headlight conversion
- Thread starter smog7
- Start date
Gary ST165
New member
# higher wattage bulbs, relays and beefed up wiring.
# HID kits
i've got Raybrigs... they are OK, but not amazing. :|
tbh i was a little disappointed with Raybrigs. I'm gonna fit higher wattage bulbs etc
# HID kits
i've got Raybrigs... they are OK, but not amazing. :|
tbh i was a little disappointed with Raybrigs. I'm gonna fit higher wattage bulbs etc
I had the Hella housings (paid around $50) on my MR2 and they had an amazing light pattern on the road, no need to ever use the high beams. But I did get flashed all the time by other cars. For bulbs I would just get a HID kit, they are getting so cheap now. I found H4s with HID low / and halogen highs for $55, and dual HIDs for $115 shipped.
http://cgi.ebay.com/BI-XENON-HI-LOW-Dua ... 2302a3969a
I will try to find something better from a site, but its a busy day at work...lol.
Something like that are the ones I have, and before you say oh they are some off name company cheapo ones.......Well yes they are I guess, but I have had them on my FJ for over 2 years with no problems at all. I was a little skeptical at first too, but my buddy had them on his wifes Pilot for a year, so I finally gave in. There probably are some crap ones out there, but there are some good ones too. Just do some research or ask around on here what kits people are using. I will try to dig up the box and see what actual brand they are.
Also any other plain halogen bulbs you get even from Walmart are going to run you around $30 or more.
If you really want name brand ones I have found the Phillips HID kits before for around $200, but I will have to search to find the link again.
The ones I actually have I ordered through my buddies shop, but they are some knock off brand as well. I got the HID low w/ halogen highs for $55. I only wish i would have got the dual HID bulbs now. Of course again with the light pattern they put on the road I really never have to use my high beams.
Just a side note, from my experience the 5000k temp bulbs give you the best visibility and are closest to most of the OEM cars. I had thoes on my MR2 and they were just awesome with the Hella housings. I have the 6000k bulbs now they are a little more of a "pure white" with just a hint of blue. Any higher temp than that and i think you losing their benefit, and asking for trouble from law enforcement. They dont like all the crazy colors or at least around here they dont.
I will try to find something better from a site, but its a busy day at work...lol.
Something like that are the ones I have, and before you say oh they are some off name company cheapo ones.......Well yes they are I guess, but I have had them on my FJ for over 2 years with no problems at all. I was a little skeptical at first too, but my buddy had them on his wifes Pilot for a year, so I finally gave in. There probably are some crap ones out there, but there are some good ones too. Just do some research or ask around on here what kits people are using. I will try to dig up the box and see what actual brand they are.
Also any other plain halogen bulbs you get even from Walmart are going to run you around $30 or more.
If you really want name brand ones I have found the Phillips HID kits before for around $200, but I will have to search to find the link again.
The ones I actually have I ordered through my buddies shop, but they are some knock off brand as well. I got the HID low w/ halogen highs for $55. I only wish i would have got the dual HID bulbs now. Of course again with the light pattern they put on the road I really never have to use my high beams.
Just a side note, from my experience the 5000k temp bulbs give you the best visibility and are closest to most of the OEM cars. I had thoes on my MR2 and they were just awesome with the Hella housings. I have the 6000k bulbs now they are a little more of a "pure white" with just a hint of blue. Any higher temp than that and i think you losing their benefit, and asking for trouble from law enforcement. They dont like all the crazy colors or at least around here they dont.
chaos_cascade
New member
Can someone clue me in on the whole headlight deal? I don't understand how all of a sudden it's okay to run brighter lights. Isn't the whole point of having hi and lows so as to not blind other drivers. Did this HID and LED revolution somehow change how bright your lo beams could be? :shrug:
I know a lot of the luxury cars have them now stock so there must be someway they are legal. I'd welcome some perspective on this because I've been getting blinded by blue super beams and what not for a couple years now. When it's really bad I'm sorely tempted to turn my off road lights on.
86turboswap
New member
Get Hella E-Code H4/9003 housings and a Halo hid kit.
Will cost you about $200 but you will have great lighting and not blind people.
Will cost you about $200 but you will have great lighting and not blind people.
chaos_cascade":2tlbvl8h said:
I guess brighter is the word to use. They actually use less wattage the halogen low beams. HID/Xenon headlights only use about 35 watts. I think halogens low beams se around 50 watts. They definitely produce more visible light both on the road and down the road.
They are legal on OEM car because their headlamps are designed for such use. According to DOT it is illegal to add HID headlights to any vehicle that didnt not originally come with them from the factory. This is because their light visible is much higher and can cause distractions to other drivers and mostly because the headlamps were not designed for such use. There are also legal aftermarket HID lights, but they cost alot more because of the development and paperwork to make them legal. Example.
http://www.kbcarstuff.com/6054_200mm_Re ... d-6054.htm
One way to avoid this is to reaim or adjust your headlight beams. When I first put them in the my FJ I got flashed by almost every car. So I when back and adjusted my beams down, now I hardly ever get flashed anymore and my light output on the road is still great. That said I also use to get flashed with just my factory bulbs from Toyota. I know this problem exists for other higher trucks and SUVs and cars that come with HIDs from the factory. Some people are going to think your lights are bright no matter what you do. Also misaligned headlamps can be just a bright or distracting to other drivers.
All that said, does it make it legal to have them on your car?....technically no. However they can be put on a vehicle with minimal impact to other driver while adding great night visibility for you.
Just another side note.....there are lots of illegal things that are done to cars everyday. It may depend on what state or country you live it but they can include.....downpipes, straight pipes/hi flow cats, open/external wastegates, NOS, neon lights, motor swaps, modifiying a car beyond its intended power, overly loud systems, etc. I guess headlights are another thing we can add to this list.
Sorry if I went on for too long, was just trying to reply to everything.
Yeah, get quality housings... I bought some no-name ones off eBay that I'm running now (with H4 SilverStars), but I am thinking of upgrading the housing to something more high-quality (like the Hellas mentioned here) because the light pattern could use more improvement (focus).
mike325ci":2jv0rarh said:
The Hellas have a very nice pattern on the road even with no name Walmart bulbs. I had these on my MR2 and loved them. Although I did get flashed alot with these as well.
So I guess to go back to the OP I would say like others the Hella housings are very nice, I picked mine up for around $50 and you can probable find them cheaper. With the quality of the Hella lamps and their projection on the road you can use any H4 bulbs and get great visibility. If you want to invest in better bulbs that wont hurt either.
As for the legality issue, in Australia, cars with HIDs are required to use shutters for the high-beams, a self-leveling system, and also headlight-washers.
I imagine those rules apply for some other countries too.
The headlight-washers and self-leveling system are too hard to implement on a non-HID car, hence why only factory installs are legal.
I imagine those rules apply for some other countries too.
The headlight-washers and self-leveling system are too hard to implement on a non-HID car, hence why only factory installs are legal.
I run a set of Cibie 200x142mm HRA H4 ECE (european e-code) lamps and use a set of Narva Rangepower bulbs.
This is going to be near the best setup you can get without having to modify any of the stock wiring. HID retrokits are worthless in any setup without the use of a proper projector.
Clearcorners.com did a very good comparison a while back where they put up some blue JDM/ebay bulbs against a HID retro kit, and some quality bulbs in the same Cibie HRA housing that fits our cars.
http://www.clearcorners.com/products/002/
The housings and bulbs I use can be purchased here (although I bought from another site)
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/products/products.html
And since the housings weren't exactly cheap and I wasn't in the mood to see them get all pitted up, I covered them in Lamin-X film..
This is going to be near the best setup you can get without having to modify any of the stock wiring. HID retrokits are worthless in any setup without the use of a proper projector.
Clearcorners.com did a very good comparison a while back where they put up some blue JDM/ebay bulbs against a HID retro kit, and some quality bulbs in the same Cibie HRA housing that fits our cars.
http://www.clearcorners.com/products/002/
The housings and bulbs I use can be purchased here (although I bought from another site)
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/products/products.html
And since the housings weren't exactly cheap and I wasn't in the mood to see them get all pitted up, I covered them in Lamin-X film..
I've run both the koito's and the cibies. The cibies were better, but the koito's were close enough that I've never gotten around to installing the cibies on the black RC. They were expensive, and a long wait. (for me at least, I ordered mine 3 years ago from overseas.)
I even got them rock chip film protected.
I even got them rock chip film protected.
Wicked Toys
New member
Hey check out this Bi-Xenon HID retrofit on an RX-7:
Low Beam
High Beam
This is the company that did the retrofit: http://sakebombgarage.com/wp/?page_id=80
This is the company that makes the Projector retrofit kits: http://www.theretrofitsource.com/index.php
This has to be the best retrofit I've seen yet. Hell, I wouldn't mind having a custom setup for my Alltrac using the RX-7 headlights.
Low Beam
High Beam
This is the company that did the retrofit: http://sakebombgarage.com/wp/?page_id=80
This is the company that makes the Projector retrofit kits: http://www.theretrofitsource.com/index.php
This has to be the best retrofit I've seen yet. Hell, I wouldn't mind having a custom setup for my Alltrac using the RX-7 headlights.