Idoktr

Looking at 2008-09 GT and want to know how to differentiate regular headlight from HID. Any physical differences? Assume no build sheet.

S197GT07

Yea, the HID's are going to be a much more white light, vs halogen.

Also, the housings will be different from normal, sadly, my google-fu isn't working so early in the morning and can't get you good pictures.

The light output difference will be very noticeable.

edwin108

The OEM HID housings look like this:

mph07alloy

http://researchmaniacs.com/VIN-Numbe...cker/Ford.html

StangingAround

Those are HID BULBS in a halogen setting, not a true HID setup. True HID's use projectors and don't need a reflective housing like the one shown in the picture.

Ricardo

Thats not true. These specific reflectors were designed for an HID bulb. Not all HID headlights use projectors. Lexus IS300 being one. Put a halogen bulb in these and the beam pattern will be all wrong.

StangingAround

Maybe so (kinda shocking actually), but you can agree that that is not the ideal way to use HID bulbs and it was obviously changed over to a projector setup in the following mustangs because its the superior technology.

jpplaw

If you can see the actual bulb, an HID bulb looks totally different than a halogen bulb.

Ricardo

I agree projectors give better beam focus as far as less glare but aren't always better than relectors at all locations. European lenses are different from japanese lenses because it's hard to get signs to reflect with such a sharp cutoff. The popular mod is to swap to clear lenses from Japan but in America that means you'll light up less street signs.

But I'd have to say though that the '05-'09 halogen headlights have one of the sharpest beam patterns for non-HID that I've ever seen.