[s-cars] Keeping DRLs with a McCullough HID kit via the fogs? Is it possible?

[Mark Strangways]

Bowing out of this debate before I inadvertently say  something that may 
resemble practical application to a problem.
It ain't all that hard to make a bulb with a known focal point...

Mark
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Igor Kessel" <KBATPO at comcast.net>
To: "Dave Forgie" <forgied at ae.ca>
Cc: <s-car-list at audifans.com>
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2006 6:40 PM
Subject: Re: [s-cars] Keeping DRLs with a McCullough HID kit via the fogs? 
Is it possible?


> Dave Forgie wrote:
>> Igor: Thanks for your (and Mark's and Fred's) response.  You're right we
>> don't agree on either headlights or taillights (I hate the loss of light 
>> with
>> Euro look-red/blink orange corners and, as you might remember, I
>> converted both rear fog lights to run two filament bulbs in 1999).
>
> Mmmm Dave, I still stubbornly stand by the opinion that actually my Euro
> tail lenses (look red/blink orange) are brighter and are more distinct
> (read: safer) than the all-red DOT ones found in the American UrS cars. 
> ;-)
>
> As for the rear fogs, I myself have given in and installed the second
> one in the RH side. Moreover, both bulbs are the retina burning 50w
> Halogens. They do miracles shaking the tailgaiters off my tail.
>
> The wife's Allroad already came with the second rear fog light, so all I
> had to do was to replace the incandescent bulbs with halogens. Highly
> recommend if you'd like to gain the upper hand in the urban warfare. ;-)
>
>> I do agree that OEM HIDs are the best but they are WAY too $$$.  Sean
>>  D. in our Vancouver club imported a set from Germany. They look good
>>  but a replacement bulb/ballast is about US$500 each. In constrast,
>> several of our club members have done an LLTek or McCullough HID
>> conversion (with Euro headlight lenses) and they work about the same as
>>  OEM for way less money.
>
> With all due respect to both Sean and yourself I would politely
> disagree. As I was doing my home work and assessing various options I
> myself had looked into the OEM HIDs off a '97 Euro S6+. I promptly
> scrapped the idea due to the two compelling reasons:
> a) @ ~$2k/ea. it was an outrageously expensive proposition at the time.
> b) as you have rightfully pointed out, the idea of a replacement
> bulb/ballast assy as a whole does not rub me the right way as an engineer.
>
> I also scrapped the cheap'n'dirty approach of installing a $500 hacked
> kit with custom D2S bulbs grafted onto some 9006 bases also due to two
> compelling reasons:
> a) a Physicist in me felt that placing the HID hot spot precisely in the
> focal point of a Halogen projector (reflector/lens assy) not built for
> that very purpose was too much of a challenge for a handyman kit maker.
> b) I do not like to be bound with an umbilical cord to some obscure
> custom bulb manufacturer.
>
> I'd like to point out that I am not trying to badmouth wholesale all of
> the hack kits out there. It's just those that I've seen with my very
> eyes have failed to impress me with anything other than the blue hue of
> their light.
>
>> The third option that I am looking at is Audi TT HID projectors.  One our
>>  auxiliary club members (in Edmonton) has developed a mounting plate to
>> convert OEM DOT headlights to Audi TT HID projectors.  From what I have
>>  been told and seen (via jpg photos only) they work fine.  I have ordered
>> a set of plates and might go that way (then I need to score some used TT 
>> projectors from a wrecker).
>
> Bingo! The TT projector assy off a Euro TT (or its twin bro: the BMW
> 740i) is w/o a doubt the best way to go. I have the 740i ones in my own
> car, bought off ebay.de and brought over here by a friend of a friend at
> my request. I ended up with the proper OEM European HID headlights and
> the whole conversion cost me prolly less than the cheapest hack kit out
> there.
>
> You don't even need a mounting plate. What you need is 4 (four) pieces
> of threaded (4mm) rod about ... I dunno, 100 mm long each. You'll need
> to bend each of them to the shape off a manual crank:
> __
>   |__
> which you'll have to do empirically. They will allow you to mount the
> somewhat wider TT projectors in the narrow eyelets of the UrS headlights.
> You'll also need to run the power supply and the earth wires into the
> headlights since the OEM harness is not up to the task. I took the
> power (naturally through two yellow Si marine 30A fuses) off the AUX
> starting post for the RH headlight and off the Alternator post for the
> LH one. One of these days I'll post the pix on my website :)
>
> You also might need to shunt the car battery with a huge capacitor (~ 1
> F) akin to the ones used by kids in inner cities in their thundering car
> stereos. I found that on occasion turning the HIDs on would kill the CD
> mode of the radio. A simple tap-tap on the function button would bring
> the CD mode back, but it is an inconvenience and annoys the hell out the
> perfectionist in me. One of these days I'll find a source of cheap
> capacitors and fix this issue.
>
> The wife's Allroad was even simpler to convert since all I had to do was
> to swap the OEM DOT Halogen projectors for the OEM Euro HID projectors.
> Naturally I also broke off and removed the stupid orange cataphotes and
> as always I disconnected the parking lights from the corner bulbs
> bringing the headlights the the European code with separate blinkers in
> clear glass corners.
>
> -- 
> Igor Kessel
> two turbo quattros
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