[s-cars] Lighting poll - McCullough HIDs vs HIR bulbs

[Sean Douglas]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com [mailto:s-car-list-
> bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of chris chambers
> Sent: November 26, 2006 9:37 AM
> To: Dave Forgie; s-car-list at audifans.com
> Subject: Re: [s-cars] Lighting poll - McCullough HIDs vs HIR bulbs
> 
> > Sean D. may disagree but I think, for the money, the McCullough HIDs
> > with the Euro lenses are VERY close to the factory HID set up, at
> > least
> > to my eyes.  Certainly, for the cost difference versus the lighting
> > difference, personally, I can not see a reason to go beyond the
> > McCulloughs

I'd say that the HID kit (McCullough et al) with the e-code projector *and*
lens is probably very close to the factory HID setup. I say probably because
I have not seen a side-by-side comparision. And besides just looking at a
beam pattern on a wall is not a fair test. It would take a test drive on a
dark road (subjective) and some kind of objective light measurements.

The projector is responsible for 90% of the beam pattern, the lens is just
for fine tuning. If you put a HID kit in a DOT projector, the amount of
light is increased, but the quality (focus) is not.

In my opinion, from best to worst:

e-code OEM HID
e-code halogen projector (H1) and e-code lens with HID kit
DOT halogen projector (900x), e-code lens, HID kit
DOT halogen projector (900x), DOT lens, HID kit
DOT halogen projector (901x), e-code lens
DOT halogen projector (901x), DOT lens
DOT original stock

For the price, Dave, I agree. The OEM HIDs are crazy expensive, last time I
checked was about 2 years ago and they were over 2000 euros. Albeit that
included the motors and clear markers too. I was lucky to find a set on
ebay.de for about 800 euros. The other downside to the OEM ones are that if
a bulb fails, the replacement is like 400 euros - ouch!

Sean D. - OEM HID with leveling motors and clear markers