Well if he were installing HID's into the halogen projector then yes he'd still have the same cutoff. However he'd have much more light emitted in the area where there is light. The clear lens would help sharpen the beam pattern and spread the light a bit more.

I did both of these things and I also aimed the projectors upward a bit. I have them so they're still just below the window level of a regular car at about 20-30 feet but they provide much longer illumination than before. That said I still use my high beams pretty frequently.

Um, exactly what do you mean by covers without cutouts? Are you talking about the cutoff shield? If so that's part of the projector assembly. You could theoretically disassemble the light and cut the shield off of the projector completely.... that would of course just provide horribly blinding light to everyone you drive around. I suppose you could also trim the cutoff shield down shorter, however it would be much easier to aim the lights up and wouldn't run the risk of fracking up your projectors in the mean time.

 

Thank you for the correction as cutoff was my intended word. My intention,like any well meaning driver,is to be as safe as possible,and certainly not to cause anybody harm. Because of this I refuse to use those horrible blue ligthbulbs. I have however learned from the local Car Quest store that some of the newer bulbs have a filter designed to drastically cut down on glare to traffic, but I am having a hard time finding any, if indeed they exist. If so this may help a bit.

 

So here is some of the misconception. OEM kelvin rated HID lamps are in the 4100-4300 kelvin range which is pure white light, not blue. As you climb the visual spectrum you get more towards the blue/purple end and as you go lower you hit the yellow/red end. The bluish flicker of light you see from certain angles on some vehicles is an effect of the projector optics, not the color of the light..... the light itself is white. If that's something you wanted to avoid then you can install HIDs but not put in a clear lens..... the clear lens helps increase the light output but will provide some slight blue effect.

Many people who install HIDs want that blue look and install higher kelvin rated lamps in their cars thinking that's the way to get the high end HID look. What they actually end up with are lamps which are blue throughout which is A) annoying to other drivers, B) increases eye strain/fatigue. Avoid this by simply installing 4100-4300k lamps and they'll just be white. You could still argue that a 4100k lamp is closer to the blue end of the spectrum than a standard halogen lamp and you'd be absolutely correct. Side by side with a halogen the HID will appear more blue for that reason. Likewise you could see the same thing with a regular halogen next to a yellow lamp since the halogen is closer to the blue end.

I had a similar recent conversation with my sister who had horrible headlights on a used car she bought.... the lens showed severe damage from oxidation and general deterioration to the point you couldn't see the reflector inside the light anymore. In her case I brought up retrofitting a HID projector into the housing as I would never put HIDs into a reflector housing..... talk about glare and blinding other drivers. She had the same reaction you did about refusing to use those blinding annoying lights that she sees on the road. I asked her how she liked my lights at night and how they were when she was in another car and I was driving behind her. She said she loved the lights and she could see so much more with them and that they didn't bother her at all. At which point I pointed out that they were "those terrible blue lights" and she was forced to revisit her viewpoint.

In her case we've not gone through with a retrofit. First we replaced the headlight housings and the difference in light output is ridiculous with an actual clear outer lens so for the moment she's content. That said with about $500 she could have lights every bit as good as a high end car, and much better than mine.

Anyway I'm not saying HIDs are for you. I would first try aiming your lowbeams up a bit and see if that helps you at all. Next try using your high beams more. Next you could install HIDs in your lowbeams. If you don't want to do that you could install a good set of auxiliary driving lights somewhere on the front of the car, probably in the lower grill. You could even put in a set of projectors with HIDs if you want to leave your low beams alone. Then when you needed a lot of light with no other traffic around you'd be able to light it up to your heart's content. Even without HIDs a good set of driving lights would do wonders for your ability to see at a distance. The DL's I had on my old pickup were actually better than the headlights.

 

I would like to thank everybody for their input regarding my problem with low beam lighting on my 2011 mazda 3. I will not be using HID bulbs, at least not yet, instead I will use Slyvania H11SU bulbs on the low beams and have them aimed up a bit. I hope this will help a bit.

 

I personally don't like the silverstars. I've used several sets of them in a couple of different cars. My general opinion is that they cost too much, don't increase illumination by any discernible amount and burn out quickly. Again just my experience with them.

 

I made the SilverStar mistake as well; within a week I had one bulb burn out on two different cars, and so I put SilverStars in both. Within nine months the new bulbs had burned out and I was back to the stock OEM brand.