HID/Xenon Lights
- Thread starter KurtMP3
- Start date
Thanks everybody for the kind words, I really do love these headlights, they make driving at night so much more fun, and they just look badass 
I'll try to get some better pics of the foglights for you guys tonight, they are a bit more yellow than my pics make them look, To answer your questions:
I'm still using the stock foglights just changed the bulbs but I want to upgrade to new housings soon too...the stock houshings suck and put absolutly no usable light on the road they are there purely for looks only. Plus they have that frosted glass at the front..I want all clear glass lenses.
Thanks LinuxNinja Why do I still show only 3 stars? Oh well...
It's actually really easy..takes like 10 minutes to actually wire it up...but I took my time and spent about 30 minutes hiding all of the wiring to make it look factory. All you need to do it plug the stock headlight socket into the wireing harness in the HID kit then plug the ballast into that then plug the headlight bulbs into the ballast.
Yeah, I had the PIAA Xtreme White headlights and fogs too and they are an improvement over stock, then I went to the Catz Zetas...I say don't bother with those...they aren't that much brighter than just upgraded bulbs and make your bulbs burn out faster. I mean if you're going to spend the $300 on Catz Zetas, why not just spend an extra one to two hundred on real HIDs? You'll spend that alone on replacement bulbs for your Catz Zeta's in 3 or 4 years while you never need to replace the bulbs on HIDs, they last the life of your car.
If anyone is interested in getting HIDs, don't bother with the stage I as hid4less calls it but go for the stage II or 6000K blubs, you'll be much happier..the stage one or 4300K bulbs still look slightly yellow and not like factory HIDs because our housings weren't designed for HID. If anyone has anymore questions, please feel free to ask. By the way, I don't have money pouring out of my pockets to be able to try all of this stuff, I work in the industry so I got all of this stuff for free or at cost.
Shawn
I'll try to get some better pics of the foglights for you guys tonight, they are a bit more yellow than my pics make them look, To answer your questions:I'm still using the stock foglights just changed the bulbs but I want to upgrade to new housings soon too...the stock houshings suck and put absolutly no usable light on the road they are there purely for looks only. Plus they have that frosted glass at the front..I want all clear glass lenses.
Thanks LinuxNinja
Why do I still show only 3 stars? Oh well...It's actually really easy..takes like 10 minutes to actually wire it up...but I took my time and spent about 30 minutes hiding all of the wiring to make it look factory. All you need to do it plug the stock headlight socket into the wireing harness in the HID kit then plug the ballast into that then plug the headlight bulbs into the ballast.
Yeah, I had the PIAA Xtreme White headlights and fogs too and they are an improvement over stock, then I went to the Catz Zetas...I say don't bother with those...they aren't that much brighter than just upgraded bulbs and make your bulbs burn out faster. I mean if you're going to spend the $300 on Catz Zetas, why not just spend an extra one to two hundred on real HIDs? You'll spend that alone on replacement bulbs for your Catz Zeta's in 3 or 4 years while you never need to replace the bulbs on HIDs, they last the life of your car.
If anyone is interested in getting HIDs, don't bother with the stage I as hid4less calls it but go for the stage II or 6000K blubs, you'll be much happier..the stage one or 4300K bulbs still look slightly yellow and not like factory HIDs because our housings weren't designed for HID. If anyone has anymore questions, please feel free to ask. By the way, I don't have money pouring out of my pockets to be able to try all of this stuff, I work in the industry so I got all of this stuff for free or at cost.
Shawn
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Section 8:
I noticed that you lose the brights when you make the switch...I guess you probably don't need them if they are bright enough. Also, what does the beam pattern look like??
You said it was "acceptable". What do you mean by that?? Thanks...
I noticed that you lose the brights when you make the switch...I guess you probably don't need them if they are bright enough. Also, what does the beam pattern look like??
You said it was "acceptable". What do you mean by that?? Thanks...
Yes you do lose the brights and that was a sacrifice I was willing to make because I hardly ever use my brights but don't let the marketing people fool you. Lots of people who sell these HID kits will give you that line about "The HIDs are so bright that you don't need high beams" well that's a crock. High beams and low beams serve a different purpose. No matter how bright you low beams are, they still don't redirect the light pattern upwards and farther down the road than your stock lowbeams. They just make what you have a lot brighter so you can see more. Highbeams actuall redirect the beam of light up towards the sky more. Like I said, I almost never use my high beams so it doesn't matter for me but if you tend to use your high beams a lot, reconsider getting HIDs or consider one of the alternatives. You can always aim your foglights much higher and turn them on only when you need highbeams, or they actually have HID kits now with a electronically controlled reflector built into the bulb that will redirect the beam upwards giving you the ability to use highbeams...but these kit's cost over $1000.
In terms of the beam pattern on the road, it's good enough for me, and I'm pretty picky...there are light hotsports and a bit more glare than there was before using halogens but it's really not that noticable. I wasn't able to go shoot pics tonight but I'll try to have them up by tomorrow night.
Shawn
Not sure. I wlil however warn you, TL's and CL's [which are what your talking about when you say Acura, right?] owners are having a b**** of a time getting their headlights stolen. Bastards rip the bumper off and take the lights to resell them. So I'd be careful about where or who I bought these lights off of. And if you can get them
for $200 they are gauranteed stolen. From the factory a TL HID is $1500 US.
Actually it's $1500 for one HID.
Unfortunatly it is that easy. www.acura-tl.com. Check out the forum on there. Guys are trying everything to try to stop people from doing it. Some guys are getting very hostile over it.
True you can't beat that price. But it's more of a conscience matter. I don't buy stolen merchandise. If you feel fine with buying something that someone spent thousands to get on their beautiful car then it's your problem.
Just remember and feel good next time someone rips something off your car, just think about the dude that's getting an awesome price on your stuff.
Just my opinion and morals.
[ 02-19-2002: Message edited by: Kincaid ]
I bought blue bulbs.....I think they gave me the wrong ones because they burned the wires and the lights wouldn't stay on...got my money back and put stock back in.....I would like to put a real nice set of lights and fog......I just dont know which company to use and quality to use......It is a pain to take them off and on......
late
late
mazdamp3_18
Member
- :
- 06 gti, 06 evo IX
where can i get yellow H3's for my fog lights??? im having trouble finding any
I have a set of MTEC (out of japan) headlights on my MP3. They are 170 Watts on high beam and 160 watts on low beam. They are 4350K (kelvin) which stands for temperature and they are super white in color. They look really nice during the day or at night. They look more like HID lights than any other I have ever had.
Hey Guys, first of all, I'm sorry I haven't gotton the chance to shoot those pics that some of you requested, I'll try to get them up as soon as possible but it's been a hectic few days so I don't know when that'll be.
LinuxNinja: I just zip tied the ballasts onto something stable and out of the way in the engine compartments, just look for a open space and shove that sucker in there, water should not be a problem with these, they aren't that sensitive. I think where you heard of moisture problems is with the headlights themselves. It's very important that you buy a "two wire system". The first generation of HID kits had one large connector for the bulb to hook into the ballast. The probelm with this is that you wouldn't be able to use the factory rubber weather seals on the headlights because the connector was too big to fit into the stock hole of the weather seal and then you would get moisture in them. Now, they do make a system call the two wire system where there are now two, very small connectors coming out of the bulb rather than one large one. This allows you to use the factory weather seal and pass these two small wires through it...this makes the system as watertight as stock. Water is not an issue with this sytem. Please let me know if any of this has been unclear and I'll try to clarify for you.
chillinmp3: the bulbs are modified D2R or D2S bulbs...these are the only two types availible for HID use...the reason I say modified is because they have custom molded bases for whatever application you need (H4 in my case, H7 if you have a protege 5) The HID you'll get out of a CL or TL will require a lot of modification to make it mount right and even then, you woun't be able to use the factory weather sels so your headlights will fog up and then the bulb won't be beam corrected so you'll get lots of glare and a really crappy light pattern. Don't do it, it's a waste of money to try to do retrofit them yourselves. Besides it's bad karma to buy stolen goods. If everyone refused to be stuff that was stolen, there'd be no market for the stuf and maybe we all woudn't have to worry about people messing with our cars everywhere we went.
vegasmp3: stick with the name brands like PIAA, Polarg, Raybrig, Catz and stock wattage (65/55w) and you won't have an issue with melted wires. (by the way, HIDs only draw 35 watts of power so they run cooler than halogens and consume less energy)
mazdamp3_18: the yellow fogs I got for my car are avalible in Japan only but there are places you can order them here in the states they're called "Plasma Yellows" here in the US we can get the PIAA "Ion Yellow" but it isn't quite are deep of a yellow color. You can also look at Catz Ion Golds and Hella Yellowstars.
Alabama MP3: Are your headlights REALLY 170/160 watts or do they say on the box and bulb 60/55w ----> 170/160w ? Some companies like to say that their 60 watts look like a bulb equivilent to 170 watts which really isn't true but at least it's not hurting your car. If they really are 170 watts, pull those bulbs out right now. I guarantee you will have brown refelectors and melted wires in a few weeks.
Bottom line for buying HIDs: make sure they are the Philips brand, make sure they are the 2 wire system, make sure they are beam correct and buy the 6000K system, it looks much nicer.
Shawn
LinuxNinja: I just zip tied the ballasts onto something stable and out of the way in the engine compartments, just look for a open space and shove that sucker in there, water should not be a problem with these, they aren't that sensitive. I think where you heard of moisture problems is with the headlights themselves. It's very important that you buy a "two wire system". The first generation of HID kits had one large connector for the bulb to hook into the ballast. The probelm with this is that you wouldn't be able to use the factory rubber weather seals on the headlights because the connector was too big to fit into the stock hole of the weather seal and then you would get moisture in them. Now, they do make a system call the two wire system where there are now two, very small connectors coming out of the bulb rather than one large one. This allows you to use the factory weather seal and pass these two small wires through it...this makes the system as watertight as stock. Water is not an issue with this sytem. Please let me know if any of this has been unclear and I'll try to clarify for you.
chillinmp3: the bulbs are modified D2R or D2S bulbs...these are the only two types availible for HID use...the reason I say modified is because they have custom molded bases for whatever application you need (H4 in my case, H7 if you have a protege 5) The HID you'll get out of a CL or TL will require a lot of modification to make it mount right and even then, you woun't be able to use the factory weather sels so your headlights will fog up and then the bulb won't be beam corrected so you'll get lots of glare and a really crappy light pattern. Don't do it, it's a waste of money to try to do retrofit them yourselves. Besides it's bad karma to buy stolen goods. If everyone refused to be stuff that was stolen, there'd be no market for the stuf and maybe we all woudn't have to worry about people messing with our cars everywhere we went.
vegasmp3: stick with the name brands like PIAA, Polarg, Raybrig, Catz and stock wattage (65/55w) and you won't have an issue with melted wires. (by the way, HIDs only draw 35 watts of power so they run cooler than halogens and consume less energy)
mazdamp3_18: the yellow fogs I got for my car are avalible in Japan only but there are places you can order them here in the states they're called "Plasma Yellows" here in the US we can get the PIAA "Ion Yellow" but it isn't quite are deep of a yellow color. You can also look at Catz Ion Golds and Hella Yellowstars.
Alabama MP3: Are your headlights REALLY 170/160 watts or do they say on the box and bulb 60/55w ----> 170/160w ? Some companies like to say that their 60 watts look like a bulb equivilent to 170 watts which really isn't true but at least it's not hurting your car. If they really are 170 watts, pull those bulbs out right now. I guarantee you will have brown refelectors and melted wires in a few weeks.
Bottom line for buying HIDs: make sure they are the Philips brand, make sure they are the 2 wire system, make sure they are beam correct and buy the 6000K system, it looks much nicer.
Shawn
Alabama, i'm just warning you man, I've seen it happen to so many cars...if you run higher than stock wattage without upgrading the stock wiring, you will eventually melt the wires and the connector. It may take a few months but it will happen eventually. Now of course it's your car and not mine so you can do whatever you'd like but I'm just letting you know what I've learned in my experiance. If you want to keep running the high wattage bulbs, upgrade the factory wiring with higher gauge wire harnesses, it'll make the bulbs brighter too because they will get more voltage and it's not very expensive.
Shawn
Shawn
