How BAD are the stock reflector housings with good HID burners?

Just how bad are the 2003 stock reflector housings with the good H4 (or 9003) HID lamps with the telescopic burners and metal glare shields? I've done a few hi/low projector retrofits in the past, but I'm not ready just yet to drop that much coin, especially since the stock housings are practically mint despite being almost 10 years old. I've used the Morimoto Mini units from TRS in the past when I simply didn't modify the stock reflector or make new HID bulb mounts. Just curious at this point... Thanks!

 

They look amazing and have perfectly good light output and can be easily aimed to not blind other drivers

 

idk how bad the 1st gen are. but i know 2nd gen SUCK! and will blind everyone in front of you! say one that had head and fog done. i could not see the road.

 

OP, don't listen to 09DBLCAB09, he's got good lighting with his HID's in his reflector housings but what he doesn't realize is that he's blinding everyone else on the road around him...this is illegal in Canada, and i'm assuming in most of the US

 

thanks for the clarification wolfpack

 

Not too sure why everyone thinks that people that put HIDs in a non-projector housing blind people. I have had my buddy drive m truck past me while sitting in a chair in the street (to imitate sitting in a lower car) and it doesn't blind me anymore than a normal halogen bulb would be

 

Because my own brother who put a drop in kit into his cobalt ss blinds everyone around him...I've driven infront of him in a regular car and a minivan, and both times I've had to move the rearview mirror up so that i wasn't blinded...I even got him to admit that his lights were blinding when I made him drive my truck towards his car!! That's how I know!
We even adjusted his lights down to minimize the effects, but now his forward light output isn't great...at least he now doesnt get any tickets...before that he has 2 citations for blinding on coming traffic

 

pretty bad.

even my stock lower to the ground fog lights with HIDs blind ppl. I'm contemplating a bixenon projector in there

 

I've had cheap HID's in halogen housings in previous vehicles and I wouldn't do it again. Especially In a higher sitting truck.

 

Because most cases - HID bulbs in halogen housings suck. There are a ton of folks around here who have thrown HIDs in there trucks and SUVs and the are miserable to look at...

 

I know that different makes of headlamp reflector mixed with different brands of HID lamps can produce a wide array of results. I've found in some cars that if you keep or use a glare shield around the bulb and paint black all of the chrome surfaces that are not specifically there to reflect light, you can have a pretty decent output without generating any more glare than with a stock filament bulb. I've even made my own HID lamp mounts to reposition the HID arc to almost the exact position that the filament is supposed to be. I was just curious if anyone had successfully done a drop-in conversion with the 03 headlamp style. It doesn't look deep enough for the Morimoto Minis, but I'll take better dimensions later in life.

Stock fog lamp housings that utilize a transverse filament will NEVER work well with axial HID burners. I'm not sure if there is an H3 bulb replacement that has a transverse arc, but if one ever was created, fog lamp housings would look a whole lot better for sure.

Here were my 9007 adapters that let me put tilting HID burners into the stock housing of my old Grand Prix:


After selling those, I ventured forward and modded the bucked with the Morimoto assembly: