90crxdxb16

Hello Everyone, I purchased a 2003 Accord V6 6spd 2 years ago and I love it. It has projector headlights (which were on when I bought the car) with Xenon bulbs(as far as I know). The headlight lenses were getting faded and dull so I buffed and polished them (much better now). The headlights for as long as I can remember have been some what weak and by that I mean not bright in the low beam setting. After buffing and polishing I decided I wanted to replace the bulbs to hopefully make the lights brighter. However, I am having difficulty identifying and finding the type of bulbs I need and was hoping some one can help. I have not had HIDs before and know little about the. I did some searching to become familiar but have not been successful in identifying the correct bulbs.

Questions:
Should I replace the bulbs, do Xenon bulbs 'burnout' slowly or weaken in intensity over time?
I believe I need Xenon D2S 35w bulbs, based on what I read from the ballasts (LVQ 212), do you know where to find these bulbs with the wiring (appears to be inseparable)?
I have included pictures of the bulb and the wiring, the center of the bulb has some odd discoloration going on, is that an indicator that replacement is needed?
There also appeared to be a number on the bulb socket but it was not easily made out due to being aged it was either H3,6,8 or 9 but I was unable to confidently identify the number, any thoughts?

As I mentioned before I am knew to dealing with HIDs so I am not sure of all the possibilities here. Any help, advice or clarification is appreciated. Thank you for your time.

James

LowTEC SaiMike

iTrader: (7)

Hello James,

From the looks of the picture,I see that the ballast voltage type is 35watts. That is considered standard . If you want brighter , you can get a 55watt ballast instead. For switching out your bulbs, what color are they to begin with ? the more blue the bulbs are , the less output they will be . The bulbs should not get weaker over time . They usually start to change color and then burn out . From the picture i would guess the bulb that you have are H3 and NOT D2S or D2Rs. The center of the bulbs look normal, they have special gasses in there to burn the color you are looking for .

rollinmyda

iTrader: (19)

Those appear to be an H3 bulb type. They are obviously aftermarket, as OEM doesn't use anything even remotely similar to that. Quality of aftermarket HIDs is far below that of OEM so you can definitely expect loss of output over time. Even OEM bulbs lose output over time. Usually aftermarket headlamps will have the bulb types used printed on the headlamp lense in small writing. Take a look and see if you can find it. You may have a difficult time finding some that utilize the same connectors as those bulbs though. They don't appear to be the "standard" amp type ballast to bulb wiring. Looking up the manufacturer listed on the ballast may help.

90crxdxb16

hello,

Thank you for your input, after looking at the bulbs closer and the various types I agree these do appear to be the H3 type bulb. I tried taking another look at the ballasts for a manufacturer name but was unable to see it located on the portion of the ballasts that are visible (at this time I would rather not try to dismount them). I also noticed today (since I am actually looking for these things now) that when I first turn my headlights on the bulb I showed I in the picture (passenger side) emits a more yellow lights at first. After a minute or so of being on it goes to bright white. The drivers side goes directly to being a white light. I believe these were/are supposed to be a 6000K bulb (white light) from what I have read and can see when the lights themselves are on.

Yea the wiring is the part that is bothering me now. If I decide to buy new H3 bulbs I guess I will need cut off the plug ends and wire on the current ones or the opposite I will need to replace the plugs ends on the ballasts to be the standard type (this will avoid having to change plug ends in the future). Are there or should there be any cautions when changing ballast plug ends? Also, do you know of a good place to buy just the H3 bulb and the plug ends that would be needed for the ballasts?

I am not too interested in buying the 55w ballasts I would rather use what I have and not spend more on this then I need to. The reason I was concerned about the brightness is because IMO the lights do not seem any better or brighter then a stock light. But as some have mentioned this could be related to the degradation of the aftermarket bulbs that in my car. I will go out and check to see if I can identify the manufacturer of the lights themselves.

James

rollinmyda

iTrader: (19)

DON'T cut the wiring from ballast to bulb and swap them! The ignitors in HIDs produce a ton of voltage to fire the bulbs on startup. If you can't find matching bulbs for your ballasts I suggest you just replace the ballasts and bulbs with a new kit with the same type of bulbs.

90crxdxb16

hello,

Thank you, I knew they were operating on high voltage to ignite the gas in the bulbs that's why I asked before doing . I was concerned that may be an issue so wanted to verify. Where can I get a good/quality kit and and what is a respectable price range for a kit? I would rather not spend a ton of money on something I do not need nor really care about. being that my headlights have gotten faded and the expenses related to the HIDs I may consider just putting in complete factory headlight assemblies and removing the projectors and HID kit. Any advice on going backwards?

James

rollinmyda

iTrader: (19)

I wouldn't discourage going back to stock but it may end up being more expensive for you in the long run. I don't know how much used OEM headlamps go for for your chassis but it could very easily be more expensive than a new HID kit. You'd have to price it out and weigh the pros and cons for yourself based on your priorities. I personally returned my car to OEM bulbs immediately after buying it. Kit bulbs are usually garbage.

That being said, morimoto HID kits seem to have a pretty good reputation for quality among the aftermarket kits. They're still hit and miss but they do have a warranty. You can look them up on TRS (The retrofit source). I have no idea how pricing is in comparison to other options but I'd guess they are at the top end of the spectrum.

90crxdxb16

Hello,

Thank you again for your help and your input. It seems as if most of the good kits are running 200-250$. Complete headlight assemblies from Honda are about 150$ea. A friend of mine owns a body shop and can get me shop rate on replacement headlight assemblies (not OEM but still good quality) about 55$ ea. with bulbs. This may be the route I decide to go since my lights have become slightly faded and I really don't want the hassle of buffing them twice a year and playing around with the HID bulbs. With that being said if you know anyone interested in projector head lights and an HID kit for a 2003 accord I will likely be willing to part ways with them. Thank you for your help.

James

0HIDextra

Hi James,

Check out our site at hidextra.com to see if there is anything that would help you out. Let me know and I can check on a discount code for you as well.