McDonalds HID

[Sebas007]

I'm about to scrap my HID installation. I'm so bored to see almost nothing and have no real support about them. It sucks on a hard time ! Some say it is the bulb that doesn't slide deep enough and then creates the huge shadowish spot right where you wish you can see better
I aimed and re-aimed nothing to do. Until I fix the situation, I'll use my high beam aimed very low. It's crazy how I can see now !!

Anyone had this shadow problem and solve this clowny problem ??

[Gadgetjq]

Ah ha! The dirty little secret of aftermarket bulb swaps revealed!

While few will admit it, swapping out the stock bulb for an HID will invariably result in less light on the road. Why? The reflector simply isn't designed to work with the HID bulb. Not only does the HID use an arc rather than a glowing filament, the light source is at a different spot inside the bulb (modern reflectors are very sensitive to this). The light 'looks' brighter if you're standing in front of the car but the beam is being scattered (probably to the annoyance of other drivers) rather than being focused on the road.

The only 'proper' way to install HID in your Gen II Solara is to snag the complete headlight assembly from a gen 2.5. That way you have the correct reflector to work with the bulb.

Cheers

[Sebas007]

Thanks Gadget. I was thinking about the whole assembly but since no one complaining about the same problem I got, I told myself it was just me.

Anyone else on this one ?

[Down2TheC]

It's not you... it's Canada. It's a special atmospheric condition that's only up there. Down here in the USA our HIDs shine brightly without adjustment.

[Sebas007]

Then why keep trying to make it work. I'll remove them right now !
Thanks Mike for the GREAT hint !

[[SMAN]]

there are ways to adujt the bulb seatement in your headlights. The solara projector in general is really really poor, and a lot of people recomend a swap to a different OEM projector like a TSX or an infinity FX bixenon. That may be a little out of your league for mods, but there are other things you can do. 1) rotate the bulb. Often a shadow is caused by the large return wire. Different positions cause it to take different shapes. This may require some gentle sanding of the tabs on the bulb. If you are dead certain that the bulb is not in all the way, or in too far, adjustments can be made by snading away at the projector base itself to make it seat farther. Original, i had adapted OEM D2S xenon bulbs to fit out projector (google acura MDX projector mod) but i couln't rig a proper bulb holder so i just went with a kit. Because i had ground down the proejctor to seat my bulb in farther, i had actualy seated it in too far. So with a simple washer, i was able to space out the bulb perfectly. But play around with it at night and see. I noticed that one of my aftermarket bulbs, when inserted normal, it had the ground wire pointing up. This is bad and causes shadows, you want it pointing down, or best yet, off to the side by about 25 - 30 degrees off axis. If you can't fully twist the bulb in the area, sand a little off the tabs, but make sure you have some sort of a backing plate (like foam) to make a tight seal so the litle doesn't shift on it's own.

[PXLpainter]

Geeze I guess I'm lucky then - mine are awesome! I drive primarily unlit country roads with lots of curves and mixed straights with hills, etc... I rarely even both with the bright because they aim too high fo rshort hills and it fills my fogs which light the sides of the road really well.

Might just be the brand of bulbs perhaps? I have a McCullough kit and it's been great since day-1 for me.

[---CAMRAZY---]

http://www.solaraguy.com/viewtopic.php? ... ids#418410

[michaels artic frost]

It's not you... it's Canada. It's a special atmospheric condition that's only up there. Down here in the USA our HIDs shine brightly without adjustment.

^^Omy...whahahha^^

[PXLpainter]

http://www.solaraguy.com/viewtopic.php?p=418410&highlight=hids#418410

LOL Milt!!
Sebas - you crazy Canuk!!

[Sebas007]

http://www.solaraguy.com/viewtopic.php?p=418410&highlight=hids#418410

So what ?? Make almost a year of that and I had no useful answer until Sman answered me.

[---CAMRAZY---]

http://www.solaraguy.com/viewtopic.php?p=418410&highlight=hids#418410

So what ?? Make almost a year of that and I had no useful answer until Sman answered me.

Actually I answered your question a year ago, your bulb is causing the shadow.....
But since Sman wrote it for you nicely, try it out and let us know what happens when you rotate the bulb or sand the tabs down

The problem is the ring on your bulb, it doesn't sit right on the headlight, it's too far back, the bulb needs to be further in....but...


I'll just wait for next year's version of the same question.....

[---CAMRAZY---]

http://www.solaraguy.com/viewtopic.php?p=418410&highlight=hids#418410

LOL Milt!!

It wasn't meant as a joke, I just don't understand why some mods don't search and practice what they preach.

[Sebas007]

Because my problem is specific, dangerous and wasn't solve. If I would revived the old thread then there would be a full tread on "why did you revived an old thread". Also, I wanted to have other people opinions, new members.

I'm mad because I bought the Mcculloch too and probably to same person as all of you but have totally opposite result. I understand the bulb is positioned too much back. But I cannot push it deeper. Even a sand job wouldn't solve the problem. Why the fock there is different bulb type for the same product, I still don't understand this crap. Yeah version 1 then version 2 or something like it.

Bulbs aren't that cheap, especially if I don't know what kind of result I can expect. For now high beam aimed low FTW

[gnegroni]

Thanks Gadget. I was thinking about the whole assembly but since no one complaining about the same problem I got, I told myself it was just me.

Anyone else on this one ?

Maybe other people do not complain because they just love the bright lights and forget about any other issues.