http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=36476

HID illiterate here!!! Anybody know if these are any good or reputable?

 

dude i don't trust anything where the BRAND NAME is 'jdm'!!!!
be careful when u buy on ebay....

since u're in los angeles, i can take u over to a buddy of mine's shop and get u hooked up.. ive already taken like 3-4 scionlife members there..

and i myself have used at least 3-4 sets of his hids..

i also have a lot of experience in installing it on cars(i've done like 5-6 different cars).

 

if u check out the sponsored sales forum, i believe theres 1 or 2 guys selling hid kits!

since they;re out of state, maybe u can order a set thru them and i can help u install it for like 20 bucks or something? just email me if u have any questions at all. or PM me

 

The kit doesn't look too bad. Do some searching around. Check out hidforums.com. You'll want to find a kit with good ballasts, so Phillips is best, OSRAM would be second, and Mcculloch would probably rate 3rd.

As far as brightness.. choose your color wisely. There are plenty of debates on this site and the HID sight about what to choose. If you trully want brighter whiter lights, somethin in the 4500-5000 range will do it. If you want bright white and really clear, go for 6500.

Good luck findin a real high quality kit, because recent legislation outlawed them pretty much everywhere. Be sure to use the term "for off road use"..

 

Yah philips is the Best, But i have a question. Do we need a 'projector lense' in order to use HID's so it will not catch the cop's eye, or blind the cop? I saw some ricer guy in an eclipse, and his lights were so blinding!! I want the HID light to be like the Beamers and Benz's

 

The TC reflectors are pretty good, BUT no matter what HID kit you use you still are using the crappy stock lighting pattern, and a reflector cannot properly control glare.

To do HID the right way, you MUST retrofit a set of projectors into the headlights. HIDforum.com can help you there too.

DO NOT get a kit that is higher than 4350k (4100k that has colorshifted). The blue color everyone loves on MB and BMW ect, comes from flicker from the projector not from some ____ty Ricer high kelvin (K) bulbs.

 

umm earth to hawkeye, since its a reflector housing, there will never be
a 'FLICKER' like the benz/bmw, etc, so we SHOULD resort to 6000k or so
for a nice color output(not too much purple, not alot of yellow)..

theres a reason why most hid companies(aftermarket) do not produce 4300k kits.
ONTOP of that, phillips themselves are selling their ultinon bulbs(6000k) for
people with OEM hids to upgrade their color to a more purple status..

if u check out e46fanatics or other bmw/benz websites, PLENTY of people dont
even like the color of the 43000k...

YES 4300 gives u the best optimum lumens and what not, but since its gonna be a
drop in aftermarket kit, 5000-7000k is a acceptable and not too ricey color..

as for making a retrofit or what not, who in their right mind would take apart their brand new headlights just to smack in some projectors to imitate a benz...

tc is a brand new car and getting hids(drop in) will be fine...

DO NOT get 4300k aftermarket kits because they are REALLLY yellow..

also, remembering the fact that hids are 300% brighter than stock halogens, even with a 6000k or 7000k color hue, the lost of lumens is really not that big of deal cuz u still have 300% increased performance.

 

Reading is FUNdemental. Try again... never did I say that the scion would produce a flicker.

Someone who wants a REAL upgrade.

Gotta be one in every forum. Thanks for ____ing all over my post with your weak grasp of automotive lighting.

Like I have said more than once, 4100k gives more light. After that, it decreases exponentially. The philips 6000k uniton is the highest kelvin production bulb, and it sucks. It is just a big companies way of making more money by selling something no one needs.

What I really meant to say is that save your money for a HID kit, because its not that much of an upgrade. If you want real HID, then go with a retrofit

 

Doesn't matter how you do it, HID retrofits are illegal, aren't they? Hope you don't meet a cop who knows your car didn't come with them from the factory.

hawkeye: What do you mean projectors produce the color of HID lights? It seems to me that there are plenty of cars that have HID in regular reflector housings and the color looks just like that of cars with HID and projectors. How would the projectors change the color of the light unless they were tinted?

 

Refraction. Light bends around the shield in the projector whcih causes a band of color in the cutoff.

HID in a non-HID car is illegal no matter how you slice it, BUT if you put a projector in you will be much less likely to be caught because you will not create a nuisance compared to all the glare of a cheap ebay kit.

 

hawk eye is correct about the cutoff point in projectors

 

I never noticed that. The colors may appear to shiift depending on the angle you look at the headlight (noticebale in halogen projectors, too) but as far as the output of the light, I haven't noticed a substantial color difference between the two. It seems to me like cars that come with HID in standard headlight housings (not projectors) actually put off less glare. But whatever, I just dont think I could spend that much on the lights risking a cop pulling me over and telling me I had to take the stuff cuz its illegal. Good luck to whoever gives HID a shot on their Scion.

 

That's what I meant, there is a blue/purple color, but the light that actually touches the ground is white and useful. Unlike the other ricer kits where the whole beam is blue and useless.

Nope, they use a D2R bulb (which is designed to reduce glare in a reflector housing) instead of a D2S. While the D2R are excellent at controlling glare, they are less bright and still suffer from poorer cutoff than a projector, and thus must be aimed lower (this might be why it seems like they have less glare too).

 

AS SOON AS I GET MY DAMN TC I WILL LET YOU KNOW WHAT'S UP. WHERE IN CALI ARE YOU

 

hawkeye, i just wanted to give him the best opinion i had.

as for experience, how many cars have u worked on?
how many sets of hids have u played with. i have 2 sets in my car
as we speak, and another set chillen here..

i've played with about 10 complete kits or so now. and i have worked on
everything from putting mercedes projectors into a fluted headlight,
to putting s2000 projectors on a headlight. i've worked on 99 civic, 96 civic,
91 integra, 00 cr-v, 04 xb(4 xb's), 97 crv, 04xb's foglights,=.

i've messed with my share of projectors, drop in kits, and everything else.

have u had that much experience?
as for color temperature, if he gets a good quality 6000k kit, the color output will
be just as bright as a 4300k, its such a small different, and the color hue is so much nicer, that the little loss of lumens is worth the color output. why do u think 6000k bulbs are selling like hotcakes to the oem HID equipped cars?

as for the original poster, IF you get ur tC and u want advice and help,
you're more then welcome to ask me... i live in los angeles area, and i can
show u and explain to you how things are..

don't always trust a 'phillips hid kit' because phillips don't even manufacture
kits, they just make componets, smaller componets put them together to make
a kit, so when u buy a phillips kit, u're not always getting 100% all phillips componets...

thats the main reason why theres such a big difference in pricing, some kits are 250 bucks, some are 450 bucks. its just like anything else, u get what u pay for, and u gotta know what to get and where to get it..

here's a wonderful qoute of the day:
To do HID the right way, you MUST retrofit a set of projectors into the headlights. HIDforum.com can help you there too.

hawkeye states the ONLY way u do hids right is if u dismantle your headlights, and carefull figure out a way to mount pieces of another headligt(the projectors), into your headlight. in my opinion, not many people will wanna destroy their headlights, risk leakage, and whatever else comes with 'CUSTOM' stuff..

i recommended a drop in kit because he said he';s HID illerate, that means he doesn't know much about hids, a drop in kit will come with female connectors, wiring harness and fuses all ready to go for a tC's headlight application.

that will be the easiest and least amount of headache's. if he doesn't even know how hids are, its pointless to tell him to get projectors or retro fitting this and that.

all he needs is rebased bulbs that fit the car..

and i got a quick question for u(hawkeye), u stated the tC's reflectors are good,
how did u come to that conclusion? and what basis is that statement formed on?
like what is it 'GOOD' compared to?

i have hids(drop in kit) on my car.. its 6000k, my car outshines most benz and bmw's on the street, and i still have a cutoff on a reflector housing running d2s rebased bulbs.


tahts my car and my cutoff. its reflector, not using d2r, as u can see, theres a sharp
cutoff, i didn't need to 'AIM IT LOW' as u falsely speculated, get your facts straight.. i'm gonna stop this stupid cyber dispute
and move on with life.

sorry if im getting a lil heated, its just that i dont like it when people give people wrong advice.

 

The TC reflectors are "good" in my opinion compared to other halogen reflector lamps I have seen. The light from a rebased HID in a TC (pics were posted a few days ago) had better spread and pattern than rebased kits I have seen in other cars.

By the way, take pics of your headlights against a wall if you want anyone to be able to draw any conclusions.

And how am I wrong in stating that 4100k are brighter than 6000k? Or maybe I am wrong in stating that a projector will be sharper and brighter than a rebased bulb in a halogen reflector? :shrugs: I gotta get my facts straight... Damn what was that saying about guys in glass houses?

 

Thats what I said, HID-equipped cars without projectors seem to put off less glare. You just repeated what I said with more facts. I figured it had to be a different kind of bulb seeing as how a traditional reflector lens wouldn't be able to control the light output as precisely as a projector. Thanks for the info.

Whatever the case may be...I don't see the point considering many law enforcement groups are cracking down on 'tuner' vehicles with illegal modifications. Used to be everyone around here had those cheap halogen blue-blocker HID knockoffs. Either they realized they're not as cool as HID, or cops have stepped up enforcing illegal lighting violations because I don't see them nearly as often. I think its the police, at least around here.

So have fun with your HID's people, maybe one day there will be DOT approved retrofit kits for people who can't get them from the factory. If only people got off their butts and saw how much safer these things could make driving at night.

 

The HID that are listed on that ebay auctions are my friends. He imports them directly from Japan. I have a set on my mom's focus and they are sweet. They are 100% street legal. I sell them my self. Also if you want pic's of my moms car with the lights on at night and day then just let me know. Later

 

I'd like to see them.

 

No they are not.