I want HID headlights for my car.How do I know what brightness is street legal?Where is somewhere I can find them that is affordable?

 

as far as street legal im almost sure that if they didnt come with your car as original equipment they are illegal, at least thats how they explain it when they pull you over here in NJ. I suggest if you want something that resembles a stock color, look for a color temperature between 3000k and 6000k. That range is basically the bright white types, then the types with little tinges of blue or purple in them. Just remember one thing, the lower the temperature number, the less color it has in the beam, as the temperature # increases it gets more colorful. Someone told me that the Acura's use 4300k, i cant be sure but that seems like a good color temperature, ive had a few sets for different cars and all have been prolumen brand at 5000k which gave me the most stock look.

Xenondepot.com is a good place to start, hidplanet.com is also a viable option. There is a guy on AIM, his screenname is Heroesp and he gets them for less than 300, he owns a company called Jinsu motorsports i think, if you tell him that confuc1ous referred you he will hook you up.

 

And also, the more colorful it gets, the less output you get. Anything past 6000k is detrimental to your lighting. 43-5300k is optimal for the best mixture of lighting performance and color.

What you can do, and what i'd recommend, is check with the local police agency. Ask them if retrofitting would be a good solution for you.

With retrofitting, you can take your present headlights and install a set of projectors, ballasts, and bulbs from an HID equipped car. In some states this is legal, since the lights already passed DOT standards on the other vehicle, so technically, you are not installing aftermarket or non DOT equipment.

If the police OK that, i'd do that. You can get a good set of everything youll need for 500 or less. You can do the install yourself or have a shop that knows what theyre doing do it for you, since it requires cutting and fabrication.

Good luck!

 

HID's on cars that did not come with them stock are illegal. And soon all car manufacturers will stop producing cars with HID's (to make way for a new lighting system and projection system that GM has been working on and is implimenting to all manufacturers to cure complaints of blinding HID's in some cars...mostly SUV's and trucks.)

Cheap HID kits are just that, cheap and unreliable. You'll get it in and the ballasts will go bad or the ignitor will go bad...you'll be replacing parts 2-3 times a year (which is expensive). I agree, anything from 4,000-6,000 is a good range, and will give you a nice aqua/tiel color hue, but provide excellent dry and wet visibility. Lower lumens are very poor in wet conditions, and higher lumens are going t be very expensive.

Make sure that you consider that without a projector setup, you wont get anywhere near the performance out of the setup as you would with projectors...my CL-S has a very bright HID setup, and its just as bright as our S2000, but visibility wise, its nowhere even close, especially on light cut off...the S2000 provides a near perfect line...the CL-S without a projector housing provides a more scattered light pattern.

 

Yea a TL is the same way, projectors>standard housings.