HID in standard '99 QX4 head/fog light?

[Karona]

Hello, I'm going to go right ahead and apologize ahead of time; I'm fairly certain this topic has been covered numerous times, but all my searches left me with incomplete theories so I figured I may as well just ask and hope for a straight forward answer (preferably from experience). In addition, any pictures would be awesome.

Have a '99 QX4, the headlight housing is a non-projector deflector housing and the fog light is a halogen projector with a yellow film/lens? (example pictures below [I hope taking these images from ebay links isn't a problem..]). Well I was wondering if anyone has experience with trying to install HID kits for either the stock head or fog lights, or both.

These are my questions, in short, regarding STOCK HOUSINGS:

- Are HID bulbs through the stock headlights absolutely terrible? Has anyone tried it, has pictures, etc?
- Has anyone installed HID kits into the stock fog light housing (it has yellow tint), and if so, what were the results?


These are my questions in long:
I understand the headlight isn't made for HIDs and in THEORY are incredibly blinding, but I also read that people who have actually installed them on the stock housing said it wasn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be.. No one actually posted any pictures of example cut-offs though so I feel forced to try it myself to learn from experience, but I would greatly appreciate any definitive information regarding how poorly the 99 QX4 headlight spreads the light beyond "Don't do it, it's not for HIDs!"

Also, I was also curious about the fog lights, I figured if I couldn't put HIDs in the head light without looking like an idiot, then perhaps I could put some in the fog light (keep in mind the fog light HIDs would be primarily for looks as they don't get much use right now beyond for looks because I think the yellow is pretty awesome but I'd like to experiment with blues or purples even, mostly for parking up and looking cool or being a ricer as some might say lol). The fog lights has a yellow tint, film or lens, I'm not entirely sure. Does anyone have experience with running an HID through the stock fog light projectors? In theory, I imagine these are 2 possibilities; 1) The yellow tint completely distorts the colour (which might still be attractive looking to me, currently my yellows look a little green at time, possible from age as I believe the housing isn't sealed perfectly). 2) The yellow layer, whatever it may be, melts....


Headlight without projectors




Fog light with yellow tint

[nickelghandi]

I'm sort of surprised no one has chimed in yet. You should have no problem with HIDs in your Qx4. You should look for ones like Kensun that have a small shroud covering the bottom of the bulb. That eliminates most of the glare people talk about. I run Kensun 35 watt 5000k bulbs in my 04 pathfinder. I tried running them without the little shrouds (they're easily removable) and people flashed their brights a lot and I noticed no difference in visibility for me so I put them back in. I don't get flashed anymore and my beam cutoff is sharper than stock and my visibility is much improved.

For your headlights of course it's a matter of preference but I would advise against going over 6000k in color temperature. Temps higher than that actually reduce visibility even though they look cool/riced out.

For the fogs, you can actually get yellow color HID bulbs. I am looking into running some HIDs in my fog lights.

Overall you can closely match your stock setup color-wise and exceed the stock capabilities greatly. If you get the right kit, install it properly, and don't get those ridiculous blue, purple, or green lights, you will be fine on the road and happy with your lights. I will try to post some pics when I get back in town of my setup so you can see where to mount things and connect ground wires.

Here is a link to the kit I used, but there are all kinds of good ones out there: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0050Z9T ... _oh_bia_dp

[towncarblue]

i did the hid thing to my pathfinder 02. alot of research led me to believe that projectors are a must or risk blinding other people and getting pulled over by the LAW. i travel to cities alot andt the police presence is higher than usual { bigger risk }
dont know how to attach pics..... photobucketed
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii42 ... 0whole.jpg
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii42 ... 195842.jpg
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii42 ... 195839.jpg

the install of the projectors into the light housing was not difficult.
i used a ddm 35w kit from ddmtuning.com , decent reviews and prices. i also bought their hi/lo wiring kit
which made the whole install plug and play. the light output is alot better than my osram nighthawks [ 1st hid kit so i cant compare it to any others }

the projectors i used were these http://www.amazon.com/Bi-Xenon-Mini-Pro ... Projectors
which i bought based on a budget build recommendation on another forum. i did not use those shrouds , i just bought a mini gattling gun shrouds from ebay

[nickelghandi]

Ah yes my HIDs are wired for hi/lo as well.

@towncarblue What's the process for installing those projectors? I bet that makes the beam scatter even better, but I'm afraid of messing with the housing too much.

[towncarblue]

i have some pics of the light pattern. unfortunately my drivers side is completely out of alignment and i havent had time to adjust it.
1st pic pass side only { not aligned but descent pic }
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii42 ... ly%201.jpg
2nd pic both on { drivers side not adjusted yet }
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii42 ... driver.jpg

its actually quite easy. put the oven at 250 degrees , put in the headlight for about 5-6 min . take out of oven with mittens and start pulling apart. i used a plastic paint
scrapper after a min or two. if you cant pull it completely apart put back in oven for 2-3 min and try again. i used this silicone to put it back together { http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii42 ... 203403.jpg } because it had a pic of a headlight torn apart in the back.
the silicone is very liquid style so when you use it to put the headlights back together make sure the clear plastic is facing up or it might end up on the inner front of the housing like mines did... had to take it apart to clean it from the inside.
also , these projectors are made in a way that there is only one way to install them into the housing. .
i bought another kit for my honda accord which i havent installed yet so if you request em i can show some pics of what the kit comes with

[nickelghandi]

Awesome. Those look really sweet. I think I'm going to get a pair haha.

As far as the law goes, HID conversions are perfectly legal in most states. I live in Lexington, KY and have never had an issue. Mine are white though and not blue. I drive in the city and on back country roads and never get bright lighted or have had any issue with the police.

Now the projectors are legal for off-road use only. If a police officer saw them and wanted to stop you or stopped them and then wanted to write you a ticket for the projectors, they could. I don't know of any cases of that and in Kentucky (applies only to me) they seem pretty relaxed on lighting and tinting laws. I've seen blacked out windshields on cars with purple headlights and green fogs with no projectors all misaimed and blinding people. Or (my personal favorite) guys with poorly installed kits whose relays are loose or something and the lights flicker and flash bright and dim as they hit bumps. Like I said before, as long as you're responsible with your lights and other mods, you should be fine in the eyes of the law but more importantly in the unblinded eyes of the other drivers.

[towncarblue]

it all depends on where you are without projectors installed and adjusted properly.
in ohio , in certain parts of cleveland { the small city } the LAW will pull you over.
in NYC... lower manhattan the LAW will pull you over . in the bronx the LAW might pull you over if you blind them on the opposite lane
in philly... havent seen or heard of anyone pulled over yet.
the projectors stop the light from being scattered all over the place, thus its safer and the police dont notice you

[nickelghandi]

Yeah plus I'd imagine you can run the bulbs without those little shades that stop the light and use the full potential of the kit without scattering light everywhere.

Was it difficult to adjust the projectors once you got them in? I am thinking of getting some anzo headlights from Amazon and installing the projectors in those.

[cr4west]

Has anyone tried the $90 Kensun New Technology All-in-One LED Headlight Conversion Kit (from HID or Halogen) - H3 - 30W 3000LM x2 kit on their Pathfinder / QX4 yet? I wondered if it would be less work and less cost.

[nickelghandi]

I was looking at that kit. The light output is less than HID but more than halogens and the lifetime of the bulbs is crazy long. Its definitely not cheaper in up front cost, but it could save you in the long run.

I have seen some videos of comparisons between halogen LED and HID and HID is definitely the brightest and has the best beam cutoff if you go the projector route.

LESs have only two sides that emit light so they just cannot put out as much in all directions as HID or even halogen. The fact that the bulbs are brighter and whiter is what makes them brighter than stock.

My vote would be HID, but it is really a matter of preference. There isn't much difference in actual performance.

[Karona]

That's for adding to the discussion, I figured this thread would just die and I would have maybe bumped it with some comparison pictures when I start installing the HID kit myself just to see.

Towncar, those mini-projectors look pretty good, I imagine you had previous experience with a dremel and/or other required tools? I've never done metalwork, but I imagine I could do it with the right tools as I'm fairly dexterous and patient haha, I'm glad to see that HIDs have been done with both projectors and without, the cutoff with the projectors look great (as expected), but I'm very curious to see the cutoff without projectors and a simple bulb/casper-shield. I should be getting my HID bulbs within the next few weeks, I also have a headlight restoring kit that I'm itching to get started, and I will be sure to update this thread with pictures I take, regardless of the results..

As for the oven heating method, I am really interested in doing this for my foglights in particular, as there is a lot of moisture and what looks to be salt residue inside the driver's side housing (I imagine the air-tube thing on the side has been either broken, or missing but I haven't spent the time getting out the light as yet.

[towncarblue]

there is no dremel needed unless you use a shroud that is way too big, like the one on the link i provided { i guess they ran out of mini gattling gun shrouds} . i used the mini Gatling gun shrouds, no cutting necessary.
as for the fog lights, you are better off replacing them. in this pic
http://s261.photobucket.com/user/townca ... e.jpg.html
you can see the passenger side fog light is filled with water. i tried to take it apart and fix it but the shinny inner reflective housing paint just peeled away. after i tried to clean the inside it still looked messed up.
since i rarely use fog lights i decided to put that to repair item at the bottom of my list.

[Karona]

Thanks for the reply, I'm only now seeing this. The projectors look pretty good, and I'm sorry to hear about the fog lights, my drivers side has this ugly salt-residue looking stuff in it, wish it were easier to clean. I've never removed a lens before so I'm somewhat uncomfortable with the idea, but it's certainly something I'll consider as I would love to clean them out from the inside, etc.