High Quality HID Xenon Headlight conversion kit - $359

[duuuma]

lights look great on my car, but the deal's dead as the gov. has declared HID retrofit kits illegal for sale in the US.

 

[Zivic]

Not to thread crap, but that kit is most likely junk. Notice it is available in only 5000-13000K. No reputable company makes a 13000K bulb. Buyer beware!

head over here for the "low down" on HIDs

 

[duuuma]

I read up on HID Forum and their mods were bashing these kits without having any real experience with them. The guys from importhookup back their product fully and seemingly provide excellent support for it as well.

I took my chance and ordered a 5000k kit. Hopefully I won't regret it!

 

[Silex]

Yes and we will all pray for your safety too in hopes that the bulbs don't explode or that the ballast doesn't have any loose wiring. God speed...

 

[ae86pwr]

10000K + goes black ...
defeats the purpose of HID brightness

I think these HID conversions is illegal on the road now ... if you put them on any average joe car then cops will pick you up easily

 

[duuuma]

haha, thanks...i think. though i REALLY doubt that's going to happen.

Anyway, I think it's a hot deal if these things really are high quality. My friend bought a phillips made retrofit kit (i think bulbs and ballasts were phillips/hella mix) and his bulb blew out (not blew up) after a year, so who knows what the truely reliable brands are...

Hopefully these are as easy to install as they say it is too. Either way, I figure I'd share in case any of you folks want to upgrade your lighting.

AE86, yes these are illegal for the street, but as long as you stick with the low temperature kits (I got 5000k), nobody's going to pull you over as they look like regular stock Xenon headlights. Though that might depend on what kind of car you drive...i'm sure the cops won't believe that a set of HID's on a 1985 Toyota Corolla GTS is stock...

Originally posted by: Silex
Yes and we will all pray for your safety too in hopes that the bulbs don't explode or that the ballast doesn't have any loose wiring. God speed...

 

[mrCide]

i just paid $280 for an OEM D2S (or whatever) kit from an rs6 (for my a4).. i paid $350 on ebay for a kit prior and it was a piece of crap. bulbs wouldnt always come on, had to flick them on a few times. cheap japanese bulbs--and the guy offered 1 year warranty, i sent him back a bulb cause it's defective, he sends me it back saying it works fine after telling me he sent me a new one (i said it looked like the one he sent me and he confessed).. shady stuff.. plus you really wanna stick to OEM 4300k color.

 

[Zivic]

having lower kelvin rated bulbs will not keep the cops away. The problem with conversion kits is the fact that your stock housings weren't designed to be used with HID bulbs (capules vs filament). The end result is GLARE! That's what will attract the police.

 

[duuuma]

that's a good point with the glare, but i'm hoping it won't be too evident. regardless, on the subject of cops, that's really a variable factor that nobody can predcit, though I do believe the color (temperature) can affect it more easily than glare.

the 5000k set is actually an estimate as the range is between 4100k (?) - 5000k. Anyone actually have any experience with these (im guessing not since this isn't a car forum...)

 

[hytek369]

i got a pair of dual-beam H4s (philips kit) for my civic a couple years ago for $500

i think the best HIDs are made by philips

 

[misterj]

ya i would assume the same rules obviously apply to HID's as they do to regular 'xenon' bulbs - cheap ones suck. avoid at all costs. not worth it, and i dont care who says how long they've been running them. only use oem or equivalent i.e. philips, stanley, raybrig, piaa, etc. dont be one of those ricers with one headlight blown out after a month. your safety and wallet are at risk.

i think the problem with retrofitting is HID's were designed to be used in projector housings with clear lenses. most of ours have those lines on the lense which scatter the light. im sure hidforums covers this so ill be checking that site out thanks.

some examples of the spectrum in Kelvins
http://www.bhocenter.com/images/lighting/k_temp.gif
http://www.gamonline.com/catalog/colortheory/images/b.gif
http://www.3drender.com/glossary/colortemp.jpg
http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/setup/avhardware/images/cie.jpg

 

[ThaiBruin]

I have a 7000K HID kit in my 2002 Altima and I actually was pulled over by a sheriff one evening about 5 months ago. He said he pulled me over because my headlights were too bright and too blue. I told him they are an OEM HID setup that came as an option on my car. He asked me to flash my high beams, which I did, and said that I was okay. Never had a problem since then.

 

[Silex]

Always gotta play it cool with the cops. In the daytime, those sunglasses really make you bow down to them, but if you stare at them through those glasses, they are just big softies because they know you're telling the truth then. Just gotta show them who'se in control .

 

[ThaiBruin]

I was lying through my teeth though. haha

 

[jagec]

the problem with those HIDs is that due to the color, sometimes you actually get LESS visibility...plus the fact that you're blinding everyone else on the road.

Yellowish is the natural color that we see best in (since it's the color of sunlight).

 

[Apex]

Originally posted by: jagec
the problem with those HIDs is that due to the color, sometimes you actually get LESS visibility...plus the fact that you're blinding everyone else on the road.

Yellowish is the natural color that we see best in (since it's the color of sunlight).

Sunlight averages 5500k, though in varying conditions can be 5400-6000k. That's more "blue" than many OEM HID units.

 

[hd54321]

Originally posted by: jagec
the problem with those HIDs is that due to the color, sometimes you actually get LESS visibility...plus the fact that you're blinding everyone else on the road.

Yellowish is the natural color that we see best in (since it's the color of sunlight).

This is fact, the lower the kelvin rating on a bulb, the more white light it will emit. The more white light you have, the greater your visibility is.

Believe me on this - If you want the advantage of HID lights, DO NOT get anything higher than 4500k. I have a set of HID retrofits that I got off of ebay for $270. It has a kelvin rating of 4300k and it is perfect.

You guys have to realize that almost all the luxury cars that have HIDS produce the blue/purple effect ONLY because you are looking at the headlight off axis and the optics of the projector actually creates a blue/purple effect - the bulb produces a pure white light, it is only the optics of projector headlights that gives it color.

In effect, the higher the kelvin rating, you will be receiving a lower amount of white light thus foregoing the advantages of having HID's.

Also, I will completely agree with ZIVIC. Any non-HID headlight housing will NOT give you the same effect as a HID-compliant headlight housing. Why? The reflector in a halogen setup directs all the light in a certain way. Since an HID bulb produces on average, 100x more white light than a halogen bulb, the reflector in an HID-compliant housing will direct the beam in a way that will distribute 100% of the light - that is why the cutoff and beam of a true HID setup looks like a razor cut box.

Good luck.

-HD

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: hd54321

Originally posted by: jagec
the problem with those HIDs is that due to the color, sometimes you actually get LESS visibility...plus the fact that you're blinding everyone else on the road.

Yellowish is the natural color that we see best in (since it's the color of sunlight).

This is fact, the lower the kelvin rating on a bulb, the more white light it will emit. The more white light you have, the greater your visibility is.

Believe me on this - If you want the advantage of HID lights, DO NOT get anything higher than 4500k. I have a set of HID retrofits that I got off of ebay for $270. It has a kelvin rating of 4300k and it is perfect.

You guys have to realize that almost all the luxury cars that have HIDS produce the blue/purple effect ONLY because you are looking at the headlight off axis and the optics of the projector actually creates a blue/purple effect - the bulb produces a pure white light, it is only the optics of projector headlights that gives it color.

In effect, the higher the kelvin rating, you will be receiving a lower amount of white light thus foregoing the advantages of having HID's.

Also, I will completely agree with ZIVIC. Any non-HID headlight housing will NOT give you the same effect as a HID-compliant headlight housing. Why? The reflector in a halogen setup directs all the light in a certain way. Since an HID bulb produces on average, 100x more white light than a halogen bulb, the reflector in an HID-compliant housing will direct the beam in a way that will distribute 100% of the light - that is why the cutoff and beam of a true HID setup looks like a razor cut box.

Good luck.

-HD

OMG somebody taht knows what they're talking about!~

 

[TechnoKid]

Kits like those linked by the OP are bad. The optics between halogen and HID/Xenon are COMPLETELY different.

I would not even attempt to mod a kit into a DOT housing, I would only attempt to put one into a E-Code housing as they have a much sharper cutoff than DOT housings and therefore less glare with the kit. Certain bulbs respons better to kits, H1, H7 and H9 respond the best, and these bulbs usually come in projectors anyway, and projectors have much less glare than reflectors in the first place. H4 sometimes responds well, but H4 is a reflector based system, and therefor more chances of glare compared to projectors.

If you want the best retrofit availible, get some OEM hella/bosch projector guts and mod them/mount them into your existing headlight housings. This will give you the best light output (OEM output since you are using the oem projectors), and give you that nice blue/rainbow flicker/twinkle that BMW, Audi, Porsche, MBZ, etc has. Even going this route isn't street legal technially, (unless you get completely sealed units from Hella, at $650 per projector, as seen on the Hella projector kit for the Ford Focus), but at least this is the best ways in terms of reducing glare. www.hidforum.com has good info on people who have done projector swaps, and some have had very good result doing this. there are companies who can do this stuff for you, but it will cost you many pretty pennies.

 

[duuuma]

i guess i'll find out how good/bad they are when they arrive...i just like the simplicity of a plug and play plus the price won't cost me an arm and a leg like some those hella kits.

If you guys are actually interested, i'll post pics after i've installed them though this probably isn't the right forum for it.

What's odd is, on cars such as the nissan maxima, 350z and altima; their standard headlight housings don't look any different at all from their HID housings. I've test driven them all and taken a good look at it too but maybe it's something my eye can't catch.

 

[SharkyTM]

if you have projector housings that were made to use HID bulbs or halogens (VW R32 comes to mind), a retrofit kit will work fine as long as its a decent bulb and harness. Installing HIDs into regular old parabolic reflector housings is a real danger. They heat up the housings to the point of melting, blind everyone because the beam pattern is WAY off, and can explode.

I'll just save up the grand for OEM HIDs in my jetta. Theyre from germany, and legal in the US. Not like i'll ever get them... darn you EuroCullen. (VWvortex seller)

 

[ae86pwr]

trying to install on newer H7 projector housing with these HID kit will be hard ... since the the little bracket doesn't really fit the larger base of the coverted HID bulb .... so if you have those newer Hella projector halogen housing ... GOOD LUCK ....

and no my 1985 Corolla GT-S didn't have that ... I just put the Sylvania Xenarac to keep the cops happy.... although i did put panasonic ballast with Philips bulb on my M-Class (reflector housing). Works very well.

 

[duuuma]

wow you actually had a 85 corolla GTS? that was just a wild guess on my part....nice hachi roku

 

[PKPunk]

just want to say that my dad got a ticket for driving with his high beams on in San Jose last week. The only thing was that he was driving with his low beams, the cop mistook his stock audi a6 hids for high beams. The cop pulled him over and said he was driving with his high beams on and said that the high beams were still on as the car was pulled over. My dad showed him they weren't on and even turned on his high beams to show the cops the light get brighter. Then the cop was like umm...well they're off now that you pulled over but while you were driving the high beams were on. It's funny how he back tracked because he initially told my dad his high beams were still when he first spoke to my dad. Well he wrote out the ticket anyways.

Moral of the story, cops can be dicks, and if you can get a ticket for diving a car with OEM HIDs then you can easily get a ticket for aftermarket HIDs.

 

[QSnexus]

The majority of those very blue lights (I'm assuming the cheap aftermarket addons, not the factory installed HIDs) mostly on rice mobiles drive me crazy in the rearview.