Nub question about hid lights
 

So i want to get lights but im stuck atm. I see alot of vendors selling the entire kit for a hid setup whilist the others are just selling a bulb? Am i seeing this wrong? I understand the normal kit comes with something that adjusts the power while other people just go cheap and replace the bulb. Whats the beneficiary difference?? Also anygood recommendations for 6000k kits??

A kit will come with the bulbs and the ballasts.

You want a full kit that includes the ballasts.

diode dynamics makes a good HID kit.

The Morimoto h11 bid conversion kit. They are expensive but well worth it. Warranty is really nice and they warm up super fast. There are many other inferior eBay kits and some decent mid priced kits as well. From my experience the 5000k morimoto kit looks as close to an OEM hid's that you can get. 4300k if you want even more of that "sunlight" look on the road. 6000 will give you a little more of a bluish tint to the bulb. The FRS has surprisingly good projectors so you don't have to worry about blinding everyone after you do hid's. Theretrofitsource.com has exactly what you need and tons of info.

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3 ways

1 - New bulb. Cheap. <$50

2 - HID Projectors. Basically just add more power to a new bulb. Horrible, disgusting, unreliable, worthless, rice. IMO. at least. $100-$120

3 - Full retrofit. Won't blind people. ~$300 and some of your time. Fun and easy to do.


6000k to me is quite blue, and I am not a fan of it. Pure white, 5000k, highly recommended

Do a full retrofit. theretrofitsource.com.

Full retrofit is nice but not everyone is willing to bake they're brand new headlight and spend 3x as much. I don't have the retrofit YET but I think it looks amazing with just the stock projectors.

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for hid lights youll want a kit and not just a bulb only. heres more info for you to read
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/trs_tech.php

I do understand the concept of true hid lenses. They are different and made for hid's. There is a less chance of blind spots on so on but i have had oem hids blind me in my rear view. They are bright and supposed to be focused. In the frs we are lucky to at least have halogen projectors. Mine look great. Even compared to retrofit hid kits. However my cheaper alternative is waaaay better than stock and I set it up in about an hour. I only have 3000 miles on the car and I'm not ready to break my headlight seal yet and I think others would agree. I do however want to do a full retrofit and paint the inside black one day... but for some people, $150 and an hour or so for much better lighting is well worth it.

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http://www.ft86club.com/forums/<a hr...2023348788.jpg[/IMG]

Haha had the same question....glad to see this post. I was thinking of just buying the bulb. I was going to buy the bulb from this website. http://www.modbargains.com/GP-Thunde...Subaru-BRZ.htm

If you already have hids or a kit i think just a morimoto bulb will make a difference for sure. A friend of mine just put the morimoto 4300 h1 bulbs in with some xentec ballasts and it looked a lot better than the cheaper eBay hid bulbs he had previously.

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Hmmm, i think ima get the 6kk from diode dynamics. They've been good too me, too bad i can't find that 10% card they gave me =(. I wonder how the 8000k drl look like. Anyone have a picture?? And should i get the hid relay as well?

bought 8k from autolismo and they're closer to 6k. I love them though. Honestly, the cutoff of HID bulbs in the halogen projectors are pretty good

I keep thinking about getting a hid setup using the stock housing and all..
But the stock lights are pretty damn good as they come.. Halogen and all..
The light is even and throws a nice light.. Wish it was more white.. But the coverage and brightness is pretty descent..
Every time it go to read more about it.. I end up getting more mixed up with all the options and various vendors!
I do hate the yellow drl look.. But I don't want to give up my high beams for an led bulb.. Would love to get a condensed list of the best way to go..

For the love of god please get a retrofit. I'm tired of being blinded by cars with HIDs in stock projectors. If they were meant to come with HIDs then it would have.

lol, not attacking you personally so please don't take offense, but comments like this seem so dramatic to me.

Only "cars" I've ever really thought "DAYUM that's bright" are actually trucks. Very rarely will I be "blinded" by a car unless the light is aimed too high. Even without projectors in a regular halogen housing, I've never really had an issue and HID's are EVERYWHERE here in college area.

And just so I don't get a lecture from someone else, I absolutely know the difference between a housing that is built for HID's and built for halogen. I know about the cut off, light dispersement, blah, blah, blah

I put hid's in mine when I first got it and the factory projectors are really good they have a nice cut off and don't blind on coming traffic. The only reason I could see for wanting to upgrade the factory lenses is if your going to paint your housings and are already taking your lights apart. Everyone will have different opinions but ultimately the factory lenses work just fine. I would however like to see the difference between the hid gt86 lenses vs the frs. I can't see their being too much difference because of cost. Its cheaper to use the same lenses in all the headlights for the manufacturer.

No offense taken but it's just that i see it so often for both cars and trucks that it can get a bit annoying. I know on some cars it's not blinding but I just don't want to be a hypocrit and blind others so I would by a retro fit myself. I guess it's just something that always irked me whenever i see it.

It certainly doesn't irk me at all, like was mentioned before. Alot of the blinding people are experiencing from other cars on the road is due to the ride height of the car. If you don't have projector lenses obviously don't put hid bulbs in them because you will blind other people.

Stock Hids on a truck or an suv blind the heck out of me because I sit lower and they're projector is focused on my rear view. I also completely agree that in the frs, the only reason to go full retrofit would be to either get rid of the high beam/drl and do dual hid setup or to paint the inside housing. The stock halogen projectors are just fine for a simple hid conversion.

Btw, 6000k halogen drl/high beams do look really good with 5000k low beams.

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FR-S's stock projectors has a "squirrel finder" that sends light above the cutoff. If you're not bending this closed, you're blinding people with your HID's.


HID's in a halogen projector aren't going to be anywhere near the output of a proper HID projector, but it's much better than a reflector setup. HID has nearly 3 times the output of a halogen bulb, so they can get a wider and fuller beam without losing light. Inversely, a halogen headlight having far less light to work with has to focus the light in a more direct hotspot in front of the car. Adding HID to halogen headlight triples the intensity in those spots (if everything lines up, which it never does as the filament and arc are very different in how they produce light) leading to overpowered foreground lighting and terribly glaring "squirrel finders" that are near the intensity of a normal halogen bulb.

So can you have led drl's and HID's and still use the high beams?

Squirrel finders. Lol. I know what your talking about but the name is funny. I can 100% guarantee that unless you are in a car that's lower than mine, my 35w 5000k Morimotos inside the stock halogen projector will not "blind" you. This subject is getting a little redundant. I have done a lot of comparisons since the upgrade and when I see my car on the opposite side of the road, It doesn't affect my driving or "blind" me at all. It just looks like I have hid headlights. Isn't that the point of this upgrade? I have tested this theory in different vehicles at different heights and my headlights look great passing by.

Obviously, oem/stock hid lamps will give you more light output that is indeed focused better. It also costs alot more than even the most expensive hid conversion kit. The main point I would like to make is that at least the frs has projector lenses. Halogen or not, they still make a nice line. Without them, I would not have gotten hid bulbs.

If you would like to do a retrofit kit and get the hid projector, your looking at 300-500 bucks and about 6-8 hours in labor. (if you know what your doing) I have installed many retrofit kits and taking the bumper off, baking headlights on a brand new car is not something most people want to go for.

The most expensive hid conversion kit is 150 bucks (cheap eBay kits around 30) and it takes no longer than an hour to install. So easy I would let my sister install a hid conversion kit.

If you want it perfect, spend the money on a retrofit or entire new headlamp assembly. If your like me and your putting all that money into paying the car off, get a conversion kit. Mine look fantastic and in my tests do not blind anyone. Maybe there is a difference in the 2014 model headlights, i don't know. Do whatever you have the wallet for.


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Here is a customer submitted picture with our HID conversion in the stock FR-S projectors. No modifications at all

http://www.fr-sforum.com/forums/atta...021_173615.jpg

They work pretty well IMO

Nick C.

Point proven. Thank you Nick.

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Sorry man, but that's a bad pic to judge headlights off of. Too close to the wall, surroundings are too bright, etc.

So many different HID systems.
What made you pick h11?

It's a customer submitted photo with no adjustments made at all

Nick C.

H11 is the low beam bulb size for the FRS.

I think the picture proves the point that the FRS has nice cutoff lines and that hid conversion kits with no modifications work just fine. Have you even seen an frs with an hid conversion in person? I have seen quite a few (and own one) and even cheap eBay kits offer a significant upgrade to the stock low beams.

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This has provided some really good information. I have a couple questions. Can we convert to bi-zenon with an LED drl and if so, who makes that kit with all the wiring etc?

I know you meant well, but your 3 steps of "information" are just going to confuse everyone. As you just state bulbs, projectors (as being bad) and a retro fit kit, without explaining what that is, I will clean it up for ya.

1. Purchase new, higher quality HALOGEN bulbs, replace factory bulbs = <$70
2. Purchase a HID ballast&Bulb "Plug and play (PnP)" kit, install PnP to replace factory halogen bulbs = <$170
3. Purchase a proper retrofit kit which includes ballasts, bulbs, AND proper projectors, requires opening the headlight and replacing the factory bulb and projectors = <$170-400

I run Bi-Xenon with a LED DRL

Retrofit a bi-xenon projector into the stock location, swapped DRL bulb for a LED.

Touche, thanks for clearing that up

Almost every non projector headlight with PNP HID kits in there are terrible and blind me at night, does not matter if it is a low sitting car or a high riding truck - non projectors make it INCREDIBLY dangerous. Now for projector headlights with PNP, it can be crappy in cars, but usually more noticeable in ebay projector headlights.

Lol. Sorry. Still have yet to be "blinded" by anything other than a truck.

This post is getting a little redundant. My Morimoto hid conversion kit looks awesome on my 2014 frs. I HAVE DONE EXTENSIVE TESTING AND THIS UPGRADE DOES NOT "BLIND" PEOPLE! All people have to say in other cars is that it looks great. I have not had one person tell me it blinded them or have a gotten a single flash from oncoming traffic and I have a 30 mile commute to work and back everyday.

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No, it proves nothing. It's too bright and washed out to show much more than a cutoff. Adjusting the image a bit, you can clearly see the "squirrel finders" in that pic, but it's a crappy pic to judge output off of.


This is what a proper pic looks like (not my pic, this guy uses the same spot and the same settings on all the pics he takes so you can properly compare output of various projectors)


http://s59.photobucket.com/albums/g2.../DSC_3676h.jpg


One can find better pics of the stock FR-S headlight with HID's elsewhere on these forums showing the light above the cutoff and how narrow the beam is.

The picture doesn't matter dude, come on. I own one. I know what it looks like. I have friends that own them. They have all upgraded they're headlights. I have carefully read through most of the hid posts on this forum. I have very clearly seen (in person) the differences before and after stock vs conversion kit vs retrofit. Your negativity does not help anyone.

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Does anyone else think this is kind of a stupid thing to argue about?

I've seen so many of these threads....:scared0012:

Nick C.

I agree no argument is nessisary however, all I'm trying to do is prove the point that my headlights look great and do not blind people. I really should just unsubscribe from this redundant post.

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