Headlight difference?

[AutoEuphoria]

Is there a difference in the headlight housing between the sport and the grand touring models? I know the GT has HID's, but does the sport verision have the same headlight housing (meaning, could aftermarket HIDs be easily added in)? That is the only option I really wanted from the GT model...everything else on the Sport is just fine with me minus the Halogen headlights.

Also, unrelated question, but I see the GT model has the "trip computer" and the Sport model does not. Does the sport model still have a tripometer, or does it just have the odometer? The other stuff is not really that necessary to me.

[MS3 GT]

sport version doesnt have the HID, i got mine an aftermarket HID's. mine seem to be just a lil bit difficult, it would not hold it tight, i have to do some work to it to hold it tight.!!!yes sport model does had the tripometer...!!

[bjjer]

No, the sport does not have the trip computer but can be unlocked on the 2007 models.

[iredremix]

i think i'd rather pay the extra money to go with the gt version. doesn't the sport version come w led tails?

[LReyes66]

^

no

[AutoEuphoria]

i think i'd rather pay the extra money to go with the gt version. doesn't the sport version come w led tails?

The only feature I really like on the GT is the HIDs, which can be added for under $500 (aftermarket). Everything else is nice, but to me just not necessary and not worth the extra few thousand dollars. I just wanted to make sure that the headlight unit itself is the same in both, and that the GT just has the HID ballasts and bulbs (not a completely different headlight assembly). Is this true?

[oaklandopen]

it would have to be a different unit as well, because the gt HID can be moved up and down. you may have seen an empty spot or two near your instrument panel dimmer thumbwheel, that's where the headlight height adjustment wheel is on the gt

the fact that the gt has HIDs with a motorized mechanism on it makes me feel that there is some kind of difference between the sport and gt headlight housing. and i dont' know if there's just a mirror being motorized or the whole projector part.

if you want to just get some hids it should work fine, and you don't really need the motor. the reason it's there in the first place is in case you have lots of weight in the back, then you adjust the headlights accordingly to simply be "nice" to oncoming traffic at night by angling your headlights down.


ps- gt has HIDs, LED tail lights, and 08.5 has alcantera seats

[Kain]

Everything else is nice, but to me just not necessary and not worth the extra few thousand dollars.

More like $1,500, which was the diff between a Sport and GT after negotiating both.

[Hapa88]

We back to the original question. . I don't think they are the same housings. However, that being said, the halogen headlight housings of the Sport model work extremely well with aftermarket HID kits. The cutoff is excellent.

Infact my Apexcone 55 Watt 6,000k HID kit I got from Xenonexpert.com is brighter than the factory HID in the GT model (factory HID is only 35w and ~4,300K). I did a side-by-side comparison with one at a local meet and the owner of the GT agreed mine were brighter. I highly recommend them. The new DDM kit has slim ballasts and can be had for around $150 a set.

I ended up doing the fogs as well. So I have 55W, 6,000K Apexcone HIDs for the headlights, and the 55W 3,000K kit for the fog lights. Best investment i ever made. Lighting improvement is huge - there's no comparison.

[iredremix]

yea the gt model can move the projector up and down which is pretty cool. like hapa88 said, the cutoff is nice on the gt projectors.. i got this thing called the washer mod where the cutoff on my projectors is rainbow/purple.

[Hapa88]

like hapa88 said, the cutoff is nice on the gt projectors..

I was actually referring to the cutoff on the Sport model projectors using an aftermarket HID kit.

[oaklandopen]

yea...sucks that even though the gts have xenons they are still only 4300K...i think that between 5000 and 6000K have the highest output, and anything past 6000K will actually produce less output. gotta love those ppl that want the 12000K cuz it's "brighter" when it actually produces less light than the lowest xenon

[xDJ DUBx]

I read someplace that the stock 4300k hid setup is the brightest and best output and the higher you get away from that, the less output. It said 4300 has 3x the output 5000 through 8000 has 2x the output and anything higher defeats the purpose. Thats only what I've read though. (thumb)

[brunoxmatoss]

I read someplace that the stock 4300k hid setup is the brightest and best output and the higher you get away from that, the less output. It said 4300 has 3x the output 5000 through 8000 has 2x the output and anything higher defeats the purpose. Thats only what I've read though. (thumb)

not necssarily the output. its called LUMENS.

ever notice how normal electric bulbs "while they arent as nice" make things easier to see compared to pure white bulbs?

thats the lumens kicking in (drinks)

hahahaha. although it is true, the farther away from 4300k your HID's are, the worst the visibility.

[xDJ DUBx]

yeah thats it, I couldn't remember the exact word but yeah lumens, not output

thanks bruno

[Hapa88]

Lumens is a measure of perceived brightness of the lights. From Wikipedia:
"The lumen (symbol: lm) is the SI unit of luminous flux, a measure of the perceived power of light. Luminous flux differs from radiant flux, the measure of the total power of light emitted, in that luminous flux is adjusted to reflect the varying sensitivity of the human eye to different wavelengths of light."

4300K-4500K is the closest color to natural daylight. This is what the human eye is most sensitive to. The further away you are from 4300K the less sensitive your eye is to that color. That is why the Lumen number decreases the further you get from 4300K (in either direction, like 3000K or 6000k for example).

"Output" of the two HID lights, like 4300K and 6000K will probably be about the same, however your eye is more sensitive to the 4300K one, so it will be perceived as brighter and more usable.

[oaklandopen]

hmm...so if our 4300s are the way to go, why does it seem like bimmers, vettes, and a lot of the higher end cars are using something different, that also seems to be brighter. i know i've compaired mine to others while they were right next to me and theirs still seemed brighter.

[ZlyMichal]

I thought that the 4k, 5k, 6k or what ever you want to put in there is only a number that refers to the color of the beam. the lower the number the brighter the light is. the diference in our lights vs. other cars if the actual factory kit and the projector itself. I know when i have my MX-5 ( 06 ), I did the HID's aftermarket and they were 4K kit ( same temp as the OEM) but the out put was diferent due to the brand of the kit. like i said before i believe that the projector itself and the brand of the HID kit will result in diference in brightness and color.

[brunoxmatoss]

hmm...so if our 4300s are the way to go, why does it seem like bimmers, vettes, and a lot of the higher end cars are using something different, that also seems to be brighter. i know i've compaired mine to others while they were right next to me and theirs still seemed brighter.

they dont they all have 43-45k.

the reason why their HID's shine blue/white is because their headlight housing is designed to give that diamond effect, and projects the lights in a way thats completely different to how ours projectors project the light..

also, they have more refined lenses

thats why people constantly do the tsx/evo projector lens swap. to get a cleaner, more vibrant light.

but all OEM hid's come 43-45k... the housing/lens determines those funky colors you usually see.(headbang)

[Hank3]

Does anyone have pictures of the HID beams that come with the MSP3 GT?

[Operator]

One reason people perceive BMW's Lexus's and the liek for being higher than 4000k is because the bulbs have color-shifted and are no longer 4000k.

[oaklandopen]

One reason people perceive BMW's Lexus's and the liek for being higher than 4000k is because the bulbs have color-shifted and are no longer 4000k.

color shifted as in gotten old? i've read that xenons have a lifespan of about 30k hours, and the color will change and take a longer time to start up before it gets so old it won't work anymore

i understand the idea of a different type of lens used by the "higher" quality line of cars like the bmw, caddies, and the lot, and it makes sense to me. soooo since ppl are swapping does that mean the lenses can be easily swapped? retro-ing those evo lenses into the gt sounds like fun to me

[Operator]

Right. Take a OEM Philips 85122 bulb which is 4100k. Over time it will shift towards 5000k and possibly a little higher.

[iredremix]

i took mine out and switched it with ultinons 6k

[Operator]

Just wanted the color?

[Yoo Shin]

Lense makes a big difference epsecially for the MS3. There's several how-to thread on swapping lenses with the Evo lens but it's very hard to find the Evo lenses. Besides, I'm not sure if I'm willing to bake my headlights.

I was really hoping to get the HID quality that my wife's CX7 GT has. The CXs is very much like my friends Acura TL. A very crisp clear blue/white with a solid cut off.

[iredremix]

our stock housing/shrouds suck. the acura tl projectors are nice, they shoulda put those in the ms3

[RichB]

So does anyone know if the Halogen housings are the same as the HID housings? The only replacement housings I see are Halogens.

[Operator]

The HID housing have a different projector and parts for a leveling motor.

[AutoEuphoria]

The sport version's housing is fine for HIDs, though...I installed them the day I bought the car and haven't had an issue.

[RichB]

Is it possible to take the leveling motor off of a GT headlight and put it on a sport headlight?

[mx-p5]

One reason people perceive BMW's Lexus's and the liek for being higher than 4000k is because the bulbs have color-shifted and are no longer 4000k.

also, what people see coming out of the projector that is purple and blue is the cutoff.

Here are my TL's with a lens swap and shield mod. The bulbs are 4300K but the cutoff is blue/purple

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y13/cbrjeeper/beamshot_b_2.jpg

[Sport6]

We back to the original question. . I don't think they are the same housings. However, that being said, the halogen headlight housings of the Sport model work extremely well with aftermarket HID kits. The cutoff is excellent.

Infact my Apexcone 55 Watt 6,000k HID kit I got from Xenonexpert.com is brighter than the factory HID in the GT model (factory HID is only 35w and ~4,300K). I did a side-by-side comparison with one at a local meet and the owner of the GT agreed mine were brighter. I highly recommend them. The new DDM kit has slim ballasts and can be had for around $150 a set.

I ended up doing the fogs as well. So I have 55W, 6,000K Apexcone HIDs for the headlights, and the 55W 3,000K kit for the fog lights. Best investment i ever made. Lighting improvement is huge - there's no comparison.

I thought 55w HIDs in the small foglight housing had a chance of melting it and was not recommended?

[Operator]

also, what people see coming out of the projector that is purple and blue is the cutoff.

Here are my TL's with a lens swap and shield mod. The bulbs are 4300K but the cutoff is blue/purple

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y13/cbrjeeper/beamshot_b_2.jpg

Yeh my 3 has a nice blue cut-off.

http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/2868/1001810ly5.jpg These are 3900k.

[hollar1211]

More like $1,500, which was the diff between a Sport and GT after negotiating both.

seriously. if you're going to spend 24, why not spend 25 5. probably the best cost to upgrade package of any car on the market. i wonder what other manufacturer's would charge for the Zenons, Bose system, rain sensing wipers, leather or suede inserts, and led tails.

[oaklandopen]

seriously. if you're going to spend 24, why not spend 25 5. probably the best cost to upgrade package of any car on the market. i wonder what other manufacturer's would charge for the Zenons, Bose system, rain sensing wipers, leather or suede inserts, and led tails.

he's right, and some cars you would expect to have xenons as at least an option don't at all. ie the new wrx's (why are xenons limitted to the sti?), pontiac g8, camry, just to name a few. and those are just ones that already have projector housing (which really are the best for xenons)

i can understand why manufacturers might keep the HIDs for their upper-class vehicles (honda/acura, chevy/cadillac), but there are plenty of consumers out there that would like that feature on more models.

after owning 2 cars with HID i don't think i ever want to go back to conventional halogen

[squidmotion]

i find the mazda lights in the sport we have sufficient, but not great... now my tundra? HOLY CRAP!! best lights i have EVER had on a vehicle... one thing i don't like while driving the truck...constantly getting flashed by other drivers to turn down my high beams... i almost hate showing them what the high beams look like...

like having aircraft or train lights on a truck.

[UHATEIT]

I believe the headlight housing is the same for sport and GT. But someone mentioned they thought it was different because of the control for moving it up and down on the gt version. Its acually a little box behind the bulb that attatches outside the light and has an orange plug. The gt is plugged in and it angled the bulb/adjusts it. I dont think whats inside the light is different, its what is attatched to the outside