They may work, but many here will indicate that the stock halogen reflectors will reflect a bad glare to oncoming traffic. True HID lights have a different reflector. ...
Thank you. This is a huge pet peeve of mine. What millions of people don't know is that the biggest performance difference between halogens and HIDs/Xenons/plasmas, beyond efficiency, is that they have a very different light output pattern. Standard halogen incandescent bulbs have a physical filament made out of a straight, coiled wire. HIDs produce light from an electrical
arc. There is a slight curve between the two posts. This means that the light source in the bulb isn't quite where it should be if used in a standard halogen housing. The end result is that the light is reflected in the wrong direction and appear to be halfway between lowbeams and highbeams (if you've ever had a car with dual-filament headlights). The reason why HIDs in halogen reflectors seem brighter, besides actually being a little brighter, is that they project upwards more than low beams. It's like driving with one low and one high beam all the time. Look at a Maglite with a focusing head. Moving the lens in and out and look at how much the beam output changes. Now look at how little the lens and reflector actually moved.
Generally, halogens use big reflectors while HIDs use smaller reflectors with optical lenses in front. You can design either reflector to work with either bulb, but you can't have both in one. As far as I know, no factory HID bulb has used a visible reflector, just refractors. However, some recent Fords ('13+ Fusion) use refractory lenses with halogen bulbs. Even though they're the common HID style lens, you still can't put HIDs in there properly.
Don't even get me started on blue lights. They are the
worst color you can use. They fool you into thinking you see better because human eyes are very inadequate when it comes to perceiving blue light. This is apparent at night with the latest generation of deep blue LEDs used in both Christmas and police lights. They look like you have lens flare in your eyes. Factory blue VW dashes are my least favorite dash, even after my girlfriend's Corolla's yellow-green, tachless, dash with an oversized fuel gauge and burned out bulb.
Moving on. Some of you HID users will probably despise me for this and think "it's completely fine and you're over reacting". That's ok. When I see you on the road, I despise you too. Here and there I have found kits on eBay that give you a refractory lens housing that seems like it might fit into the reflector headlights, but I don't know how well they work. They seem ok since they let you pick which side your oncoming traffic is on to lower that cutoff for different countries.
... I am sure if I am inaccurate or wrong in my statements, others will correct me!
Cunningham's Law: The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask the question, but to post the wrong answer
