High Quality HID Xenon Headlight conversion kit - $359

[TekDemon]

Originally posted by: sjwaste

Originally posted by: IHYLN
nothing pisses me off more than idiot ricers putting $700 HIDs into their $1500 honda and fvcking blinding everyone on the road. I want to take a goddamn crowbar to their headlights.

i have factory xenon's in my bmw and they autolevel. if you want gd HIDs, get a real job and a real car that was calibrated and setup for HIDs.

Nice attitude. Like anything else, for some people their car is their hobby. They really shouldn't have to hear your rant because they want to add something aftermarket to their ride. The fact is, an HID setup can be done in a car that didn't have them as OEM, it just requires knowledge to put together. For some people, that's a challenge and it's fun. Don't you have any hobbies? If so, you should be able to relate.

If I were to go and put HID's in my Supra, I'd bet you wouldnt whine. Actually, I'd bet you wouldn't know well enough that they weren't factory. Don't complain based on the value of someone else's car. The question is, would you and your BMW see anything but my tail lights?

Ah hah! That's only until my imported and left-hand-drive converted Skyline R34 400R with the HKS dragger setup on the 2.8 blows past you.

*in my dreams...in my dreams*

But seriously, if you really want to go absurdly fast just go buy a Hayabusa or something...even the cops can't chase you when you're going 200MPH.

 

[TekDemon]

Also, as a LEGAL alternative to crappy HID kits, there's these new halogen bulbs known as Halogen Infrared Reflector bulbs...basically there's a clear coating on the inside of these bulbs which reflect the infrared light(which you can't see anyway) back at the filament, which causes it to burn hotter and brighter at the same wattage.

It's doesn't go nearly as high in kelvins as halogens, but it produces good clean white light, and substantially more than regular bulbs.

Problem is that you'll probably be pulled over for having your high beams on or something even though these are available as DOT approved bulbs. Also for obvious reasons these will cause more glare.

Also, they don't always fit in current cars although there are japanese companies who make them to fit cars not meant to run HIR's. Also, if you own a new Camry, it supports the new HIR format version of the bulb you're probably running, although Toyota only seems to sell the Camry with these installed in India...but, you can buy the bulbs and they will fit right in...and have the DOT stamp.
note the mention of the HIR bulbs towards the bottom...supposedly a 1.8x increase in visible light...dunno if they mean 80% more or 180% more

 

[TekDemon]

as a side note, although they may be legal to use technically(the DOT OKed bulbs anyway-not sure if the japanese retrofits actually are DOT speced or not) you still shouldn't run the lowbeams if your car doesn't have a VERY restrictive cutoff...otherwise you're basically just running highbeams.

 

[duuuma]

alright folks, I know it's been awhile, but i just wanted to report back about these 'brightstar' HID kits from www.importhookup.com..

Pictures of Brightstar 5000k HID kit on a 2003 Honda Accord coupe

here're the review comments I left for the kit on the retailers forums, overall it has been an excellent and cost effective kit.

just installed my Brightstar (5000k) kit at a carshop here in Houston (Carboy). Cost $60 as it was about 1 hour of labor.

Installation went pretty easily, the mounting brackets for the ballasts allowed pretty easy mounting onto the frame of my 03 Accord coupe (ballasts were mounted in right on the inside of the fender using the brackets, above the light bulbs). They zip tied the igniter to the the AC hose and it's held up pretty well there. Initially it looks as if the passenger headlight is really blue and the other is white, but I noticed that the blue started fading down to white. It's not night time yet so I'll find out in a few hours how well they match. Will report back with a full review then.


edit: Just drove around at night time and the light colors have evened out to a nice pure white light on both sides. So far I'm very impressed with the kit. The light output is much more intense than halogen even though a projector headlight would make it look much nicer. Still, the light output is very nice and the lights just look great overall! The true test will be longevity of these parts, but for now, I'm very very happy. Thanks importhookup!!

 

[RMSistight]

Link doesn't work man.

 

[duuuma]

yeah i noticed that...i didn't know geocities had such a low transfer limit...does just mean that the few times i've access my own webpage was enough to put it over my limit??

 

[HQH51]

I don't quite remember the daily bandwidth limit of Geocities, but given the sizes of those pictures on your website, they can put you over your daily bandwidth limits easily. I think it was 15 MB per day, but I'm not sure if it's still 15 MB. Those pictures averaging about 100 KB each... going about 7 pictures on your website... That's about 700 KB per person. Well, doesn't take much more than about 22 people visiting your website to have it taken down for the day since bandwidth limit for the day reached 15 MB (22 x 700 KB ~ 15 MB).

Originally posted by: duuuma
yeah i noticed that...i didn't know geocities had such a low transfer limit...does just mean that the few times i've access my own webpage was enough to put it over my limit??

 

[UltraWide]

True HID lights like the BMW/Audi/Lexus use self-leveling housings that prevent the light from going too high up hills, etc. This keeps you from blinding on-coming traffic. THe lights are also enclosed in a different housing like a sealed flashlight. If you ever get a chance to look at the during the day you will see what I am talking about. The bulb is not exposed like these cheap conversion kits. I suggest you save your money and put it towards your IRA or 401k instead OR buy a car with REAL HID lights.

 

[will792]

Originally posted by: IHYLN
nothing pisses me off more than idiot ricers putting $700 HIDs into their $1500 honda and fvcking blinding everyone on the road. I want to take a goddamn crowbar to their headlights.

i have factory xenon's in my bmw and they autolevel. if you want gd HIDs, get a real job and a real car that was calibrated and setup for HIDs.

Not all original HID headlights have autolevel. Just recently I saw that Toyota Sienna Limited has HID headlights without autolevel.

 

[duuuma]

I suggest you suck it...

just kidding . I understand your criticisms and they are valid.

However, we don't have any hills in Houston, Tx so I think it'll be ok....I made sure to point the headlights down a bit too, so hopefully that'll mitigate some of the harm. I think retrofit kits are great only if your halogen headlight housings can handle them (in terms of not creating too messy of a light pattern). My only intention for this thread was sharing a pretty decent deal for a decent set of HID's.

For the record, I do contribute to a 401k, but most cars with OEM hid projectors (i.e. BMW, Audi, Lexus, Acura) are incredibly overpriced. I paid a good $2k-$5k less for my new Accord V6 coupe and I get a car that's got all the amenities as a 3-series/A4/IS300/TSX, but I paid a ton less...AND I get a 6-speed manual mated with a sweet V6 that'll rip up every single one of those cars on 0-60 and Qmile times

that savings goes a long way to my retirement funds, so i think the $370 I paid for the retrofit kit was worth it to add some visibility to my night time drives.

Originally posted by: UltraWide
True HID lights like the BMW/Audi/Lexus use self-leveling housings that prevent the light from going too high up hills, etc. This keeps you from blinding on-coming traffic. THe lights are also enclosed in a different housing like a sealed flashlight. If you ever get a chance to look at the during the day you will see what I am talking about. The bulb is not exposed like these cheap conversion kits. I suggest you save your money and put it towards your IRA or 401k instead OR buy a car with REAL HID lights.

 

[ivan2]

I got a question about the "blue" lights that I've seen on street, from the color spectrum on top of this thread it suppose to be if it is brighter then it is more blue, but I've seen some car on street with a very blue light and that didnt look so bright to me. Are there another kinda blue lightings out there?

 

[Apex]

Originally posted by: ivan2
I got a question about the "blue" lights that I've seen on street, from the color spectrum on top of this thread it suppose to be if it is brighter then it is more blue, but I've seen some car on street with a very blue light and that didnt look so bright to me. Are there another kinda blue lightings out there?

There are a few separate issues there. Blue doesn't necessarily mean bright or not bright. For a given brightness rating, going past 5500 k color temp will seem less bright to our eyes.

As Carapace's link correctly states, bright noonday sunlight averages 5500 k. At a given lumen brightness rating, lights closest to this will seem the brightest. There has been a little debate about this though. In America, NTSC video defines white as 6500k (more specifically, D65, but in this discussion, RGB doesn't come into play), since it's appears to be a cleaner, brighter white.

If you see a really dim blue light, it's probably a standard halogen lamp with a blue filter on the bulb.

 

[Wingster]

I got my prelude retrofitted (H1 HID kits didn't exist at the time) for close to a grand (including labor / calibration / drilling holes thru the housing). Real osram bulbs are at 4300K, which is the whitest & brightest color temp possible. Boy are they bright

Anything ~5000K or over just use color filters and stuff, you get pretty colors but they're actually not as bright

No more stupid halogen reflectors

My Car

Side View

Front view

The fogs are PIAA 85W Superwhite bulbs, which are like $70 a pair and they're not as "white"

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: duuuma
I suggest you suck it...

just kidding . I understand your criticisms and they are valid.

However, we don't have any hills in Houston, Tx so I think it'll be ok....I made sure to point the headlights down a bit too, so hopefully that'll mitigate some of the harm. I think retrofit kits are great only if your halogen headlight housings can handle them (in terms of not creating too messy of a light pattern). My only intention for this thread was sharing a pretty decent deal for a decent set of HID's.

For the record, I do contribute to a 401k, but most cars with OEM hid projectors (i.e. BMW, Audi, Lexus, Acura) are incredibly overpriced. I paid a good $2k-$5k less for my new Accord V6 coupe and I get a car that's got all the amenities as a 3-series/A4/IS300/TSX, but I paid a ton less...AND I get a 6-speed manual mated with a sweet V6 that'll rip up every single one of those cars on 0-60 and Qmile times

that savings goes a long way to my retirement funds, so i think the $370 I paid for the retrofit kit was worth it to add some visibility to my night time drives.

Originally posted by: UltraWide
True HID lights like the BMW/Audi/Lexus use self-leveling housings that prevent the light from going too high up hills, etc. This keeps you from blinding on-coming traffic. THe lights are also enclosed in a different housing like a sealed flashlight. If you ever get a chance to look at the during the day you will see what I am talking about. The bulb is not exposed like these cheap conversion kits. I suggest you save your money and put it towards your IRA or 401k instead OR buy a car with REAL HID lights.

You saved way more than $5k unless you got ripped on your Accord... And comparing an Accord to a 330ci or A4 is just silly, they're in a different league, that's why they COME with HIDs, and the technology to back them up. Also, your car does 0-60 in 6.7s...a 330ci does it in 6.1s...

 

[VooDooAddict]

Hmm PC case MOD anyone? ...

Who needs a cold Cathode when you can put those 9 system fans to work cooling your in case HID kit?

ok so i was board ... sue me

 

[VinLombardi]

nothing pisses me off more than idiot ricers putting $700 HIDs into their $1500 honda and fvcking blinding everyone on the road. I want to take a goddamn crowbar to their headlights.

Indeed. Second on my list are ghetto cars with rims / Spreewells that obviously cost more than the actual car!

 

[UltraWide]

Well those nicer cars are RWD vs. the FWD accord. By no means is the accord a bad car, just not a performance orieneted car. The HID's on the S2000, TSX, and some other cars don't have the self-leveling feature which I consider to be necessary for a true HID application. If I had an accord I would keep it stock as you already saved a good bundle and have a very reliable car, it's good to leave it at what it is.

 

[duuuma]

HID's on a computer...that is badass...

that brings up a good point. don't knock on me for adding a $370 mod to my car for increased driving safety, when some of the people on this board spend that much modding out their computers.....

as for some of you people posting...stop being so angry already....:roll:

Originally posted by: VooDooAddict
Hmm PC case MOD anyone? ...

Who needs a cold Cathode when you can put those 9 system fans to work cooling your in case HID kit?

ok so i was board ... sue me

 

[duuuma]

Well actually your comparison of a $40k 330ci to my $23.5k Accord IS a bit silly...and yeah the 330ci does clear 0-60 0.6 seconds faster, which is quite a bit I admit, but quarter mile times are identical to my Accord (14.8) from what I've seen.

Then again, I was comparing my Accord to luxury cars closer in price range (Lexus IS, Acura TSX, Audi A4 1.8T and the BMW 325i or ci). Those cars all go for around $29-32k base price, so yeah I guess I saved about $5-8k. Also, there isn't a single car out of that list that the Accord V6 MT coupe can't out match on the track. What I'm not sure about is why a BMW 325 or an A4 1.8T is out of my league...please explain...

speaking of cars that are out of the Accord's league...i wonder just how my car would square up against a $40k car like the 330ci...or maybe the CLK320.....
hmmmmm.....

V6 Accord manual pWnZ j00 CLK

edit: interesting that car and driver was able to get the accord MT V6 to a 5.9 second 0-60 time..."The six-speed two-door hit 60 in 5.9 seconds and hustled through the quarter-mile in 14.5 seconds at 98 mph." ALSO, motortrend was able to pull a 6.2 second 0-60 time in that CLK320 comparison on the Accord V6. Not bad for a car that costs around $15k less than both the CLK and 330ci...and that's factoring in the cost of my hid kit

Originally posted by: Nebor

You saved way more than $5k unless you got ripped on your Accord... And comparing an Accord to a 330ci or A4 is just silly, they're in a different league, that's why they COME with HIDs, and the technology to back them up. Also, your car does 0-60 in 6.7s...a 330ci does it in 6.1s...

 

[UltraWide]

Not all races are straight line. That's why the 325i will beat the accord.