Aftermarket HID Xenons, worth it?

[Maxxum]

So the passenger side bulb on my 04 Accord went south. I am wondering if I should just buy one OEM and stick it in or replace both. If I replace both, will it make sense to buy a HID conversion kit and go with those bulbs? I am wondering if anyone has any experiences with such.

a) are they really better than the stock halogens?
b) what kind of a bulb life you'd expect to get?
c) what are good places to buy?

[Rupert]

NO!

Just buy quality stock replacements, unless you want to spend $1000 on HIDs. I usually replace them as they go out, but both at once is fine, too.

[Gotta-Qik-C7]

$1000? I get my kits for 35 bucks on EBAY! I love them and I have them on all my vehicles. The Bulbs have a very good lifetime (The kits I put in my Corolla and Z28 in '07 are still running strong) as well as the ballast.

[Rupert]

And your kits blind other drivers and otherwise suck.

[thewizard16]

I have put aftermarket HIDs in two vehicles, but the cheap ebay kits are of crappy quality and of course have issues with glare and light quality in regular housings. You can do a full conversion that gives you the real benefit of HID without blinding other drivers, but it will be expensive. As far as good (and easy) kits go, XenonDepot makes nice kits that aren't terribly expensive (a couple hundred bucks). Getting headlight housings that can actually use the HIDs the way they're supposed to be installed is the expensive part.

[r0tor]

OEM Hid's are an engineered piece of hardware specifically designed for the headlights housing in your car to get the proper beam pattern.  A $35 eBay kit is none of the above Ames all you get is a shit beam pattern that is not bright and is blinding drivers.

[Rupert]

There is no point whatsoever in putting HIDs in your car unless you get a good housing (i.e. the whole lamp assembly) to go along with it.

[Gotta-Qik-C7]

The 35 buck kits are the same ones that were selling for $200-$250 5 years ago and both were still over $100 when I purchased them. But to each his own.

[thewizard16]

The 35 buck kits are the same ones that were selling for $200-$250 5 years ago and both were still over $100 when I purchased them. But to each his own.

They typically aren't. They'll advertise them that way, but the brand of kit selling for $35 on eBay was generally never considered a high quality brand, and normally didn't sell in any real retail establishment. With Philips/Sylvania mostly jumping out of the conversion kit game due to DOT rules, etc. brand recognition became more difficult and a massive crop of cheap chinese kits flooded the market reaching out to aftermarket mod crowd. Xentec is one I see a lot of on ebay for cheap- and they were never good. They've always been a budget option compared to the others, and their ballasts aren't very reliable. Most of the others are completely unbranded kits made by sources unknown.

I'm not saying you will necessarily have bad luck with one of those kits, I'm sure some of them will function fine for you (although there are more likely to be little flickers, wiring issues, turn-on issues, etc. with the cheap kits), but don't think you're not getting what you pay for there.

[VTEC_Inside]

I'll just re-iterate what I said in the other thread regarding the conversion kits.

Your mileage will definitely vary. Its very dependent on the cars stock housing.

On my RSX the opening for the bulb is actually shaped like a D2S factory HID bulb. Even the factory retaining clip is designed to hold a D2S bulb in place necessitating the use of an adapter to properly mount the H1 bulb that is stock on this side of the ocean. I haven't been able to compare the rest of the housing to a JDM OEM HID housing, but the light output from the conversion kit still has a very defined cutoff with no more glare than the halogens. That said, for some reason the light output doesn't seem as strong as the halogens on that car.

My CSX Touring model is the only model to have come with halogens (9006 mount) instead of HIDs from the factory, being that its the "base" model. I have compared the housings between my car and the higher models and the reflector is IDENTICAL to the HID models. The only difference in the housing appears to be the casper that sits in front of the bulb. On the HID cars it is slightly larger. Once again the pattern remains very defined with the HID bulbs in place, minimal if any glare, and in contrast to the RSX the light output is definitely greater than the halogens, at least it appears that way, it could just be the color that makes it look that way.

My worst results were on my gfs 2008 Civic. I put a set of 6000k (that look more like 8000k) HIDs in that car and its a lighting clusterfuck. First I cannot stand the color and second the light scatter is nuts. I can still clearly see the reflectors in my cars with the lights on. On her car its like looking at a solid LED. Unfortunately she likes them despite my thoughts. I should do the world a favor and remove them, but I hate making my own dinner and its her ticket if she ever gets nailed.

Another route to consider is aftermarket DOT approved replacement housings that still use halogen bulbs. When the first sealed beam crapped out on my Accord I purchased a set of Bosch replacement lenses (DOT legal) that used standard H4 bulbs. The difference compared to the sealed beams was literally night and day. I don't expect that type of improvement on more modern vehicles, but just wanted to throw that out there.

[Rupert]

You also can't get that kind of kit for most modern cars that don't have sealed beams.

[Maxxum]

I think I'll pass on the HID conversion kit. From my internet research it seems that the best thing is to do a full retrofit HID. But that it expensive and I don't have the confidence to be able to do it right myself. I can't send my housings to some retrofitter either. Now if I were to find a local guy who'd do it for me, I'll consider.
The next best thing seems to be the HIR bulbs by GE/Toshiba. They should fit with minor mod to the connector/housing and are purported to give 75% more light than regular, while still drawing the same wattage. Anyone has any experience with those? do they last at least 2-3 years?

[Rupert]

HIR?

Most All claims of OMG 782343% more lightz with have the WATTZ! from halogens are bullshit.

[Maxxum]

I just got a $8 bulb from Walmart for now.
However, regarding HIR claim being bullshit. Check out these user pics (not seller advertisement) from a Corvette:
Before



After

[Rupert]

From the other thread on headlights, in reply to a claim that the photos were so clear!:

Not with lighting it isn't. If and only if you use the same camera on the same settings at the same angle at the same time of day with the same weather and other ambient light, then you can tell a little about color (mostly that the lights are a different color or not, and not what color they are), and you can tell which one is brighter (though not how much brighter), and you can tell that there is a difference in beam pattern (though not what the beam pattern is). These things require surprisingly sophisticated measuring equipment.

Also, that just looks like brighter and glare-ier, anyway.

[NomisR]

I've added HIDs to my Elise because it was such a pain in the ass to change the light bulb that I figured it would be better to get something that lasts longer.  I don't want to have to pull my wheels just to replace my headlights.. plus, they come with stock projectors, and the cut offs seems to work like regular HID that comes stock. 

[NomisR]

On my RSX the opening for the bulb is actually shaped like a D2S factory HID bulb. Even the factory retaining clip is designed to hold a D2S bulb in place necessitating the use of an adapter to properly mount the H1 bulb that is stock on this side of the ocean. I haven't been able to compare the rest of the housing to a JDM OEM HID housing, but the light output from the conversion kit still has a very defined cutoff with no more glare than the halogens. That said, for some reason the light output doesn't seem as strong as the halogens on that car.

So HIDs actually works out ok on the RSX?  What type did you get?

[VTEC_Inside]

So HIDs actually works out ok on the RSX?  What type did you get?

I got them from Xenon depot, mainly because of the ClubRSX discount and that they included the modified X-clips you need to retain them.

I have pictures somewhere taken during the install. I did at least a couple pics with one HID and one halogen. They don't tell you much, but you can see that there isn't much difference in terms of light scatter within the lens between the two.

[VTEC_Inside]

I've added HIDs to my Elise because it was such a pain in the ass to change the light bulb that I figured it would be better to get something that lasts longer.  I don't want to have to pull my wheels just to replace my headlights.. plus, they come with stock projectors, and the cut offs seems to work like regular HID that comes stock. 

My cousin put HIDs in his '96 Integra that also used stock halogen projectors. Although true HID projectors are apparently different from the halogen ones as well, his experience mirrored yours.

[CJ]

My idiot brother put HIDs in his 1997 Integra and they were fine.  My idiot friend Kyle has HIDs in his 1996 Integra GSR and they're fine.  My idiot brother has yet to put HIDs in his 2000 Integra Type R.  My friend Doug put HIDs in his 2000 Integra and they're fine.


I know way too many people with Integras.

[VTEC_Inside]

My idiot brother put HIDs in his 1997 Integra and they were fine.  My idiot friend Kyle has HIDs in his 1996 Integra GSR and they're fine.  My idiot brother has yet to put HIDs in his 2000 Integra Type R.  My friend Doug put HIDs in his 2000 Integra and they're fine.


I know way too many people with Integras.

Or maybe they know too many people with Volvos... 

[Rupert]

You can't know too many vulvas.

Oh! Volvos! Yes, that is likely.

[SVT_Power]

Buy some HID projectors from another car, and retrofit them into your housing. The only "good" way to do HID imo.

[S204STi]

That's how people like lightwerkz.net do it, and they have seemingly decent results.