so how do you get that nasty cutoff? mine has somewhat of a glare towards the top, but they are in stock housings. is that my problem?

 

Does the high and low beam still function, or is it just one setting now?

 

Well heres dans projectors with HID, Heres mine with the standard H1.






Hope that helps

 

PPaz your lights look great. Which eBay vendor did you get the projectors from? I have had major problems aiming mine with the HID's and I am ready to either go back to stock or try a different projector headlamp.

 

Yes, that's your problem. The cutoff is from the projector lens. You won't ever get a clean cutoff like that from the stock headlights in our Cobalts.




The high and low beams are run off of two separate bulbs in the projector setup... so I still have lows (HID) and highs (Halogen H1). Although, I hardly ever use the high beams with the HIDs in the low beams.





Thanks. I bought my projectors off of acemotors700 on eBay. They were pretty slow with shipping... but they got here still in a decent amount of time I guess (2 weeks).





I'd still like to hear about your tricks. Now that I modified the housing, I have some play with the bulbs. I think these projector lenses definitely have something to do with the hue that you see outside of the cutoff.

 

i bought my HID kit a year ago when i got my cobalt and the kit cost me $400 dollars but i got the 8000k kit and i've never had a problem with my HID's i only got lows no high beams, i've been wanting to buy the projector of ebay but if i'mma pay $250 i want it to fit perfect don't wanna be buying projectors for that price and have to make holes in them thats the only reason why i haven't bought them. But if i get them i'mma get me an extra set of HID's and put the high beams with the 12000k temp bulbs.

 

You're really over-estimating the effort that goes into modifying the projectors to fit the HIDs in them. It can be done with a drill and 3 minutes of your time. And... if you decide to ditch the HIDs for any reason, the normal halogen H1 bulbs still fit perfectly.

All you have to do is drill a small slot at the top edge of the rectangular opening for the bulb in the projector.

The slot is needed to fit the return lead that runs parallel to the bulb.

Here is a regular halogen H1 bulb:


Now here is an HID H1 bulb:



Notice the return lead on the HID bulb??? Here is a rough diagram I drew to illustrate where in the projector base you have to drill to fit the return lead.



Does that help guys?

 

Great illustration, now I just need the money to buy em.

 

The lights look great, thanks for the diagram. I will probably do this as well now.

 

Yeah, thanks for the diagram. I always get emails about this.

 

It's rather intuitive. All you're doing is making room for the return lead to fit. I don't understand why people were so worried about "modding" the projectors to fit the HIDs.

 

They are not fog lights. they are driving lights which there is a big difference

 

looks like HIDS WERKS FOR ME!

 

I'm still debating whether or not to get these for my balt. I'm sure of getting an HID, but idk if I want the projectors or not.

 

They are fog lights. And you can convert them to HID too... just need an H11 HID conversion kit.



If there's one thing I learned throughout all of my research on putting HIDs in my car... it's that you shouldn't put an HID conversion kit in your stock lights. You'll blind oncoming traffic. Reflectors in HID (non-projector) setups from the factory are designed differently than relectors for halogen bulbs. At least with projectors, you will still have a cutoff that you can aim properly so you won't blind oncoming traffic.

 

One the tricks i was talking about is bending the shield out a little.... sounds like you've done that?

 

I've got a very similar set-up that I am putting up for sale if anyone is interested. I bought the projectors from Motorblvd on ebay and the 6000K HID kit from Visionbulbs. I modified them to fit the HIDs already. I just recently was given some projectors and I think I am going to retrofit into my original housings. PM me with an offer or for pics, I'll sell them as a set or seperate.

see this thread: https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/parts-66/fs-black-projectors-6000k-hids-43560/

 

There still are halogen and HID specific projector housings though . A friend of mine just did the these projector cobalt housings and a 10K H1 conversion . The cut off is beautiful , the lights are aimed correctly , they honestly do not have any offensive glare whatsoever ....but one area they do lack , is the beam pattern on the ground , while very bright , is also very scattered and blotchy . A HID spec projector housing lights up the road MUCH more uniformly . The difference of the actual beam pattern on the ground is HUGE between my my buddies Cobalt with the conversion , and another friend of mines 03 Audi A4 .

I will say though , these Cobalt projector headlights produced the best beam pattern Ive seen as far as conversions go . The fact they didnt have any offensive glare to on comming traffic was quite a surprise .

 

Don't mean to dig up an old post, but were relays included with this HID kit you got off of ebay?

 

All that the conversion kit included was a ballast for each bulb, which includes the igniter in it. Some kits come separately. There was no extra relay if that is what you're asking.

 

i just put my projectors in... and theres a sticker that says you cant use HID's in them..


.

 

Ok - I was reading about the different generations of HIDs and the newest being Gen 4 has the relay/ignitor built into the ballast to handle current differences.

 

Mine had that too. Warnings are for wusses.


Seriously though, it's only there because the HID bulb will not fit without slight modification. It certainly will not harm the housing and/or lenses.

 

These two statements go well with eachother. The reason that your Ebay projectors have a sticker on them that say they should not be used with HID's is because the projector lense in them is not "HID" spec.. Now, weather this actually makes any difference or not I do not know. I suspect it is simply a statement saying that they cannot guaranty on-coming traffic will not be blinded by HIDs in these lenses, as they were never tested for it.

The input from someone with vast knowledge of HIDs would be helpful here.

 

You're half correct. Any kind of light assembly in a headlight is designed for a certain bulb. HID assemblies are designed to reduce glare for oncoming traffic just as Halogen assemblies are. Mostly, this deals with the angles that the light is either reflected or projected at (depending on what type of assembly it is). This is why it's not a good idea to put HID conversion kits in the stock light assemblies.

While the projector assemblies weren't designed for HIDs, it's not as big of an issue simply because the projector lenses provide a hard cutoff that isn't overcome by the HID bulbs. So you won't blind traffic in front of you with HIDs in the projectors. The only two issues that remain are the projected beam pattern and fitment. As someone stated earlier, the beam pattern isn't as clean as an OEM HID setup. To me, it doesn't seem bad... and definitely provides more visibility than the stock setup, so I don't mind the imperfect pattern. That leaves fitment as the only issue. HID bulbs have a return lead outside of the bulb (as well as a longer bulb). You do have to modify the base of the projector to allow for the return lead to fit. The length of the bulb is not an issue.

So while you're projectors weren't designed for HID bulbs, they will work with them, safely. The biggest misconception is that an HID kit will melt the projector lenses. That's the furthest thing from the truth. HIDs run at 35W compared to the H1 Halogen bulbs running at 55W... so HIDs will generate less heat. The only possible issue is that HIDs draw more current when initially switched on... which in rare cases where it's too much for the wiring, can melt your wiring to the headlights. But then again, that's an issue totally unrelated to the housing that you put the bulbs in.