Quote Originally Posted by tnomud View Post
...When you put an HID capsule in that spot, its completely chaning the focus point of the light and reducing output and focus by 50-75%. THis is not a "can reduce output" deal, but a 100% "will put out less light" situation. Sure, they are brighter 50 foot in front of the car. At 500 feet, its 50-75% less output and completely unfocused.
False. I have personally tested this. Take an old round lense (very common on older cars, and bikes), and put a factory HID in it (from a Lexus, Nissan, etc.). The light out put is significantly higher, and for a much farther distance (more that 3x as far than the best Sylvania, Philllips, or Hella bulbs). The issue is that it is unfocused, and scatters everywhere, blinding other drivers. Look at an S2000's headlights. Notice how they intentionally introduce an artifical top line to the light output. That is to reduce the light going towards other drivers.
HIDs produce a much larger amount of light, but need a controlling limiter to focus it where it is needed.



Quote Originally Posted by tnomud View Post
Next there is the safety issue. There is supposed to be 35K volts travelling through those cables from the ballast to the capsule. Those cables are supposed to be shielded. They are not. Those cables are passing as much current as an ignition wire, but through a stereo cable made in China. Besides possibly killing someone, they can slowly ruin automotive electronics. Of they ground out, they can pop a 30A headlight fuse so hard that it welds together. I have seen it. Now, bear in mind, we are talking cheap, $5, made in China bullshit ballasts. The electrnic interfearence and electronic noise coming off these things is at very high levels. They also backfeed into the system intermittantly,
False. It is not going to kill anyone - even the cheaply made one. Voltage doesn't kill, current does. An average HID ballast uses 10-15 amps initially, and drops down to 3-5 amps after igniting. Automotive ignitions ofter draw 100-200 amps.
If your fuse welded together, you need to buy better fuses. Asian-produce fuses tend to be lower quality, I suggest that you purchase better quality ones. You might want to do that with your HIDs also. The EMI off of a ballast mounted upfront with the headlight is not strong enough to reach back to the computer and cause issues. Are you mounting them in the cabin of the vehicle?

On the rest of it, I agree with you. It is not wise to put an HID bulb in a non-HID housing, of any color. If you are going to retrofit HIDs to a vehicle, do it the right way, and mount an HID projector inside the housing. See my R1 on how to properly do it.