Opening your headlights

[old_s13]

WyrreJ> I'm sorry but that's wrong. First, there is no "white" in the spectrum. There is, however, blue and that does tend to scatter more than red. HID's are perceived as being more blue than halogen's and their color temperature is generally somewhat higher (and thus bluer) than halogen, but not by that much. Halogen tends to have a color temp around 3200K and OEM HID is around 4200K (which is the average color temp of sunlight in the middle of a summer day on Earth, exactly what human eye is adapted to best see). However, the common perception that HID's are "blue" does not come from their 4200K color temp, but rather artifacts produced by the projector mechanism such that the edges of the light beam get a bluish, even purplish sparkle to them. That phenonmenon is the reason people think HIDs are "blue" and all the ricer madness to get higher color temp bulbs comes from that side-effect of HID projectors (not HID reflectors, just projector systems).

Wow.. I am usually arguing with folks on the NISSAN forums, many people send to be pretty misinformed when it comes to lighting. For once, I can honestly say that I agree with this guy.

Its good to see more knowledgeable lighting people sharing good information.

- Mike / ClearCorners.Com

[-x-]

could i boil the fake fog (parkin) light assembly to remove the plastic lense from the parking light housing? As is mentioned earlier in this thread.

Im moding/switchin the parking lights to fog lights but i want to somehow retian the stock lenses....x

[omegavx]

-x-, not sure if you can or not. But if your looking simply for a bulb that is alot brighter and wont melt the lense or assembly you might try the piaa w2, part number 19224, it works really well with the sylvania silverstar's I have in mine. The w2 has a little hint of blue, but they match the silverstar's really well compared to the dull orangish/yellow stock bulbs. Its pretty simple to replace the bulb, although you do have to have medium to small sized hands to do it without taking the front cladding off. This ofcourse wont get you your fogs, but I was just going for bulbs that actually looked good compared to stock.

[Raque Thomas]

Omega - where did you buy those PIAA bulbs?

[WyrreJ]

-x- Unless I am totally lost, you are talking about the white round lights in the cladding on the front right? You can unscrew the lenses by hand without anything special. I'm pretty sure that's what I did when I upgraded to the home depot daytona 18w bulbs.

[omegavx]

Posted this in the Dec 6, Toys for tots meet post (http://www.vehicross.info/forums/sho...5&pagenumber=3), but here it is again. BTW, if you check out the meet thread, you will find a pic I posted comparing the stock bulbs to my new ones.

PIAA W2 - replaces parking lights, part number 19224
PIAA T-6 - replaces dome light, part number 19223

PIAA reference - http://www.piaa.com/Bulbs/Bulbs-Miniature.html
Place I bought them - http://www.lightningmotorsports.com/piaa_bulbs.htm

My head lights are the Sylvania SilverStar's 9003ST, I ended up just buying these at the local auto parts store. They had a buy 1 get 1 at 1/2 price so I jumped at it, saved about $9.00 and didn't have to pay shipping.

Sylvania Reference - http://www.sylvania.com/auto/silverstar.htm

[SGT.BATGUANO]

Omega's piaa w-2s really look close to hid color and are pretty bright for being rated at 18 watts. I haven't seen anything comparable. They really wake up the so-called driving/fog lights.

FYI- The housing comes out of the cladding with a 1/8 th turn. Not sure if boilng would help you separate the lens from housing. Even if you could, the stock housing has a low wattage rating and using a 50 watt fog or driving light behind a factory lens will probably melt that "nissan" lens.

[Tone]

I second that - a 30w strobe bulb was in mine for awhile and melted the lens - no way will it ever support a larger lamp that is on for extended periods. Someone found a low cost fog lamp that fits it fine - I love having the the PIAA 1200s there as they look great on or off.

[omegavx]

I agree, I wasn't able to find any other bulb that would replace the parking light, keep the wattage below 27 (stock wattage) and still look bright enough to have the HID look and match the brightness of the silverstar's. Even though they are only 18w bulbs, they seem to give off alot more light then stock. If you want to go for fogs, then I'd just replace the entire assembly with moncha's instructions (http://www.vehicross.info/forums/sho...&threadid=1184), personally I plan on adding the Piaa P-3000 so I wanted a parking light that would match the look of the rest of my lights.

[NC_VX]

Alright Omega, lets talk about this... Eventually you want to get the Piaa P-3000.... What and why? I searched on the Pia site for it and found it. I think it looks sweet. It goes below the "Fog" lights where the turn signals are now? So my question is, do you have to run all new wiring to get it working? It said you need to following:

Available In Plasma Ion Driving, Xtreme White Spot, and Super White Marker
Bulb Type 12V - H3 55watt=110watt Xtreme White spot, and 12V - 168 5watt Super White marker
Features Black aluminum housing, glass lens, and triple beam system
Kit Includes Two lamps, wiring harness, relay, and switch


Does that mean that everything is in the box? If so, I wouldn't mind giving it a try.... But I am afraid to say I am not the greatest in electrical stuff, so I hope I don't screw everythign up. I was real nervous I would screw up the other Piaa stuff I installed, but it turned out great, and took all of 3 minutes to do it!!! Well, 5 minutes including opening up the box....

Lastly, it is available in three types, Plasma Ion, Xtreme Whte, and Super white marker, how do you know which one matches the Sylvannia lights? Will this help when wheelin at night, cause I don't know if I want the safari bar with floodlights yet... may be a bit extreme cause the VX is my main vehicle and I still make payments, so I won't be dong anything aggressive for a few more years....

[omegavx]

Sorry NC_VX, I totally missed this until today. To answer your question, the kit does contain everything you need to perform the install (except maybe some bolts/nuts for a more "secure" mounting). Other then that it is pretty simple to get wired up and going. It took me about 4 to 5 hours to mount, test and wire. It probably took me longer cause I kept double checking the wiring at each stage of the install just to make sure they still worked I also spent alot of time trying to tie and hide my wires as much as possible.

The main reasons I chose the piaa p-3000's were because they look so good in our front bumper openings and they add alot of functionality without having huge floods sitting off a front safari bar.

The reason I used the W2's in my stock parking lights is because they match the p-3000 marker lights almost perfectly. So, when you wire the marker lights to your parking lights and just turn your stock parking light "knob" on, you then have 2 markers on your piaa's on as well as your stock parking lights. The minor difference in coloration is in the fact that the piaa lenses are completely clear while the stock parking lights have a pattern to them.

The reason I went with the silvania silverstar's for my headlight bulbs is when you switch your lights on, then turn the xtreme white spot's on your piaa's on they match almost perfectly.

So, if you use the setup I used you then have 4 "marker" lights with a hint of blue and 4 very bright white driving lights with no real hint of blue. Plus you have the extra plasma ion driving lights which somewhat match your stock horn bulbs, ok not really that close, which makes 4 "ion" yellow bulbs.

To be honest I just got done installing them, so I havn't completely tested yet. I'm not sure which ones you should use at which times, but I'll figure it out over time.

[NC_VX]

Thanks for the information. that has shed some addition light "no pun intended" on my goal for the front end overhaul...

I have the W-2's, the silverstars, and a blue bulb in the place of the old yellow fang bulbs. I also installed the VX Concept clear turn signals and ClearCorners clear side markers. With the yellow being in the P-3000s, I don't know if I will like that look. I am interested in StinkFab's new push bar and possible another one that I saw pictured that wraps around the front cladding really nicely... I may put some Piaa Rally lights on instead, I don't want to go overkill on the night lights, but there are a lot of small roads/hwys in NC that I ride on every night and I want the max amount of viewing so I can avoid the deer... The Silverstars make a huge difference, and from the diagram of the P3000, that additional viewing angle will help....

I am waiting to see how thinks with StinkFab turn out.... I want to see his push bar before I make a decision, the other thing is that the way the bar is positioned it may cover the P3000s or a front winch mount I want to hook up....

ANyway, I will let you know!

[omegavx]

I tested the plasma ion driving lights out tonight and they make a big difference. I think the combination of yellow light and the silverstar light together helps to eliminate a much greater amount of the road. It actually helps split up the visible light with the plasma making the close portions of the road much clearer and the silverstar's making the farther portions of the road clearer with the light contrast. I'm not sure what it looks like from the outside driving down the road. But from the driver seat, I definatlly like the amount of light it provides.

Now I just have to adjust them so they point in the correct locations. I currently have one pointed alittle high and the other pointed alittle low.

[NC_VX]

Well, I think I will wait until April to install... Working on my paint first!

Good luck getting them correctly aligned, a pic or two posted would be ncie!!!

[LittleBeast]

So is using boiling water and slowly prying the headlight apart as the glue softens the only way to get our headlights apart? It is shown this way on page 1 of this thread, but I seem to remember someone using their oven and baking the headlights to soften the glue, maybe someone who installed projectors I believe?..... Anyone else open up their headlight housings?