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Bi-zenon retrofit is awesome
I enjoyed the nice step by step post on the HID projectors retrofit. And I agree....at first the project seems a bit overwhelming. But once you get into it and take your time things start to fall into place. I don't own a Porche(yet) but I have done several HID projector retrofits, the most recent on my future son-in-law's Saturn Vue. I had already upgraded his headlights with HID's but as most everyone finds out after they do this, the HID output is so intense that it creates terrible glare and scatterted light coming out of the factroy reflector housings since they were never intended for HID's. You will love the way they light up the road but the poor souls you come upon in the opposite direction will really not like you and usually flash you. It can actually creat an unsafe glare which could actually be dangerous. So we went ahead and did the bi-xenon projector retrofit.
I think there are some folks who don't completely understand how bi-zenon projectors work. The term bi-zenon basically means two beams; low and high. Zenon refers to the HID(High Intensity Discharge) bulbs that are used which are 2- 3 times as bright as halogens. The projectors are engineered to focus the light to give a much better light field than halogen reflectors. The projectors are engineered with a shield inside the projector that blocks the upper part of the beam which creates a flat line across the light field in front of the car. This focuses the intense HID light in front of the car but below the sight line of oncoming cars. When the high beams are activated a solenoid inside the projector unit drops the shield which releases all of the focused light from the projector and fills the area above the cutoff line delivering phenominal high beam coverage.
What I have learned from the retrofits I did is that the most important step is the alignment of the projectors inside the headlight housing. Since the projector beam has a flat horizontal cutoff line it must be aligned absolutely level. If not the beam will be higher on one side than the other creating either blinding glare to oncoming drivers if the left side(left hand drive cars) is too high or reduced light on the road in front of the left side of the car if the beam is high on the right. Also, the alignment of the centerline of the beam is very important, although some adjustment can me made with the left to right headlight adjusters if your car has them. Our saturn has only vertical adjusters so the beam alignment was critical. When aligned properly the horizontal cutoff lines of both projectors should match perfectly.
My first couple of retrofits were done using Morimoto Mini's. Because of their design they are a little easier to retrofit but don't offer quite as good of a beam coverage because of there smaller 2 1/2" lense and smaller reflector bowl. My latest install was done using FX-R II's which have 3" lenses and a bigger reflector bowl. Because of their larger size the FX-R's won't fit in all housings. They are more difficult to retrofit because the original headlight reflector housings must be cut to accept the projectors. When the fit and alignment is confirmed the projectors are epoxyied into place. If you are prepared for the extra work the FX-R's will reward you with amazing beam coverage that rivals factory projector headlights. We also went with the 55w HID's instead of the 35w for even a little extra punch.
Once you convert to bi-zenon projector HID's you will never be able to drive comfortably with halogen headlights again. The extra light output adds a level of confidence while drivng at night and in the rain that is difficult to explain to halogen users. I would consider some halogen headlights to be downright dangerous. If you want to feel safer while driving at night you really should consider doing a bi-zenon HID projector retrofit. If you don't feel comfrotable doing it yourself there are companies that offer the service but expect to pay upwards of $700 for the package. Considering the added safety they offer the investment would be well worth it.
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