Hid lights in Speedster?

I have a Mazda Protege Wagon as my daily driver. The headlights are crystal clear, new Bosch bulbs, and the headlights suck. I do not like the blue tinted headlights at all. So I sprang for a set of cheap HID lights and ballast. I experimented with taping off the outside of the light to make a cutoff for the light. I don't want to blind oncoming . Once I liked the cutoff, I taped off and painted the reflector argent silver, and it worked great. My lights are 4000k, so they are pretty much just white light. I see my speedster has a bulb/ reflector. Has anybody put HID's in for better lighting? My lights aren't bad, and I've aimed them properly, but the car is just so low, it doesn't project a lot of light. Thoughts?

i've thought about it. i love how they turn on. (zip ziiip)

i decided not to bite the bullet because i had already converted to H4's and they are plenty bright - especially when i let the rear air suspension out and air up the front with my high beams on!

I think as cheap as they are, I might grab a set. I think I can stash the ballast behind in the bucket. I'm secretly prepping for a really long road trip. Better lights, freeway flyer, hmmmmmmm
Any guess as to what bulb I have in mine? It's got a cup/reflector setup. In other words, bulb shines in little cup, reflects out of the lense via large chrome bowl... Whatever that makes it..

I wonder what the amperage requirements would be. Would you need heftier wiring and a bigger fuse?

Lane--I don't have the answer to what you asked but if you don't have halogen lights, think about getting some. I just put them in my car and they are a LOT brighter than what was came with the car. Sale current draw as the old too.

Lane, what I did on my Mazda was buy the $15 harness that is a relay harness, pulling power from the battery itself. That's a very common thing for retro HID's. A lot of people just use the factory wiring but I got Skeered'. I'll do the same for the Speedster. The lights are incredible. I never use the high beams anymore.

halogen lights are usually 55 watts each. HID Xenon's usually run 35 watts each but put out more light than the halogen.

The 35watt bulbs at 4500k is what I have. The whole kit is $40. I'll try another set. Mine have been reliable. I'm going to try a set and I'll post back.

I installed HIDs on my CAB, but they were not a

Ok, so 55 watt bulbs draw about 4.5 amps(P=V * I, or P/V=I), 35 watt bulbs are about 3 amps. Not a whole lot of draw there. Stock wiring can handle that fine. It's when you go to 80/100 watt low/high beams that people have problems.

I do agree that a relay is a great idea, the shorter the run, the brighter the lights. Especially if the battery is all the way in the back, like on most Spyders.

Clint - those lights look pretty dang cool!

Danny,

In addition to a robust relay, HID lights are complicated by the fact that they need a ballast and igniter, which incandescents and halogens don't need. It takes from 20,000-25,000 volts to light HID bulbs, which comes through the ballast and igniter, just for a short pulse. It's analogous to the voltage spike of a circular saw or table saw startup, but much more exaggerated.

There are lots of web sites that explain more than most of us want to know about HID lighting, both on how it works and if it's legal. There are also lots of cheap, Chinese kits available that will really piss off oncoming drivers, due to the loom, glare, and improper focus and field of a cheap installation.

Decent retrofit kits run about $300-350. Cheap kits also cause stray voltage problems with electronics in newer cars. For almost all retrofits, plug-and-play is not practical.

Gotcha Jim. I didn't ever bother to think about how those HID lights work. What I failed to say is I have 55/60 watt halogens on my Spyder. Properly aimed, they seem to light the road just fine. I have the fluted lenses, got them from some Cali parts house(pretty sure they are Chinese, but what else is new?)

I am building a projector setup so I should have a beam cut off, which is legal. As stated, you won't damage the wiring running, firing up the lights initially is where guys burn up factory wiring.

A single HID light can pull 10-12 amps for a few seconds on startup; 18 gauge wire can handle that. I'd use 12 gauge for lights, less voltage drop and less wire heat.

Yeah, I'm not going to chance my wiring. I'm simply going to put in a relay harness.

I bought a set of projectors for my H7's and my foglights at:

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/index.php

The projector lenses have an internal solenoid that throws up a shield when the beams are on low. The shutters eliminate the blinding effect to oncoming traffic when they are on the "low beam" setting. When the beams are on high, the shutter is dropped to release the full power of the projector lens. My retrofit photos for the headlights are at:

http://steeleh7conversion.shutterfly.com/pictures/42#42

I also bought a set of xenon yellow fog light micro projectors that I retrofitted to my Hellas. Photos here:

http://cmd.shutterfly.com/commands/pictures/slideshow?site=steeleh7conversion&page=steeleh7conversion/pictures&album=43

I like the BIG white and yellow light- and I don't have to worry about pissing any of the oncoming traffic off.

That's my biggest gripe is scattering the light into oncoming traffic.