Projector and Halo Style Headlights
Have you noticed the small round (2 inch to 3 inch) headlights on many new cars? Did you wonder what these are and why they are being used?
Several years ago high end and exotic cars started using these small lights, and a new style was introduced that soon other manufacturers began to follow.
The small lights are called projector headlights, because it uses a small bulb and “projects” a beam of light down the road. While they look small compared to the old sealed beam head lights or the newer headlights with replacement bulbs, the projector style actually can produce up to 30% better lighting. It is a smaller beam and more concentrated.
Some projector lens HID or high intensity discharge bulbs. These produce even more illumination, but usually with a blue cast to the light.
A number of aftermarket products are now coming out and offering owners the ability to replace their stock headlight fixtures with the latest style of projector lights. You may have two different choices with aftermarket products. One would be a pure projector and the other a projector with a halo light.
The halo version of the projector style puts a light ring or halo around the projector lights. So at night you see the bright projector lights and “floating” around them is a halo of light.
Just like the earlier Altezza tail lights, the new headlights may have a lot of chrome around the lights.
If you buy aftermarket projector lights they can be plug to plug compatible with your existing lights. Thant means that you remove the entire headlight fixture and replace it with the aftermarket one. All you need for electrical connections is to unplug your original lights and plug the wire and plug into the new projector fixture. One caution, however. If you choose to purchase halo lights, regardless if they say plug to plug compatible, they probably are not. This is because there was no circuit for the halo lights in your OEM fixture. You will have to splice the halo wires into an existing set of wire. Typically people splice the new halo wires into the parking light circuit of their cars.