General section:

Can automotive lighting be a hobby?

Installing non original automotive lighting parts can be done in a lot of ways serving numerous purposes. To make it cosmetically comform with a car, function better, with more features is an art. Anyone can buy and mount different pre made lighting parts that are specifically designed for a certain vehicle. Very few have the skills and ingenuety to create new combinations and take cosmethics and function to a new level.

What is the history of Bosch (Germany) automotive lighting division?

In 1990s, Bosch HID headlights were sold under marketing name "Litronic". Later the markeing name "Bi-Litronic" came, which was a dual beam HID system. Around year 2000, Bosch and Magnetti Marelli formed a joint venture in the US called Automotive Lighting. Bosch has since pulled out of this joint venture, and appearantly Magnetti Marelli has sole ownership in the former joint venture, occupying the former North American Bosch Lighting design and manufacturing facilities. Headquarter for AL is in Reutlingen, Germany.
If you come over a projector unit that has a small horizontal optic across the center of the lens, it is most likely a lamp manufactured by "Automotive Lighting". This optical component is for meeting the minimum US overhead sign lighting requirements. Ballasts are typically labeled "AL".

How did ValeoSylvania got formed?

Valeo and Osram Sylvania formed a joint venture approximately 1997-1998, now known as ValeoSylvania. Prior to this, the facility was soley owned by Osram Sylvania. They have since built an additional manufacturing plant in Mexico.

What equipment is needed to power up HID in your living room?

One of these three 12V should do the trick:

One of of those very handy booster packs that comes with internal 17Ah battery, a tiny 10W charger and huge battery clamps. Probably the lowest price and most practical.

Any car/RV battery.

DC regulated linear power supply giving out at least 10Amps, also refered to as lab power supply They always contain heavy transformes, multiple high output transistors, and large heat sinks making them relatively expensive, large, and not to mention heavy. They do work well and it does not matter what load you put on whether its 0.01 Amps or 10 Amps.

DC regulated switched power supply giving out at least 10Amps. Switched powers is referred to as a lab power supply as well. Downside with switch mode power supplies is that there is a minimum current requiered to get anything out, usually about 10% of rating. Power supplies from an old computer will work, but requires some electrical knowledge to get started. There are many styles of computer supplies out there.
Then there is industrial high quality module power supplies which are sold on ebay from time to time and can be had for as low as $20-30.

What should NOT be used to power up HID ballasts inside home

Never attempt to connect a HID ballast directly to a battery charger without being connected to a battery as well. A battery charger deliver pulsed voltage. They do not have DC filter capacitors and can kill the HID ballast. Adding a filter capacitor makes pretty DC current, but easily increases voltage to above 17V, which again is deadly for HID ballast.

Does above look like DC? That's how output from a battery charger looks like! Nasty!

The difference between "powerpacks" mentioned above and a battery charger is:

A powerpack is not a vehicle battery charger, it is a constant voltage DC power source.

A simple battery charger delivers "rough" DC within voltage range of 13-17volt.

An advanced charger gives out even "rougher" DC, voltage will fluctate in cycles.

How dirty is my headlamp on the inside?

You probably wash your exterior of your vehicle at times so you would think that would keep lighting 100% at least for 10 years. Not so. All headlights has some sort of breathing holes so that pressure created by warm bulbs can go in and out. The breathing holes were made intentional, because if there were none, headlight would need to be air tight and that is a very costly headlamp to make considering bulbs has to be change every couple of years. Conclusion is that road particles will enter regardless over time.

Below is picture of reflectors from a 2000 Audi TT that has been on car for 5 years. The left one is untouched, the right one is cleaned. The were placed beside each other when image was taken, so exposure is identical. However, reflections will be slightly different because of differnt angles. Entire reflector has a thin film from road debries, but the cloud above center hole really stands out. That is enough to loose long distance beam reach, and headlamp will look "cloudy".

How do I clean a reflector lamp without separating lens and reflector?

Cleaning the outside of a plastic headlight should preferrably be done with plain dish soap and water. lenses made of glass will get more clean by using a high qualty streak free windshield cleaner. So far it should be very streigth forward.

However, cleaning the inside of a headlamp becomes more tricky since you will face the same challenges as cleaning the inside of a bottle:
Remove the headlight bulb.
Remove the headlight from the car.
Fill the headlight about 1/2 full of distilled water and put in a few drops of dishwashing liquid.
Cover the bulb opening and shake the housing for a minute or so.
Pour out the soapy water.
Fill the headlight about 1/2 full of distilled water.
Shake, drain.
Repeat rinse.
Rinse again with 1/4 cup of rubbing alcohol added (promotes drying).
Drain.
Let headlight dry, open end down (overnight), or you can use a hair dryer to speed things up.
Reinstall headlight.
Reinstall bulb.

How do I clean my projector lenses and reflectors?

The main rule is: DO NOT TOUCH THE PARABOLIC REFLECTOR ATTACHED TO THE PROJECTOR LENS. You will permanently ruin it because of the oils from your hands. There are two ways to avoid that:

Use some clean latex gloves. Many latex gloves have powder on them, so wash that off first and dry them.

Cover up reflector from edge to edge with green paint tape. Do not let any tape ever touch reflector.

Never stick your hand in and attempt to clean any of the projector except the very outside. If light from the HID bulb does not shine on it, then you can touch it with your bare fingers. But if light shines on it, it is best not to touch it. To get it professionally cleaned, you can take it to a camera repair shop. Be prepared to lectured the staff how expensive and delicate these are. They will use special tools and chemicals and will most likely do a great job.

Now over to cleaning curved lens:
They are made of glass, so surface cannot be destroyed by even the toughest chemical, so you can use any glass cleaner of choice. The important is that glass cleaner do not leave any residue. But if there is sand (from sand paper or road grime) you have to follow same procedure as cleaning reflector surface - see further down.

Now over to cleaning reflector area:
You can only use pure solvents such as pure isopropyl alcohol(100%) or pure methanol. Herman has used 90% "rubbing alcohol" with good results. The remaining 10% in rubbing alchol is normally destilled water. Do not use tap water, not even filtered. If you ever have to use water on optics, use distilled water that you can find at your pharmacy/grocery store. Note that some reflector surfaces cannot withstand chemicals, so try your selected chemical first on a non active surface where light source does not hit. If isopropyl alcohol or "rubbing alcohol" makes reflective surface even the slightest tendency to dullness, switch over to a mild dish soap and hot destilled water. Failure to do so can result in a defective reflector, which means entire projector unit is toast!
Do not use paper towels to clean or dry. They are made from wood and will scratch surface. Use natural cotton (as opposed to that synthetic stuff that girls use) that you can find in pharmacies. You can also use lens cleaning paper obtainable from a photo store. High quality Microfibre cloths like SPI-Fibe™ Microfiber Cleaning Cloth can also be used. Never apply pressure to cleaning pad. This means if you rub a piece soaked in your cleaner on the optics, then the only pressure applied is the weight of the pad itself. DO NOT PRESS PAD TOWARDS ANY PARTS OF THE REFLECTOR. Grab the pad by a VERY small corner and drag it across the surface of the lens. Using only the pressure of the cotton. Then as you drag it across the surface use a rolling motion so that as you pick up dirt and grime, you do not re-expose dirt into the surface. This may require lots of pads and time. There is several web pages on your favorite search engine on this topic. Simply type in "cleaning optics" into search box.

What do the board members mean by projectors? Have they done a headlight conversion or bought aftermarket HID projector housings?

No. The members have taken out the acutal projector units from OEM projector housings. Housings contain the projector units. What you normally see of the projector is the front lens but never the parabolic mirror because that part is covered by the housing. Click the following link to see what we mean by a projector unit:
Projector Unit

What is needed to start my OEM HID projector retrofit?

1. OEM HID Projectors - see separate page.
2. Ballasts (igniter may be needed if it is a separate component as in Audi TT and BMW 3 Series)
3. 2 HID bulbs (D2S)
4. Relays fed via >12AWG wire from battery (Upgraded headlight harness)
5. Much thought and preparation (extremely important that you plan everything)
6. Ingenuity and detailed planning(if you need to overcome a problem, look around the house...a coke can helped me)

What safety precautions do i need to take when working on headlights?

Most headlights seem to be composed of a fiberglass compund, that can be extremely irritating when inhaled. If you cut or grind these headlights, the grainy texture of the plastic sill cause it to become a very fine dust that can agitate the throat and compromise your respiratory sytem. Therefore, you can either use a paper mask that aids against fiber glass or toxic dust, or you can get a respirator that is much more costly but safer. Second, gogles are necessary to keep the tiny shards of glass off of your cornea. Third, wear garments that cover you skin and if you are extremely sensitive, wear gloves and a neck cover.

When using a dremel also becareful. Most of the bits can cause serious lacerations u cutting through vessels and tendons. Hold the dremel with two hands and make sure that the electrical cord is away from the you and the dremel.

What car has the brightest projector OEM HIDs?

As per Aug 2002, a very unofficial survey was held on the board. Here is the result:

(Year, Brand, Model, classification, amount of votes)

For low beam HID:

Honda S2000, DOT: 4
2002+ BMW 5 series, DOT: 3
2002+ BMW 7 series, DOT: 2
1999+ Audi S4, ECE: 1
2000+ Merchedes CLK, DOT: 1
2001+ Infinity Q45, DOT: 1

For Bi-Xenon HID:

2002+ BMW 7 series, DOT: 2
2000+ Mercedes ML, DOT: 1

Go to the OEM HID database for details on above.

APC headlights, quality and price

APC makes headlights for several trendy automobiles. When mounted, they look really great. Unfortunatly, the build quality and function quality is not as high as OEM. Which makes sense, most of them are cheaper than OEM. In addition, they are made in smaller quanteties than OEM, and should call for lower margin. You may wonder, how they actually conform to DOT standards? Well, the minimum requirements of the DOT standard is not very hard to accomplish. But to satisfy todays demanding customers who have been looking at $1500+ BMW headlights, well thats a hole different ballgame. Unfortunatly, very few people would be willing to pay that much. So they have found their niche in the "good looking" segment, and they do it well. What you should know is that the projector unit is made of thick cast steel, with relatively uneven reflective surface, compared to projectors from Hella. Most APC headlights until 2002 utilizes the same projector unit carrying a H3 bulb. H3 bulbs are mostly used in fog lights and thats excatly how the beam looks like. A wide cloud relatively close to the front of the car. Please dont even consider putting overwattge or HID in them. New for 2002 is use of 9005/9006. It has been seen in 88-91 Civic/CRX headlights. Beam pattern is not reported better. Reflector was partially dirty on arrival.

What is the quality of other, almost generic type headlamps?

Ebay and many other internet stores are filled with low quality headlamps of all kinds of origin. Examples of this are Matrix, Diamondback, Denji etc etc... What they all share is that they are low priced. Some sealed beam H4 Diamondbacks can be had for $30. If a headlamp is cheaper than OEM, be sceptical! Remember that to make a world class headlamp, very advanced CAD/CAM equipment is needed in addition to qualified engieneers. You have to ask the question: Will $30 cover this cost? $30 is way to little. You have to double it.
All headlamps should minimum comply to either DOT, SAE or ECE. Not that it takes much to comply to SAE regulations, but its better than nothing. Be aware that there are smart sales people out there: Examples of advertised product having the SAE label, but what you get in the mail does not have any labels. Conclusion to this is to: Buy brand name products that has an organisation that stands behind the product. Brand names are typically OEM prouducers as well. They are listed in the OEM HID database on this site.

Can I use English or Japanese headlamps in other countries?

From a legal point of view, probably not. As you probably know, they drive on the left side of the road and will therefor have the well known rigth side beam flare on the left side instead of the right side. A reflector based headlamp can be taped and will lower the glare. A projector headlamp might have a turnable reflector so that the flare turns up on the other side. But that is only possible if the cutoff line is a straight V form. Many projector lamps have a "Z" beam, and you should be able to flip the shield around. Flipping the shield will lower the total output, because the reflector and shield are designed to work as a pair.

What is the difference betwen cd an lm?

Both lm (lumems) and cd (candela) is a measurement of the amount of light. Comparing them would be like testing apples and oranges. Lumens is a measurement of the total light coming from a light source. The number will (theoretically) be the same whether you are using optical mirrors or lenses to increase brightness to a certain direction.

Candela, on the other hand, will increase drastically if used with optical mirrors and lenses. A good example here is a spot beam driving light with a 5 dregree narrow beam opening. Even with a 55W bulb, several hundred thousands of candela can be achieved. For reference, 1 candela equals to the brightness of one good old candelight. Both ECE and DOT regulations has limitations of maximum candela at certain spots in the beam.

For the technical interested, here is the formula:
For a spherical light output, lumens = candela * 4pi. (For incandescent bulbs most manufacturers use 12.57 as "4pi".)
For a directed beam, lumens = candela * 0.00024 * (beam angle)^2 where beam angle is in degrees.

How can I measure brightness of headlamps?

Headlamp manufacturers uses a sophisticated calibrated light meters. However, for home use, this is an example of a light meter:

The Meterman LM631

http://www.arabidopsis.com/main/cat/PPF/qss01new.htm

A light meter can be obtained from a variaty of places: photo stores, lamp stores, or can be rented on a daily basis from a professional equipment depot for a low price.
Headlamp manufacturers measure certain spots in the beam. Explained simply, the light in those spots has to be below or above a certain value measured in luminous flux to comply with a desired standard (DOT, ECE, harmonized, etc...)
All the details are described here: http://www.unece.org/trans/main/wp29/wp29wgs/wp29gre/grenwdoc/gre2001-28.pdf
Many bulb manufacturer gives out the lumens value, but that is a measurement how powerful the bulb is, not how powerful the combination of optics in the headlamp AND bulb is.
Comparing 2 different bulbs can be done with somewhat scientific result at certain spots on the road, lets say at 50 and 100ft, and left, center and right. That should be 6 measuring points.

Does it exist any aftermarked headlight modules?

Yes, it does. Hella makes them and the quality is excellent. See here for more details.

What has been updated on this FAQ lately?

Checkout the update page for recent updates.

Where can I ask questions?

Please visit the online forum. There are plenty of people that have automotive lighting as a hobby and are willing to help you.

How independant are the authors?

None of Authors (mentioned on the front page) are affilliated with Philips, Osram or any other company. This FAQ is written solely based on what has been discussed (sometimes to death) on the forum, which may or may not be 100% corect.

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