Johnny2003TL-S

Hi, my headlight is loaded with water, 03TL-S. Ballast is certainly blown. I'm going to get an aftermarket headlight, HID Conversion kit, and replace all bulbs. What is the difference between a $30 HID Kit and a $100 one? I'm looking at blindinghid.com(99-120 bucks). I do see the ones on Ebay for $30. It's kind of hard for me to trust that. Can you suggest a good brand for the HID Kit? Also a good aftermarket headlight (I see ones for $80-$100) Thanks!!

victus1

I use the Morimoto brand from TRS source. Very high quality, waterproof, real 5-yr warranty on ballasts & bulbs....excellent customer service.
Of course, the best quality HID is the OEM Matashuta & Denso tuff. TRS sells the oem ballasts & bulbs at amazing prices.
If you wanna see what the $30 kits are all about, just google all the complaints about them.

01tl4tl

the oe stuff sucks big time

www,hidextra.com the 35 watt $59 `kit` has 2 new ballast, 2 new ignitors in the power cord to bulb and 2 new quality bulbs= everything you can replace!
get 5000k color bulbs for best to see road with
they even have a 10% coupon
why so cheap -= they are the importer/maker of the parts that others resell at a higher price

used by many ziners, all you have to do is cut off the old connector of power to ballast,
splice or add connectors- 2 wires to new ballast on each side ,,easy diy

we dont need any other parts or bits, we have HID already, just replacing its parts
with waterproof, smaller, modern pieces

laff66

Ive seen the 5000K's recommended many times, can you tell me if they are much different in appearance than the stock 4300? I've got a new headlight coming to match the other one that appears to have been replaced recently and am considering the hidextra changeover while I'm in there.
I'm not looking to get the really blue or purple look, and if it truly makes the headlights work better it would be worth it to me.

yungone501

iTrader: (4)

The difference between a $30 HID kit and a $100 kit is generally the quality of components used inside, quality of design, warranty and customer service. You buy a $30 kit and you might as well buy three kits because that's how many you're going to need to get and kind of use out of them.

The member above that mentioned both Morimoto and theretrofitsource.com (TRS) is dead on in advice. They have been by far the best brand we've used at the shop in the 15 years of serving/retrofitting HID lighting systems. And TRS is unarguably just as reputable as the products they sale. I've been dealing with Matt for a few years now and can't complain about one sale.

As for the difference in 5000k and 4300k color temperatures, 4300k is the factory color they install in almost every car from the factory and produces a slightly yellowish light as well as carry the most light output in regards to luminosity. The 5000k color is almost pure white and has slightly less lumens but not enough to notice from 4300. I personally use 5000k in all my cars because the white light seems to be easier on my eyes at night and looks much better than the factory yellow look. If you have projectors it also has a much more colorful band at the cutoff line.

Look into Sylvania Silverstar HID bulbs as they give more up to 20% more output and are extremely white in color. They are the BEST bulbs ever produced by a long measure. And for the ballast, Morimoto offers both a 35W and a 55W ballast. Go with the 35W ballast as the 55W is just way too bright and becomes a safety issue plus it will lower the bulbs life expectancy due to overdriving it with high temperatures.

01tl4tl

35 watt is stock
4300 has some blue when you look at them
5000 more blue looking, with lots of white light in front of car to see objects with!
6000 way more blue--loses white on road, but does pick up lane lines and road signs really well
not very good in the rain to see road with- in my experience

I ran 6000k, Kaixen (very high quality) for a few years and thought the blue was great
then I had to install the HID kit -moisture killed ballast etc,
running short of time resulted in a 6000 on left and 5000 on right side
A true side by side test!
hands down the 5000 are a better choice

they look plenty blue to oncoming traffic, while higher than 6 will get you pulled over
purple lights are not legal and have no real useable light on the road

01tl4tl

if you get silverstars make sure they are the correct HID -number will be D2r or D2s
but NOT H4 or similar,,those are regular bulbs filled with halogen gas,,
not High Intensity DISCHARGE

20,000 volts versus 12 volts...wrong bulbs dont last long! pop!

BUT I suggest the www.hidextra.com kit for $59 (look for 10% coupon too)
which comes with new bulbs
many of us in gen2 are running them,,call and tell them acurazine sent you

laff66

Thanks for all the great advice. Amazes me to see how many times people have avoided costly mistakes or saves money on experimentation strictly due to the efforts u guys put into this forum....
Just to clarify, you mentioned the 5000's are more blue but there's plenty of white light? And Yungone mentioned 5000 has less lumens but he just prefers them. The bulbs in this car have a very slight purplish look to me (from inside car) rather than yellow-- possible they're aftermarket??
I have been assuming they were OE, but they might not be. For $59.00 I guess I can't go wrong with ballasts included!

01tl4tl

they are probably OE but 10 years has worn them out
bulbs with a purple or pink tint at start up are age death

3000 is fog light yellow for comparison
White light on the road is how we see things
Lumens is a measure of light output,,Kelvin is the color scale

get the 5000k bulbs and you will be very happy
they look cool to oncoming traffic and you can see really well with them in all conditions

our ballast get water in them--moisture inside light housing drips onto them and fries electronics
the oe ballast are from the stone age of design, they weigh a lot!,(racers take note)
the new ones are waterproof, smaller than a deck of cards and much better overall,,technology and time= better model! who woulda known~

victus1

The purple tint a stock bulb would have now is a sure indicator that it is at the end of its life. Unless of course, you have aftermarket 8000+ K bulbs.

laff66

As this is my first set of HID's, I'd never have known the purple was a sign of aging. Really makes me comfortable with the decision to go ahead with the order even though they're working right now. Thanks.

laff66

oops, one more question... On hidextra.com it says N/A for 99-03 Acura TL low beams? I'm guessing thats just because we have to cut and splice the connector and its not a direct plug in?
So for an 03 TL I just need to order the factory white D2R kit, right?

yungone501

iTrader: (4)

The reason it probably says "N/A" is usually due to very few aftermarket company's producing an actual D2R bulb. Also, they normally throw universal fit D2S bulbs that have notches cut out in the bulbs base that allows it to work in both (D2S and D2R) sockets. Running a D2S bulb in a D2R socket is NOT SAFE because D2R's have a special high heat coating that greatly reduces their output and allows them to be used in reflector style headlights like on the 03 TLs. A D2S bulb has no coating what so ever and because it's ran inside of a 'projector' headlight (04+ TL) it is safe because they have cutoff lines that prevent the light from blinding oncoming traffic. Putting a D2S bulb in our reflector headlights will cause excessive glare for other people driving towards you and IMO, looks very cheap...not to mention RICEY.

Alot of people will literally do something called a 'retrofit' and this basically involves transplanting a projector out of another headlight (TL, FX35, RX350 are popular choices) and doing this not only gives your car a modern look, it will also give you lighting performance of a high end luxury vehicle.

Here's a few pictures of my headlights to give you an idea of what retrofitted headlights look like:







And some other I've done in the past...

1998 CL quad projectors (first retro I did)


1993 3000gt

01tl4tl

hidextra may be out of them? call and ask on monday,,800# on website
they are near San Francisco

you can use the multi fit bulb D2? in early gen2,,99-01 for sure, those of us without the fancy `2003 lights`

if the problem is being out of regular ballast, ask if any mini size avail.
Small up in price between them

the warning sign of high color wont last long, and the light will quit
if it stays that color after warmup you are on borrowed time

laff66

Ok I'll chk into that. Seems like for $59 I could go ahead and get it, use the ballasts, and get D2r bulbs at one of the other sources mentioned previously. Or just get the bulbs, and run the orig ballasts till they quit...

01tl4tl

the oe ballast are a problem now!,,if you have any moisture inside lens issues, like most of us do eventually, the ballast is dying

I would not bother installing bulbs without new ballast and ignitor/capacitor units
for the moderate effort to remove nose off the car, Im doing it once!
well,,its been more than once.... is how I can give this advice~

hidextra sells the ballast and ignitor wire (needed) separate from the bulbs, for those already running new bulbs
and still have prob of one side goes off,,then other side,,flikking switch restores light,,for a while
then it gets more frequent until one day you have no light

laff66

Sold! I'll do it all at once

I will definitely have to check into yungones advice as I don't want to get a modified D2S. So if there's no black strip of coating on it as I've seen in other posts, and they're calling it a D2R, its really not?

laff66

Found this writeup which kind of reiterates everything you guys have been saying. If anyone is as clueless as I've been on this HID stuff maybe it will help. Its in a different vehicle, so keep that in mind, but its something to thing about I guess....

-------------------------------------------------------------

I made a impulse buy yesterday and got a d2c bulb instead of the d2r. The d2r bulb have a small sheild on one side which helps prevent glare for those with non projector lights. The 05 Sedan has reflector headlights which need the d2r bulbs. The d2c bulbs fit both the reflector and projector type but they do not have the shield on the bulb.

After reading all the threads here, some people said that they ran d2c in reflectors with no probs and min glare. The place I went to buy my bulbs did not have d2r's in stock and the employee said that the d2c's don't cause all that much glare so I bought them.

After driving around and standing in front of my car at night, I can say that there is substantially more glare on the d2c. My main concern is blinding other people and I have to say that it is borderline. It's not terrible, but the d2c without the sheild causes more light to glare higher into peoples eyes. When I shine them on a wall, you can really see alot more light higher on the wall.

Another thing I don't like is that it gives off that cheap aftermarket glowy hid look as opposed to a sharp clean shine. I can see that these may slightly annoy some people coming from the opposite direction. Along with the cheap glowy look and sloppy shine against a wall, I'll be going changing to d2r's.

Hope this helps someone.

laff66

I checked with hidextra.com and their D2R bulbs do not have the shields on them. It still may be worth ordering the kit from them and then get the bulbs elsewhere.
If I'm gonna resell the bulbs, aren't they technically D2C's?

JasonLively

Are the HIDextra Volt Canbus (Premium) worth it? What is the difference?

JasonLively

I went with Retrofit and there 4300k bulbs. I will let everyone know how it goes