what is actually involved in retro-fitting HIDs into a civic? people are always instructing others to have s2000 lights retro-fitted. what does the shop actually do? do they take the inner parts of an s2000 headlight and put it inside a civic's? some people i have talked to say you need to have HID headlights to use HID bulbs, which makes sense, but the retro-fitting seems too intrusive for my taste. i know hacking up my stock headlamp is gonna ruin the warranty on that, so its not my first choice. i see HID headlights on ebay and other sites but they are all ugly and i wouldnt trust them. i want a stock look, but with HIDs. what do you guys recommend? is it necessary to retro-fit? is retro-fitting what i think it is?

 

Is it necessary? I highly recommend it due the the glare you will put out with a plug & play hid kit. If the actual retrofit process is to complicated (your not the only one, I personally wouldn't do it myself) either get someone to do it for you or stay with stock halogen (maybe upgrade to a better bulb).

Oh and stay away from those e-gay headlights, they will not fit right, have poor distribution of light on the road, & the sealant that holds them together will fail and you will get moisture in the headlights.

 

yea i figured it was a good idea to upgrade along with the bulbs. i have nice bright bulbs and i love them, but if i can go brighter and last longer (with HIDs) then why not?! lol i have no problem tackling the work myself. i just dont want to take apart my oem housing. maybe buying a set of used oem housing as a starting platform is a good idea?

ps-question for anyone who can help. i have oem foglights on my 08 si. i use sylvania silverstars in my headlights, and i love them. sylvania only makes H11's (my bulb size) in a regular halogen, which is what its equipped with. any recommendation on company to go with for H11 bulbs? i want top quality bulbs. a bargain is nice, but im not looking for the $13 ones on ebay. i want bright white or yellow. ive seen PIAA but not many others. any suggestions? ive just gotten sick of seeing the dull, yellow tone of the stock foglight bulbs against the bright, white headlights. any help is appreciated

*i want the white-ness (if i go with white) to match that of the silverstar's*

 

Check the forums on http://www.hidplanet.com

Lots of good info. I did my own retro and it turned out better than I expected. Wasn't perfect, but beats spending hundreds of dollars more for something to look nicer. Getting the projector in and installed isn't the hard part. Making it look nice with a good shroud is the hardest part. It took me 5 days to complete mine. It would have only taken me 2 days if it weren't for the shroud.

 

Retrofit > OEM > PnP

I had mine done by Customlightz. They did an awesome job.

I have xenondepot's 4300k Philips OEM kit (D2S bulbs, Philips ballasts)
We used TSX Projectors and MDX Shrouds

I don't have any pics of the lights ON, but this pic should speak volumes about their quality work:

 

The guys at Customlightz are fantastic. They are the only ones I would let do a retro fit. http://www.customlightz.com/

 

Thanks for the feedback guys.


Bjorn

 

how much did u pay for that setup

 

thank you for the input and help guys. would you recommend retrofitting s2000/tl projectors into an oem civic housing, or to fit this kit http://www.hidplanet.com/package.html in the oem housing. the second option seems more cost effective. with that option, i get the projectors, bulbs, ballasts, connectors and all hardware, without having to buy a set of s2000 or tl headlights just to hack them apart. (im assuming thats what id have to do, idk...i know a lot about cars but nothing about HIDs)
all help would be appreciated

 

TL's are too big to fit.. The S2K will fit fine.

 

TL's are huge projectors and they could fit into your housings, but it'd be quite a bit of work to make them fit. S2K's are a little easier to make fit. It's really up to you on how much you're willing to spend for your retrofit...

 

any idea how much a complete retrofit would run me?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 2008fijibluesi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">any idea how much a complete retrofit would run me?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Depends on what type of setup you're wanting. I charge different prices for different setups