Has Anyone Noticed How Cheap HIDs are Getting?
 

Just what the title says! Getting a "group buy", I'm picking up 4 sets of HID's, one for each bike, one for my car, one for TeamPlur's "silvia", for under $400, shipped, and that's paying extra for slim ballasts. Two of those are mechanical shuttered bi-xenon, too. OMG!

I'll let you know how it turns out in the end, but seriously, that's no bad. 50 watts, and I am getting (some of them at least) in 5000k so they aren't all blue and getting attention of the cops.
-Abe.

Not posting the link of your GB = Fail

Just be careful if you live in a Cold area. I put a set in my Subaru last year and they did not even last the winter here in Toronto. The cold weather seemed to kill the bulbs.
They were a $350 set which I purchase from a dealer in Cali.

a bunch of friends are running cheap ass 60 dollar hid kits around here with no problems. most have had them for over 2 years...im getting them sons of bitches soon, even if they crap out after a year or 2 for 60 bux shipped its still worth it.

The best part about living in NY, headlights are pretty much useless.

I ordered a set of Xentec HIDs for 80 bucks a couple of months ago, just waiting for it now lol.

iv had a set in my miata since i bought it, i love hid and will never drive a car at night with out them

how would you say HID look on the 90-97 miata with the frog eyes? do they light up the road well? do they blind other drivers? i have the hella 90w bulbs and they seem fine but i would like more light for the mountain roads. please take Pictures of some miatas with HID with pop up lights thanks. i would also like to see from the drivers point of view.

how bought you search. it's been done

If i'm ever in Cali and i see you with HID's in your stock 99/00 headlights.. i'm going to kick you in the nuts.:bang:

I don't mind my current crappy '99 $7 headlamps (non-HID). Maybe I just have good night vision but they don't bother me any. I'd like better headlamps but I don't really care. I would rather have good backup lamps, can't see jack when reversing with my windows as tinted as they are.

+1

Keep HIDs in projectors please...

I will, however, sell you a set of 99/00 headlights for cheap so you can put projectors in them.

Word. I need halogen backup lights.

FWIW I am running the Sylvania Silverstar Ultras. They are expensive but work well, and are of course optically correct compared to an HID retrofit. Durability is another story. It is too soon to tell on that.

Personally I hate those glaring HIDs with a crap retrofit. When they are coming at me I let them have it with my brights if no one else is caught in the crossfire.

I ran the super fancy SilverstarrrRRr's. They lasted me about 30 hours of use. Then one died. Same week, the other died. Finally replaced them both. Both died again after ~30 hours. Put the $7 bulbs back in and gave up. I don't know what the solution is, but it's not Silverstars. I have a set of projectors I'd like to retrofit into the stock housings. Maybe one day.

Yep, two are going in bikes. One of those bikes has projectors, so no worried there for sure. The other, the lights are so bad, I'm afraid to ride at night.

The miata, well, I'm going to see how they look. I'm hoping the mechanically shuttered HID's with actual H4 bulbs will have a good pattern. if they don't, then they go away.

I want to do a projector conversion, I really do, but I have a feeling if I adjust them carefully and keep them low, it should be ok. I'm certainly NOT out to blind anyone, I don't want anyone who's not inside my car to know I have HIDs. I do like good lights, though, being in a friend's car with them, or having a friend ride behind me on a bike with them, makes me realize what I'm missing.

These are all 50W kits, not 35, the $60-80 kits sound like 35W. If I get them and like them, I'll put together a group buy, but I don't want to commit a bunch of people on something I don't know is good under real world testing.

As a general rule, just cause you pay more, you're not getting better. These kits I'm looking at are made under ISO9001, CE and even ROHS... :-) For ~$100 shipped, I don't feel too bad about it. I found some cheaper, but I just get a good feeling about this one. Time will tell.

Anyone have any projectors from a 2001 they want to sell to me for basically free?

Hey if they work and project properly I am interested, but only if. Let us know how they work out.

A couple of my friends had that exact same problem, they went through bulbs crazy fast, to the tune of every month. I find that strange considering I had them in my Eclipse for a year with no problems, and another friend of mine has had them in his WRX for a few years with no problems. Strange.

I have a set of Xentecs I got second hand (but new in box) for around 80$ two years ago. They've been installed in my E-Codes for a while and I'm VERY satisfied with them!

Yeah even the good quality HID aftermarket kits are really coming down in price. Recently I purcahsed through the Mazda6club a set of Apexcone/DDM (LIFETIME WARRANTY ON WHOLE SYSTEM!!!!) for 130$ shipped, but an extra 25$ of that was for a premade relay wiring harness. Bought those for my 2000 Protege.

When I bought the Protege I noticed the lights were really dim, and one of the connectors was melting on the bulb. Replaced the bulbs with those shitty silverstars and they lasted 4 days and the drivers burn out. Replaced it, the passenger burnt out the next day. Got another full set of cheap lights, they burnt out. In all I've spent nearly 150$ in HALOGEN headlight bulbs for that fucking car, so I decided to cut my losses and buy the Apexcone HID setup. 4500k and they're perfect looking, almost identical color to my Mazdaspeed6's stock lights.

For temp, I don't know about up north but here in Kansas it gets down pretty cold sometimes and I never had an issue with bulbs going out. But, pretty cold to me is like 2*F and it doesn't stay that way for long.

you are an angry little guy arent ya? lol

First of all, I dont have hid's yet. second of all, I have projectors off an 07 wrx waiting to be retrofitted into the headlights, for when that time comes. So unless you want to get shot id save the nutkicking for some ricer jackass and how about we go out for drinks, hell Ill buy you a beer: maybe itl calm you down enough to show me your dope ride:)

That's doubly just what I wanted to hear. I want to have no more thinking about my lighting. Also, the guy was out of 5000K bulbs, and while I was going to go for 6000k over 4300, he did have 4500s, which I took. I hope they are just brighter-but-stock like. Plus, the lower temp bulbs output more light, nothing I will complain about.

I'll definitely let everyone know.

Two things come to mind:
1) The mounting is not very solid, increased vibration from a light car with stiff suspension hitting bumps shakes the elements up
2) They don't "breath" well, and the whole set up gets hot.

My NB ones haven't been bad, only, the left one was dim, and it turned out the contacts were loose. Also, it was pointed way low, unmounting and remounting seems to have helped a ton! Now that they both line up perfect, I can't wait to throw better bulbs in it. Going to leave them just a bit low, so when the trunk is full I don't blind folks.

Woah there killer... i was just giving ya the typical overly snide .net kinda reply :bowrofl: But a beer does sound nice right about now. Oh, mark your calender for next years FM Open House.. i'll be there and it's not *that* far from Ca (i'll be driving from Atlanta)
I am serious about selling you a set of 99-00 headlight for cheap so you can experiment on one set... if you feel the need that is.

I will try on my stockers, if I fuck them up you will be the first to hear from me lol

this just reminded me of how much i hate the stock lights ... :mad: i think ill go for the hella ecode lights with 100w/80w bulbs next time i get $80 i dont need. Then if i want more may consider one of them ebay kits. Anyone know if its possible to buy just the housing without bulbs for a significant discount?

I have been looking at a set of HID for my car, anyone know why some kits come with a fuse and relay harness vs a direct plug and play setup. I searched for hid wiring diagrams in google and it seems the kits with the relay and fuse harness feed power direct from the battery in addition to connecting to the stock wiring system. The argument for doing this is that on start up the HID's draw a higher current than a halogen bulb and so this puts less stress on the stock wiring.

You guys buy this? I'm just trying to decide if I should be looking for a kit with a relay harness or just one of the plug and play kits.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about.

http://www.torontocivics.com/articles/lights/dia2.jpg

pnp all the way imo

Our harnesses don't seem to have a problem dealing with startup current. My first Xentech kit was PnP, my current K-Light kit had to be hardwired through the fuse box, not a big deal either way.

I think what I've seen is the 'single beam' kits are PnP - since they are on or off. The mechanically switched ones want to stay on the whole time (i.e. power from the batter) but use the factory harness for the signal of which position to be in.

Probably it wouldn't really like being switched on and off rapidly (as in flashing your brights) if the power to it were being stopped for a fraction of a second often?

That's kinda a guess, but I do know that the single beam kits don't come with relays and the duals do, at least from a couple of suppliers I talked to.

Is it possible to get in on this group buy? I'd like to get 2 sets myself.

Sure, if you trade me your headlights, I'll get you my '00 ones with HID's in them!

Otherwise, wait a bit and see how these come out, I have to see if I like this guy before doing something like this.

HIDs from Chinabay Review
 

First off, I want to say, these headlights are the bomb. Kinda like adding a low boost turbo, it's not.. ridiculous, life changing, but it's much much better in a nearly subconscious way. You know you COULD go back, but you know you'd be unhappy and that truthfully you're spoiled from here on out.

Points:
1) The install, went pretty well. There's not a lot to it. The blinders were the wrong style, but it came with another set which I used (two screws, though they are ultra small torx like you'd use on a cell phone). Running the wires was no big deal. The ballasts fit handily (thanks TeamPlur for the suggestion) *under* the headlights, and don't seem to need any additional securing. Run the power from the alternator, and the signal from one of the headlight plugs. Everything is all plug and play from there on out, no crimping or nothing, everything is keyed so it's (almost) impossible to screw it up. It was slightly hard to get the springs over the bulbs, easily added 5-10 seconds PER SIDE to the install.

2) The cut off is fine. It's not ultra hairline sharp like I was expecting, but it's not ugly. I didn't get any a single person flashing me, driving funny to avoid lights, etc. I checked on several walls, alleyways, etc, and everything looked fine. Standing a few feet in in front of the car in the garage, I only got a bit of glare right from one little spot, not the whole housing, and I'm certain normal halogens would have been easily as bad. It's flat left to right, with just a bit of much dimmer stuff high and well right of your lane, which is splotchy and not strong at all, it was hard to notice it except when specifically looking for it. I only even see it on the road. this is all without any adjusting of any kind. The bulbs are pointed a little too far down, but the extra range provided by the added intensity offsets the direction change, and you end up seeing a bit further with the low beams than you would with too-high low halogen beams.

3) The light pattern is NOT homogeneous. There is certainly some darker spots in the pattern. I thought for a moment this would bother me - but actually, it doesn't. Not at all. On the road, these narrow bands of 'only very bright' in the sea of super-bright don't detract from anything. The horizontal cut off was just fine - I was worried it would be too low, but I like having the extra margin of not-blinding people safety.

4) The color is wonderful! I wanted 5000k bulbs, but they were out so I ended up with 4500k. The color is really interesting. It's as close to sunlight as I could imagine? I guess this makes a certain sense, the peak might be red shifted, but they it will better follow the red part of the spectrum and not overdo the blue. Two examples:
I pulled up to a car, caught the reflection in it's bumper (the bumper was low). I could see the sunlight reflecting in the headlight cavity, then off the bumper, brightly. But then when I turned off the lights, the "reflection" went away.
The other is my having forgotten my lights on at work for a few hours. Thankfully, at only 50W, the lights didn't drain down the battery.

5) The high/low switching typically has a small delay you're not generally aware of - as the new element heats up. Since these bulbs use a shade and a moving bulb, there IS no delay. Nothing turns on, or warms up, the light merely shifts (quickly! Fraction of a second, under 200 ms?) from the high to the low position, or vise versa. Its one of those things you wouldn't know was broken till you saw it fixed. Additionally, although it's minor, there's no additional current draw when you switch to the high beams, even at idle, the engine won't "catch".

6) The brights are... GLORIOUS. They are amazing. I can't stress this enough. And with the 0 time penalty for switching back and forth, I found myself using the switch constantly on the curvy ride home from work. The low beams are entirely adequate to keep you from feeling like you need to slow down because it is dark, while the high beams light up points of interest so far down the road, you're ALWAYS looking at the next turn, regardless of where it is. The light is high, seems to be chest level, all the way down the street. The first time I had the brights on I knew I could never go back - and that I had no regrets, and would never buy another halogen again.

Overall impressions:
I'm totally in love with these lights. There's positively no reason not to do this, unless you just plain don't have the money. I don't know how they work on dirty lenses, since I polished them days before, and have been running high end halogens since. I'm sure a factory, projector system would be better (although I don't think I would want the sort which turns on one bulb in favor of another, but rather the moving arc is the way to go.

I might want to run them a bit longer (and I'll be out of town for a week so no driving)... But I can say that I feel I can recommend these, considering the cost and the performance. I will post some photos next week of the beam pattern, range, and cut off. I *might* run one halogen to compare them, but, I might not.

If there is interest in a group buy, and I don't find something unexpected and wrong with these, I'll try to arrange something. Expect them to be in the ballpark of $100 +/-20. Slim balasts are available, but based on how one is performing on my bike I might not recommend it, there's flicking after I first turn them on. I should also be able to compare the 6000k to the 4500k.

Leave anything out? :)

I'd be "in" if you do a group buy. Gonna need some pics though. :)

Abe do you have a 99+ and used the stock housing or what?

Yep, bone stock 00.

Great report, thanks. It sounds to me like they are a viable solution.

Updates Abe?

Interest piqued.
How much would 01 lamp assemblies from the junkyard cost?
How ugly would they fit?

HID Xenon Kits, HID Bulbs, HID Accessories

Best prices I have found.

oh yeah, I'm totally happy with this. A few things I'll point out - I don't like the slim kits. It could be the wiring.. Motorcycles don't supply a lot of juice, but they come on slow/weak if at all, then some seconds after turning on, they "flash" several times. I assume they are trying to avoid some under/over current situation, but.. basically I am not sure I'd want the "projector" style lamps. Anything that turns the bulb on and off isn't as good.

The H-4 style, "single bulb" works excellently. The hi/lo change is very fast. I'm still totally happy with the color, the light output, the pattern. My biggest two complaints - when it's overcast you can't tell where your lights are shining since the color match with the sunlight is so good. The other complaint (this one is actually a bad thing, unlike the other which is merely interesting) - sometimes roadsigns will reflect back SO much light as to hurt your view of the less reflective road.

Er, I guess I'd feel totally ok if people wanted these on a group buy, I have no problems with the system at all. The slim ballasts might be ok on a car, and weigh a bit less, but the regular size stores nicely under the bulb itself. I guess folks tell me if there interested in the ~$100-120 range per pair, and I'll see if I can get the guy to go any lower.

(edit: That's shipped (presumably), with full wiring harness, fuse, relay, etc)

are they legit? If so I will prob get a set.

Yeah - I dunno, I read it, and it's tempting but I can't say I really trust it either. I will say (I noticed this on my bikes' "slim ballast" kits - they make the ballast small but then add a starter box. So it's not really smaller, but harder to deal with. I don't think I would get those again.

They did quote some start up specs which seems ok.
-Abe.

Apexcone 35W/55W Full Size Ballast HID Kit

Thats what ill prob get, with the 55w housing, its only $15 more. They say it has a life time Warranty, and the reviews I found online were pretty good. If I get em ill report back for sure.

our bulbs are h4 size correct?

Assuming you still have the stock headlights in your '93, they are 7" sealed beams, and not compatible with any of the common aftermarket bulbs. Sealed beam means that the whole thing is one big sealed assembly- the housing, the front glass, and the filaments. You can't replace just the lamp.

First, you would need to upgrade to a set of 7" housings which can accommodate H4 lamps. These are the ones I (any many others here) have, and they are very high quality. They have the Euro pattern, which is what provides that sharp horizontal cutoff line, and are well built.

Other folks have bought housings off eBay, with varying results. 7" is a popular motorcycle size, so there are tons of them out there. In particular, folks seems to have has extremely bad things to say about the so-called projector conversion (example) both in terms of the light output, and in terms of them literally falling apart.

Hard to go wrong with Hellas though. They're OEM on a lot of cars, and you ever notice which brand is on all the Trophy Trucks running Baja 1000?

Yes, this is legit. My friend ordered from them recently.

I bet that 40 dollar kit they sell is just as good as the 60 dollar one.

thank you joe and sam, I might do this.

anyone try these?

eBay Motors: OBX Euro Sealed Beam Diamond Reflector Headlamp 7" (item 180305718171 end time Jan-09-09 12:46:01 PST)

Well, the seller is definitely confused. The title says that they are sealed-beam headlights, however the picture shows a pair of H4 housings.

Further, the clear front lens, while pretty, prevents these housings from having anything resembling a sharp pattern, and they look like they're made of plastic, not glass. My guess is that they'll probably throw a very diffuse beam, and perform somewhat worse than even the stock headlights, regardless of what lamps you put in them.

If you want to convert to H4 reflectors, trust me- spend the extra few bucks and get Hella E-codes.

I have a long ass thread about this on here somewhere. The ebay lamps suck. Get the hella e-codes. I got mine at a good price from Bill @ miataroadster.com. I used the H4 HID/Halogen Hi/Lo kit, and got a funny reflection from the halogen capsule. I suspect that the Lo only kit would be much better.


Thanks for the link. I picked up 3 different conversion kits from these guys this afternoon. DON'T get the 50w kit if you're not running projectors!
;

i had a nice H4 conversion on my KZ1000, and I loved it. Totally worth every penny to get a good one.

I don't see what's wrong with a 50W kit, I have them, they are fantastic, and I've driven around following people asking them if my lights bothered them, never any complaints. Cops don't mind. They are just very bright.

alright thanks guys Ill save the money then!

As much as I know they're probably of poor workmanship, I find myself constantly tempted to try a set of eBay projectors such as these: eBay Motors: 7" ROUND PROJECTOR HEADLIGHTS CONVERSION KIT H6024 H4 (item 110329342808 end time Jan-21-09 10:02:13 PST)

From the look of it, it seems that they are taking cheap, plastic reflector-style housings and retrofitting them with projector lenses. While the reflector section may be crap, if the projection optics are any good then it shouldn't matter.

The only thing that puzzles me about them is that I've never seen a combination hi-lo projector headlight, at least in an OEM application. I wonder if the design of the sleeve is such that the reflector section is in fact active in hi-beam mode?

For $30, it'd almost be worth trying just so I can A/B one of them to my Hella E-codes.

I think Ben, tried them once. Might wanna talk to him.

I would love to hear about them.


Also, do you think I should go with the $40 35w kitt or the $60 55w kit? Is the extra wattage really much better?

U going to get the relay harness to go with the ddm hid kit? Some kits include the relay harness but it seems these ones don't come with it.

im pretty sure they do.


I might just get those ebay lights joe posted..

all this talk about HID's wants me to order the h4 conversion from Susquehanna MotorSports - Detail and order the HID's too but my cars not even running yet lol. im lame :crx:

I had some of those back in the day, except they had the "angel eyes"
gay as hell... If only I knew then what I know now.
Anyway they melted after about a month or so.. totally plastic and totally worthless.
I did eventually find some similar to the E codes on ebay for like 40 shipped... Someday I will upgrade them to the HIDs