How do i get the most out of my HID's?

[Doug 97 gtp]

I read the ultimate HID thread and i saw two people modifying their bulbs. I feel like my HID's are not as bright as they should be. I was wondering if someone could explain modding HID bulbs? I was thinking that my lights are not angled properly. And i was wondering if i took out that black metal housing thing in my headlight if it would make it brighter. Has anyone done this? Here are my lights at night . not the best pictures but ill take some new ones or the angles and such tomorrow night.




and a couple of the tucked away ballast and wires.

[Bio248]

they arent as bright as you want them because they arent aimed properly. it is impossible to aim them properly in stock housings, so dont even waste your time. aim them low enough that people wont want to run you off the road and high enough that you can still see and be done with it.

save up for a set of projectors to retrofit into the housings.

[Doug 97 gtp]

i might do that.

[Doug 97 gtp]

...

[machinegunsquid]

Not sure what the ... was for, Bio explained it pretty well.
But, I'll take a crack at it too.

HID lights do not focus the beam in the same pattern that halogen bulbs do. That is why they are illegal in a non projector housing headlight.

In order to get the most out of your HIDs, you either need to get a set of projectors (good, but not great) or do a projectors retrofit into the stock housing.

If you dont do either of those, then just keep aiming them until they are the best you can get, but if you find yourself getting flashed a bunch, you need to aim them lower.

[matt5112]

centre of filament should be around 1.75" from the base plate.

Measure your stock bulb and try and get it to that point.

Mine weren't reaching far enough into the housing.

Trimmed as much as I could, ended up around 1.7" into the housing.

Not far enough, but it improved the output slightly.

However the lack of high beams was beginning to get annoying and then finally one failed within a year.

Back to halogen...

[Doug 97 gtp]

oh sorry about the ... i was just seeing if my signature worked sooy guys and i read up on moving the hids back but i don't think im gonna mess with them