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Originally Posted by dynomatt
Out of interest, if I want more light out of the front, will the HID do that? Mohrds is probably technically correct, but physics tells me more light has to come out if more light is put in?
Or maybe not?
Matt
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More light in does more light out. It just doesn't mean it is in the right place
Look at the image of the garage wall at the top of this thread. See how blurry the cutoff is and how the cutoff line curves up in the middle? These particular capsules are aligned well in the base, but not perfect. The cutoff line should be sharp and horizontally straight, then go up at about 30 degrees to the left. The lights in the image have a very small rise to the left and are overall aimed too high when compared to the car in the next stall. They will blind an oncoming driver if they are more than about 50' away.
The HID mount provides a small 'notch' cutout in the base where the HID capsule conveniently places the "return wire". This is the wire that extends from the tip of the bulb back to the base, alongside the bulb itself. It is insulated by a thin tube of ceramic to prohibit a premature arc of electricity outside the bulb.
As this wire is not transparent or thin, it casts a shadow on the light projecting from the bulb. In a normal mount, this wire is on the "top" side of the bulb, creating a pie-wedge shaped shadow of light upward. The projector housing uses a shutter to cut off the bottom half of the light from the reflector, and a single lens to focus it. A halogen designed projector does not compensate for the return wire and does not have a properly designed shutter. On top of that, the retrofit capsuls don't always have the return wire on the top. Some times it just ends up where it ends up.
Here are some pitures of an HID designed car next to a halogen designed car. See how the patterns match except that the HID is cutoff lower? Now look up to the image at the top of the post and see how blurry and undefined the pattern is.
Doug