Any news on std HID lights & more power?

[jws3]

MB & BMW do indeed have some factory approved tuners and non approved ones.

 

I do believe Brabus is only for Mercedes benz.....right...? I think BMW only has AC Schnitzer, and Hamann....I've never heard of Brabus working on BMW....?

 

Dinan is well known for vastly overpriced (IMO) upgrades that are warranty protected.

 

Honestly if they do please tell me, I don't wanna say something stupid, LoL(as if I haven't already LOL)

 

If Subaru had something similar I'd be there. What worries me are the inevitable issues, problems & potentially crippling warranty denials. Let's say we boost power and torque. Do we know for sure the transmission can take it? What about the rest of the powertrain? If we boost power and fry a torque converter or differential many dealers will blame the extra power. Even if they are dead wrong the burden falls to you, the owner, to prove to the contrary. Good luck on that one. Such would require judicial proceedings and an expert witness. Both alone could cost THOUSANDS.

 

True, some dealers are most mod friendly, but many aren't as they must answer to SOA. This is why I am quite concerned with mods. I always figure that if (insert mod of choice) was a great idea the engineers who designed the car would have done it already!

[jws3]

go aftermarket xenon...i have for a while now and dont regret it.

 

remember nay saying clowns. the xenon is actually less harsh on the electric system than a h bulb is. except for that initial current turn on rush anyways...but i bet so far no one has han an issue with this. i cut the drl wire and have been fine ever since.

 

no hassle from cops and people still want to put their busted cars in front so i figure they arent blinding anyone. cut off has been fine. i now light up the sidewalks on both sides of the street.

 

 

seriously...a short block costs a LOT more than a "fried" oem radio.

 

not to mention common folk think xenon is upper end.

 

Curious- Did you just plug n play or did you do the whole bake the lights and then install Lexus components and the like? What brand equipment did you use? I might not be quite so averse if there was truly OEM quality units out there. Not sorta-kinda OEM, but real OEM quality through and through. I'm not interested in saving a few bucks. I'm interested in quality.

[jmorris6689]

so no hid's no buy, sounds like a bmw person to me. but i have hid's in my 06 lgt from a lexus rx 330 an projector lenses from a toyota celica (crystal clear lens) and they are way better than the ones that are in my best friends 04 STi. and more power... hmm acessport is 700 so u do the math an bmw or subaru lgt limited plus a acessport

[RJS5689]

MB & BMW do indeed have some factory approved tuners and non approved ones.

 

 

 

If Subaru had something similar I'd be there. What worries me are the inevitable issues, problems & potentially crippling warranty denials. Let's say we boost power and torque. Do we know for sure the transmission can take it? What about the rest of the powertrain? If we boost power and fry a torque converter or differential many dealers will blame the extra power. Even if they are dead wrong the burden falls to you, the owner, to prove to the contrary. Good luck on that one. Such would require judicial proceedings and an expert witness. Both alone could cost THOUSANDS.

 

True, some dealers are most mod friendly, but many aren't as they must answer to SOA. This is why I am quite concerned with mods. I always figure that if (insert mod of choice) was a great idea the engineers who designed the car would have done it already!

 

What about SPT pats paired with an AP tune...

[fishbone]

I do believe Brabus is only for Mercedes benz.....right...? I think BMW only has AC Schnitzer, and Hamann....I've never heard of Brabus working on BMW....?

 

 

Honestly if they do please tell me, I don't wanna say something stupid, LoL(as if I haven't already LOL)

No, you're right, Brabus is a Benz tuner, don't even know how I managed to slip it in there.

 

jws3, there is a lighting study posted here that was done and it showed the reaction time between drivers with HID-equipped vehicles and decent halogen set-ups was less than 20%, IIRC it was around 10-12%. I had HIDs on my Altima, but the fact that the headlights were still reflectors and not projectors make my current Legacy with OSRAM Rallye halogens a superior set-up. BMW just has plain better optics due to other reasons as well, as I have already said I believe, such as auto-leveling headlights and projectors that turn with the wheel.

[jws3]

No, you're right, Brabus is a Benz tuner, don't even know how I managed to slip it in there.

 

jws3, there is a lighting study posted here that was done and it showed the reaction time between drivers with HID-equipped vehicles and decent halogen set-ups was less than 20%, IIRC it was around 10-12%. I had HIDs on my Altima, but the fact that the headlights were still reflectors and not projectors make my current Legacy with OSRAM Rallye halogens a superior set-up. BMW just has plain better optics due to other reasons as well, as I have already said I believe, such as auto-leveling headlights and projectors that turn with the wheel.

 

Every time I drive a car with std halogens I keep checking to see if the damned lights are on! My 40+ year old eyes just see better with a whiter light. Even my wife's Sienna van has HID lights. She too cannot stand plain halogens any more. Too dull and limited.

 

As for the BMWs being better largely due to the auto-leveling & turning, I can't agree. While my current model has these features, I've had a few that didn't and still had much better lighting. The swiveling lights are interesting, but hardly something to go nuts over. Auto leveling can be a PITA since it tends to push the beams too low on wavy or undulating roads.

 

I guess I just prefer HIDs as my eyes see better with them. I keep pushing for Subaru since I suspect I may be very interested in one in a few years. I just can't see paying 55K and up for a 3 series. Affording it isn't the issue. I am more concerned with value. Didn't mind so much a $10K premium for an arguably "better" car, but the new BMWs are $20K+ more and so incredibly complicated that even hard wiring a radar detector can give the damned computer a seizure. Too complex by a factor of 3. Can't wait to see the 2010 LGT, especially since the Forrester just was named MT's SUV of the year. Way to go, Subaru!

[MarkV]

yea I have to say, it took me 10 minutes to hard wire my detector in and it works like a charm, no more damned wires hanging in front of my radio, wondering when it'll tangle with my fist as I shift.......ooo the free shifting glory

[Jerboa113]

^ gotta thread ono how ya did it? I get tired of the wires on mine and have thought about doing that.

[MarkV]

^ gotta thread ono how ya did it? I get tired of the wires on mine and have thought about doing that.

 

 

i believe if you search hard wire detector, or something of that rule, you will get something, but what I did was get some ordinary telephone wire.......

 

stripped it till I got the RED(power) and the GREEN(ground) and then I stripped the input side of the radars power wire(sorry if that translates weird)

 

then I (after alongggg time of patience and steadiness of the hand) tied/ twisted the red with the red, and the green with the black.....

 

then I believe everything else should be self explanatory........just feed enough wire to go under the cover of the rear view wire cover, along the windshield(tucked back.....it hold nicely so far) then use something soft to tuck it in the A frame pillar.......then down to the fuse box..................and.....what I did then was just hook it to (RED for POWER) the 10amp cigar lighter fuse...and plugged it back in normally, then undid the bolt by your knees when driving(after you've taken out the panel) and hooked the ground wire there..... pretty easy if u ask me.....

 

 

but like I said, there should be a thread in the forum with the pictures....I waas toooo lazy to take the time to take pictures...sorry

 

 

 

 

anyway sorry for the side tracking..back to the issue on hand...yes halogens no good, HID's better, I do agree

 

 

 

and as others have said about problems with after market HID's....it depends what kind you use....I use sun systems or something like that... a great brand and i've been running them for almost 3 years without a replacmeent, I love em, and they're still nice and bright white(with a hint of blue to match the legacy's color........very light tint of blue), but yea,

 

I'm too lazy to quote it, but as someone did state, and this is a fact, the optics that BMW uses gives the projector that 'prysm' effect and that is why they are completely different from any other car, MB, Infiniti, Toyota, Audi, all of them cannot match the optics BMW uses, and I have to say I am quite jeleous of that one thing if I have to be jeleous about anything re: HID's, it would be the prysm effect, it's very nice

[fishbone]

Every time I drive a car with std halogens I keep checking to see if the damned lights are on! My 40+ year old eyes just see better with a whiter light. Even my wife's Sienna van has HID lights. She too cannot stand plain halogens any more. Too dull and limited.

I'm affraid you're not thoroughly reading my posts but I suppose I can't blame you, there's a lot being written here. I already stated that it's not the amount of light as much as what you do with it. And no, this isn't small-penis-syndrome-talk, although it may sound like it. I myself went from HIDs to halogens. At first I didn't like it a whole lot. Then I bought a HID kit. Spread and aim was terrible. Then I bought a pair of the brightest possible halogens, OSRAM Rallye 65w, rated at 2100 lumens, compared to the standard 1300-1500 halogens or 3200-3400 HIDs. Paired with the outstanding OEM projectors, I can't say I miss HIDs short of the cool factor. The OSRAM bulbs are a clean white, they are filled with HID xenon gas so they stay white and bright for 90% of their life. Not only do they put out significantly more light, but they spread it further.

Like it has been mentioned here, HIDs should not be a dealbreaker when the price difference is so significant between cars such as a well-equipped BMW and an LGT. You can throw just about the most expensive HID retrofit and still come out cheaper. Let's consider you spend 400 bucks on Philips bulbs and ballasts and 1 grand dumped into a complete HID headlight retrofit done by the book. Still cheaper than other cars with stock HIDs and arguably with better projectors.

Ok, we get it, your van has HIDs So does a Prius. There were studies done to suggest whiter and brighter is not always better. Why? Because the difference between the brightly-lit road ahead of you and the darkness around you is higher. Bright white light also makes your eye adjust and in turn you don't see as well. Bright white light also makes for differentiating objects on the road harder. This was the basis Subaru talked about when explaining why they do not equip with HIDs more of their cars, as far as I can remember.

Also, a 10-15% reaction time difference is hardly something to write home about. And we're not talking HIDs vs holy-shit-I've-had-these-halogens-for-150-years-I'm-blind-as-a-bat lights, but half-decent halogens that should not be rated by any reason any less than around 1500 lumens in this day and age.