why do my headlights suck?

[ikayto]

No matter what I do, whether it be using PIAA H4 bulbs or my current philips d4r hid bulbs with denso ballast, I always have 2 concentrated portions of the road and the rest are just dimly lit.

Anyone else having this problem?

edit:
using jdm headlights.
Denso Ballast
Philips D4r 4300k
Premade HID Relay Harness, made with 14 gauge wire w/ a 25amp fuse between the battery and relay.
Casper Shields, h4 to d2x/d4x adapter

the best with street lighting


most of the time i see this


looks like this sort of in pitch darkness, coverage is the same but a lot dimmer.


Reason why the last picture is so bright because my girlfriend put the camera on night mode which lengthened the time the shutter remained open but it looks this way on dark dark empty stretches.

[Shinobi]

I guess I am not the only one. I have the same problem. I bought 2 sets of HIDs and they both gave 2 different outputs. It pissed me off so bad that I just stuck with the original bulbs.

[evil_demon_01]

Have you had the headlights aligned?

[ikayto]

adjusted them, I still get concentrated blotches.

I was just expecting something like Timmyotool's outputVV

[AbsurdNY]

Did you try switching the bulbs and ballasts to the other side? Find out if you can narrow it down to just a bulb or just a ballast.

[ikayto]

so bulbs and ballasts can be bad without ceasing to work?

[blizzard335]

dayum...

what did Timmy do to his lights??

[lummieCB7]

make sure your bulbs are seated/oriented properly within the shields.

[AbsurdNY]

so bulbs and ballasts can be bad without ceasing to work?

Yes I think they can. If the voltage regulator in one ballast is not giving enough power to the bulb I would guess it could be more dim.

[evil_demon_01]

Yes I think they can. If the voltage regulator in one ballast is not giving enough power to the bulb I would guess it could be more dim.

Yes your correct, We have had them at work, one is dimmer than the other.
Also make sure the bulbs are the same - you can get different colours, and different outputs.
As I said above though - Did you have them aligned or just adjust them yourself till they looked "about right" (I need this info for something else i'm creating)

[ikayto]

bulbs are seated correctly with the return wire at the 6 o'clock portion. I just adjusted the headlights till they reached farther. I'll get some in car shots this wednesday night.

I do notice on start up they flash very brightly and then dim and stay that way. The brightness on start up is perfect. I hear this is common with hid setup as they need to warm up to that brightness. I only drove about 30mins at a time with my hids.

[GangstaCB7]

bulbs are seated correctly with the return wire at the 6 o'clock portion. I just adjusted the headlights till they reached farther. I'll get some in car shots this wednesday night.

I do notice on start up they flash very brightly and then dim and stay that way. The brightness on start up is perfect. I hear this is common with hid setup as they need to warm up to that brightness. I only drove about 30mins at a time with my hids.

**** that sounds funky, wen I turn my HIDs on they flash,dim and within 10 seconds they r on full power. U should get more powerful ones, I guess........

[ikayto]

hmmm so the flash output should be the output in the long run once they warm up?

[AbsurdNY]

Do you have a HID relay harness installed with your HID's? My HID's used to flash, get dim, then gradually get brighter before I had a relay kit installed and it actually did some damage to my car. The stock wires are not meant to support the 20,000+ volts that the HID's need to fire up.

[ikayto]

I'm using a hid relay harness.

I just posted my set up.