Cibies vs IPF Headlamp

[MaxxXJ]

Imma do the hid " hack job " with my lights . Shop I know will hook me up for a complete set housings and all for less than $150

 

[Gonepostal]

Hey buddy how is it going? You already probably know my recommendation. I don't know much about the IPF headlamps. I do run a set of Cibies I purchased off eBay, 50 dollars for the pair, and a Dan Stearn wire loom. The loom is a bit pricy but the quality is top shelf. I topped the setup off with a set of 110 - 85 watt bulbs from NAPA. The combination is phenomenal. It has saved my grill from bambie, as well as the local wapiti on a couple of occasions. Let me know if you need any part numbers.

 

[FlexdXJ]

You don't have a HID retrofit, you have an unsafe/illegal HID hack job.

Who pooped in your cheerios? Would you like a hug? I can't see at night, its a temporary solution. Sorry i don't want to spend my money to do a proper retrofit right now.

 

[iwannadie]

Who pooped in your cheerios? Would you like a hug? I can't see at night, its a temporary solution. Sorry i don't want to spend my money to do a proper retrofit right now.

So you can't afford HIDs, take them out and run stock lights until you can afford the HIDs. With stock lights you will not be blinding everyone else and you will have actual usable light. Don't tell me stock lights are unusable either, millions of vehicles use those same sealed beams and people do just fine with them. If you want to upgrade that is great, I upgraded to IPF housings, I upgraded when I could afford to.

I get tired of hearing people cry they can't afford something and use that as an excuse for doing hack jobs. If you came on here touting 5" lift blocks it would go over grandly I am sure.

 

[xcm]

I get tired of hearing people cry about 'unsafe lighting'. Are you a albino?

I run HID's in a couple differant xj's, its all in the aiming. Even the more aggressively aimed ones, arent dangerous, so take that bullshit somewhere else...

 

[zachandandy]

Why is brighter lighting unsafe? Because it doesn't have a huge price tag it can't be good? The headlights in the wife's 06 Jetta were so bright We would get flashed at least once on every nighttime trip. I don't care if you built your own headlights, properly aimed and installed I say go for it.

 

[Porch951]

I did a real HID conversion on my other car for about $200 using the Morimoto mini bi-xenon projectors and the DDM tuning HID kit + ebay housings. It is possible to do it correctly on reasonable budget, and it works well.

It is not possible to do it politely without a projector housing. I can only conclude that the people on all these forums who say their headlights are "aimed right" and "don't get them flashed" are the same assholes who blind me driving around with their "HID retrofit". Sorry to rant, but i'd hate for another one of those to be born as a result of the misinformation given.

Euro housings + good bulbs will get you most of the way to an HID output for less money, without being inconsiderate to other drivers (though more amperage draw, if that's a concern).

 

[Alaskan89XJ]

While you are at it.., get some head lamp stone guards to protect those expensive glass lense upgrades.

 

[Talyn]

While you are at it.., get some head lamp stone guards to protect those expensive glass lense upgrades.

x2 I went with some of the vinyl type. Stone guard or xpel makes them. You don't even know they are there. Just order the ones without the holes for the US aiming nipples.

 

[FlexdXJ]

So you can't afford HIDs, take them out and run stock lights until you can afford the HIDs. With stock lights you will not be blinding everyone else and you will have actual usable light. Don't tell me stock lights are unusable either, millions of vehicles use those same sealed beams and people do just fine with them. If you want to upgrade that is great, I upgraded to IPF housings, I upgraded when I could afford to.

I get tired of hearing people cry they can't afford something and use that as an excuse for doing hack jobs. If you came on here touting 5" lift blocks it would go over grandly I am sure.

Perhaps you missed the part about them BEING AIMED PROPERLY! I even aimed them lower than when I had stock bulbs in them. Lose the attitude about it dude or GTFO! :conceited

 

[FlexdXJ]

I did a real HID conversion on my other car for about $200 using the Morimoto mini bi-xenon projectors and the DDM tuning HID kit + ebay housings. It is possible to do it correctly on reasonable budget, and it works well.

It is not possible to do it politely without a projector housing. I can only conclude that the people on all these forums who say their headlights are "aimed right" and "don't get them flashed" are the same assholes who blind me driving around with their "HID retrofit". Sorry to rant, but i'd hate for another one of those to be born as a result of the misinformation given.

Euro housings + good bulbs will get you most of the way to an HID output for less money, without being inconsiderate to other drivers (though more amperage draw, if that's a concern).

I'll look into the morimoto stuff, did you use the "clear" lenses or the fluted ones? I honestly spent some time aiming mine down so people didnt get pissed at me, It seems to have worked. That and I only have 5000k bulbs instead of the 14987987987k purple ones. I have spent a lot of time and money on my Jeep, its far fomr done and a retrofit is on the list. I hardly drive my Jeep at night as it is, so these will work.

 

[iwannadie]

Perhaps you missed the part about them BEING AIMED PROPERLY! I even aimed them lower than when I had stock bulbs in them. Lose the attitude about it dude or GTFO! :conceited

Aiming has nothing to do with it. Also, not sure why everyone get so defensive over this issue. If people would take a few minutes and read up on the issue they would learn stuffing HID bulbs into housings not meant for them is not a good idea. You can tell me I have an attitude all you want but you can't argue with these guys, well you could try I suppose. It is like people on other forums arguing why their 6" lift blocks are ok and only temporary because they feel they need to run large tires now. Or the people that insist running with no sway bars on the streets is perfectly safe because they can't afford disconnects right now.

The most dangerous part of the attempt to "retrofit" Xenon headlamps is that sometimes you get a deceptive and illusory "improvement" in the performance of the headlamp. The performance of the headlamp is perceived to be "better" because of the much higher level of foreground lighting (on the road immediately in front of the car). However, the beam patterns produced by this kind of "conversion" virtually always give less distance light, and often an alarming lack of light where there's meant to be a relative maximum in light intensity. The result is the illusion that you can see better than you actually can, and that's not safe.

Compound that by aiming the lights even lower than stock and all you have now, is light on the road a short distance in front of you and in the faces of on coming traffic.

 

[hubs97xj]

Stern's job is to sell people expensive lighting gear, and to make them feel like the cost is justified. While he's very good at that, not everyone is interested in $300-400 halogen setups. I don't think people are defensive, so much as annoyed when anonymous people on their forum tell them their lights are shit, because a salesman told them that only expensive lighting works.

 

[FlexdXJ]

Stern's job is to sell people expensive lighting gear, and to make them feel like the cost is justified. While he's very good at that, not everyone is interested in $300-400 halogen setups. I don't think people are defensive, so much as annoyed when anonymous people on their forum tell them their lights are shit, because a salesman told them that only expensive lighting works.

What he said! :cheers:

 

[dieselenthusiast]

I’m a little confused. Are you saying that the Cibies headlamp with his recommended bulbs are illegal?

 

[iwannadie]

Here's more information because obviously the highly regarded Daniel Stern is just a salesmen, despite showing independent research and DOT regulations.

The Retrofit Source is one of the best HID/retrofit sources out there, here's what they have to say.

What is a Retrofit?
Power is nothing without control. Installing HID kits into halogen headlights is dangerous, doesn't work well, and annoying to oncoming traffic. Retrofitting is the process of installing a xenon or bi-xenon projector into a reflector based halogen headlight. It is the best HID headlight upgrade possible since the projector will control the light into a properly dispersed, non glaring beam pattern.

More from The Retrofit Source.

When installing a plug n play HID kit, the "rebased" HID bulb that comes with the kit will fit in the socket where your halogen bulb went, but the HID capsule in the bulb will be aligned differently in the reflector compared to the position of the original halogen filament. The result? An unfocused beam pattern with no horizontal light cutoff line. Your headlights may be brighter, but your usable light output may actually be worse. Approximately 50% of the light emitted from the headlights is being reflected up into the air, not on the ground where it should be. As a matter of fact, users of HID kits are one of the biggest contributing factors to the negative reputation that HID headlights have. HID plug n play kits produce so much glare, which is not only annoying to oncoming traffic and other drivers in front of you, but they're also dangerous because the possibility of temporarily blinding an oncoming driver and causing an accident.

There is this tidbit from wiki.

Vehicles equipped with HID headlamps are required by ECE regulation 48 also to be equipped with headlamp lens cleaning systems and automatic beam levelling control. Both of these measures are intended to reduce the tendency for high-output headlamps to cause high levels of glare to other road users. In North America, ECE R48 does not apply and while lens cleaners and beam levellers are permitted, they are not required; HID headlamps are markedly less prevalent in the US, where they have produced significant glare complaints. Scientific study of headlamp glare has shown that for any given intensity level, the light from HID headlamps is 40% more glaring than the light from tungsten-halogen headlamps.

Another good resource HID retrofits.

If you notice there is a trend. Running HID bulbs in a halogen housing is not a good idea, it produces poor usable light. It seems bright from the drivers perspective but none of that light is being throw on the road, where it is most needed. The people who tout running HID in a halogen housing are the people who A) Are selling you the cheap kit or B) Trying to justify their cheap kit.

You can google all day long and see the horrible beam patterns produced by HIDs in halogen housings, you can not argue they produce better light. You can google the technology behind the HID bulb and understand how it is different than a halogen bulb and why it needs a different housing. You can have a buddy drive your HID/h4 vehicle while you drive another car and see what other people are seeing, I bet it is an eye opener.

I have HID fog lights in projectors on my supra and they are awesome. I also have HID fog lights on my jeep in the standard housings. The standard housings are terrible but I like them for wheelin, they throw bright light a few feet in front of me and are low to the ground. If you stood in front my XJ with the HID lights on, you would be blinded because the light is thrown everywhere. When wheelin at night I like having a bright beacon so people can see me also so I use the HIDs.

 

[iwannadie]

Stern's job is to sell people expensive lighting gear, and to make them feel like the cost is justified. While he's very good at that, not everyone is interested in $300-400 halogen setups. I don't think people are defensive, so much as annoyed when anonymous people on their forum tell them their lights are shit, because a salesman told them that only expensive lighting works.

I am not telling anyone the cheaper lights are bad and to go out and buy the most expensive lights. I am suggesting using the proper light with the proper housing. Go buy quality housing like IPF or Cibies and put halogen bulbs in them as they were designed to have. You would likely be saving money buying a quality halogen bulb compared to a HID kit. Or, if you want HIDs go buy the proper projectors for them.

 

[dieselenthusiast]

"Pair of Cibie replaceable-bulb headlamp units (best-focused,
most-efficient units in production), Part number 82440
$74.95/ea without built-in parking lamp or part number 82438
$75.95/ea with built-in parking lamp.

Custom-built relay harness, ready to install, part number
HARN-RIK2, $139

Bulbs, Osram 70/65w, part number 64205, $22/ea.

Optional: Bulbs, front sidemarker light, 60% brighter, part
number WX6W, $4.24/ea."

Is the Osram 70/65w, part number 64205 a halogen bulb?

 

[Porch951]

I'll look into the morimoto stuff, did you use the "clear" lenses or the fluted ones? I honestly spent some time aiming mine down so people didnt get pissed at me, It seems to have worked. That and I only have 5000k bulbs instead of the 14987987987k purple ones. I have spent a lot of time and money on my Jeep, its far fomr done and a retrofit is on the list. I hardly drive my Jeep at night as it is, so these will work.

I just used "crystal clear"/flat housings from ebay. They were $20/set.

I wish i still had pictures but it looks like i deleted them. I basically just took the housings and cut the back off of them leaving an opening that was wide enough to fit the projector in. Then i put some PVC pipe between the front and the back half of the housing, slid the projector in, and glued it all together with some really strong plastic epoxy made for hot tubs. It sounds a little hokey but you'd never guess they weren't high-dollar unless you looked at the back. Because it all bolts in where the stock bulb goes, you retain all the stock adjusters.

The hardest part is making sure you have enough room behind your headlight mount for the projector--even the morimoto mini's are (IIRC) 5 3/4" deep + another 1/2" for the bulb and pigtail.

For some ideas check out http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/
They have a section with DIY writeups or you can search for your bulb name.

 

[iwannadie]

The hardest part is making sure you have enough room behind your headlight mount for the projector--even the morimoto mini's are (IIRC) 5 3/4" deep + another 1/2" for the bulb and pigtail.

Can you get pictures of the back clearance? I've seen a few people do projectors and they all seemed to have clearance issues with the hood support bracket I believe. I was just curious how much room the mini's give you.