some of my modding friends would love to hear that one!

 

Umm its the law if a car passes inspection from a licensed State inspection station it proves the car follows all of that states safety, emissions, and legal standards. Some states have laws that ban the modification of parts of a car since it will no longer pass emissions testing. Hence the CARB rating intakes and such have to have to be allowed on a car in California, but if your car is modified and the parts were put on before your last inspection and you pass then your vehicle is legal to drive on that states roads.

 

hmmm if thats the case then its strange why so many folk get pulled over just for window tint year after year after year.......

 

well tint isn't a vehicle safety thing same as your stereo being to loud it doesn't affect the performance of the car. Thats why inspection stations don't check tint (which most states have specific laws for like NC no darker than nothing below 5in on the windsheild, no darker than 35% on front windows, and no limit on the back) or audio setups but they do check things like exhaust for cats and make sure the car isnt too low.

 

My luminics went out, no surprise there.
so coughed out $40 and got silverstars, im happy with them, although i would like to have them a little whiter.

 

exactly....as I said, retro FTW!

old retro with TSX projectors.

 

OOH its so beautiful!!

 

I never once touched the bulb yanki, I had them in for about 2 months, turned my lights on halloween night to go out and noticed one was out

 

FYI, daylight is 6000 K to 6500 K. Anything higher appears "cooler" (more blue), and anything lower appears "warmer" (yellowish/reddish tint).

A good summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature

 

Not to be off topic, but how do the '08 headlamps handle an HID conversion with the factory projectors?

-Brian

 

There are pictures around here somewhere, I'll look for them. But if I remember correctly, they are a great success; when the '08 headlights became available from TRDSparks.com, some of us were swapping them into our older tC's, it's a direct physical swap between the headlights. The only difference is the plug for the lamp, I can't remember the size but somebody will fill that in for me.

The factory projectors from Toyota are good with HIDs, but some people were concerned with "squirrel spotters" inside of the projector. It's a square reflector inside of the housing that aims some of the light up above the cutoff line, presumably for seeing road signs and whatnot. I don't think it causes any issues with glare and I'm not sure about that, but if you want to fix it, it's really easy. There's some documentation on SL, too, about that.

I'll take a quick look around, see if I can find the thread in a minute or two. I'll post it up if I do, along with pics.

 

K, it wasn't what I was exactly lookin' for, but here's a picture of hawqs74's tC with '08 factory headlights, and an HID kit. He's showing the cutoff, which is the main concern with HIDs; for the '08 projectors from the factory, the cutoff is so clean and sharp, they're great.



The "squirrel spotters" I was talking about are those squarish, faint lights above the cutoff where the projectors are pointing out directly. Like I said, I don't think it's a problem at all, but some people sweat the small stuff. :\

Here's the thread I found it from:
https://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=197687

 

Sorry, last post in a row, but I found some of the aftermarket cutoff pics for comparison with the '08 projectors. This is from FLEA's tC, which has the Anzo projector headlight kit (they're pretty cheap to buy, so they're popular for quick and dirty mods). These headlights are poorly constructed (could fog inside of the housing from condensation), and use cheap materials (the 'halos' that are built in will burn out quickly, leaving you dead rings around the projectors; same with the LED turn signals, etc).

Here's the picture of the cutoff on the Anzo projectors at different distances, so you get an idea of how distance affects the spread of your lighting.

At 5 feet:


The cutoff looks a bit dirty, but nearly decent. The flares on the left look small, but the right is really pronounced, good thing we drive on the right side of the road, huh? But here's the pictures of the cutoff at 25 feet away:



The cutoff is WAY out of whack at a distance! The flares on the left are way more pronounced and WILL blind other drivers with HID glare! The rights are only worse.

Obviously, the safe and (almost) legal choice here would be to use the '08 projectors with HIDs, since they don't produce unsightly glare that attracts cops and blind drivers into head on collisions. :S

Here's the thread that these pictures appeared in:
https://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=194593

Sorry I got off topic, but I wanted to take the time and put this all together. We get this question alot.

 

lowering springs are illegal? ... I wonder why Scion offers lowering springs for the tc and Lexus offers them for the IS ...

 

I Just sunk $60 into PIAA Extreme 4000K and they seem to be pretty bright. I get good deals at a parts store to get those for $60, but I wouldn't pay the $120 Price tag.

Does anyone know how much better they are than the Ultras, or is it all just brand name? I think ill put in the ultras for my high beam replacement.

 

what with all the thread revivals today

 

I Just sunk $60 into PIAA Extreme 4000K and they seem to be pretty bright. I get good deals at a parts store to get those for $60, but I wouldn't pay the $120 Price tag.

Does anyone know how much better they are than the Ultras, or is it all just brand name? I think ill put in the ultras for my high beam replacement.

 

2 times? really?

but PIAA is brighter imo, but not worth their price tag

 

My silverstar's burnt out rather quickly..

 

i've been seeing silverstars on other cars and they look pug fugly