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Originally Posted by Matt_C -Question 1-
--When I went to the Hella website you posted
I believe they have some that already have the D2S bulb. HL68139 is a low-beam HID Xenon lamp with a D2S capsule (capsule = bulb right?), with ballast and adjusters. Am I missing something with this or did you not know it existed. It appears to be the full HID setup. |
Yes, the D2S is an HID bulb and is the most common one. And yes, I know all about the HL68139 (I have detailed pics if you need them). They are the complete setup, but I didn't mention or recommend them because their "Hella" expensive.
$538 each. So a pair would run $1076. If you have the money and don't want to do as much work then they are a pretty good choice. Keep in mind they are deeper and you may have trouble fitting them if they can fit at all.
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Originally Posted by Matt_C -Question 2-
...If I get the regular Hella halogens (HL68137), which come with the H9 bulb, if I want to switch to HID, I will need to replace the entire lamp (capsule, bulb, projector, everything) right? |
No, I wouldn't screw you on that. You can modify the back part where the bulb fits so that it will accept the D2S bulb. HAZ-Matt posted 2 good links. *Non sponsor information
Jon Broomfield (Skytower) has actually done the modification, I haven't. So you can contact him for details and pictures on how he did them. He sent me some pics a while back, I'll post them at the bottom.
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Originally Posted by Matt_C -Question 3-
I compared the dimensions of the two (HL68137 & HL68139), and they have a different depth and capsule. I'm fairly confident that the capsule is the bulb that makes this so much more expensive with the D2S HL68139... but is it capsule that makes the depth difference? |
No, the housing contains a movable shield inside and is just bigger overall.
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Originally Posted by Matt_C If so, this leads me to -Question 4-
Couldn't I just get the halogen lamp (HL68137) and the D2S replacement capsule (HL78400) and save over $350 ?
HL68137 Halogen low-beam lamp $59
HL78400 D2S replacement $102
vs.
HL68139 HID low-beam D2S lamp $538 |
Yes, that is what I was trying to steer you to. You would need 2 of the HL68137 housings for $120 total and about another $300 for good D2S bulbs and Hella Ballasts. So for about $420 compared to the $1076 for the Bi-xenon kit. You can run the regular H9 bulbs in them for a while if you want to see how you like them while you save up money for the HID upgrade later on. I'm a poor boy so I can't buy everything at once. The lights I'm building from scratch use a D2S bulb so I'm modding an H7 Silverstar to fit them and then later on when I have the money saved for HID parts ($300), I'll do the upgrade.
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Originally Posted by Matt_C If it appears so, I am led to -Question 5-
If the D2S replacement capsule is rated at 35W, and the halogen lamp runs at 65W with the H9... do I have a problem? |
No problem there. Keep in mind that the HID bulbs use a lot more current when starting up than the 35w they consume after they startup. So ideally you want to upgrade the wiring going to the ballast, not go through the headlight switch and instead use the headlight switch to activate a 30A relay to power the ballasts. This will reduce the strain on your headlight switch and possibly keep it from burning out over time. It will also send a higher voltage to the ballasts and costs very little. So I highly recommend doing it that way.