I'm not an expert but here's what I know.

There are two fundamental types of HID headlight: 1) purpose-built HIDs, designed from the start to use HID technology; 2) retrofit HID kits for putting HID 'bulbs' in halogen housings. The first are almost universally very good or excellent; the second are almost universally crap, although there seems to be a few kits that don't do too bad of a job. The retrofits tend to throw light everywhere, including tossing a lot of light into the eyes of oncoming drivers.

The mechanical aspect of HID's you mentioned earlier may be a reference to bixenons. They use a mechanical baffle to trim the top of the beam for low beam purposes, then move it out of the way for high beam use.

There are two people on this forum who have a lot of experience retrofitting Fit headlight housings with genuine HID projector lamps; smeister and Bitoy. Research their threads and you'll learn a lot. They tend to do it for looks but the light output is there too.

For myself, I went with a pair of 90mm halogen high beam modules from Susquehanna Motorsports Home Page. (These come in xenon and bixenon flavors too, if you have the budget.) Tucked them into the lower grille opening and wired them to fire when the high beams come on. They give me a nice, bright field of light to a distance that is more than sufficient on open highways. I have them aimed slightly outwards to widen the field, because of the amount of rural driving I do and the large number of critters I encounter.

Along with the rural driving I also do a fair chunk of freeway miles, and I didn't want to mess up the aerodynamics of the car too much. Otherwise I probably would have gone with a set of Hella 4000 Eurobeams mounted on metal brackets sticking out from the upper grille opening. They'd provide a truly exceptional amount of light, definitely superior to the setup I'm currently running. But I'm happy with what I've got, it works for my needs and budget.

 

wdb-
Thankee, that was specific and helped a lot.
Your suggestion of supplementing the brights is interesting. My problem is more often on lobeam in sloppy weather.
BTW, your comments on HIDs in standard housings explains a lot. Some asshole followed me up Beffert Mountain with what were supposed to be lobeams (I guess) but with a really irritating amount of scattered light and an odd color.
There are jerks out there who only see lights as a means of antagonizing their fellow motorists...
Rant off, and thanks for the info.
Moon

 

You have several options in that case. 1) You can try HID retrofit bulbs in the stock foglight housings; because they're small and close to the ground they may not affect oncoming drivers very much if at all. 2) You can add auxiliary fog lights in the lower grille. There are tons of alternatives, too many to list. 3) You could still put big boys like Hella 3000's or 4000's on there. Since you are looking for a fog beam the options there become a lot wider too. (In my last post I specifically mentioned the 4000 Eurobeams because they're one of the few "driving" beams that flood the road right to left instead of solely trying to throw a pencil of light straight out for as far as possible.)

Take a look at the ISOLUX beam pattern diagrams at the rallylights web site: ISOLUX Diagrams for Fog Lamps and ISOLUX Diagrams for Driving Lamps

 

Took ours out for a night time test drive drive tonight - the high beams were fine, illuminated 5 deer in 5 different places well enough to miss them! That's the qualifying lap in this area. The low beams would hardly light a closet though!! Gotta either get them adjusted or replaced.

 

Hmmm, I've never had a problem with the stock headlights. Most of my driving is in the city and highway but I've been to a number of hilly places at night and the stock headlights do just fine.

Currently I have OSRAM All-Season 60/55W bulbs, no foglights. I have OSRAM Silverstars in the same wattage as spares. No problems with either. The yellowish All-Seasons don't look as bright compared to the whiter Silverstars, but in the rain they're the better choice by the slightest of margins.

 

Since this thread has risen from the dead, I'll answer my own question ten months after the fact.
Standard lights aren't bad; reasonably bright and the beam pattern is consistent and lacks dark spots. I adjusted the main lights and the fogs; haven't changed a thing since then.
Only serious complaint involves bad weather. The OEM lights lack the sharp cutoff of E-code lights. I came home in a spring blizzard of heavy snow and large flakes. All I could see was the snow; low beams or high, too much was reflecting back. I'd like to see a mod that would permit running fogs and parking lights (Jeeps do this); in REALLY serious slop/fog, you run JUST the foglights.
Moon

 

Done and done:

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...as-answer.html

Although I'm a bit surprised to learn that you think the low beams have a poor cutoff. I think it's pretty darn sharp myself. Maybe you have them aimed too high?

 

They have a great beam pattern, but they lack the razor sharp cutoff of E-code lights, said 'fuzzy' cutoff is designed to please the Feds.
As you likely know, with genuine E-codes, the cutoff is as clear and sharp as if it were done with a straightedge and a boxknife.
BTW, fogs that operate independently of the lowbeams are technically illegal in PA, tho' you might well squeak 'em thru' inspection. Actually, the fogs that work with the parking lights aren't entirely kosher either, but nobody thinks to check. Chrysler stuff works that way, and perhaps Ford.
As a veteran of many foglight installs, getting a parkers or lo's system can be done, but it requires beaucoup relays and a bunch of screwing around.
Moon

ETA- That one bad experience may have been an anomaly; it was snowing so hard that NOTHING might have worked. I was happy enough to get home with four straight fenders that I didn't take the Jeep out for a drive under the same conditions.
M