Let There be Light - Part 2 (the video)

Faster but Safer night driving with retrofit projected HID headlights...

Headlight beams  are now wider and brighter (2 x 35w H7 + 2 x 35w H8 foglights)

Let There be Light

To some people with certain beliefs (faith) the phrase "Let there be Light" means different things. To me as a frequent night traveler, I always prefer better and brighter headlights (within legal limits) for safer night-driving - i.e without annoying to other road users. 

Low Beams

First, I installed retrofit 35w 4300K H7 HID conversion kit for the low beams, unfortunately the existing reflectors could not focus the beams very well - the 'stray light' glare was giving nuisance to other road users (read HERE) . So, I had to install focusing (projector) lens in front of each HID bulb. The problem is solved but most of the light beams are converged (concentrated) towards the axis thus poor lightings on the road sides - especially on the right hand side.

Fog Lights

Next I replaced the factory fitted H8 foglight halogen bulbs with 35w 4300K HID kits to illuminate the penumbrae. Now, both  road sides are well illuminated. 

Low Beams + Fog Lights

4 nos. 35w HID (2 x H7 + 2 x H8) illuminate the road and road-sides uniformly bright without causing nuisance to other road users. Safer fast nite-driving now...

Hi-beams 

The Osram 55w Night-breaker Halogen H1 bulbs for the high-beams are bright enough but the reflectors focus the light beams narrowly. I replaced them with Osram 100w Ralle for wider coverage without increasing intensity too much...

Hi-beams + Low Beams + Fog Lights

See how bright they are now! But the power consumption at this brightness is now 340w!... and by assuming the efficiency of the alternator 33%, power loss just to light-up these bulbs is 1.4bhp !

Note: It is advisable to use halogen bulbs with color temperature below 4300K for the hi-beam instead of the HID bulbs  because the later take time to warm up to full brightness. We keep on switching on-off the hi-beam lights, don't we?

Projector Lenses

Updated - Dec 22, 2010
Peugeot 308 H7 Halogen lights are bright enough for normal driving but still not sufficient for high speed driving at night [worse still if it rains]. At first I replaced them with NightBreaker bulbs but still not good enough ...

Then I installed HID Xenon kit [color temp 4300K] at the end of Q1 this year. Very bright but the parabolic reflectors were actually not designed for HID use.
As a result there were too much glare for the comfort and safety of drivers coming in the opposite direction. I was thinking to find a solution then...

I learned that a pair of Projector Lenses were required to be placed in front of the super bright HID tubes to correctly focus the scattered beams hence reduce glare and improve light distribution.
Just installed a set of 3" Projector Glasses [lenses] for the H7 HIDs.


Projected light beams on the wall...
Now no more glare to the incoming vehicle drivers...Circular Cold Cathode Fluorescence Lights [CCFL] tubes were also installed c/w inverters.
The CCFL side lights [angel eyes] look really cool.The installation wasn't easy. Even the expert hands took almost 10hrs to do. Never try do it yourself if you are not patience enough. Thanks Desmond Lim for your patience and passion. Very good job done indeed.

The 'E46' Projector Lens is 3" in diameter - not exactly 'ngam'. Probably 3.5" glass would be better but couldn't find locally [yet] .

After the installation, final beam realignments [horizontal and vertical] were required. Click HERE if u want 2 c how 2 do it.

Even though projector lenses cut out glare significantly, beam height still needs adjustment to avoid causing a nuisance to other road users. The manual headlight height adjuster is located to the right below steering column.

From lowest to highest...
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Note: Beams are not sharply focused though. Some evidence of penumbrae exist. Since those lenses are not multi-coated there are some fringing too.

Projector-HID on the road...