HID lights

What's involved with changing over to them? I noticed a 300M Special in the
junk yard and was wondering how complicated it might be to install them in
my 300M.

What should it cost for the parts?


Thanks

Ken

 

If you strip them from a Junkyard, it shouldn't be a lot ($250-300?)

If you're installing from scratch, expect to pay $600 or so for the parts.
There are aftermarket HID changeovers that start about $550 up. Since it's
an entirely different technology, you have to install the hi-voltage unit as
well as the lighting itself.

There was a good article on HID on the web a couple years ago. Google it to
get the background info you will need and then do some shopping.

Sorry for top-posting...using Outhouse Express today!

 

Not very complicated. Swap the headlamp assemblies, connect the plugs that
used to go to your low beam bulbs to the new lamps' ballasts, aim the
lamps carefully per
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/aim/aim.html , and off you go.

Can get a good reading on this via www.car-part.com (searchable used auto
parts nationwide).

DS

 

....and are dangerous, illegal and ineffective.
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/conversions/conversions.html

 

Well, yes. You don't want to just shove an HID capsule into your regular
headlight.

But there are aftermarket retrofits that take all this into account. I
have older cars that use sealed beams, and when you replace the headlight,
you replace the entire unit. There are retrofit kits for there that
provide a properly configured lens/reflector.

--
A young girl I know told me I drive like an old man

I told her, actually, I drive like Mario Andretti.
It's just that too many other people on the road
drive like Paul Tracy...

 

Shop carefully; many of them are garbage at best, dangerous at worst.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Thanks DS.

I will stay away from the aftermarket type. I've seen how bad some of them
look. Here in the country, these should help a lot more.

Ken

--
"Now Phoebe Snow direct can go
from thirty-third to Buffalo.
From Broadway bright the tubes run right
Into the Road of Anthracite"
Erie - Lackawanna

 

The only retrofit like that which *I* am aware of is a steaming pile
of.... stuff. Costs hundreds, and isn't as good as a $12 sealed beam.

 

Yeah, I was tempted. There is a high-end parts store near me that has *real*
Sylvania and Philips crossover kits, not pieces slapped together by someone
in Indonesia. $699, look like a good kit, but I was working at CarQuest at
the time and bought some off the shelf replacement bulbs, I think they were
Sylvania Xenons, PLENTY of light! $6.99 with my employee discount (they
WEREN'T SilverStars...)

 

Bzzzt! That Sylvania Xenarc kit was made, believe it or not, by a
trinketmaker in a basement workshop in Taiwan. He had marginal ability to
design an functional glovebox light, let alone a headlamp, but his North
American representative put together a slick enough presentation that
Sylvania took the bait. Performance was significantly worse than even a $7
non-halogen sealed beam. Durability was the pits (lens turned yellow and
frosty and/or fell off the reflector in under a year). Sylvania had hoped
to use that product to increase market awareness and acceptance of HID
headlamps in North America, because it was (and is) lagging behind Europe.
The effort backfired very badly because of the crap quality and
performance; Sylvania quietly discontinued them and remaindered them off
at firesale prices to a guy out West who is currently hyping them up on
his website, claiming they are "generation 2" units, whatever that's
supposed to mean (nothing).

Remember, just because there's a name on the (fancy, expensive) box that
you recognise, does NOT mean it's necessarily a good product.

The packaging was very slick, for sure. If the same amount of thought,
engineering and design had gone into the lamps inside, they might've been
worth a toss.

You bought Sylvania Xtravisions, one of the last honest products left in
Sylvania's line.

As for Silverstars:
Remember, just because there's a name on the (fancy, expensive) box that
you recognise, does NOT mean it's necessarily a good product.

DS

 

And a premium price to boot.

No, I'm not often taken in by ads, packaging or bling! I like the
Xtravisions just fine!

--
A young girl I know told me I drive like an old man

I told her, actually, I drive like Mario Andretti.
It's just that too many other people on the road
drive like Paul Tracy...

 

Forget about HID and just pop in a set of 9011 and 9012 bulbs.

Richard.