Quality aftermarket HID auxiliary low beams

[Scott Packard]

I bought a pair of Sylvania Xenarc X1010 "Auxiliary Low Beams" for my car at the end of standard time last year. Finally had them installed a few weeks ago. Though they aren't flashlights I thought they may be of interest to people of this forum.
First, they are to complement your low beams and are legal (I've looked it up in the CVC for California, and the instruction book they come with says they conform to SAE spec J582 "...means the lights can be used at all times in conjunction with low beam lights while projecting the maximum amount of useable light where it's needed."
I would get no pleasure from blinding oncoming drivers.
The trouble is I commute at night through part of San Marino
and they really do not like street lights! Probably about 10% of the city has intentionally dimmed mercury vapor lights, 70% has 100W tungsten-filament old-fashioned streetlights, and 20% is without any streetlights. It is very difficult to see in the dark or t.f. sections, and if traffic is oncoming most all of my low beam light is ineffective.
So, one before and one after pic. If the post doesn't get pulled I can post a few others showing the mounting on the front of the car.
An interesting feature of this set is they are turned on/off using a RF remote. This means no drilling and running wires through the firewall. Two remotes come with the kit. You wire the power supply up to 12V, and they spec says they use 12.5A at 13.5V to start, tapering off to 3.5A to run. The spec says they run at 450Hz and with the engine off I can hear the hum.
Both photos were shot with the same f-stop, speed, same
spot inside the car, etc. They weren't run through
Photoshop for postprocessing.


Before:

After:

 

[markdi]

if they are 35 watt hid(42 watts including ballast)
your current draw should be around 6.5 to 7 amps total.

I do not hear any noise coming from my ballast after a minute or so.

 

[Draco_Americanus]

very cool! I find sometimes that just one ballast can draw over 7 amps during startup and then settle to the 42-44 watts of steady state power. I will need to post pics of My projects as I have HID on both of My vehicals.
Also where did you get the Xenarc lights from ?

 

[Scott Packard]

Bought them from www.suvlights.com.
They are model X1010. I bought them in January.
I notice they have some vehicle-specific HID lights now,
for some full-size Ford and Chevy SUVs.

 

[4sevens]

I bought one and just returned it... nowhere to mount in my accord 01
at least not elegantly w/o cutting into bumper.

 

[Draco_Americanus]

Now for My next question. X1010 would seem to fit right where the crappy stock fog lights are on My buick regal. My question is as fallows, I allready have Bi-Xenon projectors on the car, would having 4 hid lights on My buick be too many?

 

[idleprocess]

More cash than I want to spend on auxiliary lights, even if it is cool.

Draco:
There are usualy regulations on the number of forward light sources that are permitted on streets and highways - usually it's 4. There are also limits on how much light can be emitted.

 

[Draco_Americanus]

I would still be within the law on the amount of lights as these would be replacing existing lights. I did not know there was a limit on how mutch light you can make, as lumens go anyway, I know there are limits on bulb wattage and that law was assuming quartz halogen bulbs where used. I know 100 watt halogen are illigal for street use but a 35 watt HID is ok even though it emits more light then a 100 watt quartz bulb.
Sometimes though having that much extra light might cause Me problems as it would make the pavement infront of the car very bright and could be distracting.

 

[millionflame]

That ground lighting looks awfully blue for useable light at night. It must be over 5000K colour temperature.

I'd bend the shield away if I were you, since it looks like the cut-off is blurring a little too much; or your bulbs are well used.

 

[Scott Packard]

The second photo is the stock halogen low-beams and the HID auxiliary low-beams. The HID cut-off is a pretty hard cut-off. Within its visible area it does extend far to the left and right of the vehicle, so it offers better side vision than the stock lights. It's kind of like saying the normal low beams allow a 1 foot ruler of side vision vs. the HIDs which offer a yard stick of side vision. By this I mean if I took a ruler and held it up at arm's length from my face it would represent the horizontal field of light thrown by the low beams. The yard stick is the field thrown by the HIDs.