HID help!!!!

[Wadokai]

Hey there!

Okay so I'm thinking of upgrading my car's headlights to HID.

Now I know absolutely nothing about HID other than the fact that the lights look nice.

I drive a 93' civic LX. So I have afew questions:

1) do the light bulbs plug in just like normal headlight bulbs or do you have to do special electrical wiriing? And if it does involve complex installlation where can i find instructions?

2) what type of HID should I be looking for? There are so many things, like H4 and shiat that i don't get

3) what is the price range?

and lastlly: Where in calgary can i get some decently priced HID lights?

Thanks for your help! =]

[JustinGTP]

You can either do it the cheap way or the correct way. Buying a cheap plug and play HID system would just work the same way your regular headlight bulbs do by just going into your housing. It is recommended you upgrade your wiring. However, ask any HID enthusiast and they will hate you for stuffing an HID kit into your reflector that is designed for halogen. You will give off WAY too much glare and drivers like myself will hate you for it. Sure, it may look cool, but the glare is disgusting. Remember, HIDs are 3x the brightness. The correct way is to buy OEM projectors and refrofit them into the housing. This results in almost no glare! Or you can buy cheap projector headlights and then put an HID kit into the projectors. OEM projectors offer a better beam pattern and cutoff. To learn more, go to HIDplanet.com if you are interesting in doing HID the correct way. If you want to stuff a cheap PnP kit in your civic, don't go to that forum or else you will be severely burned lol.

[Wadokai]

Are the plug-n-play ones legal, if they are giving off so much light?

Also, how/what wiring do i upgrade and how do i do it?

I'm reallly newb lol. How much would the "correct way" cost me?

Where can i get either the correct way or the cheap way?

[GTS Jeff]

HID kits put into EG housings produce a pretty terrible beam pattern that results in you being able to see 10 feet away AND you lose highbeams. Gauranteed you will not be happy with them cuz you can't see shit.

If you want brighter headlights, get these:

http://www.rallylights.com/hella/H4.asp#HYPER

[Brendan_4g63]

Buy a projector housing, then call me.
Civics have the worst housings for glare.
Other projector housings that Ive done in civics look great.

[SigmaRacing]

Originally posted by Brendan_4g63
Buy a projector housing...

^^^Correct.

Having said that, here's the basic info:
1. Bulbs are measured 2 ways, temperature (in degrees Kelvin) and brightness (in lumens).
2. 4000 deg K is a slight yellow tint, same color as most headilghts on cars on the road.
3. 8000 K is blue, and the higher from here, the more purple.
4. The higher the temperature, the less illumination, therefore, you won't be able to see as well at night. (but it'll look good).
5. With most Xenon HID kits at 6000K or below, you'll be able to see better for things that are closer, but not as well for objects further away when compared to normal halogen headlights.
6. Read up on the daytime running light issue, it creeps up on a lot of people.
7. Install into a projector housing is simple and quick, and many kits have instructions included. Biggest decision that needs to be made is where to mount the ballasts (ignitors) for the new bulbs.

Hope that helps.

[Wadokai]

Okay so so where can i get a projector housing and how can i install it? Any isntructions??

Also, what is a ballasts? And do i need that even for a plug-n-play HID light?

Man thank you guys so much for all your help!

[CorollaXRS]

Wadokai,

Go to the following link and read all the content and you will have 100% knowledge in understanding what is HID and it componment.

http://www.intellexual.net/hid.html#hid

[trieuth]

im sure he figured this out, it was 3 years ago.