HID Conversion, to do or not to do

I was giving some thought to converting the headlights on my '11 CX-9 Touring to HIDs. Not crazy about the "sharp cut-off" lights (low beams) that are on the vehicle right now. They are OK on a 55 MPH road, but on the high speed freeways I get the feeling I'm over driving them. These are probably good lights for the approaching traffic, but for the driver (who just happens to be a bit on the "mature" end of the life cycle) they are not so great. Had heard that the HIDs were mostly illegal, but seeing more and more of them I was thinking maybe they've "bent" the laws some. While looking into the HIDs I found this article at Candlepower Inc. It reads like this:

HID Kits: What You Need To Know

Candlepower doesn't sell "HID kits". We easily could, and we'd make a lot of money doing it, but we never have and we never will.
That's because they're dangerous and illegal.

Here's why:

A "HID kit" consists of HID ballasts and bulbs for retrofitting into a halogen headlamp. Kits for replacement of standard round or rectangular sealed-beam headlamps usually include a poor-quality replaceable-bulb headlight lens-reflector unit that's not safe or legal even when equipped with the intended (usually H4) halogen bulb. Often, these products are advertised using the name of a reputable lighting company ("Real Philips kit! Real Osram kit! Real Hella kit!") to try to give the potential buyer the illusion of legitimacy. On rare occasions, some of the components in these kits did start out as legitimate HID headlight bulbs made by reputable companies, but they are modified (hacked) by the "HID kit" suppliers, and they aren't being put to their designed or intended use. Reputable companies like Philips, Osram, Hella, etc. never endorse this kind of hacked usage of their products. Nevertheless, it's easy to get "HID kits" from China bearing the (unauthorized, counterfeit) brands of major, reputable companies. See this page for just a few examples of the many packaging options offered by just one Chinese maker of "HID kits".

Halogen headlamps and HID headlamps require very different optics to produce a safe and effectivenot to mention legalbeam pattern. How come? Because of the very different characteristics of the two kinds of light source.

A halogen bulb has a cylindrical light source: the glowing filament. The space immediately surrounding the cylinder of light is completely dark, and so the sharpest contrast between bright and dark is along the edges of the cylinder of light. The ends of the filament cylinder fade from bright to dark. An HID bulb, on the other hand, has a crescent-shaped light source: the arc. It's crescent-shaped because as it passes through the space between the two electrodes, its heat causes it to try to rise. The space immediately surrounding the crescent of light glows in layers...the closer to the crescent of light, the brighter the glow. The ends of the arc crescent are the brightest points, and immediately beyond these points is completely dark, so the sharpest contrast between bright and dark is at the ends of the crescent of light.

These images shows the very different characteristics of the filament versus the arc in terms of overall shape and luminance distribution. You can see that the filament is cylindrical and has a bright center dimming towards the ends, with a sharp light/dark edge formed by the sides of the filament coil and the empty space just outside the filament. The arc, on the other hand, is crescent-shaped. Its got bright ends and a fuzzy light/dark edge formed by the layers of the sides of the arc. Differently-shaped, differently-sized, and with a different distribution of light within it, the two light sources cannot be interchanged without spoiling the intended optical focus.

When designing the optics (lens and/or reflector) for a lamp, the characteristics of the light source are the driving factor around which everything else must be engineered. If you go and change the light source, you've done the equivalent of putting on somebody else's eyeglasses: You can probably make them fit on your face OK, but you won't see properly.
END OF STORY

So, if you put these on your vehicle and are involved in a wreck (at night) you are opening yourself up for a nasty law suit. The claim would be, by the plaintiff, "I was blinded by those illegal headlights". Guess I'll stay with the street legal kind. Anyone replaced the OEMs with something that is a bit better (more illuminating, preferably a whiter light) and LEGAL?

The article is more for the older cars with the older sealed beam headlights, and the ones that dont have projectors stock. Neither really is appropriate for the CX9. The CX9 has projectors which handle the HID's without issue. And your not really opening yourself up t anything legal as the CX9's did come with a HID option from the factory. And there not going to know if they were factory or not. I actually ordered up a set for my CX9 last week and will be installing them soon. The lighting was by far the biggest let down on the car when i bought it. Both interior, and exterior.

I'd be interested in the outcome of your venture. Are you going to do a 1st hand check on the install as in get in another vehicle and have someone drive yours and see how the lights affect you as the oncoming driver? I did replace all interior bulbs with LED white bulbs and that was a marked improvement. Didn't mess with the dash/display as that seems to be just fine. Good luck with the change out and if you've got the time please let us know how it goes.

Installed the HID's on Sat before i had a long drive up to Madison. Install took about 20 minutes start to finish. Very easy.

The factory projectors DO have a HID cut off even though they didnt have HID's stock which is awesome. And gives me a perfect cut off line so it doesnt blind traffic im following, or the incoming traffic. One thing i thought was AWESOME was how when passing cars on the highway, my headlights literally made other cars headlights cast a shadow! haha. I went with a 55w 5000k temp hid set up, and it really does put out a ton of light. 3 of my other current cars also have HID's, and none have the light output to compare to the CX9.

Ive already upgraded all the interior lights, and most of the exterior bulbs to LED over the past month. I totally wiped out my stockpile of #194's i had been sitting on from my last car even. lol.

Id say my only regret is not going with a 6000k temp color instead. As those would match the 4 #194's i had already installed in the headlights. The 55w 5000k HID's are more white then those LED's. But its not really a bug deal, just me being nit picky.

Which HID kit did you get? I just installed a 55w ebay kit and the light output seems about the same as the halogen bulbs lol

xxxmonoxidechil said:

Installed the HID's on Sat ...............

I'd say my only regret is not going with a 6000k temp color instead. As those would match the 4 #194's i had already installed in the headlights. The 55w 5000k HID's are more white then those LED's. But its not really a bug deal, just me being nit picky.

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So my curiosity is up also. What did you all have to get with this kit? I'm seeing all sorts of stuff that they have such as extra harnesses, cancelers, Canbus harness, etc.. How do the #194 bulbs figure into this? Thought they were for interior and license plate illumination. Looking at this site: CarXenonHIDKits.com They seem to have less costly kits and they have the WHITE 6000K bulbs as opposed to most others BLUE 600K bulbs. Still not sure about all of this, but if it doesn't cause the oncoming driver to be blinded and summon up his/her vulgarities to address me and it allows me to see better then I'd like to give it a try anyway.

We have two #194's in each of our headlights. Or at least my 2013 does. I had previously swapped some LED's there, and was hoping for a nice matching color. But the LED's have more of a slight blue to them, compared to the 55w 5000k HID's which are a pure white. (From reading, the 55w ballast tend to wash out the HID color more when your used to the 35w kit's.)

For brand, i went with the same place as ive always used, DDMtuning.com. The only upgrade i did was to the 55w kit, instead of the standard 35w kit. I did a 700 trip up to MI so far, and lots of daily driving and havent had a single person flash me. Like i said in my OP, we have a factory cut off, so its not going to shine high and blind people.

Now my Kia sportage on the other hand with its scatter shield is just a mess of light output.

DDMtuning doesn't show a CX9 in the shop by vehicle header, would you mind to post a link or did you just go with the basic 55w kit? Did it require any modifications?

Our CX9 uses H11 bulbs. So I bought the 55w 5000k H11 HID kit from them. There's even so much room inside the headlight housing itself, i was able to mount even the ballast and all the wiring inside. So there is zero hint of anything aftermarket when looking in the engine bay. Well other then a few beauty things ive done previously like the pin stripe on the engine cover.

The wife drove the cx9 behind me for almost 1 hour today and not once was I even slightly annoyed by the HID kit I installed in her car. Monoxi did you get the slim ballast or regular? I installed mine the same way you did, all tucked inside the headlamp. Also my ebay kit is working much better now, I guess there a break-in period for these parts as well, now its just as bright as my BMW factory xenons.

I have the slim ballast kit. I dont think the regular large style would fit in the headlight. But for how big the lights are, you never know.

I have to say, I currently have 4 cars running aftermarket HID kits. 3 are in factory projector lights. But the CX9 truly puts out the best light. The factory projectors do a pretty nice job with there light output, which isnt all ways the case with other cars. This is definitely my favorite mod ive done to the CX9 so far.

ArkanDan said:

So, if you put these on your vehicle and are involved in a wreck (at night) you are opening yourself up for a nasty law suit. The claim would be, by the plaintiff, "I was blinded by those illegal headlights". Guess I'll stay with the street legal kind. Anyone replaced the OEMs with something that is a bit better (more illuminating, preferably a whiter light) and LEGAL?

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I have had HID's in my 2004 Mazda 6 (that I just traded in) for years with no issues. As @xxxmonoxidechil said above, as long as the housing is a projector lens, there is no issue retrofitting HIDs into them, nor would anyone know if they were stock or not.
I think HIDs are one of the best changes you can do to improve the lighting of the car if it came stock with halogen and has projector housings And with kits from places like DDM tuning so cheap, it's a no-brainer!

(Side note)Over the years of owning the 6 I replaced every bulb in it with high output LEDs. The difference was night and day (sorry for the pun). I plan on doing this immediately for the CX-9 I just picked up, however it uses stupid Festoon bulbs in the over head instead of 194's like my 6 did.

xxxmonoxidechil said:

We have two #194's in each of our headlights. Or at least my 2013 does. I had previously swapped some LED's there, and was hoping for a nice matching color. But the LED's have more of a slight blue to them, compared to the 55w 5000k HID's which are a pure white. (From reading, the 55w ballast tend to wash out the HID color more when your used to the 35w kit's.)

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If you're trying to match color, I've had great luck with VLEDs (I'm not associated with them, just really like their stuff). Their prices are steep, but when they say 5k, it is pure white 5k. Perfectly matched my DDM 5k kit in my old 6, which had 194 "parking" lights (granted, it was only the 35w kit, so I didn't have any color wash-out, but with pure white you would hope there isn't any )

From reading, i probably would have been fine if i went with the 6000k's. The 5000K's would probably match alot better if i had the lower power 35w ballast instead from the research ive read. But i had to try out the 55w ballast as in the past they were just out of my price range. But now HID's are so cheap, it doesnt really matter.

Times have changed since i bought my 1st HID's back in like 2001. I spent over $400 for that kit, and that was a 'Lower end" kit in those days. Which sadly even then the low end kits came in some very nice custom tin boxes.

voldsom said:

.............. I replaced every bulb in it with high output LEDs. The difference was night and day (sorry for the pun). I plan on doing this immediately for the CX-9 I just picked up, however it uses stupid Festoon bulbs in the over head instead of 194's like my 6 did.

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When you replace the festoons in the CX-9 get the 28mm length. They go in without a lot of hassle and stay put. No bending tabs or such stuff.

After reading here I went ahead and ordered up some 6000K HIDs with the 55w ballast. I'll post the outcome and personal thoughts when they are installed and tested.

Yea, Ive done the LED conversion throughout the interior of the CX9 also. Had to order two different style of the festoons as the 1st set of 31mm length ones i tried fit the front with some bending of the tabs, but the rears there wasnt even enough room to bend the tabs to make them fit. So went with some 28mm's and problem solved.

Ive also tried doing my rear indicators, but it led to a fast flashing turn signal, so im going to order up some Can-Bus LED's and hopefully that will fix that issues.

Yesterday i received the Stainless Steel CX9 door sills. So as soon as i get the car back from Mazda, those will be going on. (My CX9 us getting its rear end replaced free of charge trying to fix my chassis shudder i get going int turns)

ArkanDan said:

When you replace the festoons in the CX-9 get the 28mm length. They go in without a lot of hassle and stay put. No bending tabs or such stuff.

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Thanks for the festoon bulb tip, @ArkanDan,@xxxmonoxidechil... I can't wait to swap to bright white light again. When I swapped all the stock bulbs back into my 6 before I traded it in, I couldn't believe how dull and yellow the interior used to look with the incandescent bulbs. LED's all the way!

I have seen on Amazon an LED kit for the 9 for all of the interior and exterior bulbs in one package, would you guys think they would be good quality. Because this was one of the first things I wanted to do to the 9 when we got it.

I think that kit will probably include 31mm festoon bulbs/lamps. They can be made to fit, but you will have to distort the holder and include a bit of cussing in the process. IMHO it is better to order the 28mm festoons and avoid the headache. The OEM festoons on the CX 9 are 31mm, but that is including the little teats on either end of the bulb/lamp. File those teats off and you've got a 28mm bulb/lamp. That little teat has no value for retention or anything else that I can see. You can likely do just as well on E-Bay (I'd highly recommend the 28mm festoons) and come up with a few spare bulbs/lamps in the process. Your call.

I got mine at www.superbrightleds.com and they fit perfectly. about a 10 minute job to replace them all.