Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Marks DTM Calib]

the HID light has much less 'throw' than the Halogen which reaches further, and does not have the edge cut off style of the HID. So dirt has a greater affect, on low beam, just going on what i have seen driving both kinds on the same run.

Driving along at night on a mucky motorway, HID output quickly drops, and is no better than Nightbreakers and at points i could not have seen a difference between the two. Both cars are roughly the same age, and lenses about the same also

Is this due to higher heat baking the dirt on the Xenon lenses?  I thought this way why washers were a legal requirement.

Nope, heat output is much less.

[Marks DTM Calib]

the HID light has much less 'throw' than the Halogen which reaches further, and does not have the edge cut off style of the HID. So dirt has a greater affect, on low beam, just going on what i have seen driving both kinds on the same run.

Driving along at night on a mucky motorway, HID output quickly drops, and is no better than Nightbreakers and at points i could not have seen a difference between the two. Both cars are roughly the same age, and lenses about the same also

Is this due to higher heat baking the dirt on the Xenon lenses?  I thought this way why washers were a legal requirement.

Not sure, i think because the light thrown by the HID is shorter, but more powerful, dirt has a greater affect at the low beam. I was all for fitting HIDs until i drove the Elite Estate for a week.... they are better, but not by much!
Even just comming out down the road, quick blast and light output is up again, for me, they are no better unless you fit the washers

Must be something wrong with them then.

The 'throw' down the road on the correctly set lights of the 2 technologies is the same.

The HID output you will see improve when washed....you would see the same on the incandescent units as well (if they had washers).

When I compare my old CDx (nightbreaker enabled) and facelift CDx (Standard fit HID).

Both with correctly set up lights (and dont assume that just because you have an MOT pass that they are set correct), the HIDs won hands down on evenness of light and did not deteriorate any worse than the incandescent units.

And, this is what physics and the theory tells you should be the case to

[tunnie]

the HID light has much less 'throw' than the Halogen which reaches further, and does not have the edge cut off style of the HID. So dirt has a greater affect, on low beam, just going on what i have seen driving both kinds on the same run.

Driving along at night on a mucky motorway, HID output quickly drops, and is no better than Nightbreakers and at points i could not have seen a difference between the two. Both cars are roughly the same age, and lenses about the same also

Is this due to higher heat baking the dirt on the Xenon lenses?  I thought this way why washers were a legal requirement.

Not sure, i think because the light thrown by the HID is shorter, but more powerful, dirt has a greater affect at the low beam. I was all for fitting HIDs until i drove the Elite Estate for a week.... they are better, but not by much!
Even just comming out down the road, quick blast and light output is up again, for me, they are no better unless you fit the washers

Must be something wrong with them then.

The 'throw' down the road on the correctly set lights of the 2 technologies is the same.

The HID output you will see improve when washed....you would see the same on the incandescent units as well (if they had washers).

When I compare my old CDx (nightbreaker enabled) and facelift CDx (Standard fit HID).

Both with correctly set up lights (and dont assume that just because you have an MOT pass that they are set correct), the HIDs won hands down on evenness of light and did not deteriorate any worse than the incandescent units.

And, this is what physics and the theory tells you should be the case to

Standard fit Elite HID's - Lenses are a bit tired, but other than that are working fine. I am just going on what my eyes see!

[cruisetopoland]

the HID light has much less 'throw' than the Halogen which reaches further, and does not have the edge cut off style of the HID. So dirt has a greater affect, on low beam, just going on what i have seen driving both kinds on the same run.

Driving along at night on a mucky motorway, HID output quickly drops, and is no better than Nightbreakers and at points i could not have seen a difference between the two. Both cars are roughly the same age, and lenses about the same also

Is this due to higher heat baking the dirt on the Xenon lenses?  I thought this way why washers were a legal requirement.

Not sure, i think because the light thrown by the HID is shorter, but more powerful, dirt has a greater affect at the low beam. I was all for fitting HIDs until i drove the Elite Estate for a week.... they are better, but not by much!
Even just comming out down the road, quick blast and light output is up again, for me, they are no better unless you fit the washers

Must be something wrong with them then.

The 'throw' down the road on the correctly set lights of the 2 technologies is the same.

The HID output you will see improve when washed....you would see the same on the incandescent units as well (if they had washers).

When I compare my old CDx (nightbreaker enabled) and facelift CDx (Standard fit HID).

Both with correctly set up lights (and dont assume that just because you have an MOT pass that they are set correct), the HIDs won hands down on evenness of light and did not deteriorate any worse than the incandescent units.

And, this is what physics and the theory tells you should be the case to

Standard fit Elite HID's - Lenses are a bit tired, but other than that are working fine. I am just going on what my eyes see!

I think the point is that it needs to be compared like for like, taking condition, alignment etc out of the equation

[Andy H]

HID (high intensity discharge) lamps and LED (light emitting diodes) use different technology but to me seem to me have the same issue of not producing a wide spectrum of light.

Example - I use an LED head torch when working in the darker recesses of the Omega because the battery life is better than a traditional torch but when I need to read wire colours I have to get out my trusty Mag-Lite.

The light from HID's is blue/white rather than the orange you get from old fashioned sodium discharge lamps but the effect is similar.

[Marks DTM Calib]

the HID light has much less 'throw' than the Halogen which reaches further, and does not have the edge cut off style of the HID. So dirt has a greater affect, on low beam, just going on what i have seen driving both kinds on the same run.

Driving along at night on a mucky motorway, HID output quickly drops, and is no better than Nightbreakers and at points i could not have seen a difference between the two. Both cars are roughly the same age, and lenses about the same also

Is this due to higher heat baking the dirt on the Xenon lenses?  I thought this way why washers were a legal requirement.

Not sure, i think because the light thrown by the HID is shorter, but more powerful, dirt has a greater affect at the low beam. I was all for fitting HIDs until i drove the Elite Estate for a week.... they are better, but not by much!
Even just comming out down the road, quick blast and light output is up again, for me, they are no better unless you fit the washers

Must be something wrong with them then.

The 'throw' down the road on the correctly set lights of the 2 technologies is the same.

The HID output you will see improve when washed....you would see the same on the incandescent units as well (if they had washers).

When I compare my old CDx (nightbreaker enabled) and facelift CDx (Standard fit HID).

Both with correctly set up lights (and dont assume that just because you have an MOT pass that they are set correct), the HIDs won hands down on evenness of light and did not deteriorate any worse than the incandescent units.

And, this is what physics and the theory tells you should be the case to

Standard fit Elite HID's - Lenses are a bit tired, but other than that are working fine. I am just going on what my eyes see!

And are they adjusted correctly (something I suspect you cant answer in reality)

Remember that observation counts for nothing if the baseline is wonky 

[Marks DTM Calib]

HID (high intensity discharge) lamps and LED (light emitting diodes) use different technology but to me seem to me have the same issue of not producing a wide spectrum of light.

Example - I use an LED head torch when working in the darker recesses of the Omega because the battery life is better than a traditional torch but when I need to read wire colours I have to get out my trusty Mag-Lite.

The light from HID's is blue/white rather than the orange you get from old fashioned sodium discharge lamps but the effect is similar.

Not actualy the case, HID's, thanks to the discharge type of emission, do emmit a wide spectrum of light.

LED's are inferior as in reality, the are not white, they are Red + Green + Blue individual emmiters on a single piece of substrate. Hence 3 narrow light spectrums emmitted and reflected detail suffers as a result.

[Andy H]

HID (high intensity discharge) lamps and LED (light emitting diodes) use different technology but to me seem to me have the same issue of not producing a wide spectrum of light.

Example - I use an LED head torch when working in the darker recesses of the Omega because the battery life is better than a traditional torch but when I need to read wire colours I have to get out my trusty Mag-Lite.

The light from HID's is blue/white rather than the orange you get from old fashioned sodium discharge lamps but the effect is similar.

Not actualy the case, HID's, thanks to the discharge type of emission, do emmit a wide spectrum of light.

LED's are inferior as in reality, the are not white, they are Red + Green + Blue individual emmiters on a single piece of substrate. Hence 3 narrow light spectrums emmitted and reflected detail suffers as a result.

I am struggling to find any information about the lighting spectrum from automotive HID's. While I agree that white LED's are really just mixing 3 finite frequencies I don't think discharge lamps are that much better.