Ahh.. pulled over for having HID..
 

Hello guys,

I'm one unlucky SOB. Police pulled me over for having an HID lights.. he stated that the lights were glaring and dazzling. It's good that I got a warning for this one. I'll have to go through repair order and get it signed by authorized inspection center.

I think the glare he's describing is coming from the the top portion in the picture. I just picked one from google image, so forgive me if I'm using someone's picture..
http://www.tacomaworld.com/gallery/d.../photo1233.JPG

I remember reading a thread showing how to minimize the extra glare on top by pushing the top part inside the projector? Am I correct? At this point I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on new housing.. I do admit that my lights are freaking bright (55w 5000k), but I've never had a problem with police with this since my first hid on halogen housing...

I'll have to swap it with halogens and get it inspected, then figure something out... I thought about using Sylvania silverstar line bulbs, but I'm not sure how good the output would be.

Any suggestions or knowhow to minimize the glare would be appreciated.

bad luck indeed
theres a lot of trucks here with BLUE hid kits that glares like the sun

get a 35w kit-- that would be a good start to reducing the glare.

Get a 35W kit, bend your squirrel finders down, and aim your lights down a bit.

Or get a proper retrofit. One's cheap, ones effective.

Ah, lowering the aim would work. There's a spot that you can turn using screw driver right?

Glad he pulled you over, it is dangerous and annoying.

So if you knew your lights were bright did you just not care about others or are you special?

Scion drivers get called ricers for these kinds of mods; do it right or dont.

Thank you for the advice. I wouldn't consider myself as a dangerous or annoying person. Okay, it's my fault that having an overpowered HID in "SCION" may offend other people, but if you think you're glad that I was pulled over, then I can take that. Since everything has happened and I need to find a solution, I'm looking for an answer to remove the top glare from the light output. If I were to remove the glare, then the light output would be very close to as any other factory OEM HID bulbs. Now I just found few information on how to remove the glare by pushing down a small metal plate called "Squirrel Finder". Whenever I get a chance, I'll try that and post a picture comparing that to other factory HID output so you can compare and possibly accept my effort not to glare other drivers. So please do not consider me as a scion ricer... again, I appreciate your honest response.

Ill try not too, getting help is the first step. SEARCHING is the second. Good luck here

Sticky requested, there's a white FRS i see on the highway all the time and his HID's are fucking horrible.

Good luck.

Bad luck.

I've seen a lot worse and cops don't bat an eye where I live. Theres a Neon SRT4 with purple freakin headlights in my town.

If you don't wanna have to the resort to the stock bulbs, retrofit it to an HID projector so that you can have your HIDs still.

No, don't do any of the first sentence. Either do a full retrofit, buy a proper set of headlights, or put your damn incandescents back in.

Bad luck..i have 8000K HID installed for over a year, no problem..cops seem don't care about it.

I'd do 35W, that definitely looks like it would glare the hell outta me lol.

Exactly. the HIDs need the proper reflectors. Simply plugging in HIDs where the halogens went causes improper light dispersal IIRC, and thus why the cop pulled you (OP) over, b/c the light scatter WAS dazzling.

Do a proper HID kit or go back to incandescents

Lotta tough guys in this thread.

It's not about being tough or harsh, it's about safety. You may not be able to tell from behind the lights, even seeing how they hit on a white garage door, but improper reflectance of the HID source is dangerous to other drivers b/c of scatter.

Now, I applaud your for wanting HIDs. They're awesome and since I had them in my STI, I'll never go back to incandescent halogens for low beams again. EVER.

But, unfortunately scion skimped on the options that the GT86 can have, and you're stuck with crappy, dim, yellow halogens from the factory.

So, the solution is to get HID lights, not just a conversion kit. The Ten series comes with HIDs, so get the OEM ten series HID headlights and squirrel finder.

More expensive? Yes. Proper and safe? Absolutely.

Light can be a weapon (ask any good cop and take a look at their surefire or streamlight tac light and have them shine it in your face), and our headlights have to be bright for us to see the road. Improperly diffused, that light can blind and distract other drivers. It's like suddently putting eye shades on a driver while he's driving a complicated, high speed course.

Same reason why it's so bad to leave your high beams on when on a two lane road and there's an oncoming car in the other lane: light blinding.

Don't do it.

@SirBass speaks words of the enlightened. Hallelujah!

Just wondering, do you have an exhaust? If yes, what is it. Tint? If yes, what percentage? Thanks.

Exhaust? Not yet. I will be getting a nameless exhaust, though.

Tint? Yes. The car came with it as part of the dealer package. Tint percentages are in line with state law.

Just make sure you have a good conversion kit (not just a bulb swap), or get HID headlights.

Edit: Just did a quick google search and came up with this little webpage (not sure of the age): http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/hid...eadlights.html

He sets the strawman...

http://www.cars101.com/subaru/brz/brz13-dash2.jpg

That sucks! The BRZ has the adjustments here on the left hand side of the dash to level the projectors. I guess the FRS doesn't have this since it doesn't come with HID?

swap out for a 35watt kit, I ran one for a year before getting my new headlights. I never got pulled over by police or flashed by oncoming traffic. SUVs with hid lights cutoff at around the same level the 'glare' on these bulbs. I think the exception is that your lights are 55w and output a lot of harsh light, which is really noticeable.

Anyone ever consider getting these?

http://contentinfo.autozone.com/znet...1SZ-2/image/4/

They might get you an HID look without messing up the beam and light output.

FTFY. Output is definitely lower - they have a blue tint to reduce output. Beam focus is fine but you're trading life, output, and cost to gain color.

As SirBrass has said the FRS does not have the proper reflectors for the HIDs.
The reflector is based on the type of light output. Mismatching produces blinding oncoming traffic which is obnoxious and quite dangerous, jeopardizing the safety of everyone on the road. Not exactly smart.

Good

There is a BIG difference between throwing HID's into reflector housings or throwing them into projector housings (which we have). There is very little light scattered from our stock projector housings compared to older reflector housings (ie a 92 civic).

I've had a 5000k 35w HID kit in mine for almost a year and haven't even had anyone look at it twice.

My bad.

Somehow I figured that b/c the factory FRS lights were halogens that they were reflectors, not projectors.

Looks like only people who hate the hid bulb in regular projector lens are all BRZ drivers... to be honest, wouldn't you use at least 35w hid if you had to buy fr-s?

It's all planned now to reduce the glare and try to get a proper cut line, but please stop commenting on how wrong it is to use hid in regular projector lens, I had enough of understanding... ours isn't bad as some other people using hid in reflector housing. You can talk to dodge or chevrolet community on those... (Charger, cobalt, 2012 below mustangs, camaros, etc etc.)

^
I'm not a BRZ driver and I think the only way to get HID's is retrofit projectors or buy the real shit.

That being said, its not cheap and people don't really take the time to do shit properly. And even the mishimoto projectors are mediocre.

My past 3 cars I did retrofits in and after you see the difference you'll understand why its the only way to go.

Final note: INTERNETZ ARE SERIOUS!

at least he wants to fix the glare.

It was my error, actually. I made the mistaken assumption that the fr-s lights used reflector housings b/c they didn't use HIDs. That was the basis of what I was saying earlier.

Mea culpa.

Since that's not the case, a proper retrofit (so that the hid bulb is being powered by a proper hid balast, etc) is perfectly fine.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

FR-S has projector housings in the stock headlights. The OP just ran into some jerk cop, the reason he got a warning is because his lights are not illegal.

I've had 6k HID w/ ballasts for almost a year and never had anyone flash me.

The HID in reflector headlamps is a disease where I am at right now. It's of the 8k kind too. Trucks are the worst but the amount of Chevy colbalts with these and exhaust are truly irritating.

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As someone who took the time to properly retrofit in real projectors I have nothing to really add to this conversation other than this, so many people who hate on PIP HID's are feeling very vindicated right now

I'd swap the 55 watt ballasts with 35 watt ballasts to lower the output slightly. It might also extend your bulb life too.

That's just my 2 cents

Nick C.

Halogen projects are NOT HID projectors.

HID kits are illegal, period. Unless you're using an HID bulb that you can walk into a real autoparts store and buy (D2S, D2R, D1S, D4S) it's illegal at the FEDERAL level.



Exactly. Entirely different design and standards for halogen and HID.


It's funny I had a huge conversation (or some would see it as a fight) in another thread about this very thing.


Also: aiming your headlights down is just plain stupid. Let's sacrifice actual visibility just so we can get away with HID for the look. Not only is this dangerous, it's the definition of rice.


There's tons of options to run a real HID setup in the FR-S (Series 10, BRZ, retro-quik retrofit).


(also, any blue coated halogens are crap, and there's plenty of places you can find out exactly why)

Projectors or bust...

learn to retrofit. it's easy. it's not that expensive.

if I was a cop I'd pull OP over too. blinding people with a 55w kit in crap projectors is dangerous, period.

definitely not as bad as someone who has reflectors and drops an HID kit in, but still.. avoid at all costs ($300 cost to retrofit)

IIRC even with a retrofit option like the ones from retrofit they are still technically illegal (correct me if I'm wrong since I can't remember a source). If you want a "legal" HID you would need to spend ALOT more money. That being said you were extremely unlucky. Here in socal there are plenty of FRS' and a majority of them have HIDs and they look perfectly fine infront of me and behind me. I doubt they are all "proper" retrofits. You were just extremely unlucky or maybe 55w is just really damn bright (never seen a 55w).