Was wondering if anyone had put a HID kit in a Colbalt? Hows the light output from the stock lenses? Also how hard is it too install? I have a Rally Yellow 05 Colbalt SS\SC...Colin

 

that was my first change to my car, i love em, its weird driving cars without them now its like wow how do you see lol, it doesnt seem to blind other drivers and ive never got in trouble for them, makes the road a lot clearer, worth the money IMO

 

were did you get those ones from ide liek to get the exact ones

 

How easy are they too install? I saw the driver side light looks like a pain...little tight. How is your light switch do you still have (Auto) and daytime running lights? Colin

 

Actually, the lights are easy to change. You need a 10mm socket tip on the driver adapter and take out the two bolts attatched to the light. From there w/ careful persuasion the headlight will come off and you can have easy access to the area.

 

How bout the Auto and Daytime running lights? Do they still work? Colin

 

yep, you lose high beams thouhg, but it really doesnt matter cuz these are bright enough to compensate for that, very easy to install, all plug and play really, the ones i have are mcculloch i bought them from xenonking.com 6000k kit

 

it's not really safe for other drivers on the road to install hid's without retrofitting an actual projector in them. i would love to have hid's but i will not until it is done correctly... it's near impossible to correctly set up a set of plug and play hid's on a car made for halogens...

 

we have a thing on our cobalts that we could adjust the light output low or high. I got a set of hid kits on ebay and they frigging best you can get for the money right now bro. They are 220 shipped. I got the 10000k unit.

click here for HIDs
Check out my others pics i got more!

 

Well It looks like I am going too buy a set....I just was wondering if you still have your Auto and Daytime running lights...so thats great. Another advantage to HIDs is that you use have the battery power too run them....a great addition Colin

 

yea and they LOOK AMAZING lol dont forget that minor difference over stock

 

Let's see in how many different threads I will will have to post this. And feel free to ask questions. Every question I get I can improve my response.

LEGALITY - Putting HID bulbs straight into a non-HID lamp is completely illegal in the FMVSS/SAE (USA), CMVSS/CAE(Canada), and ECE(European) markets. Now let me explain why.

WHAT IS HID?
HID (High Intensity Discharge) refers to how the light is produced. Electricity is "discharged" between 2 electrodes to produce a "high intensity" light arc. Uneek had a good explanation of this aspect. Xenon refers to the gas in the HID bulbs. HID bulbs work on the same principle as fluorescent office lighting and neon signs. But they contain different gases that produce different colors of light (Neon is red). Xenon tends to be white/blueish.

WHAT IS A HALOGEN BULB?
A filament bulb that contains a mixture of halogen gases. Check your periodic table for halogen gases: helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon. A filament is a piece of metal that has huge electrical resistance so when electricity flows thru it, it gets really hot and glows. The halogen gases help with color and lifetime of the bulb.

WHAT IS A XENON HALOGEN BULB?
Some filament halogen bulbs advertise "Xenon." This is actually true because xenon is just the gas in the bulb. They change the gas mixture for more xenon which makes the filament burn whiter, but dimmer. So they crank up the wattage and change the glass to hold more heat which makes the bulb brighter. Doing this really cuts down on lifetime and can melt parts of your headlamp.

WHAT IS COLOR TEMPERATURE?
Refer to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature
Basically, color temperature only refers to "white" light and runs from 1600k (reddish) to infinity UV radiation (black light). HID bulb is around 4100k, sunlight around 5500k. Phillips does produce a legitimate 6000k purple bulb. But that's it. Anything higher than 6000k is a cheap painted knockoff most likely made in Asia. Refer to http://faqlight.carpassion.info/hl-hid-bulbs.htm for a ton of HID bulb answers.

WHAT IS COLOR TEMPERATURE NOT?
Color temperature is just that, color. It does not refer to a thermal temperature. It does not determine how "bright" the bulb is. But, the human eye evolved for sunlight, so the closer the color is to sunlight the better the eye can see. OEM HID is not quite as white as sunlight. There are many optical units but "brightness" for bulbs is rated in lumens. More lumens=more light.

WHAT IS THE BALLAST FOR?
HID needs to be "kicked" on. The ballast and ignitor take your car's electricity and transform it to a HIGH voltage for a second to kick on the arc. It also draws an amperage spike. So if your HIDs are flicking but won't stay on or take 3 kicks to start up, chances are your wiring is too small and cannot supply the amperage needed and continuing to do this will damage your wiring and shorten the life of the bulbs and ballasts. Try running thicker wire and new relays.

WHAT HEADLAMPS DOES THE COBALT HAVE?
This is what we call a "dual function" headlamp because low and high beam are generated by the same reflector. This also means the bulb has two filaments, one for low beam and one for high beam that are only activated one at a time. This all means that putting an HID bulb in your headlamp will lose high beam function.

SO WHY CAN'T I PUT HID IN MY COBALT’S REFLECTOR?
Because every single car manufactured today has headlamps specifically designed for that car and that bulb. And every one of those headlamps (taillamps, turnsignals, sidemarkers, reflexes, cornering lamps, fog lamps, daytime running lamps, position lamps, cargo lamps, highmount stop lamps, backup lamps, etc.) must all meet very specific government regulations according to the market: FMVSS/SAE (Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards/Society of Automotive Engineers), CMVSS/CAE(Candadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards/Canadian Automotive Engineers), or ECE (United Nations Economic Commissions for Europe). These regulations were developed for SAFETY.

A very specific "cutoff" pattern is generated by your low beam. This pattern stops light from blinding oncoming traffic but still allows you to see roadside signs and pedestrians. Drive up to a wall and flip on your headlamps to see the pattern. This pattern is extremely sensitive to filament position of the bulb. Thus, if you put a bulb in a lamp that it was not designed for you completely ruin the pattern, blind oncoming traffic, and destroy your own visibility. Try putting a different bulb in your righthand headlamp and keeping the OEM bulb in the lefthand. Now try looking at the pattern on the ground and look at roadsigns; notice some dark streaks and bright spots? Now go around to the front about 25 ft away from the car and standing up look at your headlamps; I bet you are getting lots of glare from the non-OEM bulb. This is actually how your OEM Cobalt high beam works. The high beam filament in the bulb is offset from the low beam filament so it produces lots of glare, which the driver perceives as lots of light down the road.

Refer to Osram Sylvania for pictures of a filament and an HID arc.http://www.sylvania.com/ConsumerProd...gyOverview.htm

BUT I HAVE HID BULBS IN MY COBALT AND I CAN SEE BETTER.
Ok, this may be true because HID bulbs do produce more light and a whiter light which the human eye responds to better. Chances are you are blinding oncoming traffic which is dangerous and eventually one of those blinded will be a cop.

BUT BMW/MERCEDES/CADILLAC ETC. HAVE HID?
Yes they do. An HID bulb does have more output and a better color than a filament bulb, BUT it must have the optimum optical system around it to harness and properly direct that light. OEM HID's are designed for that bulb. And often HID lamps are harder to design because they produce so much light that it often ends up where we don't want it, ie glare.

SO WHAT CAN I DO THAT IS LEGAL?
The quick answer, not much. You can use anything with the same bulb type designation where the filaments will be in correct position. The only upgrade possible this way is those Xenon Halogen Filament bulbs that have a short lifetime and can melt your headlamp.

D.O.T. APPROVED?
Approved for what? Chances are it is “Approved” for off-road use only. Manufacturers know it is illegal to say you can use something on your car on the road without tons of expensive testing and certification. So most release themselves from liability with the moniker “Approved for Off-Road Use Only.”

I DON’T CARE ABOUT LEGAL, I JUST WANT HID.
AFTERMARKET. The Cobalt is so modifiable that someone will come out with a decent aftermarket (probably HID) headlamp here soon. These will have HID performance but may have poor build quality (not to mention usually very ugly). But if you don’t care about looks and the best quality, these are way better than HID Plug&Play bulb kits and only involve switching out your stock lamps.
RETROFITTING. This is arguably the only way to get HID performance in a good-looking custom package. Putting an HID projector into a Cobalt housing will give you HID performance. BUT, this is going to be a lot of work and skill required to properly position the projector and make it look good. You can hire someone to do this for you or try to do it yourself.

SAFETY
Thousands of man-hours go into optimizing each and every headlamp that is put on the road today. If it was as easy as sticking an HID bulb in the back of a reflector and getting 10X more output, don't you think all manufacturers would do this?
The government, Society of Automotive Engineers, the United Nations, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, as well as every major automaker have put years of testing into determining the optimal lighting pattern for safety for the driver, other drivers on the road, and pedestrians. They have thought about everything, including deer jumping out. There are many unconscious aspects (both physiological and psychological) of lighting that normal drivers are unaware of but have been tested and incorporated into regulations that all headlamps must conform to. Putting a different bulb into a headlamp that it was not designed for destroys its ability to keep you and others safe.

Follow some of these links for NHTSA headlamp investigations:
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/departm...GlareSpectrum/
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-01/NRDmtgs/2005Honda/Perel_FwdLighting.pdf

BOTTOM LINE
HID kits are unsafe. Aiming you headlamps down is not a solution (and illegal) because there is still glare well above the small angle that you are aiming your lamps down. The only way to properly check for glare is with a piece of equipment called an automotive photogoniometer.

HOW DO YOU KNOW ALL THIS STUFF?
I’m an optical engineer for a major German automotive lighting supplier. I work everyday with lighting technology, government regulations, and testing equipment.