2012 Focus HID

2012 Focus · 05-22-2011, 09:54 PM

HELP!!! How do you get pass the Dipped Bulb B.S with after market HID's? I tried the cancellers and they worked for a day? Also does anyone know if the fog light are connected to a dipped beam sensor? I bought 35w slim ballast 5000k HID H11's if that helps

Tony407 · 05-23-2011, 03:39 AM

I really have no idea what a "dipped" bulb, "canceler" or "dipped beam sensor" is, but since I've also ordered a 5000K 35 watt DDM slim ballast kit, I'm interested to know more. Now I'm a little afraid as to what I've gotten myself into. Is there more than meets the eye? I assumed it would be a fairly easy install.

Tony

Stereodude · 05-23-2011, 06:35 AM

It's your cars way of telling you that crappy HID kits don't belong in a reflectors.

2012 Focus · 05-23-2011, 08:01 AM

Yeah, you will see when you install them lol.. good luck

2012 Focus · 05-23-2011, 08:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stereodude

It's your cars way of telling you that crappy HID kits don't belong in a reflectors.

Get a life.

clutchrider · 05-23-2011, 08:29 AM

I'm assuming by the whole "dipped bulb" lingo you are referring to the dashboard lamps that indicate you have a bulb-out due to the lower power usage of an HID once the ballast kicks it on.

Unless Ford has something similar to the VAGCOM like a VW has where you can install software on your laptop, plug the laptop into the car via USB -> OBD connector and go into the coding and remove, change, alter; your up a creek. Or you can always add a resistor to your headlamp wiring, pull the bulb out from the indicator in the dash, or cover it with tape.

On a side note HID's do nothing more than give non HID headlamps color since they are not designed for "arc lighting" which creates hot spots (not temperature hot, light output hot) in a lens built for a halogen bulb that outputs light from a filament. There are two different types of bulbs D2S and D2R, one built for projectors that have sharp cutoffs built into them to prevent the beam from scattering causing glare. The other is built for reflector type lenses (think early Acura TL's), but came with a bulb shield that allowed for a similar cutoff to work in-hand with the headlamp lens.

By glare I am not only pointing towards other drivers, you can do a simple test yourself. Go out with halogens and drive around on a rainy night, then switch and drive with the HID in the stock housing. The amount of road glare makes seeing the sides of the road, signs, pretty much everything that much more of a hassle. I had HIDs aftermarket in my Matrix for a few months before I ditched them. They looked great, but offered no benefits, and despite claims actually cause a loss of lumens (how light output is measure).

2012 Focus · 05-23-2011, 08:36 AM

Thanks, but if it were only a light on the dash I wouldn't mind. It cuts power to my headlights when it goes into dipped beam fault.. As far as HID in a stock housing I appreciate the advice but I've had HID is my F150 for 5 years and never had any discoloring or night time glare.

newmission · 05-23-2011, 08:55 AM

It's not the discoloring to you. It's everyone else to has to look into the sun as you pass by. There's a Suburban with HIDs in reflector housing that lives next door to me and I pass him all the time. Each time it pisses me off so much I wanna take a baseball bat to his headlights!

clutchrider · 05-23-2011, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2012 Focus

Thanks, but if it were only a light on the dash I wouldn't mind. It cuts power to my headlights when it goes into dipped beam fault.. As far as HID in a stock housing I appreciate the advice but I've had HID is my F150 for 5 years and never had any discoloring or night time glare.

My only additional comment would be that owning an F-150 and being a lot higher off the ground means your US DOT stock lamps are definitely not meant to perform with HIDs.

US lamp regulations do not require cars to have their lamps aimed at any particular degree up or down depending on the height of the vehicle. Therefore my Matrix and your F-150 utilize the same plane for aiming the lamps whereas in European standards, a taller vehicle would be required to have proper aiming so the beam points slightly downward relative to the lamps distance from the ground.

It's the same reason a lot of the luxury cars with projector HIDs in the US have auto-level as an option or standard equip. It's standard to have in Europe. So adding an HID to something that is already taller than a standard car means a lot more scattered light gets tossed around to other people.

I could go on for paragraphs about lighting as I've spent a lot of time/money/effort in applications and research on the topic and my own trial/errors with cars.