Received and installed my set of headlights from hidkitpros on Wednesday. I'm glad to report back that I will be keeping them as the Morimoto XBs are an overall improvement over the stock halogen lights.
I can't speak to the output compared to HID kits in the stock housings but the light output of these are definitely better than stock. Although the stock housings weren't at all bad looking, I feel like the XBs also improve the overall exterior aesthetics with the darkened housings. The switchback turn signals are also a nice touch.
As others have noted, I can also confirm there are some darker areas at the sides near the car fender areas. The majority of my driving at night have been with the fog lights off and I can see just fine. Running the OEM fogs fill everything out nicely if the dark areas are an annoyance. Not life/death as others have made it out to be.
Some questions for the others who have been running the Morimotos for a while...
- The step to hardwire the DRL harness to the battery was initially omitted on my car and, although there was no noticeable difference, I installed the harness later for piece of mind. What's does running the DRL harness to the battery accomplish?
- I needed exactly three turns to raise the low beam height. If you can recall, how much vertical adjustment was needed to raise the low beams to the height of the stock housings?
Here are some pictures and road test video. The start of the video is on a dark street with no street lights then transitions into a neighborhood with curves in both directions.
Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uszJtpVrp_w
Before
After
With DRLs on
No fogs
With fogs