I picked up some "eBay style" H1 Halogen projector headlights with the "angel eyes" for a decent price.

I've read all over about how if you try and install an aftermarket H1 HID kit into these projectors (meant for halogen bulbs), that the light pattern will be all fudged up.

WHAT CAUSES THE BEAM PATTERN TO GLARE?

Here are some pics of my projectors.
I took off the lens, dismounted everything.



Here you can see what it looks like.
There is the glass projector mounted to a bulb can, and they are separated by a reflective piece of metal covering HALF of the opening.
(You can't physically see the piece of metal, but if you can imagine the exact position where the card is being held, except now sandwiched between the glass projector and bulb can)

WHAT MAKES RETROFIT OEM PROJECTORS SO DIFFERENT?



Here is the back of the light, where the halogen bulb would be inserted. Any different than an OEM HID projector?

Looks like there is both up/down and left/right adjustability via the adjustment screws, don't OEM HID projectors have similar adjustments?

In essence, EXACTLY WHAT IS IT that makes the light beam glare on eBay projectors fitted with aftermarket HID kits?

What specifically ABOUT the differences in projector composition that causes this?

 

Actually from what I've seen the H1 units handle hid pnp better than the H3 units (due to the H1's having better optics-read better bowl's and or lenses), it's mainly the fact that most PNP bulbs aren't perfectly aligned and the fact that the hid light output is larger than the halogen worm. Most of the PNP glare issues comes from reflector housings not projectors, most projectors (unless it's aux fog/driving lights) come with cut of shields and are pretty good at light control but most reflectors don't have as great of shielding (designed around the halogen worm shaped output) and thus glare...


I'm currently running pnp bulbs in my H3 projectors and beyond a rotated driverside projector I've had ZERO glare issues. As long as you aim the projector right (and the fact that it has a cut off shield to control the light) you should be fine, this being said if you've already taken the unit apart why not retrofit. PNP bulbs are the weak link in the kit (even aftermarket D1R/S and D2R/S/C hid bulbs have a high factor of misalignment and poor bulb quality), I had both bulbs of a kit no less than two months old die on me....

 

IMO...the OEM retrofit use projectors designed for HID bulbs, where those are just cheap projectors meant to use a halogen bulb. OEM's put a lot of R&D into the lighting systems, much more than an aftermarket company has, so I would think it would be hard to find an aftermarket setup that will beat a good OEM HID projector setup.

But the aftermarket projector headlights should be much better than using a PNP HID kit in a standard headlight housing.

 

I had HID PNP system in my 240 sx (back when the kits cost +$500 a set) and never once had someone flash me from glare

The factory 240sx projectors had a cheap plastic cut off inside of the housing, very cheap design but it worked great. Hope this helps.

OEM Projectors

 

It depends on how the light is focused. Often a cheap projector doesn't have proper optics or reflective surfaces which cause hot spots when excess light is put in the projector. OEM HID projectors were meant for HID from the start. There are some halogen OEM reflectors that respond to HID very well, but that's because they put a lot of time and engineering into those projectors, while the eBay ones are just cheap copies to make money. The less engineering and manufacturing cost the better.

 

Yeah, the bulb alignment is one thing.

But the projector's optics are another. The focus of the light could be different, due to things like the shape and curvature of the bowl reflector behind the bulb, the position and curvature (if any) of the shield in front of the bulb, the curvature (and focal point) of the lens on the front of the assembly.

In some cases, an aftermarket halogen projector light that might even be crappy with the intended halogen bulb. The problem comes when you put an a rebased D2S bulb, and whatever glare may have been there before with the halogen bulb will be amplified with the D2S bulb because it puts out so much more light.

From my experience, Valeo H7 halogen projectors (comes stock on many Audi vehicles among others) takes very well to a Philips D2S bulb with the simple addition of a machined aluminum adapter ring. That's about the only halogen projector out there that really works well with HID.

 

I'd also like to note, that the HID's in my 240sx put out about the same amount of light (in my opinion) as the factory halogen units. It was nowhere near as bright as my OEM S2000 units.

 

when you put HID into a halogen housing, you get the same exact beam pattern as you had before.. the light just gets brighter.. i retro'd s2000 projectors on my 97 240sx and i loved it.. i would have never used those crappy stock s14 projectors..