HID Bulb Upgrade
 

So I am going to upgrade to HID bulbs. I know I need the ballasts but would anyone recommend a brand that is cheap? I want to be able to have HIDs in high and low beam. Do I need two sets of bulbs or one special HID bulb?

If you're planning to drop them in your reflector housing I suggest not to. However if that's what you desire then go 35 watt and Kensun is a good relatively cheap brand. Their ballast don't flicker like most cheap brands and are made out of metal. DDM tuning is also pretty good as well

Innovited AC 55W HID Kit H4 H7 H11 H13 9003 9005 9006 9007 6000K Hi Lo Bi Xenon | eBay

edit; just realized that is the 55w kit. That company but as I said, I'd agree with the 35w kit comments.

I run these on my civic, they are VERY bright! I have never even needed hi-beams with these.

Their customer service is excellent. I got a set where only one ballast bi-beam function was working, I emailed them and within 48 hours I had another kit in my mailbox.

I found them by doing lot's of Amazon review reading, it's cheaper to get them on ebay. I agree about using the 35w kit, I use the 55w kit in my civic and I get hi-beamed pretty often and we aimed them low, with proper housings. They are just SUPER BRIGHT so the wieners on the road who don't understand staring at lights blinds you, have an issue with it.

I buy the KENSUN stuff.
Always have good luck and great service had a bad ballast and they sent me two new ones free!

If you are going to run HIDs in the reflector housings, you will deserve to have your headlight busted out.
Retrofit them with projectors or leave them alone.

Being able to see while driving at night is priceless, however, blinding everyone else on the road is just plain wrong. Save a little money then when ready to do it right, do the projector conversion trust me in the long run you will be pleased with that decision.

I don't understand what you're getting at with this comment. Assuming you DO understand staring at lights blinds you, then why would you put them on your car?

Obviously you don't. Let me elaborate unless this was an attempt at humor?

Yes, staring at a light blinds you. If I didn't "understand" this, I'd be blind running CNC plasma for 9 years without shaded lenses ever at sub-12" distances daily. The reason is where the person CHOOSES to stare or place their eyes. Do you get that part?

I have a 2014 Corolla S. The car has FACTORY Toyota LED headlights. I haven't driven that car ONCE at night without being flashed. Is that my fault? The housing is designed for it, the cutoff is where it should be, the reason is where people CHOOSE to stare! If you can't manage to drive down the road without staring at my car/truck like a deer, that isn't my problem.

My Civic lights are probably about as bright as the Corolla. The cutoff was measured, the light doesn't scatter, the housing is correct. People have a hard time in life. Just like loud car's are speeding car's. See the point?

Hope that helped out? No matter what, a bright bulb that illuminates the road well at night, is going to piss those same people off. The headlight height is higher, it projects from a worse position no matter what if you choose to STARE into the bulb.

Funny you mention the new corolla as I've noticed there's something up with those lights too. I can always tell its a corolla coming at me. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a recall on those in the future.

So your position is that I'm an idiot and if I don't like it I shouldn't look towards your headlights. Those pesky laws regulating headlights are arbitrary and you've got all the answers. Carry on then. I'll just close my eyes as I approach you. If I happen to run into you, well sorry- any idiot knows that you shouldn't get hit by a truck so it's your fault for being in front of me.

Yea I'm sorry but any "drop in" HID to a halogen designed reflector housing will scatter light. Period. It doesn't matter how low they are aimed they are not designed to for an HID bulb and will throw light into oncoming traffic.

Staring at that light directly or not will affect the human eye, ever wonder why the doc shines that pen light at your eye while you stare at the wall past him. Its to check your pupil reaction/constriction. The pupils will constrict when all the extra scattered light is coming in oncoming traffic and therefore effect ("blind") anyone driving the opposite direction.

If you like to drive around blinding people that's your choice, but I'd rather not have 3000lb rolling wrecking balls driving at me at speed.

Have YOU ever considered that maybe in your smaller compacts you aren't in fact getting flashed by oncoming traffic but approaching a vehicle that has proper projectors and cut offs that maybe just hit a bump in the road and since your civic gets flashed all the time for having drop in HID's you're just rustled.

HIDs are great. I love my HIDs. I also love having my cut offs and projectors to properly aim and distribute my HID light so as to not distract/blind/restrict oncoming traffic vision to make everyone safer.

Adding an edit; I'm a smartass. It comes out frequently. However, if you hit me head on cause you can't avoid the blinding mass approaching your face, that makes YOU the shitty driver not me. The sun is bright too, do you only drive at night? Haha.

Luckily you guys are in different states then me, so we should all be safe here at this table. Let me get this straight though..

Toyota released a factory car, that has LED bulbs. You notice out of every car on the road, I'M BLIND IT'S A COROLLA?!?! YEP!

I have no reason to plead my case here. You guys can nitpick, use examples of optometrist lights almost touching your eyeball to a damn headlight on my car, bumps in the road being high beam flashes, I'm not elderly, I know what's happening. I have retrofit housings on 2 cars, my Civic included. I "paid to play" as they say.

I don't agree with blinding people. I hate the $20 ebay kit's in a stock housing just as much as the next guy. However, my point was missed in general. There ARE PEOPLE OUT THERE, who no matter what will high beam a bright light. BMW, Audi, Mercedes, ANYTHING with bright lights that are factory, will get a flash if you encounter the people who can't approach a vehicle without feeling as though the grim reaper is coming.

They are widely released and out there on the streets. They are all bright, my 06 Acura TL use to get flashed, factory lights. My 2012 Mustang GT had $700 factory HID's, they got flashed. My Corolla is the devil so we will ignore that one, it will be recalled as the one exception to all cars. So many brands now, even Kia/Hyundai's have HID lights or LED now I've seen. If ALL these lights bug people so much, they need to start road blocking the streets to keep us all safe.

Otherwise, like I implied. People will flash you cause they aren't able to divert their eyes, from whatever housing/bulb/dilated pupils, whatever case or dysfunction applies, even in the "proper housing".

When you're driving down the road and a car is coming at you with brights on, are you suggesting we should be looking off in the woods? Because that's the only way to avoid being blinded.

Putting HIDs into reflector housings is a bad idea. You're getting hi-beamed because you deserve it!

With $500 retrofit housings and FACTORY hid/led housings now that is "the brights on"?

Jesus christ, reading comprehension ain't what it use to be. You guys should do a group buy for welders helmets on here so you can all navigate the roads safely.

I will drive and keep getting flashed. Apparently it's gonna happen and then I can await the chance to sue the shit out of Ford, Acura, Toyota and all the other car's I've had where this happened.

Starting off Friday optimistic :banana:

For being so crass on the boards you really don't take different opinions well, and the fact that you threaten people over a discussion forum is silly, but you keep doing you bud.

You were also never clear that you had projectors in your Civic.

Sounds like the area you live in is concentrated in dicks... from what I read.

I've had my projectors in my lifted daily driven 4Runner for 2 years and never been flashed once.

Just my 0.02.


But to get back on topic:
To answer OP (@skier46er, didn't want you to miss this) directly though, to have a high and low beam function you MUST have a projector as HID bulbs only have on/off. The high/low beam function is only controlled through the adjustment of the cutoff shield within a bi-xenon projector housing that allows more light to be sent through the lense.

FX-R projectors or something similar will work for your need.

Hey, did you guys know that Toyota recalled FJs in 2013? Guess why? The headlights were too bright!