know it's not quite v6 related, but it's still firebird f-body related...I was at autozone the other day, and saw some HID lighting kid made by Pilot to covert sealed beamed headlights to the HID styled lights. Well, of crouse the next day (today) was pay day, so i had to go and give things a try. 75 bux later i've got some "composite" (think that's what they'd be) lights. The kit gives two bulb housings that will fit into factory firebird pods inplace of the 6054 bulbs, and you then pick what bulbs you want and they're made to plug into yoru existing terminals. The bulbs are H4's and nice and bright. Would be brighter however if you change your wiring to run them directly from the batter, so i think i might do that in the future to give them a little more umph. But, just so you know, they're not to bad. The kid for birds is 39.99 , and the bulbs are 14.99 a pop, just about the same as factory sealed beam bulbs, but now there's the option of jumping to the ultra white bulbs but they were 20 bux a piece, so i'll buy them next pay check. LOL.

PS
the factory styled or regular haologen H4 bulbs to fit the sealed beams cost 7.99 which is a tad cheaper than i recal the factory bulbs being, so i guess if you keep it stock after the change, you can get out cheaper.

 

The kit didn't require relay/harness replacing? HID's surge a large amount of power on startup.....they usually blow/burn up relays or harnesses on Halogen systems....

 

They're not HID.. they're just H4 conversion housings.

 

like said above...

thoes arnt HID... they're just conversion housings.

they also tend to melt if you put in the higher powered bulbs...

and do to their sucky quality control, their light pattern varys randomly.... so alot of people get sucky light distrib....... if you dont, you're lucky.

 

I had a slight e-mail argument with a company around '97 or so... shoot, don't remember the name.. and after just doing 10 searches or so through my old email stuff, I can't find the name. I think it was something like EuroLights? I found out about 'em, and asked them pricing info; it was about $150/light to change to the bulbs. I wrote back and told them "no thanks, thats outta my price range". So the guy writes back - don't ask me why - and tells me that I should reconsider, it's easier to see at night, and -- get this -- the headlight bulb becomes easier to change!!

So I was slightly ticked by now and asked him if he ever saw a Firebird. How there's no way you can just pop a bulb out of the back of the housing b/c there's no room; the conversion lens (to take the place of the sealed beam) would have to come out anyway. Morons!

 

Personally I'll just stick to HO sealed beams..

Running 4656 silverstars on my '88 now.. local autozone was having a promotional sale on them.. 13 bucks instead of 25.. couldn't resist trying 'em. Worst beam pattern and dispersion I've ever witnessed. I've got 3 beam focus points out of 2 headlights.. managed to aim them in such a way that the third point is centered, so it looks like I have 3 headlights, but it's still silly.. and with these lights the number of times I've nearly clipped a pedestrian because they weren't visible is simply unacceptable. Swapping back to GE HOs on both cars as soon as I can drop the cash... (gave the pair I had to mom since her headlights were shot.. literally.. one had a BB hole in it)

To switch to H4 housings, a major prerequisite is severe proof of them having a superior beam/dispersion pattern.. but that's hard to do vs. those HOs... had absolutely perfect beams from 'em.

As far as HID conversion, I won't go there till there are specific HID 4656 conversion housings designed to actually make use of all that extra light. I'll wait a few years, personally..

And Tom, that bit about the access to the back of the firebird lights.. that's priceless. Gotta love idiotic sales reps. Bet someone fell for it at some point though

 

I hate those HID lights, they are way too bright. Almost as bright as high beams.

 

I agree - HID's are like, WAAAAY bright. I guess the people who do the conversions here don't bother re-aiming their lights, so they always point by default into any and all reflective surfaces, where at once it zorches the retina off the inside of my eyeballs... But hey, it's their money, right? (My old GP had some junk lights, until I upgraded the bulbs...) I love the factory stock ones on my GTA, the foggers are cool too, aimed nice and low so they light up the entire road surface where the driving lights don't get, and they don't blind other drivers (I know 'cuz I drove the wife's car and she was following me in the GTA).

 

The Silverstars make a beautiful bulb color...but I agree, the spread pattern sucks. Mine is just too widely dispersed. The light is spread everywhere, instead of focused more in where I need it. But then my headlight covers are all fogged up and my adjustment screws are broken or stripped, so I'm stuck!

 

So can u just use our original wiring and housing, and just buy the HID lights?? Some people say something about burning out the wires. I am just wondering if I can get some brighter, less yellow lights

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=213490

 

i had used the wrong terminology when i was originaly speaking, so no it's not HID lighting , its an H4 conversion. YOu can use the original wiriging with the setup, because the bulb is made that styled wiriing, but you can't use the old sealed beam bulb, there's a new bulb/housing thing that looks like the old square sealed beam, and slides into the place where the old sealed beam went, then u buy the H4 bulbs to go in. Only reason i wanna get the silverstars is because they'd finally be as bright as my h3 foggies....when i had the cool blue sealed beams, there was a drastic and noticeable difference in lighting quality, it's a lil less defined now...

 

Yeah, Daishi, dont even try to run HID's off a car that isn't set up for them. It'll roast every fire, pop every fuse, fry every relay associated with the lights... HID's don't take much to keep running, but to START, they surge a large amount of power that overloads a system not designed for them.