automobile HID light doesn't throw far?

have you guys noticed that automobile HID light doesn't shine farther than xenon light? I observed BMW HID headlight to be brighter than my car headlight however, when I look at BMW beam on the road, it is too diffused. Is this due to the projector lens of BMW or the HID light? I have honda accord 93 model. I installed high intensity xenon halogen bulb to replace stock bulb. I augment the head light with pilot driving light. It is cheaper method than buying new HID kit.

Throw is entirely dependent on focusing. A 35w HID puts out 3200 lumens, which is roughly 3x as much as the typical 45-55w low beam halogen. But as you observed, this will not make up for the different focusing chosen by BMW. Think of it as headlights and foglamps all rolled into one.

Depends on car and setup. Also HID have cutt of shields that stop the light out from a certain point. This is to prevent the light from shining onto cars far away and blinding them. That is why you see on the road the light just "stops" and doesn't keep going and fade smoothly at the edges. Incandecent lights don't have cut off shield and shine as far as they can go.

IsaacHayes said:

Depends on car and setup. Also HID have cutt of shields that stop the light out from a certain point. This is to prevent the light from shining onto cars far away and blinding them. That is why you see on the road the light just "stops" and doesn't keep going and fade smoothly at the edges. Incandecent lights don't have cut off shield and shine as far as they can go.

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I wasn't aware of cut off shield on HID. Is it a physical barrier that prevent the light from throwing farther? what's the point of having HID ife it can't throw as far as my xenon halogen? It is too expensive.

picard said:

I wasn't aware of cut off shield on HID. Is it a physical barrier that prevent the light from throwing farther? what's the point of having HID ife it can't throw as far as my xenon halogen? It is too expensive.

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Unfortunately, that's one of the downfalls of HID's. But that's pretty much the only one i can think of. It does ok for me most of the time. At a time where it's pitch black outside with no cars nearby, i flip on my brights and those will light up the entire roadway.

If the cutoff is really low... you may need to readjust the headlights.
Are you actually upgrading to HID? Or did it come factory installed?
By law you have to have to have a cutoff... that's why if you simply do a plug and play kit without actually redoing the housing it will blind other drivers on the other side of the road.

Some higher end cars like BMW and MB use a self leveling mechanism. This way it doesn't even flash oncoming drivers when you hit a bump or something.

HID auto headlights do put out significantly more lumens than incans for the most part. How well that output is used depends on how it is focused.

Not blinding oncoming traffic is a requirement dictated by the DOT, and thus limits the throw of HIDs. A typical incan headlight is much easier to adjust for more throw because it doesn't have the elaborate physical baffles mandated by the DOT built in. That's not to say the DOT would be very happy about you running 100 watt halogens in a parabolic reflector with no deflection below the horizon either, but it's easier for the "hack" mechanic to do that than to "re-focus" an HID headlamp. They can all be aimed "higher", to some extent, but defeating the baffles entirely is another story.

In the real world, with oncoming traffic, HIDs are still an improvement, because within the confines of where you can safely project light they still put out 3 times the light of an incan. If you're on a deserted rural road and need a light to project a mile away, go for the 100 watt halogen and point 'em down the road.

Wait until LED headlights come to market with higher output to size ratios of anything we have now. Think of a string of 30 leds with reflectors from 1 to 3 inches across the leading edge of your car. Less heat, less space, and the ability to tailor different reflectors/optics for different ranges from very close to very far, some that turn with the sterring wheel ! Now we're talking ! :devil:

Sharp cut-off is trademark of a quality headlight.

not having too much throw is not a negative. fine line between seeing really well and blinding on-coming traffic.

early Cebie Z beams and Hella using std H4 halagens have had excellent cut-off patterns for years. superbright to pattern desired, then dark.

High beam is pure throw. 55/100 watt H4 bulbs have been available for sometime.

cy said:

Sharp cut-off is trademark of a quality headlight.

not having too much throw is not a negative. fine line between seeing really well and blinding on-coming traffic.

early Cebie Z beams and Hella using std H4 halagens have had excellent cut-off patterns for years. superbright to pattern desired, then dark.

High beam is pure throw. 55/100 watt H4 bulbs have been available for sometime.

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The Acuras have the sharpest cutoff i've ever seen in any high line car. I think they are one of the best for output an sharp cutoff wise.
Now... speaking of aiming and adjusting... the headlights in the Q45 from infinity are adjustable HID's. You can actually hit a button inside the car and the headlights will raise up a little bit for when there's no oncoming traffic. Now there's an engineer who came up with a useful feature. Plus it also has it highbeams as well.

HID will always be brighter then OEM halogen headlights. As said, there are 2 main types of headlights, reflector and projector. Both of which can be used for HID. Like the reflector headlight, projector type headlights also utilise a reflector which collects the light and directs it to the projector lense. This lense can better disperse the light in a uniform and controlled manner which is essential for HID as glare is a big problem on the road. Modern reflector headlights however have a series of reflectors which also produces a cut off line and kick-up but with some spill light and hot-spots on the road.

The throw of light also depends on the colour temperature. OEM Halogen bulbs are around 3000K-4000K, OEM HID is around 4300K, aftermarket HID kits are anything between 5000K-12000K. Generally speaking the lower the temperature colour the better the throw. Hence yellow streetlights/foglights, this is also part of the reason why incandescent torches have good throw.

The cut off shields are to provide a smooth "cut off" line and also for the "kick up" splays which inherently points towards the pavement side. On a bixenon HID setup, the high beam is activated by removing these shields.

The law governs both types of headlights. The throw can be adjusted by putting higher output halogen bulbs in but no halogen bulb will match the output of an OEM HID bulb. In the UK Halogen bulbs are approved by an "e-mark" this denotes conformity. HID bulbs are also regulated in this way.

But in answer to your original question, I am not sure why you say HID does not throw far. In my experience it throws much further than a Halogen setup.

Does handheld HID search light have shield or cut off?

picard said:

Does handheld HID search light have shield or cut off?

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There isn't a need for a cut off as such in a hand torch. It may however have some device to reduce spill light. The cut off line from a car headlight is to prevent light shining directly at oncoming traffic. Therefore no light should shine above this line.