Hi, I did search before I posted this and everything I found was people installing aftermarket HID kits. Since I have the IX SE its the factory one. I have been noticing in reflections off of cars in front of my and especially in mirrored glass that my right side headlight is way way dimmer than my left. But when I shine them up against a wall they look almost identical in brightness. I was thinking of replacing the bulbs but I didnt want to waste my money if there was another possible problem.

 

It's normal to get that impression off projectors headlights. This is an optical illusion due to the cut-off. What happens is that projectors have a cut-off line designed to illuminate signs on the right but not to blind uncomming drivers on the left. Not sure which one the EVO actually have, but you either get a steped ou a flared cut-off. Close to a wall, you will see the two seperate cut-off lines, like this:


Now depending on where you're looking in the reflection, you might be looking at the upper portion of the left headlight step and the lower portion of the right headlight step. That's what happened in your case since you looked at the reflection in the glass sitting in the driver seat. If you look at uncomming cars in your mirrors, you will also notice that a lot of time the left headlight looks brighter for the exact same reason.

 

Maybe it needs adjusting?

 

Hid bulbs in time do get older and fade out , that happens when the gases inside the bulb start to burn out.


Or could also be a dirty/fogged reflector inside the projector or unless one side is adjusted different then the other side causing the illusion .

I have a new set of bulbs , pm me .

 

I can take some pictures but I'm not sure what I should take to help out. So what should I take pictures of?

 

Take a picture of your headlights about 15-20 feet from a flat surface .

 

Ok, I figured out it is not the bulbs I'm pretty sure. I took some pictures from the front where it is obvious the right one is dimmer and then took one from an angle and it looks almost exactly the same brightness as the left. I then took some of my carrera with HID's as well for comparison. This leads me to believe its an alignment issue, what do you think?

 

Try aligning them or swapping the bulbs

 

How would I go about adjusting them? It seems very hard to get access to the headlight bulb.

 

You can't tell there's an alignment problem just by looking at the car... you need to look at the projection on the wall. Normally the cut-off lines are supposed to be at the same height, like on the picture I posted above. If they are lined up properly, like I said, it's only the step that's creating the effect you see. They reason why your porsche is not having the same issue might be simply because the step in the cut-off line isn't as steep.

I've found a good how to for aligning projectors:
http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54740
The mecanic is diffrent since it's for a subaru, but the measurements for the cut-off height remains the same.

Now I dont know where the alignment bolts are, but you shouldn't have to touch the lamp to do this...