I'm wondering if HID headlights are legal in your state. I know a lot of people don't like them, but a lot of people do.. I have 6000k and they are illegal here in Hawaii. Come safety inspection time I simply plug my oems back in.. until I leave the station

 

they are officially illegal in all states.

HIDs are only officially legal when its installed as OE as it is assumed that the OE headlight housing is designed for it. That includes the projector, front lens or clear housing, a self leveling system and a way to keep it clean (spray nozzle like for the windshield).

which is why aftermarket kits are illegal. depending on the setup, it can appear to be legal... and if it is setup properly, it can work just the same as OE setups.

Its only because too many idiots don't give a crap about anyone else, and install it willy-nilly... no aim, not making sure it has a good cut off for that aim... that it gives rise to the people that act self righteous, and declare all aftermarkets dangerous, regardless of the fact some are actually set properly.

 

That sounds about right Goob, but it is astonishing how many vehicles have them. Even the housings ( front or rear ) has to have DOT or SAE imbossed on them as well. Some inspectors let it slide and others are super strict about them. Humbug!

 

think about it...some elderly folks are a lot more sensitive to the contrast when they drive at night. they can't sense the dynamic range like young eyes can. I wouldn't want anybody's grandma crashing because of the selfishness of other drivers. there's too much of the "I can see well, f*ck everyone else" mentality. there's a lot of "illegal" modifications that we do to our cars, some are just more dangerous to others who drive around us. yes, I've done the PnP kit before and I'll never do it again.

 

The problem with pnp hid kits is they actually serve no benefit. They are not designed to work with a halogen reflector and thus provide an uneven blob of light instead of a focused beam pattern with cutoff. Also, since most folks that choose a pnp are looking for "image" and not performance, they choose a higher kelvin temp for the "cool" factor which is actually dimmer.

 

the problem with your argument is that the elderly are equally affected by OE HID systems. hell, they were affected by the fact I simply replaced some 10 year old halogen bulbs with some new halogen bulbs. I got flashed at more often with standard halogen bulbs than when I had HIDs in the Pathfinder... and I actually HAD to aim the HIDs up slightly more than the halogens!

the "i can see well, f*ck everyone else" mentality is also used by the idiots that drive with high beams on all the time (even in the middle of the freaking day!)... and the ones that replace burnt out bulbs, but don't bother to get it re-aimed (which is what you're supposed to do every time). time and time again, I've been blinded more often by people with halogen bulbs and even the ones with OE HID systems, than with HID kits.

you are making a generalized assumption.

when I was still using the Pathfinder, I found that two of the three kits I used had very sharp cut offs with the light focused directly in front of me. The third did not. This is why it is important to actually pay attention to what you buy. The only reason I went through three kits was the bulbs themselves failed after a while. I do evening deliveries, so none of my bulbs (HID or halogen) last very long due to constantly switching on and off.

The ONLY thing that determines this cutoff is the shield. You can see it in the H4 halogen bulb... it's a tiny cup on one side of one of the two filaments. On Bi-xenon kits, it's a half cylinder encompassing the capsule, with a hole that uses solenoid controlled, smaller "shield" that moves to provide high beam. In OE HIDs, it flips up/down... they all do the same thing, prevent light from shinning off the bottom half of the reflector, or in the case of the projectors, prevents light already shinning on the bottom half from getting to the lens.

Again, people don't pay attention to what they buy... some buy the single beam kits that lack the shield. others buy the hi-lo kits that ALSO lack the shield. And because the housing itself doesn't have a low beam shield, you essentially get a high beam pattern.

And just as your post proves... this gives rise to plenty of people who have NOT tried to bother finding a decent kit... if you've even had any experience at all.

I have HIDs in my Fit too, but I also have an H1 projector. Which means that I don't have to be as picky about the bulbs themselves (though they can still pose a problem).

As for the higher kelvin being "dimmer"... they are still brighter than halogens. In any amount of sunlight, you won't notice the higher kelvin HIDs, because the color is more easily disguised by sunlight, unlike the low kelvin HID or standard halogen, which are more distinctly yellow. Then again, if there's that much sunlight, headlights aren't really helping, even if you notice the halogens more. But at night, things light up more noticeably by the HIDs, especially if the surface is designed to be reflective (like signs along the highway).

With the 10k HIDs I was using, I saw signs "light up" much further away than any halogen could. Its great for seeing lane markers and the reflectors in-between.

 

not really an argument...more of an attempt to make more folks aware of what they're doing. i'm hoping everyone out there has a grandma or two that they care about.

now i don't know how it is in your area but in cali, PnP kits are an epidemic. all of the other factors you pointed out are true but at least in my area, PnP kits are the most common culprit.

yes, when folks have their highs on all the time or they don't aim their lights, they do cause glare. that may be an oversight on their part. but...when folks install HID kits in their reflectors, they know exactly that they cause tons of glare for other drivers. there's negligence and then there's intent.

and yes, OEM systems also cause glare but at a far lesser rate than PnP kits. if an S2000 hits a bump, they'll hit the car in front of them with a bright beam for a moment. when a 93 civic with a PnP kit has their beams on, it's in other driver's eyes ALL THE TIME.

 

Ahh..yes. I am generalizing as 90% or more people that buy pnps will not continue to buy different kits until they find the one that has the best cutoff and beam pattern. They will simply buy the cheapest kit out that gives them "madz bloo litez yo!". props to you for actually caring about output but you are in the minority.

Secondly, I can assure you that I know quite a bit about hids. Ive done several projector retrofits and I am currently running trs mini h1 bixenons. I have a pair of fxr's waiting for the minis to fail but they are still running strong.

By the way, I have yet to see a pnp in a reflector to match a stock beam pattern and I have seen quite a few.

 

i respect you as one of the most helpful and informed members on FF. i've seen you take your time to really help people out with their questions. but i'll disagree with you on this subject.

i don't want to say that all HID in reflectors are terrible. there's the 1st gen lexus IS and quite a few volvos that have their designs right. but they're designed with the consideration of beam intensity and arc placement of the bulbs. arc placement from an HID bulb differs from a halogen bulb quite drastically. i've only learned this from hours spent on HIDplanet.com. those folks know their stuff.

now you say that some kits may be better than others...i'll admit it's true to a degree. you've admitted that you went through a few kits, i suppose i can argue that you could have gone with a proper kit from TRS for that same money and would have been happy with a projector that put the light in the right place and didn't harm other drivers. i will agree that this subject is not "black and white". some OEM headlights may even take to HID kits better and have an "OK" cutoff. at the end of the day, they still glare and they just aren't designed for HID bulbs. you lit up signs further than any halogen could, think about what the drivers in front of you are seeing.

again, please don't take this as a criticism of you because i think you're a lot more intelligent than the other 99% of folks on this site. i just wanted to share my experiences and opinions after having gone through the PnP route and the retrofit route.

 

Like I said, I went through three kits because I burned them out. I highly doubt even the TRS HID systems would've lasted me much longer, if at all. In fact, I went HID because I was burning out halogen bulbs too quickly, and was hoping the HIDs would last longer. Only to find to my dismay, the culprit isn't just being on, but the on/off nature of deliveries. Heating up and cooling off a bulb ten times or more a day will kill a bulb rather quickly.

 

May be 6k is dangerous to others because of white tint in that but I guess 4300 is safe as its color is same of day light . You could replace that with of 4300K.

 

4300K in a reflector bowl is still too much for the optics of the bowl and it will blind others.

 

As I said In comparison to 6k , 4300k is safer as its color matches to day light..

 

legal: no, not in any state

quality of light: sucks. marginally better when placed behind a halogen projector.

quality of kit: ive never had good luck with aftermarket kits. theyve all sucked balls in the quality department.

the oem cars that had hid's and no projector had specially designed reflectors for the lights. they had a cutoff and no hotspots.
obviously cars that have oem hid's adn projectors are that much better.

if you want HIDs, do a retrofit with OEM parts. is this legal? no. but 99% of people will have no idea they werent oem. as far as inspection goes, not sure how that works in your state. i never had a problem passing isnpection with my retrofits in NY. (fx35 projectors, and toyota/lexus ballasts)

4300k is the standard HID light. comes in all oem cars w/ HIDs.

 

I'm sorry you've had such a bad experience. When calling around, look for a company who takes the time to talk to you about your questions and answers the phone when you call. I agree with you that most of these companies lack customer support but there are a few still around that pride themselves in their product and support.

Yes aftermarket HID kits are illegal, HOWEVER, you need to take that statement with a grain of salt and here's why. Anything you put on your car that does not come from the dealership can be considered illegal. Now this could range from car stereos to rims to purple headlights. The question is how you presented it. Take this scenario for example.

Your CD player breaks in your car so instead of "going to the dealership" you go to the local car stereo shop and buy a new CD player to replace your broken one and that's it. A cop pulls you over for speeding 2 weeks later. He comes to your window and tells you how fast you were going. He writes you a ticket. He doesn't harass you about the new CD player installed on your car right?

Now play this scenario out again except this time instead of just replacing the CD player when it broke you decided to get the CD player as well as 2 15" subwoofers for the whole block to hear you. So this time not only does the cop stop you for speeding but he also writes you a noise ordinance ticket because your shaking the windows on houses.

Last take this scenario and now put it towards your HID lights. A headlight bulb goes out and you decide you want to upgrade your lighting so instead of "going to the dealership" you call one of these HID companies and do it that way. You stay within the "safe zone" and the kit works great and looks great. Now you get pulled over 2 weeks later for speeding. The cop doesn't harass you for your white HID lights. What he writes a ticket for is when your A. Blinding everyone on the road because your calibration is very wrong or B. you have purple, green or blue headlights installed on your car.

This is why 85% of consumers will go with a kelvin range between 4300k-8000k. This is whats called the "safe zone" area. These are your colors ranging from a factory yellow to a light blue. The other 15% go in the range of 10000k-12000k which is a dark blue to light purple. Beyond that is where you start getting into true colors meaning no white mixed in at all. The green, really dark blue and purple lights I was talking about earlier is a prime example. Now even a 10000k can project a darker blue color. and 12000k will either project a light purple or really dark blue just depending on what company you are purchasing from.

 

lol..serious?
im bored..so ill waste my time replying to your spam post though.
your point is 100% invalid...cant even compare.

i dont know the last time i got a CD player that said "for offroad use only" on the box. im confident in sayign all HID kits say that.
the DOT riles is what makes having HID kits illegal. ANY modification/"upgrades" to a vehicle lighting is illegal.
a stereo is 100% legal.
noise pollution is illegal. jsut cause oyu have a radio doesnt mean you have to blast it to wake up teh neighbors.
but when you have HIDs and its dark..you have to use them