Well, you dont want to buy a HID kit if you do a retrofit. The reason being is that HID kits come with rebased HID bulbs. You dont want a rebased bulb for a retrofit. You instead would want D2S HID bulbs that are made for HID projectors.
I recommend that you check out http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/ .
Check out the HIDPlanet University section to get your learn on. You can also check out the Buy/Sell/Trade section to see how much projectors, HID bulbs, and ballasts cost.
Be forewarned that if you do go with the retrofit method, you will have to install a bixenon projector if you want a high beam. They are slightly more expensive and bigger than a regular low beam projector.
1) Rebase - OEM HID comes in two main flavors: D2S for projector HID and D2R for reflector HID. A rebased bulb means a D2S or D2R HID bulb was modified to fit onto a conventional halogen socket. This is never done in an OEM HID application.
2) HID Retrofit - This entails opening up the headlight casing, and installing OEM HID projectors (i.e. s2000 or TSX or TL projectors). If you dont feel comfortable doing this, there are many vendors that will do the labor for you (at a price). Besides this you still need HID ballasts and bulbs.
Pros: The real mccoy. By far the best you can do in terms of light for your car.
Cons: Difficult, expensive, and labor intensive. See, you can fork over a lot of dough and have someone else do the legwork for you or you can do the research, parts tracking, and install yourself.
3) HID Kit - This involves buying a kit that uses rebased HID bulbs and your stock halogen optics.
Pros: Easiest and cheapest method to attain HID lighting.
Cons: Dont expect to have lighting similar to anything OEM. Compare a HID kit with a HID retrofit or OEM HID. You will easily see how much of a difference there is.
4) Color Temperature - The kelvin scale dictates the color of the bulb output and the lumen output. Higher temperature yields a bluer color but less output. All HID bulbs are 35W and are compatible with any ballast. OEM HID kelvin temperature is 4300k.
Higher kelvin temperatures only really applies to HID kits. The reason for this is that with HID kits, the stock halogen optics dont create the brilliant color that a HID projector would. So thats why people purchase higher Kelvin bulbs to sort of compensate for the inferior halogen optics.
Basically it comes down to this:
If you care about the HID "look", then get a HID kit.
If you sincerely care about the main benefit of HID (superior light output and beam pattern), then I heavily recommend a HID retrofit.
here's what my Evo with projectors for halogens look like with just an HID kit (go to post 9 for comparison with factory HID Evo's)
IMO if the Fit came with projectors of any sort, just an HID kit will be good enough. the thread i posted shows the beam pattern on the ground, but in reality the outputs are very similar, with a pretty good cutoff on my car as well.
really hopin to install HID's on my Fit....can't stand the halogens
here's what my Evo with projectors for halogens look like with just an HID kit (go to post 9 for comparison with factory HID Evo's)
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IMO if the Fit came with projectors of any sort, just an HID kit will be good enough. the thread i posted shows the beam pattern on the ground, but in reality the outputs are very similar, with a pretty good cutoff on my car as well.
The comparison shots between OEM and HID kit dont show any wall shots between the two. The floor shots of the HID lighting dont help much. So its hard to do a direct comparison.
But looking at the wall shot from your car, the glare directly above the "cutoff" is pretty bad. Also, the light flares upwards on the passenger and drivers side cutoff. That is really really a no no. So basically you will glare light at other drivers going the other direction, drivers in front of you, and drivers to your right.
So your pictures are case in point that even with certain projectors, HID kits arent that great. A halogen projector is designed for halogen bulbs.
i scored a set of Nissan HID Projector housings for $40.00, so i'll be doing the full retro conversion on my spare set of stock headlights, so hopefully i'll have the better looking end of the HID's when i'm done with that, don't get me wrong, i like how mine look right now, bur it's time to do it right.
i scored a set of Nissan HID Projector housings for $40.00, so i'll be doing the full retro conversion on my spare set of stock headlights, so hopefully i'll have the better looking end of the HID's when i'm done with that, don't get me wrong, i like how mine look right now, bur it's time to do it right.
Where'd you get a sapre set of stock headlights? I need to start gathering stuff for my retro project.
Where'd you get a sapre set of stock headlights? I need to start gathering stuff for my retro project.
insurance job on my car, the short story is that my car got really scratched up bad by local car wash, and my insurance company sued to reaplce the headlights, wheels, and rebuff the entire car, so i have a spare set in my garage.
can i get a projector like off a s2000 tsx audi etc and use some after market hid with D2S bulbs? also are those aftermarket HID compatible with all the types of bulbs? it's just a matter whether or not they'll fit in ur housing rite? coz rite now i'm tempted to just install an aftermarket HID Kit and later get a hid projector off my friend and retrofit. so all i have to do then is change the H4 bulb to D2S?
Last edited by wai_lai416; 07-07-2006 at 03:38 AM.
just go to www.hidexpert.com , they have 100% HID kits that are not rebased bulbs, they just come with a adapter ring that the real HID bulb can sit on in our H4 housing and it works real good to give a nice cutoff, getting a rebased kit as others have said is not a good idea, and atleast with the kit from hidexpert you can upgrade with a retro kit later with a projector when you can find a set.
just go to www.hidexpert.com , they have 100% HID kits that are not rebased bulbs, they just come with a adapter ring that the real HID bulb can sit on in our H4 housing and it works real good to give a nice cutoff, getting a rebased kit as others have said is not a good idea, and atleast with the kit from hidexpert you can upgrade with a retro kit later with a projector when you can find a set.
so i should get the "OEM XENON HID KIT" with H4 adapters and not the H4 conversion HID kit? and because ours is a reflector housing i think? should we get the D2R bulb instead of the D2S?
so i should get the "OEM XENON HID KIT" with H4 adapters and not the H4 conversion HID kit? and because ours is a reflector housing i think? should we get the D2R bulb instead of the D2S?
I would recommend a Bi-xenon kit, but a retro-fit would be better, but yes a oem kit with H4 adapters, which bulb to me would really matter, the only difference in reality is that the D2S bulb puts out a little more littling due to teh bulb not having a little paint on it's surface.
sorry for takin so long for posting the pix but here u go. plz ignore the date on the camera i alwasy forget 2 change it. Those are lamin-x on my foglights, and my driveway slopes sidewayz that's why the beam looks crooked. This is the 6000k hid's on my 2007 honda Fit.
Here is a small vid clip i took of the hid's in action. Sorry idk why the headlights look green but at no point of warming up do the headlights turn green that is just the camera making it look green.
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