I have always said that I hate aftermarket stuff. It's hit or miss and more often than not, it's a miss. So After getting the H4 6000K bulbs replaced with the right type pf bulb that have the shield under the light emiting part (LEP) of the bulb this is what I found.
The regular H4 (halogen bulbs) have 2 filaments. The outter one is the low beam and the inner one is the high beam. I noticed that the HID bulb has the LEP closer to the high beam which gave a light pattern very similar to halogen high beam. You get a very focused spot of light way ahead of the car with rather little peripheral light. After messing with the base of the HID bulbs, I managed to place the LEP on the low beam position of the regular halogen bulb. The result was a much wider light pattern and no glare.
I like the HID lights now, but they don't work like this out of the box. Another thing to look out for is not to use screws to secure the ballasts. Use the thick padded double sided tape instead, if you use screws you could ground the unit and eventually burn the ballast. This happened to a guy here in town and I saw the burned spots on the car where the screws used to hold the ballast in place.
Just for the reccord, the kit is a McColluch product 6000K

 

good luck with that kit ... you are going to need it

McColluch is KNOWN for crappy kits and crappy reliability

 

The McCulloh kit is good. I would rather have the Gourmet Garage or Raybrig hid kit though.

 

how about showing pics of what you modded?

 

im def going to disagree with you .... if hidforum had not gone down (now hidplanet) .. i would be able to dig up thread after thread about how bad these kits are....

but if u are happy ... then that is all that matters

don't be suprised after 6 months when your bulbs burn out

 

hey genius,

gourmet garage aka g-garage IS mccullough of USA.
the kits are the same.
don't give advice unless you know what you're saying.

and b4 u try to back anything up, i know the owner of g-garage/mc cullough
so don't even start.

 

**edited*

im not even going to bother.. if you insist on getting kits instead of doing hids the right way .. have at it

 

And your Idea of "The Right Way" would be...?

 

Sorry Joey, I didn't do my research. Doesn't mean you have to put that smart ___ crap at the end of your post. Don't be an ___. Be polite.

I recently switched to the Raybrig setup and I have no problems. I am waiting to do it to the Scion though.

 

the right way is HID RETROFIT (remember i said right way .. not cost efficient way) ... by using OEM hid projectors with OEM bulbs and OEM ballasts...

that insures proper beam pattern .. glare shields and best of all OEM reliability

but 99% of people dont care about that kinda stuff when they get hids .. all they want are the "pretty blue lights" .. hence the reason for the 8k kits...

its been proven time and time again that 4100-4300k is the most efficient color temp for hids .. thats why ALL OEM cars have that same temp...

but as i said before.. if you are happy with a kit . thats cool

 

the "right way" still isn't the legal way.

if done right, a kit's output can be just as clean as a retro. not saying that you can just plug in a kit and expect the results, but for the price.. yeah.

retrofits get pricey. and honestly. how many scion owners are going to spend 10-12% the value of their car to do things the "right way"???

like i said in your sales post.. your lights came out awesome, i'm planning to retro myself, but for now, i dug up an old 4300k kit and that's what i'm using.

 

Where do you get OEM xB/bB projectors? I plan on using bmw 3 series (E46) headlights on my xb. I think I made someone mad the last time I said that ("why are you putting parts that dont belong on your car on?" ) I know that 4300 kelvin is probably the most efficient, however, I'll probably go with a 5000 Kelvin or around there. as a reference, at noon the light coming from the sun is about 5200 Kelvin. also, the higher the temp of the light doesn't effect the lumen out put too drastically, for every 1000 Kelvin over 4300, the efficency drops a few percent, even 8000 Kelvin kits are signifiacantly brighter than any 55w halogens.

 

i def dont agree.. show me one kit .. ONe ... that has a beam .. cutoff as clean as an oem setup ... there isnt one .. not to mention .. the optics are totally not right ... hid reflectors and projectors are designed TOTALLY different then halogen ...

and i never said a retro was legal ... i just said its the right way .. optically .. beam pattern wise.. and cutoff wise.. my hid retro is no different then the car the projectors came from ...

there is no comparison between hid kits and true OEM hid...

and you say how many scion owners would spend 10-12% of the cost of the car. .. its actually less then 10% for my retro .. and a basic retro could be had for 5% of the cost .. and to boot .. all the jdm ****** with their work wheels and what not .. those wheels alone cost 2x as much as my retro .... so there are people spending 20% + on parts for their xB's

and to touch base again on the kits being as clean as a OEM setup .. you said yourself .. that it takes tweaking to get it to even be bearable (no excessive glare) .. how many people who drop kits in do that ? ... prolly 1% ... the other 99% .. plug it in .. prolly dont even re-aim their headlights and just go with it

and yet again .. thats why kits are illegial ...

 

I might be a noobie, so stop me if I am wrong,

The relfector housing/shape should be diffrent on the same vehicle if equiped with HID's instead of Halogen. I know the the 02 Civic Si was like this, the US Halogen version has a totally diffrent reflector from the JDM or Europe versions due to being diffrent standards......

However, in Europe, the HID housings compared to the Halogen housings reflectors were slightly diffrent.

My conclusion, you can get close to factory but the quality of the dispersion of the light will be better with an OEM set as long as it comes with the correct housing/reflector.

My two cents.

 

JACKPOT!!!!!

hid projector / hid reflector housings compared with halogen counterparts ... while may look the same are TOTALLY DIFFERENT .. the optics are designed totally different as is the way the beam is dispersed ....

thats why no matter how hard you try .. you will never get a kit as good as OEM .. plain and simple.. it just can't be done ...

you may be able to get a non glarey cutoff.. but you wont have the same distance..width and overall lighting that a REAL oem setup would

as i said before.. there is just no comparison

frankly ... i would rather save up and spend 800 dollars on a retro .. vs 300 for a kit ..

but thats just me ... to me hids are not just cool looking blue lights... i want the best lighting money can buy .. and since my car does not come equipped from the factory with hid .. i need to get the second best thing . a retrofit

 

soon2bxb:

i agree to disagree.

as long as the cutoff is clean you won't be blinding anyone. i have seen plenty of oem hid's that do not have a solid beam pattern, by that i mean that some oem hid's have "glarey" spots in the pattern as well.

for your price of 800 for a retro, i doubt most people will find the parts that you did for those prices. not to mention most of the retrofit places charge much more for work than the price you listed as labor. in my experience 800 would be reasonable if you are doing the work yourself, or if you have a "hookup" for the job. in reality you would spend more than 1000 on the work/parts.

and about the people who spend bling on work wheels and whatnot, i wasn't talking about them. how many people on this board are running cheap wheels, hub caps or stocks? i'd say a large majority, who can't afford/won't shell out to modify their cars.. so if they wanted hid, of course they would go for the cheaper route.

i do agree with you that the BEST BEST way to go is retrofit. but price vs value, an hid kit can be made to produce acceptable results.

 

couple things about my retro ... the 300 i paid for labor is what the kid charges.. that wasnt a hookup ...

as for me getting parts cheap

projectors can be had from 150 to upwards of 300 .. depends on what you want

ballasts can easily be had for 150 a set

bulbs are readily available on ebay for 60 a set

so the 800 dollar number is not some hookup ... you just gotta do some looking

to add .. while i wont disagree with your statement about having a decent output with a kit ... you said previously .. that a kit can produce the same results as oem .. that still doesnt hold true ... no matter how clean you claim your cutoff is .. the ouput still will never mimic OEM

the spots you speak of on oem . are called HOT SPOTS .. that a general characteristic of reflector hid . ... that why they seem to be brighter then projector.. its because the light is focused mainly in front of the car ..whereas projector hid is dispersed more evenly both width and distance wise


and you say that alot of people wont want to spend the cash for a retro .. so they would rather a kit ... that fine .. but i always believe in .. DO IT ONCE... DO IT RIGHT ... id rather save up 800 and do it right then drop 300 and half ___ it ...


btw IRV .. you are from IS300.net arent you ?? i used to have an IS (MYISRULZ) .. im one of the old school members there .. from the days of john lai .. soy .. kelly.. de (i am good friends with de...) Cary and the rest of the crew

 

hmmm... if I wanted my car to look stock, I could go either way.. hid bulb/balast kit, or the hid projector retrofit. I think I'll stick to swapping the whole headlight assembly (BMW E46)... can't get more "OEM" than that! but as posted above, Ebay is a nice place to find the projectors for a retrofit... I've seen a nice set from an audi for only $75 buy it now...

 

Another option would be order the factory option HID headlights and be done, , Sean

 

yup, i'm an old OLD OLD school member from there. i was on since june of 2000.. before most of those people even came on. but after the "crash" i was away for two years.

btw yes i agree that projector hid's are superior to reflector type hid's. for the most part anyway.

however my hid kit's performance so far is almost exactly the same as my friend's G35 sedan stock hid's (reflector type) similar bright spots, cutoff is straight.

i will look into your parts recommendations as i am actually trying to start my retrofit as we speak.