I bought my Civic about a year ago, and while I've been happy with it overall, one thing has always bothered me: the headlights.

At first, the light output was what I would consider unsafe, but the lenses were very cloudy and I attributed it to that. Last winter I spent some time with a restoration kit and cleaned them up to where they weren't unsafe, but they were not anywhere near good.

This summer, I went further and spent several hours on each lens wet sanding and polishing and got them to maybe 90% as clear as a new lens. I replaced the bulbs (since one went bad) with Silvania Silverstar replacement bulbs and double checked the adjustment of my headlights and figured I was good.

Then daylight savings kicks in and I'm driving home in the dark again. I find myself checking the switch to see if my lights actually are on and I typically find myself driving in my own shadow cast by the headlights of the car behind me. Judging by the large number of threads I found searching for the same answer, I presume this is a design flaw of the Civic rather than a problem specific to my car (other than the lenses not being 100% clear).

So, I am looking for a cost-effective way to get the headlights to an adequate output. I'm not looking to blind other drivers or impress people with bling. I want an inexpensive improvement to make my car good at what it does best: commuting. So, I'm looking for thoughts and tips on what you have done and how much has it cost?

Here's what I've found so far:

New OEM Lenses: About $350 for a new set from Majestic. I'm not sure if this will get me to where I want to be.

HID: LOTS of threads on this, most seem to just say don't be stupid and stick HIDs in your stock lenses. The few that don't seem to indicate I would need to disassemble my OEM lens and add a bi-xenon retrofit kit. Since my lenses aren't great, I'd likely want new lenses. so the costs look like they would be in the $800+ range. This is probably overkill and too expensive. Are there other options? Aftermarket projector lenses appear to only be intended for halogen and appear to be designed by adolescent boys with an infatuation for Michael Bay movies. I prefer a clean/OEM appearance.

LED headlights: Not the cheap eBay bulbs, but I found some that appear to have prominent heat sinks (with fans?) built into them and likely have enough output. Example. I haven't heard of anyone actually using one though or what kind of lens they would require. Retail is about $120 for the bulbs, not sure what else is required. Heatsinks may interfere with other components in the engine bay.

Additional Lighting: Haven't looked into this seriously yet. I know OEM foglights are available, but I don't know if they really improve light output. Most other lights look goofy.

Improved Wiring: Stock wires seem very small for the amperage running through them. Would wiring up relays improve light output? Or is it only needed when higher wattage lighting is used?

 

wetsand/polish them

 

I did and spent quite a bit of time on it. I don't think I can get them any better than they are now.

 

Those LED headlights are very intriguing. I've done some Bi-Xenon retrofits and they're actually a lot more affordable than people think. You can get decent bi-xenon projectors with name brand ballasts and bulbs for a few hundred. Baking apart the headlights and installing them really isn't that involved. Thinking about doing it to my em2. Just bought my sister's 01 and am having the same problem. Stock headlights are CRAP! theretrofitsource.com is where I get all of my stuff. There's also carpartslights.com. Personally I've bought the retro-quik system from retrofit source, for my Scion, and I love it. I say go for it and do the retro-fit. You def. won't regret it

 

have you tried decent bulbs? in the UK we have bulbs called "Osram Night breakers"

I put these in after having HID's and they work well. Amazon have them instock for good prices.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osram_Sylvania I have Silverstar bulbs which are supposed to have higher than normal light output, which is probably the same as your Osram bulbs.

 

No "Retro-quik" for the Civic. Morimoto Mini is either $270 or $295 depending on which version of the kit I get. Plus, there's no way I'd put that in my foggy lenses so I would still need to do something about that.

Is there any reason I wouldn't want to go with a Morimoto Mini H1 projector and get an H1 HID kit from DDM tuning or similar and save $100+?

 

For reference, I took a couple pics of my headlights as they are now:




Passenger's side is not as good as driver's side. It also has signs of orange adhesive around the lens, I suspect it has been split open at one point.

Both are still a little hazy, even though it doesn't show up much in the driver's side picture.

 

Darcane, this is the morimoto mini kit installed on my EM2. Like 89efhatchsi said, the morimoto kits are affordable and easy to install.

 

Honestly. If ur goin super cheap and dont wanna spend $250-$300 on retrofitting. I say just throw some sylvania silverstars in it and call it a day lol

 

okay. i just did mine... i start with 800 grit sandpaper. then go to 1000. then to 3000 grit. then i use a polish that is made for polishing plastic and not painted surfaces. my headlights came out very nicely. after the polishing, i used some UV protection stuff, which i dont think it really does anything at all... but yea. my headlights looked 95% perfect. they'll never look brand spanking new... i also went on amazon and ordered some headlight bulbs made by the manufacturer PIAA. my night time driving is just fine, and im happy with it all.

 

is it a bi xenon?

 

They are Bi-Xenon!

 

^^good to know. im gonna look into those.