Date:         Sat, 18 Dec 2004 23:09:54 -0500
Reply-To:     Alex Towner <altowner@COMCAST.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Alex Towner <altowner@COMCAST.NET>
Subject:      HID headlights
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Question asked:

A friend of mine keeps telling me I should just switch to HID headlights
instead of laboring over running heavier wire and installing relays to run
high wattage halogens. The "racing sticker" crowd seems to think they're
the bees knees, what with 4x the light intensity at only 35 watts. Would I
be asking for a bigger headache going to HID than I would, say, switching
to higher wattage "roundeyes" in a south african grille? The SA grille
would cost me twice as much, but it would definitely look better...

John Bange
'90 Vanagon "Geldsauger"


Reply:

First, there are many lights out there claiming to be HID and / or Xenon. A true HID light system requires special bulbs with no filament (like a florescent bulb) and a ballast with ignitor to raise incoming voltage to something much higher (35,000 I think I read somwhere). 

Because HID bulbs have no filament there are 2 problems that arise:

1) It is impossible to have a high / low beam bulb. A conventional bulb just puts 2 separate filaments inside of one bulb to create both beams in one light housing.
2) Since the HID bulbs have no filament, the light has a more diffused (or larger) source. As a result, in order for an HID light to be focused optimally it needs a custom lens / reflector assembly.

Solutions:

In cases where it is necessary to have high and low beams in one light assembly custom adapters are needed. Some vendors will drill into the side of a headlight housing and insert a conventional high beam bulb. Others have designed hybrid bulb assemblies that combine an HID bulb with a conventional high beam bulb. Both of these methods locate the bulbs where they can't make proper use of the reflector and lens, and as a result work poorly. I believe one company has a small motor on the back of the HID bilb which tilts the bulb into a different postion for high beam, and this works reasonably well. Porsche puts high and low beam HID in one light assembly by using a motor to tilt the reflector relative to the bulb to create the 2 distinct beam patterns.

Therefore, you could:

1) Install HID bulbs and supply units on '86 and newer headlight assemblies, but the light would be poorly focused, and some sort of custom arrangement would be required to get the high beams to work on the outside lights. (Perhaps you could use the inner lights as your only high beams instead.) Since the '86 and newer US lights are lousy to begin with, this is a bad choice.
2) Install an HID system in Euro spec. round headlights. This would provide a better light assembly, but one still not optimised for HID bulbs. There would still be the problem of the high beams, unless you can find the HID system with motorized bulbs. CATZ brand might work here.
3) Use the round headlight solution in # 2 with a South African grille. The inner headlights could serve as your only high beams in this case, although I don't know if that would be adequate.
4) Best choice - Use a complete HID kit which would provide you with custom round headlights that would fit the stock '80-'85 Vanagon sealed beam buckets, along with ballasts/ignitors and HID bulbs.

Be advised that if you aren't paying about $500 per pair, ya ain't gettin' HIDs.

Sylvania:
http://www.sylvania.com/ConsumerProducts/AutomotiveLighting/Products/HID/

They aren't showing kits for sealed beam replacement. They used to have them. Discontinued?? Beats me.

Catz:
The manufacturer page is down or discontinued. It was:
http://www.fet-usa.com/
Apparently CATZ had to recall some of its light kits. Did it kill the company??
CATZ vendor:
http://www.brightheadlights-hid.com/Xenon-HID-Catz-Lights-Kits.htm
CATZ was the only company with a good aftermarket solution for high and low beam in the same housing. It used a tiny motor to move the bulb relative to the light assembly to switch form high to low beam.

Good Luck,

-Alex
'85 2.0 inline conversion
VWGULAG