Quote:
Originally Posted by Leadfoot
I totally agree with you on the HID kits being too bright, even the factory HIDs. 35W HIDs are 3x as bright as 55W halogen lumen wise and 55W HIDs are 5x as bright as 55W Halogen bulbs. I think there needs to be brightness regulations not wattage regulations. If auto manufactures went back to 24W HIDs it wouldn't be as bad. Being "properly aimed has little to do with it, if you are on a shiny wet road or meet a car cresting a hill, you still get the full brunt of the brightness.
I have no idea how you plan to focus CFL lamps, halogen lights are focused well because they have a small filament and HIDs are unfocused in a halogen light housing because the position of the filament is moved... the filament on a CFL is just huge
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In countries that use ECE vehicle lighting regulations (which is pretty well everywhere except North America), HIDs have to have washers and be self leveling (and externally certified as being compliant). While HIDs are still noticeably brighter, they produce a lot less glare than a halogen high beam.
I suspect that retrofitting HID bulbs into halogen lamp housings is illegal in the US as well, because while there is no external certification system like for the E-mark, the D.O.T. has pretty clear rules about what the low beam light pattern should be. Of course this doesn't fix factory HIDs, but if cops pulled over all of the fools with 3rd party kits without proper reflectors, I'm sure the worst of them would be removed.