03_Impreza_Al

iTrader: (46)

You're better off painting the glass yellow, if yellow output is what you're going for.

brucelee

iTrader: (6)

I did that but it wasn't that great since it tints the glass rather than producing yellow light... By painting the glass (I used the clear-yellow acrylic glass "tint" which was made for that sort of thing) you're basically tinting the glass and not allowing for optimal output. By getting a yellow (whatever ion-yellow) bulb, and I'm not talking about the bulbs that are painted yellow, I'm talking about the bulbs that are clear (kind of has a rainbow effect but is still clear) but produces bright yellow light.

The tint-paint I used fades pretty quickly and have to be re-done. The heat from the bulbs basically cooks the tint into submission. I'd rather just do it the right way since one of my stock bulbs is burned out and I have to do it anyway.


So speed element is my only hope for ion-yellow bulbs?

brucelee

iTrader: (6)

WOW! I just called speed element and asked if they had what I was looking for (standard H3 bulbs -- Yellow 55w) so the salesman told me that had a set of yellow HID's for sale for $85... I figured that a set of nice yellow bulbs would prolly cost around $30-40 depending so might as well get the HID's!



Man, I remember back in 1999-2000 HID's were so rare and sooooo EXPENSIVE! I remember a set for my RS being in the $1,500 range... The cheapest you could find was for like $800ish... You could even spend around $3,000 for bi-xenon lights!!! Now that they are mass produced and used everywhere the price has come down soooo much! When he said "$85", I was like "Uh, is that for TWO of them? Or just one?" Comes with a life time warr too!


<---- Stock HID headlights with HID yellow foglights = Gonna be tons of w1n!!!!




<---- Used to be the BIGGEST photophile (light -- Flashlights, headlights, and just lights in general) but has been out of the loop for many years now. It's amazing how cheap some of the things out there are! Things you can get for $50 now used to cost $1,000 just 10 years ago! LED tech is what everyone should invest in... LED tech is going to go out of control once they can reliably make organic-LED's VS the LED's that we currently have. It's just a matter of time because organic LED's already exist but are in the very early infant stages... It'll be some years before they become a reality but once they do the world of light will take a new leap into the future. I can't wait!




Cliff notes: If you invest money on the stock market I highly suggest looking into companies that make high end LED tech (particularly those going into the organic-LED world). Just like solar power and gold, it's a no brainer.

04GG

iTrader: (33)

AFAIK, you can't just get a bulb and then you have HIDs. They may call them that, but it is just a marketing term to get you to buy them. I've tried various yellow H3s and it wasn't any better than tinting the glass.

brucelee

iTrader: (6)

Wait, what? The HID's were no better than standard bulbs with tinted glass? The only reason I got the HID's is because of the crazy amount of light output VS regular bulbs, and when you tint the glass with regular bulbs you're dimming the light even more. I figure with HID's it'll be so bright that it wont matter if I tint the lights or not, know what I mean?


my friend has a set of H3 HID's on his car and they are MUCH MUCH MUCH brighter than his stock headlights! (Yes, he has stock headlights and HID foglights on a 2000 RS). I love HID's, I don't think I can own a car without HID's installed... The stock STi HID's arent the greatest at output but they are still a mile ahead of standard H4 or H7 bulbs that you can buy at kragen... I love how they run on such low wattage too! With regular bulbs if you want brighter light you have to increase to higher wattage and that can melt your wiring from the high temps and they burn out much quicker (like adding a turbo to a high compression N/A car). HID's operate much more efficiently and use much less power (no dimming and such).


HID FOR LIFE!

soundwave

iTrader: (14)

I think he means are you sure you got HID fogs? Meaning the HID bulb + ballast. Not just a regular bulb.

subaru3169

iTrader: (2)

imho, i really don't think hids should be in fog housings.. illuminating that much of the foreground decreases your ability to see further like where your headlights are projecting, it's just how human eyeballs work

i'm not too clear on the yellow light subject in fogs but i could've sworn i read somewhere that danielstern said something that fogs emitting yellow light aren't more effective than a standard light

brucelee

iTrader: (6)

They aren't tinted or anything like that, the only thing that makes them different from the HID's you see people using for their headlights is that the yellow VS blue HID's operate at different temperatures. The lower the kelvin the more yellow the light, the higher the kelvin (temp) the more purple/blue the light is. These particular HID's operate at 3,000k which is a yellowish light that is great in bad weather. Sunlight (ideal light!!!) is around 4,300k, so most HID's try to match that temp... Once you start going higher into the temperatures the more purple the light gets and the more it scatters and the more it becomes useless. Ideal is 4-5,000k, and for bad weather like rain and such (or if you just want a diff color) is 3,000k.

Whoever said that yellow (3,000k-ish) HID's were no better than standard yellow incandescent bulbs is on crack.

brucelee

iTrader: (6)

I got the car back earlier this evening (Erm, last night) and the HID's are sick! They take a few seconds to warm up and get 100% bright but once they do they are no joke! They douse the blacktop in front of my car with an intense yellow light and the blue HID headlights contrast above the yellow. It looks really great, I couldn't be happier with them. They are so much brighter than the regular H3 bulbs that I was originally in the market for, I'm really glad that you guys mentioned Speed Element because they are the ones that suggested the HID's and for $85 it was a steal.


It's like two gifts in one... Not only do you get a bunch more light coming from the front of your car which illuminates everything for safer driving but it also looks friggin bad *** when seen from the outside. I compared my car with my friend's IS300 (side by side). The IS300 came with HID headlights with regular yellow fogs which are really bright on their own. When compared directly to the HID's you can clearly so how much brighter the HID's really are. It's a HUGE difference.


Now if I could only find a way to have my foglights stay on when I flick my high beams. Anyone do this? (I did it on my RS by splicing some wires but I don't know about the 07 STi)

brucelee

iTrader: (6)

I don't know how I missed this, but yeah, I got HID's of course, not just a bulb. It was a plug and play kit with purple anodized ballasts (yeah, bling, lol). Wiring and connectors looked good (beefy and quality). Overall I'm very happy with the kit thus far.



No regular incandescent bulb can match the output of an HID light that is attempting to do the same thing as the incandescent light. HID's were such a great invention...

Speed Element

iTrader: (39)

thanks for buying these from us! hope you enjoy them. They are really good quality HIDs


-Ryan