steeb

FYI - Hella 90mm projectors come with D2S and H9 stampings on the housings but the bulb mounts are changed.


Back on topic...

Reflectors: GONE - Replaced with MidTenn Flushmount and Hella 90mm's

HID kit: Hella gen3 ballast, Hella 4100K bulbs, cut off shield spaced for more "color"

Any complaints:
1) Plastic cover kills alot of the "color" at the cutoff line
2) Midtenn lights are mounted too low and there is no light directly in front of the car.
3) Setup is technically illegal here. Canadian law states low beam is supposed to be mounted as the outer lights.

No light pattern photos:

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

I was thinking more of RotorNut's observation that "some halogen projector housings simply cannot withstand the amount of heat HIDs create, you'll see either melted housings or the internal reflector material/coating bubble and flake off."

"More heat" never sounded plausible to me (especially since the rated electrical dissipation of your average xenon assembly is far lower than an equivalent halogen), however a massive increase in UV output could provide an alternate explanation for why that phenomenon would occur with an HID but not with a halogen.


Sidebar: ebay sellers are starting to get creative, and packaging HID ballast/lamp kits with cheap 7" round headlight housings to produce a "complete" retrofit kit.

Here's one with conventional reflector assemblies: 7" Round 6014/6015/6024 LED Ring Headlights 6000K HID (Here's a permalink to the image for posterity)

And here's one that really kills me: 7" ROUND PROJECTOR HEAD LIGHTS LAMP+6000K XENON HID KIT

Now, never mind that these "projectors" have already been demonstrated to be almost total crap in a previous round of miataturbo headlight-conversion-mania, but in the image, you can actually see the halogen lamps in them:




That is all.

Doppelgänger

iTrader: (12)

3 years of having HIDs in MSM lights and there was no visible degradation of the lens in the form of cracking or hazing. However, I once used some NuFinish on my bumper and got some on the headlight and noticed that it pulled the UV coating right off within seconds. On these spots, the plastic faded/dulled and required a good coat of wax to hide the spots. This was a very minor problem and if I didn't point it out, no one would have noticed on my car. On the flipside, my GF's MSM has never had HIDs and is still running the factory bulbs and has noticable fading on the lens and requires a compound buff/waxing about once a month to keep them looking clear.

Conclusion- Maybe on some cars, but none seen yet on the 01-05 Miata headlight.