I've got the 2011 xB RS 8.0. I'm officially 15,000 miles into my ownership and I still absolutely love this car. The only real issue I have with the car is the headlights. The low and high beams seem very weak to me.

So, does anyone have suggestions on replacement headlights to put in? I've been shopping around, but I'd like to get some feedback before installing anything.

Any info helps. Thanks!

-Mike

 

You haven't got any HIDs installed yet?

 

DDM

 

Morimoto

 

PIAA or silverstar ultra's.

 

take a look at the Morimoto Retro-Quick System (http://www.theretrofitsource.com/pro...roducts_id=254). I've thought about doing this in my car in the future just to have the true xenon projectors. I have seen these same projectors used in a friends car (non xb) and they are perfect. having the bi-xenon will also help with your brights, even though you really won't need the halogen bulb along with the xenon bulb. this system just unbolts the oem projector and bolts in the new projector so no fab work is left to do.

 

I have no problem with the high beams, and the low beams were brighter than I've ever before experienced. However, the OE low beam cutoff is too low for me to feel at all safe. Thanks to the advice of others, I found that raising the beams by ten notches on the adjusters made a huge and very desirable difference, however, that also resulted in a weaker light output . So, I change the low beams to Silverstar Ultra - wonderful !

 

http://www.hidextra.com/

Replace the low beams with 5k HIDs. I've tried modified 65W H9s and have Silverstar Ultra in my second car and there really is no comparison. 5k HIDs are the $hit!

Cut-off is perfect in our housings, light projection is amazing and my $60 Chinese HIDs are still fantastic after 2+ years of use. I'm so glad I didn't waste my money on more expensive HIDs that perform the same or +50 Halogens that are barely better than the oem bulbs with 1/2 the service life.

 

dont go with HIDextra i got their slimeline ballasts and i got some very bad flickering. plus i wasnt to impressed with the output. DDM was okay but the ballast felt cheesy to me and for some reason my 6000ks looker wierd.

i finally went with HIDguy and they were the most reliable brand ive ever had. amazing sales representatives on the phone and they are warrantied for life. you wont find that anywhere else. full metal slimline ballast. these are the highest output of 6000k hids ive ever had. plus i dont even use a relay harness.

and also keep your stock headlights and just put an HID kit in there. no retrofiting nothing. just use whats there with a 35 watt kit. let me tell you. my headlights outshine just about anything. ive never had brighter headlights before in my life. when you have your lows and highs on you see EVERYTHING. the high beams on the scions really spread the light out well and i love my factory projector i get some good distance with it. my low beams outshine my moms GMC denali high beams. and those are big ___ headlights.

just sayin you wont be sorry.

 

I can't comment on the HIDextra slim ballast kit but their $60 standard ballast kit has been very popular here for 3 years now and my own kit has exceeded all expectations after 2+ years. HIDextra is also a forum sponsor with great CS. All I know about HIDguy is that they are not a forum sponsor, their kit costs $40 more than HIDextra and they have a lot of negative feedback on Mustang forums.

Caveat emptor.

 

x2. Installed without a hitch over a year ago. Been through rain, snow, ice, etc.

Best $ I've ever spent on headlights.

DDM's customer service is also amazing. Just make sure to get 5k if you want maximum light output.

 

thats funny as i was able to talk them down to 70 bucks a piece per kit if i bought two kits plus an extra set of bulbs with a sales representative over the phone.

and on another forum i frequent they ARE a forum sponsor with sworn by CS from every member ive come across. with quite the contrary to HIDextra. basically they said the exact same thing you did about HIDguy about HIDextra.

so yeah Caveat emptor. "let the buyer beware"

but like him i cant say anything about the standard kits. i cant judge them. although all i know is i got some baaad flickering with the slimline matte black ballasts.


just for the love of god dont go with extremeHIDs. 80 bucks shot down the drain. i never received any product, got a fake delivery confirmation number with a fake shipping service. phone line disconnected and invalid email.

 

You can negotiate deals with HIDextra also. I merely quoted advertised prices.

My point is that none of these chinese sourced HID kits are flawless. Just because you are among a small minority that had issues with your HIDextra kit doesn't mean that they should be avoided. By that logic, HIDguy should also be avoided because they too have dissatisfied customers. Same goes for DDM and all the rest.

It's unfair to write off a company based on one defective product especially when all Chinese made products have high failure rates due to their poor QC. If you want a truly high quality HID kit you need to spend a lot more for a genuine Philips kit.

 

sounds like you were writing off HIDguy right off the start just by word of mouth and not by experience with at least ONE product there saying all that and buyer beware... just saying is all.


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but i get where you are coming from with saying i was writing off HIDextra based off of one product. very understandable.... im simply trying to share the fact that i have had flawless results with my kit. and i was running no wheel well liners for most of the winter season in OREGON. these things were covered it water and mud and all kinds of crap and never once failed me. so to each their own we all have our prefered kits.

i checked out phillips. holy crap. i wonder what the performance differance is between our kits and that one. i would hope its brighter for that much money. wow. 500 bucks to do a high and low HID kit from them when i did mine for 120.

 

I didn't mean to write off HIDGuy, I really meant a general warning about all cheap knock-off chinese HID kits. I'm sure it would be easy to find some negative feedback about all of the vendors currently selling them. For all I know HIDguy might really have the best HID kit available for the money and it might even be worth the extra cost vs others. The problem is that I don't know which kit is best and I don't believe anyone does.

FWIW, my HIDextra kit has been flawless for over 2 years now. Color, cut-off, illumination, longevity and CS have all been fantastic. They've never once failed to light, flickered or exhibited any other problems and they sponsor this forum. That's why I stuck-up for them.

I wish I could justify the cost of Philips because I truly believe they are the best but as usual the cost difference between the best and a decent chinese clone is simply too much for my working class budget.