Member
Apr 13, 2005
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Here is an example of why most people say that plug n play HID kits mounted in OEM halogen headlight housings is a bad idea. I got them from vvme.com for about $80 shipped for single beam 9007 bulbs, so i figured i might as well give it a shot and see if its tolerable or horrible looking. No big loss even if i have to take them out since they were cheap.

Now i do have aftermarket headlight housings since i wrecked my car in January and the body shop got knock offs instead of OEM Ford housings. So i'm not sure if that makes a difference on how the light shine's thru compared to OEM Ford. It does seem that mine are a lot worse at projecting light than i have seen people's pics with OEM Ford headlight housings. So perhaps there is a difference in the plastic and the way it reflects/refracts light.

This is taken at 15 ft from my garage door with both hot spots concentrated in one spot (my knock off's have left/right adjustment as well as up/down)

View attachment 306925

This one is at 10 ft from the garage door. You can see the two giant hot spots that make it look terrible and is distracting to drive with.

View attachment 306926

This one is a street view of what they look like. Sucks to drive with when you have a giant bright spot in the middle and then fading out to the sides.

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Now these next 2 pics are with me adjusting the hot spots so they are more seperated instead of together.

re-adjusted hot spots and 15 ft from garage door

View attachment 306928

street view with re-adjusted hot spots.

View attachment 306929


As you can see, they look awful. I am definately pulling them back out and putting in the silverstars again. Does anybody else's pattern actually look any better than this?
 
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it's not going to matter what brand it is, we have very poor light housings for throwing a consistent beam out, If there was a decent looking projector out there i'd be the first ones jumping at it. all the bulb brands are the same dimensions, i was the first person to bring up the company on this site and all the people local i have helped find them are very satisfied.
 
it's not going to matter what brand it is, we have very poor light housings for throwing a consistent beam out, If there was a decent looking projector out there i'd be the first ones jumping at it. all the bulb brands are the same dimensions, i was the first person to bring up the company on this site and all the people local i have helped find them are very satisfied.

I'm in no way bashing the company. In fact their kit is really good quality for the price. I'm sure in projector housings the kit would be sweet. I'm just curious to what everybody else's lights look like with a plug n play kit without having actual projector housings.

Before i purchased the kit, i was looking at other people's pics and they just didnt look as bad as mine for some reason. I guess i'm also spoiled by my Lexus IS350's HID's which are amazing. And yeah, i also wish there was a decent projector for our cars, all the available projector housings, imo dont look right on 99-04 stangs.
 
i love the IS lighting, do you have jdm yellow lowers? Since everything else we can buy has been reviewed side by side maybe someone can eventually do an hid side by side to break all the ice.

i'm glad someone else agrees with me on stang projectors
 
not a side by side, but at least people are slowly being educated on correct methods to do HIDs. This is a shot after my retrofit on the 98. its aimed a hair high but look at the distribution(all important parts are from HIDplanet). I've been on the fence on doing one for the Mach. Like others, any aftermarket projectors on 99-04 just don't look right. A custom piece is on my mind.

HIDspread.jpg


sidebeam.jpg
 
yeah thats just the mustang headlight. I had hotspots like that with the regular halogens so I wasnt expecting anything different with tha hid's in the same light.

however on my zx10, when I put hids on that the difference was absolutely crazy! but its also a better headlight to begin with. with the hids it looks like its freakin daylight out!

now anyone want to post a how to thrread on making a projector in a mustang headlight housing?

also has anyone tried cutting out or cutting back the piece in front of the bulb thats supposed to stop it fromm blinding people?? I think cutting it out altogether would be bad, but maybe just trimming it down would help?

who wants to be the first?:nice:
 
I cut mine out completely. I'll try to post some pics in a parking lot, like those above, so you can use for comparison. But like I've said before, it's not the best HID out there, becaue of our housings, but it's head and shoulders above the halogen bulbs. IMHO. I guess it all depends on your expectations and size of wallet. :)
 
I was looking at the projectors/HID kit combo that stangmods.com sells. Does anybody know if those are true HID projectors or are they just halogen projectors with a HID kit installed. Curious if that projector/hid kit would look good
 
I was looking at the projectors/HID kit combo that stangmods.com sells. Does anybody know if those are true HID projectors or are they just halogen projectors with a HID kit installed. Curious if that projector/hid kit would look good

If your going to spend that much why not just do a retrofit? Just curious, but you could do it for about the same price or even less.
 
Never thought about that. Do the parts just retrofit into the stock headlight housings? And where can i get a how-to or parts list of what i would need?

Not sure about rules for posting about other websites or forums on here so I will send you a PM. I am also just starting to look into this after seeing numerous people complaining about the glare from plug and play kits, but I have found some good info so far :nice:
 
not sure if it matters at all, but I know my cobra headlights have a piece that covers the bulb and redirects the light back at the light for better distrubution. They work/look a lot better than my oem gt headlights before the swap. If im not mistaken, i dont think the gt headlights have the refractors in them, they are sort of built into the lense.:shrug:
 
I guess i'm also spoiled by my Lexus IS350's HID's which are amazing.



I'm right there with you on that. My sister has an IS250, which i drive more than she does, and those HID's are amazing. The cut-off line is razor sharp.

I ran a plug and play HID kit in my Mustang for about a day and came to the same conclusion you did. They suck and cause way too much glare. I took them out and put my silverstars in.

Unfortunately most people don't do that. They simply say "meh, *I* can see the road and *I* think my car looks good with them in"....so they blind the hell out of everyone.

I have been blinded by many Mustangs with HID kits. The worst are the setups with HID's in the headlights and foglights. I thought I had crashed my car and the gates of heaven were opening up for me when i drove past a Mustang like that



BTW...HID retrofit info can be found here www.hidplanet.com. There have been many conversions done on Mustangs and they look great. PnP kits oover there tend to be frowned upon.

Here;s a Fox 5.0 with HID projectors retrofitted into the stock housing
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There is only up and down adjustment on the 99+ headlights.

Pointing them down helps a bit, but it still glares. I was lighting the tops of trees with my kit no matter what I did.