Thoughts on Projectors.

[littleblazer]

Hey guys, so I was just wondering how some of you felt on projector retrofits. I've been going back and forth about either doing them myself or just having someone else do it. Anyway, just going to the projectors with hid's I was wondering how much of an improvement the light output would be compared to stock. I never thought the stock bulbs were that bad until I drove another car and then realized how lame the light output was. So right now it has the silver stars which are leaps better than the oem bulbs but I guess I just want to know if the hid's and projectors are worth it. Lets put it this way, they look cool even if they don't improve much so if it comes to it, its just an appearance mod. Thanks ahead of time for any input.

 

[Mounce]

HID projectors will have much better output than stock reflectors. I can't tell you any personal experiences with them since I've never had projectors but...I know they're leaps ahead of stock.

 

[dmanns67]

Based on my experience and my FX-R 3.0 projector retro, HIDs in projectors is the top of the line in lighting performance.

HIDs in the stock reflector housing is a huge upgrade over halogens. Projectors is even a bigger upgrade them that. The light output is amazing. Never again will a drive a vehicle without HIDs or projectors.

You have options for your retro Smitty5050 l, a member here, can do them for you. BlckShdw (Carlton) is actually doing another retro right now and Aarkon (Ryan) just finished his headlight and fog light retro.

I actually had a company in Brooklyn, NY do my retro, called HID Illusionz. I have some pics of my retro and output shots in my gallery.

Long story short, YES a projector retrofit is definitely worth the time and money. You will definitely be impressed.

 

[Blckshdw]

Pretty much, what he said

Doing a retrofit yourself is only hard if you don't know what you're doing, or if you have an overly active and grand imagination. If you keep things functional and simple, they are relatively easy to do if you have the right tools and some patience. Also helps to have a forum where people will help you out if you get stuck. Here's a link to my thread if you haven't seen it yet.

Starting with the threaded shaft projectors (Mini H1 and Mini D2S) is a good way to test the waters, as installing those is less complicated than OEM projectors where you either need to fabricate mounting brackets (can allow for adjustments), or use epoxy to secure them to the reflector bowl (if you screw up the alignment this way, it's a LOT of work to fix it)

 

[kickass audio]

I feel very strong toward projectors. I hate the performance of HID's in halogen housings. I have only had a good result out of my fogs with the HID's in the stock lamp. The low beams and high beams were scattered to all hell. I had 35 and 50w ballasts for mine and both scattered the light bad in the stock housing for low and high beam. I first went and installed 42mm projectors in my low beams after taking off the lens and they worked alright but I botched the install as it was my first time doing a retrofit so the cutoff was not razor sharp or level like it should be. Also with the 42mm, the light output was not as much as it could be with a bigger projector size. I then had issues where the aftermarket headlights I bought from rockauto had crappy adjusters so with the added weight of the projectors, if I hit a bump in the road hard, the headlight bowl would pop out of the little ball sockets and make the light fall down. After I got sick of that, I ordered 64mm projectors and the guy was nice and gave me 64mm CCFL halo's as well for me to mod and install on my own which work great. I threw the aftermarket headlight housing in the trash as they were just absolute crap and I did the retrofit on my stock housings. I had to buff out the lens on them as they were nicked from the previous owner of my truck but they buffed out nice. I then had taken off my lens on the OEM lights, unscrewed the reflector bowl from the body of the light and then dremel out the low beam to fit my projector socket. I then had taken the lights outside and mounted them to make sure my cutoff line is totally level. I then modified the shroud for the projector to fit into the opening for the low beam and then mount my HALO's to it. I had then cut down the little plastic cover that covers the opening around the reflector bowl as my projector sticks out a bit to rub into that. I used windo-weld and secured the lens on the body. I had then adjusted the light for horizontal and vertical adjustment (with modification though) and it worked great!

All in all, I strongly recommend using HID projectors, NOT halogen projectors when you use HID's. It sounds like a lot of work but is really easy if you have a dremel and drill.

 

[Sparky]

I'm running Morimoto mini H1 HID projectors from TRS and they're good stuff. Not as much work as other projectors to install (great for a first time or for someone who doesn't trust himself otherwise, like me!), good output. 'm sure something like the FX-R is a bit better but hey...

 

[24v 4.2]

I am in the process of doing my projector retrofit. I bought some of the mini h1 knock offs from The Retrofit Source during the Black Friday sale. They seem to be of good quality (especially for $36 with shrouds shipped).

I will post up how good the output is once I have them installed.

Then later down the line I will retrofit LED strips for the turn signals and side markers.

I already have projector fog lights. My stock fog light housings were blinding to look towards with HIDs in them.

 

[littleblazer]

So if my research is correct, with the mini h1 essentially all I'd have to do is buy aftermarket lenses to make my life easier on getting them open, then simply thread them through where the stock bulb is and align the cut off? Or does the hole have to be enlarged a little? Either way if that is the case i maybe doing this myself.

 

[Blckshdw]

So if my research is correct, with the mini h1 essentially all I'd have to do is buy aftermarket lenses to make my life easier on getting them open, then simply thread them through where the stock bulb is and align the cut off? Or does the hole have to be enlarged a little? Either way if that is the case i maybe doing this myself.

You'll have to cut off the rear of the reflector bowl, where the 9006 bulb retainer is screwed into, and grind that down with a Dremel. But the hole size itself, should be pretty close to the projector's shaft. May have to enlarge it a tiny bit. I grabbed this from NinjuhNutz's thread since he used MH1's. You can see the rear of the reflector bowl.

 

[littleblazer]

You'll have to cut off the rear of the reflector bowl, where the 9006 bulb retainer is screwed into, and grind that down with a Dremel. But the hole size itself, should be pretty close to the projector's shaft. May have to enlarge it a tiny bit. I grabbed this from NinjuhNutz's thread since he used MH1's. You can see the rear of the reflector bowl.

Seems simple enough break open remove parts dremel where necessary put together. So as far as wiring, it's just tapping into the factory bulb harness and doing either the cap mod or DRL kill? I would assume cutting off the plugs and hard wiring to the factory wires. I would also make the assumption that it is limited to 35 watts on the lows being that is factory?

 

[Blckshdw]

The recommendation is to get a relay harness that powers the HID ballasts directly from the battery, instead of pulling that inrush current on startup through the small gauge wire inside the headlights, which can lead to melting connectors and/or wires. It's 20AWG I believe. The relay harnesses accept 9005/9006 plugs, so it's plug and play.

If you are going to keep a bulb in the high beam spot, but still want the bixenon function of the projector, tap the solenoid wires into the high beam wires, or buy high beam splitters (TRS sells these too) to make it plug and play, although things can get a little crowded depending on how you route things.

And yes, either the DRL killer or capacitor mod is needed or you'll damage your relay harness and ballasts from the PWM signal.

Edit: 35W is usually more than enough light for your average driver. Having 55W will be brighter, and hotter, but whether or not you need more is really up to you depending on where you drive at night, and how often you need more output.

 

[kickass audio]

I actually never advise to use HID's straight on the factory wires. HID's draw less current than halogen bulbs after they are warmed up but they draw more current when they are warming up. It may be alright for fast startups but why risk burning up the thin OEM wires when you can just get a relay kit or build your own relay kit for the ballasts. Also you do need to enlarge the hole for the low beam and you push it through the opening and then use a small washer (included) and thread the nut onto the projector. Don't go crazy cranking it down as the projector and reflector bowl are plastic. Also, what I did was the DRL delete as there is no need for the HID's to be on during the day. I think DRL's are the dumbest thing ever but that is just me and that topic is one that can be debated all day on here. lol. What I did then was hookup my Halo's to the running lights so I didn't have to switch on my headlights to make the Halo's come on. The halos are nice and bright for me so it has some light output when I move my truck in from the street at night.

My reason behind the DRL delete is HID bulbs are nice and expensive so instead of wearing them out faster by keeping them on during the day, I wanted to extend their life by making it so it only comes on when I command it through throwing the switch all the way to the right.

 

[littleblazer]

So essentially the relay plugs into the old light socket, then the ballasts are wired through the relay then hard wired to the battery, which from there the relay opens and closes the circuit based on input from the headlight, so when the car is off the headlights don't remain running. That is about as far as my knowledge of circuits goes, very basic electrical. I would've thought the factory wires would have been more along the lines of 12 or 14 gauge though.

I actually never advise to use HID's straight on the factory wires. HID's draw less current than halogen bulbs after they are warmed up but they draw more current when they are warming up. It may be alright for fast startups but why risk burning up the thin OEM wires when you can just get a relay kit or build your own relay kit for the ballasts. Also you do need to enlarge the hole for the low beam and you push it through the opening and then use a small washer (included) and thread the nut onto the projector. Don't go crazy cranking it down as the projector and reflector bowl are plastic. Also, what I did was the DRL delete as there is no need for the HID's to be on during the day. I think DRL's are the dumbest thing ever but that is just me and that topic is one that can be debated all day on here. lol. What I did then was hookup my Halo's to the running lights so I didn't have to switch on my headlights to make the Halo's come on. The halos are nice and bright for me so it has some light output when I move my truck in from the street at night.

My reason behind the DRL delete is HID bulbs are nice and expensive so instead of wearing them out faster by keeping them on during the day, I wanted to extend their life by making it so it only comes on when I command it through throwing the switch all the way to the right.

And on the DRL, I usually flick it off when I get in the truck anyway (click to left). But it is nice to have in case I forget and it rains or something that would require them. In NJ I think we're required to present headlights while it is raining but I've been wrong about laws many times before so I could be again.

And an off topic note, weren't DRL's originally created because some manufacturer put an excessive charging system in their vehicle and were cooking batteries so to save them they left the headlights on all the time to put some current draw as to not overcharge? Just something I heard in conversation a long time ago, thought it was interesting and actually made sense a little.

 

[kickass audio]

If that is the case that sounds moronic for overcharging. It is called a voltage regulator and that is what prevents that. lol. You are correct on the relay operation. What you may want to play with when you do the retrofit is the idea of keeping halogens in the stock high beam socket and having them turn on as well as engage the solenoid that makes the projector turn into a high beam. In mine, I tried it but hated it so I cut it out. The problem I had was the bi-xenon projectors were perfectly aligned but the halogen high beams were not so it was all over the place for the halogens. I just put the halogen bulb in the socket but left it disconnected so that way you don't have a opening in the light that looks bad.

 

[littleblazer]

If that is the case that sounds moronic for overcharging. It is called a voltage regulator and that is what prevents that. lol. You are correct on the relay operation. What you may want to play with when you do the retrofit is the idea of keeping halogens in the stock high beam socket and having them turn on as well as engage the solenoid that makes the projector turn into a high beam. In mine, I tried it but hated it so I cut it out. The problem I had was the bi-xenon projectors were perfectly aligned but the halogen high beams were not so it was all over the place for the halogens. I just put the halogen bulb in the socket but left it disconnected so that way you don't have a opening in the light that looks bad.

Just something I heard. So by piggybacking the high beam harness it will engage both the relay and the halogens causing me to have quad high beams or do I also need to keep the low beam plug energized when engaging the highs?

 

[kickass audio]

How it will be is you will have to do the DRL delete or the quad light mod to achieve this. You will have the ballast that powers the HID bulb connected to the low beam. Unless you use flash to pass, your low beam will lose power when you switch to high beams and make your HID bulb turn off. If you do the mod to bypass DRL like I did, you will have the low beams stay on with the high beams. If you do not, then your bixenon will not work at all as the solenoid for the projector will engage however your HID will turn itself off when you flip the high beams on.

Also, you don't use a relay for the bi-xenon projector itself. You use the relays to power the ballasts for the HID.

 

[littleblazer]

So just to be clear, the projector has a piece of metal in it that flips when the high beams engage to move up the projection, and if that's the case without modding, that function will work but the bulb itself will shutoff? cause when the high beams are engaged it disables the lows like you said, but if say a diode were wired between the pin for the high beam and the pin that energizes the low beam on the relay only when power is coming from the other harness since the diode won't allow the current to flow backwards and power the bulb..... or am I just over thinking the entire situation and should first actually do the job then take baby steps from there as far as tinkering. Quad beams would be nice on the highs though.

 

[Blckshdw]

Yes, you have it right. The diode mod is quite easy, that's how I enabled quad beams when I had quad projectors. Cost you a couple of bucks and takes longer to solder the scrap wire to the diode leads, than it takes to actually install it in the fuse block.

 

[littleblazer]

So Essentially This should be most of what I need?:

So the relay harness would plug into the old socket or into the fuse box? I think my mod side is starting to come out, its getting brave.

 

[Blckshdw]

That kit will do the job.

The relay harness will take the 9006 low beam plug from inside your headlight. There will be 2 ground connectors on the input plugs for the ballast. You can hook those up to the fender grounds on each side of the engine bay. And then there's a fused ring/spade terminal that attaches to your battery.

Your mod bug may be in it's infant stages now, but it will grow quickly if you hang around us here.

 

[littleblazer]

That kit will do the job.

The relay harness will take the 9006 low beam plug from inside your headlight. There will be 2 ground connectors on the input plugs for the ballast. You can hook those up to the fender grounds on each side of the engine bay. And then there's a fused ring/spade terminal that attaches to your battery.

Your mod bug may be in it's infant stages now, but it will grow quickly if you hang around us here.

That is what scares me. My mind says yes, but the college student in me says "you're broke damn it!" But the intellectual side argues with the student and says its better to see, and led brake lights help people see you, and lighting up the cabin better helps find things as well.... oh no. Looks like I know what I am doing over break.

 

[kickass audio]

More like the vehicle mod within you makes you do those changes. haha. Yes, those projectors should fit just fine. The biggest ones I could fit from futurevisionHID were their 64mm projectors. 74 was too big. This is the one I got http://www.futurevisionhid.com/products/hid-led-projectors/projector-conversion-kits/64mm-automotive-bi-xenon-projector-kit.html

If you want, while you are at it, maybe throw in some LED corner and running lights in the lights while you have everything apart on the front of the truck. Don't forget the load resistors though with LED bulbs for your turn signals or you will have hyperflash.

 

[dmanns67]

If you want to keep the auto functions of the lights, then I would do the capacitor mod instead of the DRL killer. The TV write up for the capacitor mod is below. All you need is a 10uf capacitor from RadioShack, part# 272-1013. Add wire with a connector to each side of the capacitor. One side connectors to the low beam wire (pink with white strip) on the BCM under the rea seat and the other end you will need a ring terminal connector for the ground. Then you can add some heat shrink over top of the capacitor.

http://forums.trailvoy.com/showthread.php?t=64575

Also, the diode mod is very simple to achieve 4hi or 6hi if you have fog lights. You will need (2) diodes IN4004 for the 6hi or (1) for 4hi, Radio Shack part# 276-1103. You will also need connectors, wire, heat shrink, and quick splices. Basically the same items you will need for the capacitor mod.

Here is a link to the diode mod under the rear seat on the BCM. I would recomeend to NOT just trying to shove the ends of the diodes into the connector. It is easier to attach wire to each side of the diode with a connector and use a quick splice for the wire. Much cleaner and secure.

http://gmtnation.com/forums/topic/11990-150-quad-beams-w-or-wo-fogs-4-hi-or-6-hi/page-1#entry330678

 

[littleblazer]

If you want to keep the auto functions of the lights, then I would do the capacitor mod instead of the DRL killer. The TV write up for the capacitor mod is below. All you need is a 10uf capacitor from RadioShack, part# 272-1013. Add wire with a connector to each side of the capacitor. One side connectors to the low beam wire (pink with white strip) on the BCM under the rea seat and the other end you will need a ring terminal connector for the ground. Then you can add some heat shrink over top of the capacitor.

http://forums.trailvoy.com/showthread.php?t=64575

Also, the diode mod is very simple to achieve 4hi or 6hi if you have fog lights. You will need (2) diodes IN4004 for the 6hi or (1) for 4hi, Radio Shack part# 276-1103. You will also need connectors, wire, heat shrink, and quick splices. Basically the same items you will need for the capacitor mod.

Here is a link to the diode mod under the rear seat on the BCM. I would recomeend to NOT just trying to shove the ends of the diodes into the connector. It is easier to attach wire to each side of the diode with a connector and use a quick splice for the wire. Much cleaner and secure.

http://gmtnation.com/forums/topic/11990-150-quad-beams-w-or-wo-fogs-4-hi-or-6-hi/page-1#entry330678

So solder the diode across those two wires in the correct polarity, not jam them in. I'm a firm believer in soldering and heat-shrinking all connections. On the boats, butt connectors don't mix well with saltwater. So it's kinda just second nature to do all the extra work and I like playing with the torch and soldering iron....

 

[Aarkon]

With all the advise you have been given and the responses I have seen you seem to have a great grasp on what you are going too need to do I think you will do a good job on these. Just dont go crazy on your first retro[emoji106]

 

[Mounce]

You've been doing your homework bud.

 

[littleblazer]

With all the advise you have been given and the responses I have seen you seem to have a great grasp on what you are going too need to do I think you will do a good job on these. Just dont go crazy on your first retro[emoji106]

Thank you.

 

[dmanns67]

So solder the diode across those two wires in the correct polarity, not jam them in. I'm a firm believer in soldering and heat-shrinking all connections. On the boats, butt connectors don't mix well with saltwater. So it's kinda just second nature to do all the extra work and I like playing with the torch and soldering iron.... [emoji3]

Yes sir, if you are good with soldering. I do not have a solder iron at home, so I just used the crimp style butt connectors like in the picture below and then wrapped it in heat shrink. Make sure you mark on the wire where the strip is on the diode before putting the heat shrink on. Do the same for the capacitor.



Both of the write-ups show just using the bare diode or capacitor to connect them. I was not a fan of this setup plus it did not look clean, secure, and had an open wire. With the wire on each end of the diode, you can use a quick splice, pictured below, to attach it to each of the wires. With the capacitor, you will use the quick splice on one end and a ring terminal on the other for the ground.

 

[DAlastDON]

I miss the HID projector's i had in my maxima. Stock but like daylight-on-demand. Projector's with HID's should be a must in my opinion. Too much glare on oncoming traffic. If im not going to blind someone else with my high beams then i will flash a person with HID's in their reflector housings. Otherwise i do not purposely blind someone else. Got a pair of headlights already retrofitted that i got from a part out. Bi-Xeon projectors in the high beam and a halo in the low beam. I think they have the mini H1 projectors in them but the light output was crap. They were on a lowered envoy so i thought they just needed to be adjusted. Ended up breaking the adjuster on the drivers side. Useing one of those pocket screwdrivers with a pen clip to turn the adjuster, without much pressure, something inside snapped and everything is now pointing down. May have been old bulbs shipped with them that caused them to be dim. No idea how old they were. I will cut them back open and look at it one of these days.

Being that there are several different mods that you can do to make the lights function the way that you set it up should be how you wanted it to work. All i wanted to do was was eliminate the DRL from the headlight. A capacitor will do that but i wanted piece of mind that there was not one more component to fail or tiny little wire lead to come loose or break and you have a PWM signal going to the HID relay. Little bit more work but i ran one wire from the engine bay to BCU. From the BCU i tapped into the ground trigger for the LED next to the headlight switch. Im experienced with running wires. What i do for a living. Took less than ten minutes. Though a capacitor would be much easier and quicker. The wire is less likely to fail with proper wire management in my opinion.

 

[littleblazer]

I miss the HID projector's i had in my maxima. Stock but like daylight-on-demand. Projector's with HID's should be a must in my opinion. Too much glare on oncoming traffic. If im not going to blind someone else with my high beams then i will flash a person with HID's in their reflector housings. Otherwise i do not purposely blind someone else. Got a pair of headlights already retrofitted that i got from a part out. Bi-Xeon projectors in the high beam and a halo in the low beam. I think they have the mini H1 projectors in them but the light output was crap. They were on a lowered envoy so i thought they just needed to be adjusted. Ended up breaking the adjuster on the drivers side. Useing one of those pocket screwdrivers with a pen clip to turn the adjuster, without much pressure, something inside snapped and everything is now pointing down. May have been old bulbs shipped with them that caused them to be dim. No idea how old they were. I will cut them back open and look at it one of these days.

Being that there are several different mods that you can do to make the lights function the way that you set it up should be how you wanted it to work. All i wanted to do was was eliminate the DRL from the headlight. A capacitor will do that but i wanted piece of mind that there was not one more component to fail or tiny little wire lead to come loose or break and you have a PWM signal going to the HID relay. Little bit more work but i ran one wire from the engine bay to BCU. From the BCU i tapped into the ground trigger for the LED next to the headlight switch. Im experienced with running wires. What i do for a living. Took less than ten minutes. Though a capacitor would be much easier and quicker. The wire is less likely to fail with proper wire management in my opinion.

I see. I just like simplicity though. I have some planning to do.

 

[Matt]

As an aside, will they work with the CREE LED's in them?

 

[Blckshdw]

As an aside, will they work with the CREE LED's in them?

This is something that gets brought up over on HIDPlanet about as often as we used to get the "What's this red wire?" from noobs here. The overall consensus is they will work, but not nearly as well as an HID bulb will. You'll get less overall usable output, and usually be missing the desired hot spot at the cutoff step.

One of the guys on HIDP made a video of the output. This gets reposted just like Roadie's red wire/front fuse block pic used to

[video]http://youtu.be/XM1-POiNe0w[/video]


Me personally, I plan to get some LED bulbs for a dedicated high beam projector setup down the road. Where I live and drive, I almost never need my high beams, I only use them to flash-to-pass other drivers, not for distance vision at night, so all of those previous arguments don't apply to my needs.

 

[kickass audio]

The CREE's would work like previously mentioned but it isn't the same light output as a halogen or HID bulb. Halogen and HID's have light coming out around the bulb. CREE's have it on one side. The problem with that is reflectors depend on light from around the entire bulb, not a portion of it. If they made CREE's with something that could diffuse the light & would spread the light all around, it would work perfect in projectors and even reflectors. CREE's to me are nice but still too costly to be worth my time. HID's are costly too but not as high as CREE.

You are certainly welcome to get CREE's and try them in your projector but if it was me, I would be pissed if my cutoff line was bowed like in that video. The only issue I have with my lights after my second retrofit is that on my drivers side light, the inner part of the light that is near the grille somewhat blocks the light output that would spread over to the passenger side. It isn't that bad but you can see where it doesn't go across all the way like it should when you are a ways away from an object. My passenger side one works great as the alignment of my projector was dead center when I made the hole bigger. I was anal about my second retrofit in that I went out of my way to double and triple check the alignment of the bulb in the projector as well as to make sure the cutoff line was perfectly level.

Also, do you know what color you are looking to have? I myself love the light output at 50w and am running 6000k bulbs for my bi-xenon projectors. My fogs however are using a 35w bulb at 4300k. With the extra light output on my 6000k bulbs, it will drop the "temperature" of the bulb down some so the 6000k color output is more around 5000k so it is only slightly blue.

As a tip that I learned, if you decide to go for CCFL Halo's during your retrofit, you only need to get one set (2 halo's) if you are going to put one on each projector. Only thing that you need is to have 2 of the ballasts for them. When the guy I bought my projectors from and threw in the CCFL's for free, he said that I could just extend the wires for one of my halo's where it goes to the other side of my truck. Problem with doing that is the high voltage power for them never makes it farther than about a foot on the wire before it dissipates and fails to light the CCFL. with those lights, the shorter the high voltage wires that go from the ballast to the halo's, the better. I wound up getting another one of those ballasts and hooked it up close to each halo and everything has been great since.

 

[littleblazer]

Oh that does remind me, what is everyone's preference on kelvin verses temperature for light output? Personally I don't like the blue, so I was thinking 5000K or the 4300K. But it seems most people go for the 6000K, I would prefer it to be as close to pure white as it can be, and 5000K seems to be the magic number for that.

 

[Mounce]

4300k is the brightest and provides the most usable light. Dmanns is running 4300/4500k bulbs and says they're pure white.

 

[littleblazer]

Sorry but one more question, is there any trimming of the shrouds required when using the standard ones, the mini gatling gun ones? They look quite nice but may be a little large. So I was already leaning towards the 4300K anyway, so pure white and the most usable light, think I'm sold. Looking forward to doing this.

 

[Mounce]

I'm unsure about the shroud trimming. But I just switched from 8000k to 4300k (looks more like 6000k because they're cheap Ebay bulbs) and it looks great compared to 8000k I just wish they were closer to their supposed color. If you get morimoto bulbs then you shouldn't have issues with incorrect colors like I do lol.

 

[Sparky]

For the low beam bucket the mini gatling shroud does not need trimmed. I'm using those.

If used in the high beam bucket it needs some trimming.

 

[dmanns67]

35w 4300k HIDs all day. Most lumen output. As you move up higher in the Kelvin scale, the lower the lumen output. 4300k is the brightest you can get. If you are trying to improve lighting performance, might as well get the brightest.

I have seen pics of projectors that have been damaged from running 55w HIDs. 55w gets so hot that the chrome on the reflector bowl starts to comes off. Plus with running 55w HIDs, they have a lower lifespan than 35w HIDs which are plenty bright enough.

 

[kickass audio]

With the shroud trimming, on that size it should not need to be trimmed. When you get wider lights like I now run, then you need to cut the shroud some because it will get up against the OEM reflector bowl so it can't fully seat. With the whole 50w bulbs have shorter life than 35, I can't agree with that as I have only had my HID's for 3 years now. My 35w fogs rarely ever get used now that my projectors are plenty bright enough. My 50w bi-xenons are on only at night so typically for 30-45 mins a day.

As far as how the 50's melt the chrome off the reflector bowl, that only happens if you have the light so the heat can't get out or are using a tiny housing. Like the fogs on the trailblazer are so damn tiny that they can't take 50's. I ran 50's in my envoys fogs for a few months and had no problem but went back to 35's so I could use my 50w ballasts on my bi-xenons.