What are the thoughts on these?

[Mrk_Mickey]

I know they look cheap and horrible... But could these actually be alright? A few of the comments I glanced over weren't bad, so...

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/MARS-YellowPa...742.m153.l1262

[phaeton]

Not bad, would they improve night vision from current lights ?

[Mrk_Mickey]

not sure. They're HID's so surely there'd be SOME difference for a hundred bucks lol. I'm just thinking these may be better worth the money instead of cyrstalvisions, if I ever get around to fixing my poor output.

[Peter Jones]

if I ever get around to fixing my poor output.

If your lights have "poor output" there is a reason.

I have fixed lots and lots of cars with bad lighting simply by getting the headlights properly aligned. Even out of the factory headlights can be way off. (Especially in Australian made cars.)

The cure to this is to find a reputable auto sparky who has an Optical Headlight aligner. The service only costs around $15. I have seen cars that were un-drivable at night transformed by this simple adjustment. A really good sparky will even sandbag the car to approximate the drivers weight.

The owner of one Lancer I knew gave up driving at night because they thought their vision was failing. When I drove the car I couldn't see more than a few feet in front. A headlight alignment fixed their eysight completely.

I've done a lot of night driving in Commodores and Falcons and they're the same, I'd usually get those re-aligned every second service. Brand new and less than 20km on the clock the headlights were only good for spotting possums in trees.

Of course there can be electrical problems too. You need to check that you're getting the same voltage across your headlight globes as there is across the battery .

You may also have damged or corroded reflectors which may need to be replaced.

Some cheap globes have their filaments at the wrong focal length, buy brand name globes.

A lot of people will spend 100's of dollars on fog lights, globes, HID etc without actually ever addressing the root cause of their lighting problems.

Optics, voltage and alignment - get these right and even 6volt beetle headlights work well.

Xenon globes, HIDs, driving lights, fog lights etc are a waste of money if they're not pointing in the right direction or aren't getting enough voltage.

Sorry for the rant, but I really like being able to see where I'm going!

Pete

[Peter Jones]

I just actually read the e-bay ad. Wow , what a load of BS.

Exactly what does running a globe in a bucket of hot water prove?
Wouldn't the globe MAKE the water hot?
Isn't the water adding to the thermal mass of the globe?
Is it acting as a heatsink?
Would it overheat if it wasn't in water?

Part of my job is environmental testing of electronic systems - we have a multi-million dollar lab facility and I assure you buckets of hot water do not form any part of a testing methodology! (Except for Pasta you need lots of hot water for that.)

I don't normally investigate light globes for a living but for "test" results to have any sort of credibility I'd be looking for stats like MTBF (Mean time between failure), Temperature rise above ambient, Output degradation due to aging and environment, spectral analysis of output, effect of aging/environment on spectral output, dispersion patterns. All of these of course would have to be verified independently.

You know ............ technical stuff.

Probably overkill for an e-bay listing but they could at least list a few relevant stands they comply to like ADRs for example.

Pete

[vwthunder]

Message Matt (FknDubbin)

I got some form him and they were about the same price, had them in my car for about 4 months now and love them, no problems with it

He also has the same kit in his Mk4

[Mrk_Mickey]

If your lights have "poor output" there is a reason....
...(More stuff here)...

Haha well all I know is that my headlight bulbs are poor because they are crap...I'm sure if I get philips bulbs to just simply replace my ones now it will improve vision. I just thought to myself, for 100 bucks, crystal visions versus some no-name HID's..but it's a good thing I asked, because now I know I can get them aligned!

I just happened to be browsing eBay without purpose when I found these, and it reminded me that I need to get more light happening. When I can bother getting around to it (as it isn't actually that bad a problem, lol) I could justify spending some more money to get HID's, providing I can get them aligned. So Pete can the HID's be aligned just like the normal bulbs?

[rayray086]

If your lights have "poor output" there is a reason.

I have fixed lots and lots of cars with bad lighting simply by getting the headlights properly aligned. Even out of the factory headlights can be way off. (Especially in Australian made cars.)

The cure to this is to find a reputable auto sparky who has an Optical Headlight aligner. The service only costs around $15. I have seen cars that were un-drivable at night transformed by this simple adjustment. A really good sparky will even sandbag the car to approximate the drivers weight.

That's interesting Pete - what exactly is involved in realigning the headlights? Is it by adjusting how the headlights are mounted (adjusting where the bolts sit) or actually using the supports that hold the chambers in place? Reason for asking is that I reckon my light output can be MUCH better and I know it's because my headlight supports are broken... I have reattached the supports together but I don't think they'll be able to be "adjusted" anymore...

[bboyskidz]

I want to see the rules about why HID's are illegal. - I can't find anything about it on any government website. If anything, i think the "illegalities" will come from the headlights not being aligned properly.

I have the same problem as Ray with my lights - most (if not all) of the supports are broken and the adjustment bolts do nothing. They are so bad, that when I go around a roundabout, the left light will actually swing around and point to the ground... Once I get off the roundabout, it will realign itself, but I have to do weelky alignments at the moment - I am getting a new set this pay...

I don't see how there could be that much of a difference between this set of HIDs and any other... They are all produced in the same place so they should be pretty similar.

[DubSteve]

Fail........