HID's and DRL's on Halogen CX-5 (w/out Tech Package) HELP!

HID to halogen

Hi, We recently purchased the 2013 CX 5 Grand Touring model with the Tech package that includes HID headlamps with AFS. My wife hates the HIDs and I have to admit I'm not too fond of them. The sharp cut-off simply provides too much "dark" area where I should be able to see without using high beams. Would much prefer to have halogen lamps. Everything I can find talks about switching from halogen to HID, but I'm interested in trying to find out if it is possible to switch out the HID for Halogens. I figure I'd have to get the ballast out of the circuit, but don't know if that entails cutting wires. Would appreciate any thoughts that you folks might be able to offer. Thanks.
 
Elby said:
Hi, We recently purchased the 2013 CX 5 Grand Touring model with the Tech package that includes HID headlamps with AFS. My wife hates the HIDs and I have to admit I'm not too fond of them. The sharp cut-off simply provides too much "dark" area where I should be able to see without using high beams. Would much prefer to have halogen lamps. Everything I can find talks about switching from halogen to HID, but I'm interested in trying to find out if it is possible to switch out the HID for Halogens. I figure I'd have to get the ballast out of the circuit, but don't know if that entails cutting wires. Would appreciate any thoughts that you folks might be able to offer. Thanks.
Click to expand...


you'll still have the same beam/cut off pattern with halogens, its a function of the projector beam setup, not because they're hid's
 
All projectors have the cut off feature.
Though The halogens projectors do have some spillage I've found.
 
The white halogen bulbs were a bust. Not white still had a tint of yellow but
more importantly it wasn't bright enough. Stock yellow bulbs were alot brighter. Returned the bulbs.
 
Thank you for your thoughts on my question about possibly changing from HID to Halogen. I've noted on other threads that the DRLs act as the highbeams in the halogen set-up, which adds another issue to the change over, as I am trying to determine if such a change would require all new lamp assemblies or if it is a retrofit issue requiring some new wiring as well as bulbs. And one last thought/question, should I presume from the previous response that the projectors are identical on both the halogen equipped vehicle as they are on the HID equipped one? Thanks again for your thoughts.
 
Elby said:
Thank you for your thoughts on my question about possibly changing from HID to Halogen. I've noted on other threads that the DRLs act as the highbeams in the halogen set-up, which adds another issue to the change over, as I am trying to determine if such a change would require all new lamp assemblies or if it is a retrofit issue requiring some new wiring as well as bulbs. And one last thought/question, should I presume from the previous response that the projectors are identical on both the halogen equipped vehicle as they are on the HID equipped one? Thanks again for your thoughts.
Click to expand...

yes, projector setups are essentially the same, the beam path/cut offs on my cx-5 were very similar to the ones on my passat (halogen projector system)

you'll get used to the projectors, just give them time, changing your rig to halogens would be cost prohibitive and difficult i imagine, not without some serious cobjobbing..
 
You will have to do some rewiring if you were to change... and you'd not really gain anything due to the projectors.

This is one of the times were driving the car in multiple conditions, or knowing what the cars features were would have been benificial.

If you really want Halogen's and have a factory apperance.
The time and money involved.. you might be better off trading in for a different car. The money lost might be the same as a new pair of headlights to include what ever mod you plan.... (more than likely will not have a good beam pattern with a DIY reflector)
 
Elby, are you still looking to switch out your headlights for halogens? Cause I have a set I am willing to trade for HID....

Maybe if its too much trouble to swap them out, you would be interested in trading? My CX-5 is about 3 weeks old

Elby said:
Thank you for your thoughts on my question about possibly changing from HID to Halogen. I've noted on other threads that the DRLs act as the highbeams in the halogen set-up, which adds another issue to the change over, as I am trying to determine if such a change would require all new lamp assemblies or if it is a retrofit issue requiring some new wiring as well as bulbs. And one last thought/question, should I presume from the previous response that the projectors are identical on both the halogen equipped vehicle as they are on the HID equipped one? Thanks again for your thoughts.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks to you guys (stromdriver and jwlj) for your thoughts on my inquiry about HID lamps vs halogen lamps. Now that the days are getting shorter, I should be able to get to the dealer and drive a CX 5 with halogen projector lamps after dark. This will let me know what halogen projector lamps look like at night. If the halogen cut-off presents itself similar to the HID's, hopefully, as someone said, the HID's will just take some getting used to. I hope so. If I find a huge difference and also find that the idea of a swap is actually practical, Andy409.....I may be back in touch.
 
there really should be no appreciable difference, other than the hid's being much brighter and whiter light

the cutoff's should be almost if not completely identical

this is the closest pic i could find to what the cutoffs on my hid is, and my old 03 passat with projector halogens had a very similar cutoff pattern

beam_pattern.jpg
 
Uh.. I have 12,000K in my 3 and I can see perfectly fine. The 12,000K actually work A LOT better when it's raining as the purple'ish light actually makes the road lines show beneath the wet surface of the road.. you people are nuts if you think you see less.. don't knock it til you try it.

rmac said:
Wow! Good luck trying to see anything with those color temperatures. I would recommend no higher than 6000k.
Click to expand...
 
new to the forum.
just bought my CX 5 - few days ago.
was planning to install hids probably 5k-6k.

anyone knows around the vancouver bc (lower mainland area) that sells and installs them.

not mechanically inclined person. give me a PM shoutout.

thank you,
skept
 
stromdriver said:
eh not sure thats a good idea, unless those bulbs are multi voltage rated, the lower power mode the drls run instead of the full voltage for highbeams could damage the leds or make them not run at all

if you really want led drls, do what i was going to do before i found out the tech package had drls (and could swap out the bulb)
get some side emitting led strips, relatively cheap on ebay, just make sure they're waterproof, then mount them along the top edge of the headlights just inside of the lip of the hood (so they're protected) and wire them to an acc switched fuse

Accord.jpg
Click to expand...

@Stromdriver -do you have any recommendations on the LED strips? After reading through pretty much everything on the DRL LED for the non-tech's this just makes way more sense.
 
Just to clarify, the measurement of brightness is "LUMENS". So if you want a "brighter" light, you want more lumens. The color (Kelvin) is just that. See chart below. 5500k is optimal daylight temperature.

colortemp.jpg
 
kush621 said:
@Stromdriver -do you have any recommendations on the LED strips? After reading through pretty much everything on the DRL LED for the non-tech's this just makes way more sense.
Click to expand...

yeah picked up some from superbrightleds that were pretty nice, as long as the surface your mounting them to is flat in relation to the ground their bright spot in the angle is pretty much straight out and they're not perfectly waterproof, both things i learned putting them on my wifes new outtie

the water-resistance can be improved with some careful placement and some judicious injection of clear silicone into the end the wires comes out

http://www.superbrightleds.com/more...roof-flexible-light-strip--swfls-series/1542/
 
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