Lighting systems on vehicles have really evolved over the last few years. Something we’re seeing a lot more of are HID lights. Well, those are the ones that you see coming down the road, they have kind of a blueish tint to the light. Well, they’re mostly on upscale cars, so a lot of people would like to mimic that, and one way to do it, as they’ve found out, is to put blue bulbs in their headlamps.

But not all blue bulbs are created equal. Like this one [left], the finish on it was essentially a paint product, and the heat of the bulb caused it to blister and turn black. So it didn’t last very long at all. So if you’re going to do that, get a bulb where the glass is actually colored [right]. They dye it and it doesn’t burn or blister or do anything goofy. One thing to be sure of though, and that is that you use the proper wattage to keep them legal and that they are indeed legal in your part of the country.

Well, here’s something. There are a lot of add-on units that are available for many vehicles these days. These are driving lights. They’re HID. They’re from Sylvania and a couple from Hella. They’re again HID. And here we have something interesting. We’ve changed the whole appearance of the front end of this Focus by using this system right here. It replaces the whole headlight assembly and it’s painted to match the car. But we did something neat and we did it to a friend’s truck. Gordon Liddy, how are you?

Liddy: I’m just fine, Pat. Thanks for letting me on the show.

Goss: Great to have you. All right, here. This is what we’ve done. This is a Sylvania HID replacement light for your Chevrolet Silverado. The front of it looks a bit different. It has the clear lens, and it is HID. So it has the transformer, the ballast that supplies the high voltage to make the bulb work.

Liddy: Does she draw more power than the standard unit?

Goss: No, none whatsoever. It uses all the stock wiring. You just plug it in and away you go.

Liddy: Wow. That’s a beautiful looking thing.

Goss: Well, not only that, but it is also DOT approved, so it’s completely legal.

Liddy: That’s great because, you know, anything that’s illegal, they suspect me first.

Goss: Oh, yes. Okay. Well, now let’s take a look over here. We’ll turn them on, and you look at the beam pattern.

Liddy: Look at the beam pattern. Yeah, the new one, the blue is way, way, way wide, and that one’s just sort of out there, kind of a spot. It doesn’t impress me at all. But this is really something. That’s great.

Goss: I think you’re going to see a big difference in it.

Liddy: Oh, yeah.

Goss: Now we’re also going to do a bypass filter.

Liddy: That will take it down to an absolute 2.78 microns, and that will make that engine eventually be as old as I am, and that’s a long, long time.

Goss: Well, that’s from Filtration Solutions, and it’s really well made. And one thing that I hope is that you’ll come back and visit us and give us an update on this stuff.

Liddy: Absolute promise. There you go, my buddy.

Goss: Thank you, sir.

Liddy: Thank you.