HID's in a MK1 (yes i have searched)

[clbanman]

Pat, take a look at my link.  I'm not missing the point at all.  These are American manufactered ECE certified housings.   J.W. Speaker is a Minnesota based manufacturer of lighting system that has actually gone to the trouble of certifying and making street legal H.I.D. lighting systems for motorcycles.  We use their H.I.D. lights on our trucks (off-road applications) and I am well aware of the problems of improperly designed H.I.D. systems and also that 95% or more of the eBay "HID" bulbs are actually no such thing.   If your "HID" bulbs don't include a ballast then they are not HID.

[Pat Dolan]

Ahh.....I don't think you looked at or read much from that link.

The ones you linked are HALOGEN, H4 lights, not HID, not projectors.   ECE compliant lights ARE legal for us in Canada, but not at all in the US. 

There is no such thing in this world as a legal/certifiable H4 HID...no where, no how.  ALL H4 "HID" bulbs are either halogen or they are butchered HID capsules with a) a positioning solenoid to try to duplicate position of H4 elements by moving the capsule (almost works, but the light source has wrong geometry), dual HID capsules on one base (doesn't have a hope in hell of working, since the two positions for H4 light source are axially in line, and would be closer together than the diameter of the HID emitting area - thus making it geometrically impossible) or the ultimate in really bad deisgn: one HID capsule with a halogen bulb sitting in the wrong place (see reason under last light) to try to give some sort of high beam.

The ONLY HID lights in their catalogue are AVIATION lights, not, repeat NOT US DOT OR ECE COMPLIANT.  Also, when someone sells aviation stuff, they are usually (read ALWAYS) careful to point out it's level of certification, type certificate approvals, PMA approvals, STCs for retrofitting, etc.  Don't see any of that there.

The only thing that even comes close to an automotive lamp is the really mickey mouse (sorry Walt) "motorcycle" 7" lamp.  They identify no DOT compliance (although it could be), but with a 35W halogen H8 bulb for high beam, you might as well just be taping a flashlight to the handlebars.

I don't know where there stuff is made, but I seriously doubt it is from the US.  I have been to many, many manufacturing facilities, and you get a "feel" for the source by looking at the way things are done.  Can't tell from poor quality photos for sure, but it certainly smells China mainland (possible Taiwan though - buyt they generally make stuff a whole lot more correct and credible than what I see on that website).

Do yourself a favour:  read the Speaker stuff very carefully, then read the Spitzkraft stuff very carefully, then maybe visit Daniel Stern and have a look around.  DS doesn't sell or promote Spitzkraft stuff because there is bad blood between him and the former owner of the rights to those lights (his employer), but he is able to be technically quite objective.

[clbanman]

OK, I should have been clearer or maybe I misunderstand the whole ECE housing thing everyone has been talking about.  I referred to them as housings even though they are selling a complete headlight assembly because I know the bulbs can be swapped and I thought that as long as they had the right housing, they would work.  Are there two different kinds of ECE housings - one for H4 and one for HID?

[Pat Dolan]

"ECE" refers to the European equivalent of US DOT.  It is just the approval body.  When you see an "H4" bulb, that means it is in a Euro (or Asian) reflector/lense assembly.    When you see "ECE" in the light's designation, that means it will have a very sharp cutoff line, with a bent up at about 20 degree angle at the side (right side for LHD countries, left side for RHD ones).  An equivalent US light will have a dead flat cutoff line (for the very newest projectors) or a very VERY fuzzy splash of light all over the place (for older US reflector lights).  This is done because we have overhead signs, and Euros lighting standards go back to the day when there were mostly roadside signs.

There are NO H4 HID lights.  When you see that, it is an extremely bad Asian bulb as I described before installed in a reflector and lense that are meant for a Halogen bulb.  The reason it doesn't work (and isn't legal) is that the source of light in an H4 is very small (the glowing little resistance element) whereas the HID has a relatively large globe of light (all of the gasses inside the globe glow when current is passed through them - like a VERY bright flourescent).  The geometry of light bulbs is critical to a hundredth of a millimeter - the light sources are different by several millimeters.  So, the angle that much of the light leaves the bulb is wrong for the refelctor, and REALLY wrong for a lense (the kind with patterns on them, such as what is in your link).  In the early days of HID stuff, I tested dozens and dozens of "drop in conversion" kits in a vain attempt to find one that might work.  Never found one that even came close. 

There IS such a thing as HID reflector lights (using real D1s and D2S bulbs) but they are extremely rare and seldom made anymore.  Almost all HID lights are now projectors (D1R and D2R bulbs) - the little round things with the coke-bottle lenses.  Some of these CAN be converted successfully from halogen to HID, but still not correct optics.  To get it right, you need a dedicated HID projector (or reflector) light assembly.