H3 HID conversions? Anyone have experience?

ncgamedog

ncgamedog

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2005
Location
Greensboro, NC
So I bought some Hella 500FF lights for my Toy and, guess what?, they suck. I didn't expect much for 65$. I had some of the older style 500's years ago and I remembered them lighting up the world...(maybe I was just easier to impress then) I wanted the best inexpensive light I could get to mount on the bumper b/c I foresee them getting broken from time to time and the housings would be cheap to replace. I have roundeyes H4 headlights w/ silverstars and the Kelvin numbers don't match the Hella's standard halogen bulbs which makes the clarity worse. I've been searching around for better bulbs to put in the Hella's and had about decided to just go w/ silverstar H3's when I caught wind of doing an inexpensive HID conversion where you can pick the Kelvin color you want. I would like to go w/ 5-6K to match the head lamps I have now. The issue I am concerned about is that the HID bulbs seem much longer than traditional H3's and I wonder if they will fit the Hella lamps w/o overheating the housings. Have any of you guys had experience w/ a similar situation? If so anyone know of a good company that offers such kits? I need a little more expert info before I jump. thanks -J
 
Ive converted lots of stuff to HID, H1, H3, H7, 9004, 9005,9006.

I always buy he same kit off ebay, it comes from japan in a red box. Now the prices are around $55 for the kit that does a pair of lights. Its stupid simple to do the conversions. I do know that on Hella 500's you need to drill an 1.25" hole in the back of the housing to clear the wiring, and the back of the "bulb" part, but the kit comes with the grommet to put in the hole to run the wires through.

Pm me if you have any specific questions.
 
Yup, HID h3 conversions on hellas are really easy, just drill a bigger hole for the hid connectors to go through, grommet, and wire them up. Great output from them also.
 
GCncsuHD said:
Yup, HID h3 conversions on hellas are really easy, just drill a bigger hole for the hid connectors to go through, grommet, and wire them up. Great output from them also.
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the only negative I have heard of is that if you are not moving the lack of air flow will cause the housings to melt. true or not?
 
ncgamedog said:
the only negative I have heard of is that if you are not moving the lack of air flow will cause the housings to melt. true or not?
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Very unlikely, as the bulbs that come in Hellas are 55w H3s, and MOST Hid conversions are 35w, although they do pull a little more current at startup to charge the ballast (like a Fluorescent light). Therefore once they are running they run much cooler. I actually ran 100w bulbs in my Hella 500s for a while with no problems (although I knew I was pushing my luck so I swapped back to 55w bulbs) I do not personally have HIDs in my hellas, because well I don't have hellas on my truck anymore, but I have seen many setups with them.
 
do you think the 55w conversions would be too much or are the 35w plenty and way brighter than the standard halogen. I might even do my headlights while I'm at it they are H4.
 
don't bother with the 55W conversions. The 35W HIDs will blow any halogen/silverstar away.

Make sure to keep your color temp as low as you can while still getting the "look" you want.

The higher the color temp, the more blue/purple the light output is. Also the higher the color temp the less actual visible light output generated. So 4000k will look brighter than 6000k etc etc etc

Ive primarily ran 6000k and been happy, but I'd rather have 4000k in my hella's if i were to change it. Id rather give up some of my "sweet clean barely blue tint hellas" for the more light you get out of 4000k, with a very white light.

For some reason the 6000s in my hellas looked more blue than the 6000s in my head lights, but that may have been from substaintially less use of the hellas.
 
ncgamedog said:
thats cool. wait..i see your from statesvegas...small world. what part if you dont mind my asking?
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Well I'm actually about 15min outside of Statesville, but its the closest civilization people would recognize, if you know where Keatons BBQ off of 64 is, I live close to there.
Mac5005 said:
don't bother with the 55W conversions. The 35W HIDs will blow any halogen/silverstar away.
Make sure to keep your color temp as low as you can while still getting the "look" you want.
The higher the color temp, the more blue/purple the light output is. Also the higher the color temp the less actual visible light output generated. So 4000k will look brighter than 6000k etc etc etc
Ive primarily ran 6000k and been happy, but I'd rather have 4000k in my hella's if i were to change it. Id rather give up some of my "sweet clean barely blue tint hellas" for the more light you get out of 4000k, with a very white light.
For some reason the 6000s in my hellas looked more blue than the 6000s in my head lights, but that may have been from substaintially less use of the hellas.
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All true, I have 4300K in the Denali housings on my GMC, very good output, I noticed a difference swapping from 5000K to 4300, plus it appears bmw/mercedes/lexus stock, not blue at all except at the cutoff beam but also no ugly yellow.
 
good info guys thanks alot! I def. want them to look more OEM white, no blue at all. I will go w/ 4000K or 4300k if offered. I may do the head lights too at the same time. For the Hellas, do the ballasts have a way to just hook up a hot and ground to use my toggle? and how do i specify my vehicle when ordering for the headlights? I have sealed beam conversions from roundeyes. So my head lights are now housings w/ H4 bulbs. The truck is a 91' toyota so i doubt the stock wiring was for H4's.
 
GCncsuHD said:
Well I'm actually about 15min outside of Statesville, but its the closest civilization people would recognize, if you know where Keatons BBQ off of 64 is, I live close to there.


Yeah thats not far from me at all. My mom just lives in Harmony. Maybe I could come through sometime and you could take a look at what I have going on...
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I'd be glad to do a write up on this. got a few questions before I do though.

1) do you have sealed beam headlights and need to also convert to a polycarbonate housing at the same time?

2) Are you doing a conversion on an aftermarket style lamp? Hella 500's, KC/Procomps?



If you guys can wait a week or so, I'll be able to do a well written write up filled with pictures documenting/explaining everything. (like a pirate tech write up?)
-or-
Will just purely text based write up work?

Basically give me some ideas of what you guys would like to see, and i'll get it done. Maybe this can be a new start to the TOTM ideas in the tech section.
 
wow are you serious? that would be awesome. and to answer your question...yes. I would like to see both, as I am now convinced that i will be converting my roundeyes polycarbonate h4 housings (headlights) and my Hella 500's. Better yet if you need a test dummy to do the write up then I'll just you bring you my truck and pay for the parts. :bounce2:
oh and pictures are always good.
 
Mac5005 said:
I'd be glad to do a write up on this. got a few questions before I do though.

If you guys can wait a week or so, I'll be able to do a well written write up filled with pictures documenting/explaining everything. (like a pirate tech write up?)
-or-
Will just purely text based write up work?
Basically give me some ideas of what you guys would like to see, and i'll get it done. Maybe this can be a new start to the TOTM ideas in the tech section.
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Pics and details are always appreciated, you can't go wrong there.

Funny this came up, I have the Hella H4 conversion square lights in my 4Runner, just yesterday was consideirng upgrading them and possibly going HID. However as my primary lights I may avoid that, I'm cautious about my lights being too bright for other drivers, especially given the lifted ride height to begin with.
 
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