Midget96

Believe me, I've seen more than enough worthless ricer lights living in Phoenix. Everything from green to purple to red and even your "amazingly bright blue".

Those junk HIDs are putting out less useful, visible light than stock. No two ways about it. 3500-5000K is max output and generally the only HIDs worth using, unless you're a simpleton more obsessed with moronic aesthetics, then you go with coated 12000K-plus bulbs like you did. I'm sure you'll succeed with impressing dumbass high school girls with those "lights", but they certainly have no other value aside from that.

Greg_Canada

I had blue bulbs in my 99' 4runner when i bought it, and they looked cool, but the light output was awful. I couldnt see a thing unless i turned my fog's and driving lights on (regular bulbs) if i was on a highway/road with no street lights.
I put regular white bulbs in... like night and day, i'd never use blue bulbs again.
But in the city? meh who cares, out in the country, blue lights are awful.

cackalak han

The OLDER versions of those cars do not use projectors, but the housing is still very different. Even the bulbs are different, as they came with a cut-off shield right on the bulb. The Prius does not have projectors, but they use a reflective HID system. It is not as effective as a projector system, but it is cheaper to make (I'm assuming) and do offer a bit more light output than standard halogens.

AxleIke

Well, Congrats on your mod.

Don't get me started on how much I hate those things. Don't get me wrong, not hating you, just the mod. I even started a whole thread.

I flash my high beams at EVERY one I see with those stupid things. I need to get some of those big lightforce lights so I can blind them as much as they blind me.

07sbock

Badass man I love my plug n plays, I think they look sick. Nice upgrade. There will be plenty of people commin after you now about how much they hate plug n plays, and how they spent 40 hours of carefully retrofitting an audi projector into their housing. LOOKS GOOD!!

cackalak han

I'm not trying to be smart, but you REALLY have to think why "plenty of people will be coming after" him. If it didn't bother people so much, do you think they'd care to post? It blinds me and pisses me off everytime I catch one of those cheap kits in my rear view or coming the other way. If it didn't, I wouldn't care what you did with your rig. I mean, this guy has 22's on a 4Runner! Definitely not my taste, but I couldn't care less, because it does not affect me or other drivers on the road. Get bling-blangs, LED interior lights, altezza tails, whatever--just don't jepordize the safety of others.

pdyebrasil

The problem is that HID reflectors and Halogen reflectors are VERY different. Some cars can see ok results by throwing in an HID kit, but most throw off a lot of glare and have nasty hot spots. To tell you the truth, from what I have seen the 96-98 headlights take HID kits better than the 99-02 headlights because the light is focused through the lens and not by the reflector.

So the reason everybody is so adamant about doing a projector retrofit is because for our 4Runners and Tacomas it really is the only good option if you want to put HIDs into your rig. The output is way better and you are not blinding anyone.

aviator

Don't let the nay sayers bring you down man...
They look really sweet... a little bluer than I'd have done but it seems to work... like sc I'd be interested to see a pic from the inside looking out...

in general it is very difficult to tell from a front/side on pic just how much "glare" a light puts out because of the way the camera interacts with the subject...
as long as the aim has been properly set to spec and the lenses are kept clean glare should not be issue.

That being said some of the "designer" colours ie pink/green and so on are best left for use at the track/tuner shows as they are definitely illegal and not much use.

That deep yellow tone you see on some vehicles is (or was) the actual required colour for headlights on vehicles registered in France and some of it's former colonys, so depending on where the vehicle was originally sold they may be legal lol ... they might also be useful in places that see a lot of fog lol.

Fo_SheeZy

Thanks to everyone for the positive comments, I will be taking some pics probably tonight, and I'll get some shots from behind the wheel. I'm not sure what k it is, it's not 8,000k. When I turn them on they start out with a whiteish color and then as they heat up they turn really blue.


I really don't give a damn about what you've seen in Phoenix. And I'm sorry but you're wrong about these putting out less light than halogen bulbs. I can clearly see fine with these lights and I am very impressed with the light output. And I'll be impressing a lot more people than just high school girls with my headlights. I don't need blue headlights to get someone's attention, the rest of my vehicle already does that for. The 22"s, the grille, etc. are sure head turners.

dirtoyboy

I missed it somewhere....are these things street legal?

aviator

Ok everybody... lets eeeaaasssee off a little bit lol
keep it friendly folks...

cackalak han

No, they're not.

JBS4X4

Got any photos from the road yet? I would like to see how they look while driving.

Josh

Those look pretty sick though!!!!

dirtoyboy

So I guess blinding oncoming drivers is the "cool" thing to do?

OR maybe I'm still missing something..

fo_runner

Holy GLARE batman, make sure you don't get pulled over.

pfdaxe

What type of shield, if any, are you using? I've seen some PnP kits with H4 bulbs with NO shields at all. Caspers aren't very good. The ones I have currently "wrap" the bulb on the bottom, sides and tip allowing the light to only reflect onto the top portion of the factory reflector. Hence, less glare and more usable light. I did last night connect one of my new projector and compared to my PnP HIDs. MUCH better beam pattern and cut-off. I can't wait to start/finish my retro My HID fogs should be complete in the next couple of days. Can you say...daylight

AxleIke

Leave the guy alone folks. Unless he's driving on your roads, I wouldn't worry about it.

As for MORE light, I have no idea. They seem MUCH brighter than halogens, and a terrible blue white color. They are blinding.

If someone has them driving at me, I run with the highbeams on. I want TC's lights, which are like staring at the sun. You literally cannot see anything, and they will blind you temporarily. Give those asshats a taste of their own medicine.

cackalak han

No offense, and I don't mean to start a flame war here, but just because this guy isn't in someone's area gives them no right to voice their thoughts? What if some guy on here starts going off about how downing a case of beer and driving isn't that dangerous? I know, it's a bit more extreme than the HID thing, but you get my point. If it's dangerous, it's dangerous, and people need to know what kind of harm they're causing or could cause.

Bottom line is, these kits are illegal. And illegal for a good reason, too. That's all I'll say.

aviator

Actually there is nothing "illegal" about these kits at all per say... it is just illegal to use them "on-road" in most areas... but that can change depending on what jurisdiction you happen to be in at the moment...

also lets be clear about the HID kit in question... the one we are talking about (for sheezy's] while not a projector conversion is not one of the "cheap" ones either. Several members here have them and so far the reports are all positive save a few missing parts issues that have been [or are about to be] resolved. [see camnub's most recent thread]
also check the thread(s) by Camnub re HID kits and you will see that many of these glare/brightness issues have been discussed at length...

pdyebrasil

When talking about putting HIDs in a vehicle that came with halogens you have two options, either you put in a PnP "kit" or you do a projector retrofit. Basically all kits are referred to as "cheap" because it is cheaper and much easier to do than a retrofit. That is why everyone refers to them as "cheap HID kits". It's the cheap and dirty way to get HIDs. So we aren't talking about the quality of the kit.

I'm sorry aviator, but these kits are 'illegal' anywhere you go in the United States of America (on-road of course), which has been declared by the Department of Transportation. They may be legal somewhere else in the world, but then again the OP is from the states... The following is a quote from the HID Kit forum on HIDPlanet:

"HID kits are illegal in the USA because DOT says so. Period.

Good or bad, we start from there.

Standard 108 says that you can not put a HID bulb in an headlight which was meant for a halogen housing. One reflector is made for a thin strip of tungsten, and the other an arc tube which is round. The modern free form reflector/projector is designed to a tight enough standard that even if the arc tube is in the exact same spot as filament bulb, there will be stray light, hot spots etc... That is their reasoning, and we do not debate that because they make the laws.

What this means for you is that HID Kits are a black market. DOT will shut down any US importer of HID kits large enough to be worth the effort. They have ruled repeatedly that "off road" or "show only" kits are still illegal, you MUST have a valid "on road" use in order to legally import a product for US vehicles.

What ends up happening is you have literally thousands of different manufacturers producing kits for a limited time, changing names, brands products etc... may be the same company, may not be, but that limits your recourse if the kit goes bad etc... typically 6 months is the limit you will see a new brand on the market."