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Daniel Stern Lighting and Subaru headlight options


f1anatic

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here's the bottom line for the best output.

 

RETRO!!!!

Not sure what this means. "Retro" what? Retro-fit something? Ride a retro-saurus?

 

The one point I think TSi+WRX and I can agree upon: "Those other" lights - the ones I promised never to mention again on THIS thread - are NOT very good in a HI beam only application.

 

If for no other reason, the ballasts don't like being operated intermittently - "flash-to-pass" using the HI beams. In fact ... that leads to ratger premature ballast failure.

 

Therefore, I find the ones I have GREAT for replacing MY dual-filament configuration because they so **CLOSELY** mimic the position of the 9007 filaments! Look at a 9007 bulb. The LO beam filament is in one position and the HI beam is in another. My "other" bulbs are of the type that solenoid-shift the glowing gas tube back-n-forth to VERY accurately "mimic" the same thing as shift-illuminating the HI and LO elements in the halogen bulb. There is another type of "those bulbs" that "twiddle" the little glowing glass bulb up and down - like twitching your finger - and THOSE are prone to early failure, too. Or so I'm told.

 

So what I have with MY "other bulb" set-up is an unbelievably freakin' BRIGHT 55W glowing glass tub that shifts position - back and forth - just like the the "shift" in physical position when either 9007 filament in energized.

 

THEREFORE, I'm never simply pulsing the the ballast by "flashing" the HI beams ... The same beam is "on" all of the time - it simply reflects differently off of the headlight housing depending upon where the HI/LO switch tells the little glowing glass tube to be.

 

Hey, it they work. And DAMNED well!!!!!!

 

As far as "legality", I have HI beams and LO beams to pass ANY vehicle test. The State licensed garage where I have my car inspected has NEVER questioned the technology under the hood - ONLY that I have two functioning headlights, beams hitting on a perscribed target on their test apparatus.

 

And they do.

 

Illumination (MY GOD, those are bright!!!!) hasn't been an issue. Except the monkeys at the garage wanted to know what the heck they were and where I got them. (I should be on commission sales!)

 

I pass all tests. "Legality" to me - if tests are passed - is simply a matter of "am I allowed to even OWN these or not?"

 

If I'm NOT, then they shouldn't be imported into this country in the first place. This is nothing more than making a choice between an import car and a domestic; strictly a moral issue of whether you should buy "made in the USA" or "something else". If "something else" is bad, then don't import and offer them to me, 'cuz I damned well guarantee, I'm gonna buy what's in MY best interests!!!

 

MY right as a consumer! Don't want me to have something? Then don't offer it for sale to me.

 

Rgds,

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you must be a lot of fun to talk with IRL because you seem like a very sarcastic person.

 

Retro is where you change the inner components of the object and replace them with a better set of components.

 

I'm not gonna get into it in here...

 

but yes you are correct the high-beams or flash to pass are not meant to be HID due to the nature of the system. If you wanted a setup like that then your looking into Bi-xenon lighting.

 

 

 

Lets keep this on topic though guys this thread is about halogen lamps and finding the best lamp in "Halogen" form.

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Ok, so I had forgotten about the flash to pass stuff...that can't work due to the HID nature of "warming" up first...and to keep on topic.. and having a combination of lights, are there any suggestions for a good halogen color-matching light or place to order said bulbs? I can keep my highs halogen, I'd just like them to match the rest of the show.

 

The HIR's really are a good bulb...I don't care what anyone says, and they've lasted me a lot longer then *ANY* set of h7's that I've owned. Yes, I know they get used less, but I almost guarantee I use high beams more then most, living in perpetual darkness for six months of the year....

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you must be a lot of fun to talk with IRL because you seem like a very sarcastic person.

 

^ Be careful, bro - that's what I assumed, too, at the beginning:

 

Look at page 14, beginning with post number 208

http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45991&page=14

 

ScoobieDoobieDoos' level of basic lighting knowledge is really, really incomplete, and he's either playing us and is unwilling to come clean about what he knows, and what he doesn't (i.e. "trolling") or he's just completely and totally and honestly mixed up (in which case, as you'll see from the pages that follow [and I highly encourage you to skim the entire thread, so see what I mean, with regard to ScoobieDoobieDoo's lack of knowledge, and his often circular, and conflicting, self-logic]), many different members here, myself included, have repeatedly tried to help him).

 

That's why both myself and others here have repeatedly had trouble in talking to him. :spin:

 

 

As far as "legality", I have HI beams and LO beams to pass ANY vehicle test. The State licensed garage where I have my car inspected has NEVER questioned the technology under the hood - ONLY that I have two functioning headlights, beams hitting on a perscribed target on their test apparatus.

 

And they do.

 

^ And that's exactly what the rest of us are trying to say, here.

 

Staying within the prescribed aiming standards, and in not offending oncoming traffic or inciting enforcement action, that's really all that we care about.

 

But if you took legality as you cited in your own argument from before:

 

Originally Posted by SubieDoobieDoo viewpost.gif

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!!!!!!!

2, If your city, town, county, shire, state or nation require a "vehicle inspection" - normally done yearly to catch those with worn tyres, etc. - YOU WILL FAIL WITHOUT FUNCTONING HIGH BEAMS! Essentially, you might receive a "citation" - such as one gets for speeding - and in many areas, one must then prove to a magistrate or DOT (Department of Transportation) that the "repair" has been made.

 

Where *I* live, this means the vehicle must be "made right" by a certified mechanic - who will install the exact same headlight bulb the owner should have (or an upgraded "bulb") - and certify this on the sale receipt that this has been done - ONE CANNOT DO IT BY THEMSELVES - THEN the owner must appear and present the paperwork, THEN get the vehicle re-inspected .

 

- that logic just doesn't make sense, it conflicts with itself.

 

The logic, however, of simply being able to pass your inspections based on aiming, and a cursory inspection of functionality and safety, though, works just fine.

 

But don't you see how you made too a big deal of it, yourself, by citing all those above needs and requirements that are supposedly in your area, but obviously not? ;)

 

"Legality" to me - if tests are passed - is simply a matter of "am I allowed to even OWN these or not?"

 

If I'm NOT, then they shouldn't be imported into this country in the first place. This is nothing more than making a choice between an import car and a domestic; strictly a moral issue of whether you should buy "made in the USA" or "something else". If "something else" is bad, then don't import and offer them to me, 'cuz I damned well guarantee, I'm gonna buy what's in MY best interests!!!

 

MY right as a consumer! Don't want me to have something? Then don't offer it for sale to me.

 

Again, you're being illogical.

 

Just because something's available for purchase, does not make it legal.

 

From your previous posts, I know that you're a mature adult, and that you have seen plenty of the material world, as an adult should. So I ask you this:

 

Illicit drugs are available for purchase. "Untraceable" and undocumented firearms are also available for purchase. Hell, even child pornography is available for purchase.

 

Does that make any of these things lega?

 

And plenty of products which are "illegal" - yet the legality not rigorously enforced - are imported through our ports and re-sold to either knowing or unknowing consumers every day.

 

"Cloned" products are just one such example. Another would be items which are not allowed to be imported due to patent infringment or absence of proper licensing. Other examples would be goods where trademarks must be defaced, such as various replicas, before said item can clear customs.

 

All of these goods, yet, still come into our country each and every day, unmolested and unmodified, oftentimes even without Customs knowledge.

 

These are then either "gray-market" items, sold openly for retail in either brick-and-mortar shops or over the Internet/mail-order, or are, when the items are of more subversive nature, sold on the "black market."

 

The absolute legality of aftermarket plug-and-play HID kits, OEM/aftermarket-componentry full-optics HID retrofits, *and* the use of "off-road only" replacement bulbs or higher-than-spec'ed wattage bulbs for any vehicle is simple: it IS illegal.

 

There's simply no way around this fact, and is NOT up for your (or any of ours) personal interpretation.

 

That is simple logic, and you can't debate your way around it.

 

What we as thinking adults ask, though, is not whether if this is legal - by-the-books - but whether if skirting the law, in this instance, can actually help make us, as well as our fellow motorists, safer.

 

And in this case, the resounding answer is yes.

Edited by TSi+WRX

<-- I love Winky, my "periwinkle" (ABP) LGT! - Allen / Usual Suspect "DumboRAT" / One of the Three Stooges

'16 Outback, '16 WRX, 7th Subaru Family

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I have the whole Stern package: the Rallye lows, HIR highs, and the Gold fogs. The lows are plenty bright, but I hate the horizontal cutoff of the Legacy headlight pattern. That to me is the biggest limiting factor in seeing forward with the lows. I rarely get flashed, and it is usually when someone is too close for me to flash them back. The HIR highs are fantastic! I canceled my driving light installation after installing them. Total confidence at night. The fogs are a slight improvement, but I don't think it is a shortcoming of the new bulbs. I just don't think the housings and lenses were designed by Subaru to do anything very useful. It is just hard to discern the extra light they produce when they are on. The fogs in my GTP, SHO, and the round aftermarket fogs from Kmart all performed better. They threw extra light wide and close that was useful on dark rainy nights and in fog. I've had all the lights since Feb/March 2007 with no burnouts, but I rarely use the fogs and I drive only 1000 miles a month. My DRLs are active.
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I have the whole Stern package: the Rallye lows, HIR highs, and the Gold fogs.

 

Identical setup. :)

 

The lows are plenty bright, but I hate the horizontal cutoff of the Legacy headlight pattern. That to me is the biggest limiting factor in seeing forward with the lows.

 

Of all the various cars I've driven, I truly think that the Legacy's factory projectors are among the best that I've ever experienced, in terms of traditional halogen-incandescents.

 

Part of this, of course, is the sharp cut-off.

 

You might want to ask the HID-gurus here, like MiniStiGuy, mr_luv, etc., and see if they can recommend retrofit that may satisfy your needs. Of all my different setups over the years (thus counting different vehicles), my favorite is truly my last DSM, which used an OEM E-Code HID retrofit, and that sucker lit up the right-side road-signs and street-signs like no tomorrow. :cool:

 

Alternatively - and this is only if you really, really, really selectively use such lighting - you can even entertain mounting and utilizing aftermarket add-on fog/driving lamps in a non-traditional manner, in order to supplement what you perceive to not be to your satisfaction with the current setup (for a while, I ran a "vertical" fog-lamp setup, to specifically supplement my forward lighting under very specific circumstances). :)

 

 

The fogs are a slight improvement, but I don't think it is a shortcoming of the new bulbs. I just don't think the housings and lenses were designed by Subaru to do anything very useful. It is just hard to discern the extra light they produce when they are on. The fogs in my GTP, SHO, and the round aftermarket fogs from Kmart all performed better. They threw extra light wide and close that was useful on dark rainy nights and in fog.

 

The factory fog's "issue" certainly is *not* a shortcoming of the bulbs - I totally agree. I also think it's optics related. My buddy's '08 (current generation) Ford Fusion's projector fogs are much, much superior to mine, if the amount of light cast/thrown is to be compared. Even though my exposure to them was solely in the form of a cursory look-see in the parking deck at work, I'd wager to say that he could almost use them as "suppmentary lows," and if need-be, even drive by them. That's something that I can't claim, with our stock setup.

 

And I also think that in decreasing their absolute output, via using the "selective yellow" coloration, we're only exacerbating the "lumens-on-road," or lack thereof, issue.

 

For me, though, I was able to adjust their aim sufficiently to suit my specific needs - highlighting curbs and lane markers which were obscured by weather/road-treatment (and their dirty debris after snow/slush clearing).

 

Maybe, for you, someone who is well-versed in the lighting aftermarket, such as brother outahere, could suggest an appropriate-for-use retrofit of an aftermarket set of projector fogs in that spot, to better suit your driving needs?

Edited by TSi+WRX

<-- I love Winky, my "periwinkle" (ABP) LGT! - Allen / Usual Suspect "DumboRAT" / One of the Three Stooges

'16 Outback, '16 WRX, 7th Subaru Family

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Yeah I've read through this whole thing as its been going on I just don't comment back normally.

 

And just FYI for everyone out there. As TSi has said, any and all HID systems not original equipment for the vehicle and or specified off-road use only lighting systems are ILLEGAL. But so is speeding and we know we all do it anyways :D

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Of all the various cars I've driven, I truly think that the Legacy's factory projectors are among the best that I've ever experienced, in terms of traditional halogen-incandescents.

 

This is my first car with projector lenses. It occurs to me that my 65w low beams may be washing out my fogs to some degree. I would consider viable fog mods.

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Are there HIR's in H7 or H9 bulbs ? (as in not hi-beams but rather low beams ?)

I am of course tempted to buy HIR hi-beams, but then again, what do 50 bucks get me ? I use my hi beams about 5 times a year so I cannot justify the expense. Nope, I am not living on the last 50 bucks but I would rather spend 50 bucks on the low beam HIR bulbs if there is such a thing.

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i use my hibeams all the time how come you guys never use them?

You talking personally, or are you speaking for your avatar?

Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you!

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Are there HIR's in H7 or H9 bulbs ? (as in not hi-beams but rather low beams ?)

I am of course tempted to buy HIR hi-beams, but then again, what do 50 bucks get me ? I use my hi beams about 5 times a year so I cannot justify the expense. Nope, I am not living on the last 50 bucks but I would rather spend 50 bucks on the low beam HIR bulbs if there is such a thing.

HIRs were made for OEM on Vipers, one application only. For some reason the technology has not yet trickled down to other bulb types, we just got luck they fit our high beams with a very slight mod. Does anyone have a pick of the HIRs compared to what an HID looks like? As far as color goes.

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^ No pix, sorry :redface: - it's still very much "yellower."

 

---

 

thats why again I always say even if your stock and don't have a retro or anything always just to be sure... AIM your headlamps

 

+eleventybillion.

 

Even our factory-stock setup is more than enough to cause oncoming traffic not just discomfort, but true danger, IMHO.

 

And just FYI for everyone out there. As TSi has said, any and all HID systems not original equipment for the vehicle and or specified off-road use only lighting systems are ILLEGAL. But so is speeding and we know we all do it anyways :D

 

And so's going "Stage II." :evil:

 

---

 

This is my first car with projector lenses. It occurs to me that my 65w low beams may be washing out my fogs to some degree. I would consider viable fog mods.

 

To be quite frank, I don't think it's an issue of the +65 solution "overpowering" the fogs. I truly do think that our fogs just weren't designed to throw well.

 

My guess - I know, I apologize :redface: - is that modding is the only way to go.

 

---

 

i use my hibeams all the time how come you guys never use them?

 

You talking personally, or are you speaking for your avatar?

 

:lol:

 

Best Avatar! :D

<-- I love Winky, my "periwinkle" (ABP) LGT! - Allen / Usual Suspect "DumboRAT" / One of the Three Stooges

'16 Outback, '16 WRX, 7th Subaru Family

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Are there HIR's in H7 or H9 bulbs ? (as in not hi-beams but rather low beams ?)

f1anatic, per Daniel Stern, the Rallyes are, IIRC, at the maximum legal limit of lumens for H7-type halogen low-beam bulbs, 2100. Anything over that would be illegal. The HIRs are rated at 2750 lumens. They are currently still offered in only 2 type of bulb and neither is for lows unfortunately.

You've got tools, don't ya? Make them fit :lol: And then let us know.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Not that I've noticed - but then again, that's without poking too far into things, as outahere recently did, with tracing down exactly what's needed for the fogs. :)

<-- I love Winky, my "periwinkle" (ABP) LGT! - Allen / Usual Suspect "DumboRAT" / One of the Three Stooges

'16 Outback, '16 WRX, 7th Subaru Family

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