Small Car Headlight Kit
 

What is the impact of not putting in the spacer for the high beam bulb? I would think the spacer causes the beam to spread faster. Is the spacer supposed to make up for the lack of the light spreading elements in the original lenses?

Re: Small Car Headlight Kit
 

Throw away that garbage headlamp kit and do a proper HID or LED retrofit.

Re: Small Car Headlight Kit
 

Well that was helpful. :rolleyes:

Re: Small Car Headlight Kit
 

Indeed. I thought the small car kit was more of an appearance thing rather than improved lighting. I like the look.

Re: Small Car Headlight Kit
 

The small car kit IS just for appearance, and will actually reduce night vision by removing the Fresnel lens in the headlamp that properly distributes light on the road.

IF you perform the modification, the only real way to regain the lost focus would be to retrofit the lamp behind the now clear lens.

Re: Small Car Headlight Kit
 

That may be for the Brights, and possibly fog lights, but the oem Projector was already projecting through clear lens, so low beam should not have any reduction in visibility.

Re: Small Car Headlight Kit
 

Why not just get HIR bulbs?

Re: Small Car Headlight Kit
 

Except for a couple of points:

1) The projector selected for the SVX headlamp low beam has a pretty poor distribution of light out of the box.

2) The OEM SVX projector was designed for a halogen lamp, not HID, not LED, halogen. YOU CANNOT INSTALL A NON-HALOGEN BULB INTO A HALOGEN LAMP. This a crime in all 50 states. Physics shows us that the source of light and the lamp used to harness that source must be designed as a unit, you cannot mix and match lamps and light sources.

Re: Small Car Headlight Kit
 

Thought we were talking about the clear lenses, not HID vs LED vs Halogen...

though to compensate for the focal length of the halogen projector you could put a spacer on the back of the projector if you know what size you need for the HID your using. Though really it would be much better to retrofit a d2s projector into the svx headlight housing, probably not even that difficult since oem was projectors.

Re: Small Car Headlight Kit
 

Why not just get HIR bulbs?

Re: Small Car Headlight Kit
 

The problem with HIR in the smallcar kit is that the spread or divergence in the horizontal axis, for the high beam, will still be too small since the lens still lacks the lenticular array. You will definitely get more light but the spread is too small. And the spacers they supply aren't a great solution. It puts the bulb out of focus so the beam is under-collimated but that means it spreads more in both axes, not just the horizontal. Plus, for those of us with seized screws, we can't even use the spacers.

I am thinking of using this instead:

https://www.carid.com/piaa/piaa-plat...628315223.html

These LED bulbs use a line of smaller chips. Since the line of chips is longer than the halogen filament, more of the light will be out of focus and the spread will be increased, even without the use of a spacer. Also, since there are two lines of chips aimed in the horizontal axis, the light will be more confined to the horizontal axis than the vertical axis. That is exactly what we need. Combine that with the added divergence from the longer line of emission and you get more light in the horizontal axis and more divergence in the horizontal axis. The irony is that this is PIAA's cheapest LED option because it uses several lower power chips instead of one high power chip. That results in lower Luminance but in a way that we exactly need. So, in this rare case, two wrongs make a right. If, however, you had the original lens with the lenticular array, you would want the higher brightness (Luminance) LED kit. One last thing is that, if the divergence in the horizontal axis is still not enough, we could always use high temp epoxy to add a weak cylindrical lens in front of the LEDs.

For the fogs, yes we again lose the lenticular array with the small car kit but I think this bulb still gets us a higher visibility solution:

http://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo....270516&jsn=366

And while we don't get the full spread in the horizontal axis that we would with the stock lens, the filament in these bulbs are horizontal which results in some inherent divergence in the horizontal axis. That plus the coatings in this bulb should be able to provide a higher visibility beam in fog and snow.

As for the low beam, a standard halogen bulb is fine and the headlight still works as intended since the stock lens is clear in the low beam path. If people want more light, they can go with an HIR halogen bulb, a higher power halogen bulb (may not be a good idea due to heat) or they can modify a high beam bulb to accept the low beam electrical socket (a little more heat but probably OK).

Re: Small Car Headlight Kit
 

small car kit = junk garbage, it is only for looks not function, no matter what bulbs or retro fit of newer style bulbs etc. againi it is junk.

Re: Small Car Headlight Kit
 

Not helpful.

For people who already have this kit, a good solution would probably be welcomed and I don't subscribe to your assertion that there isn't a good solution. First of all, the low beam is perfectly fine, functionally. Second, the fog light was barely useful as originally designed and is fine as a high visibility driving light. Third, I believe the high beam can be made to be as good or better than stock. It just requires some research and thought. Given that I have a graduate degree in optics, I am sure I can find a solution. The only question is, will it be cost effective.

Re: Small Car Headlight Kit
 

The lens in the small car kit is not going to stand up to the elements long term, another knock against it. If I were going to do it properly, I'd open the lamp assembly, retrofit whatever lamps I wanted into the housing.

THEN I would polish the Fresnel out of the inside of the OEM lens and stick it all back together.

Re: Small Car Headlight Kit
 

My stock lens is full of internal micro-cracks and hazes like crazy. I hear you about the small car lens but at least that is easily replaceable. And, on a related note, when I replace it, I am going to consider adding lenticular film to the inside of the replacement lens. Such things exist and are easy to apply. I suppose I could do that right out of the gate but the headlights I purchased already had the lens put on the old assembly and so I am looking for a solution that doesn't require replacing the lens too.