HID Conversion Kit from xenonfactory.com

[pike4fun]

It's been a while since there was a group buy on HID conversion kits. I wanted to find out if anyone would be interested in pursuing this option with http://www.xenonfactory.com/ ?

I do not have any experience in handling such a transaction, but will offer as much help as possible.

I'm personally interested in the 'Philips Based Xenon HID Conversion Kit by Polarion Lighting' which is a 4100K H4 kit. Important to note: this only has a low-beam option. When high beam is turned on, low beam stays on (checked with customer support). The complete kit sells for $485. I understand that this is more than most kits on the market, but there is a very good reason for it. First, the ballast and the bulb are made by Philips. This is the standard on all luxury cars. Best of all, components are covered by 3 year warranty.

Please reply and let me know if you'd be interested.

[humanoid]

I'm not 100% sure, but these HID retrofit kits are illegal in some states, so as buyers, I would check this out first before commiting to this. Just my 2 cents.

[hkochat]

Originally posted by pike4fun
It's been a while since there was a group buy on HID conversion kits. I wanted to find out if anyone would be interested in pursuing this option with http://www.xenonfactory.com/ ?

I do not have any experience in handling such a transaction, but will offer as much help as possible.

I'm personally interested in the 'Philips Based Xenon HID Conversion Kit by Polarion Lighting' which is a 4100K H4 kit. Important to note: this only has a low-beam option. When high beam is turned on, low beam stays on (checked with customer support). The complete kit sells for $485. I understand that this is more than most kits on the market, but there is a very good reason for it. First, the ballast and the bulb are made by Philips. This is the standard on all luxury cars. Best of all, components are covered by 3 year warranty.

Please reply and let me know if you'd be interested.

Dear Friend,

Interesting indeed. I wonder whether anyone who has already installed these kits can respond with their experience. I am seriously considering a genuine upgrade of the halogen head lamps. I will definitely into more research of its durability and performance.

[TheWorm]

I would recommend Steve @ xenondepot.com

He frequently pays for sponsorship/advertising here and on the MDX site, and his product (also genuine Philips components) and customer service are outstanding.

His regular price for 4300k H4 kits is $449; dunno what he'd do for a group buy, but I'd get in touch w/him to see!

[iivtecracerii]

HID kits are illegal in all states, not just some. they made it illegal because many people were putting HID lighting into halogen housings, which can create a lot of glare for oncoming drivers, increasing risks of accidents.

some halogen housings can project HID light with very little glare and produce near OEM quality beam patterns, but most housings do not. the only true way to get HID's for your non-HID vehicle is to buy used OEM projecters from a headlight originally designed for HID, and retrofit those projectors into your headlight housing. this is still illegal, but leans more towards the legal side since the light output is DOT/SAE compliant and it's not so obvious to the police since you arent blinding them (if the retrofit is done properly).

[pike4fun]

Just wanted to respond to those having concerns over legality aspect of placing HID upgrades in conventional headlight housing.

If you are worried about getting caught by 'authorities' for using this product, do not get involved in the first place. Enough said for those overly cautious or plain paranoid. This upgrade is not going to get you behind bars ;-)

Secondly, you should understand that majority of glare will result from poorly retro-fit hid bulbs. Since all conversion kits are nothing more than a standard D2R or D2S hid bulb with custom base to fit the housing, depending on how accurately it's designed, it will either produce extremely dispresed beam or mimic factory output.

TheWorm: appreciate your help. Will touch base with Steve this afternoon.

[little-al]

I guess it depends on where you live, but I know of several people that have been ticketed for the conversions, and when issues a "fix it" ticket... hope they kept their OEM parts so they can reinstall the halogens to show the DMV to clear the citation.

And in fact, the kits themselves have been actively pursued by the DOT, hence their relative scarcity now.

And the conversions are usually pretty darned obvious, unless *really* done well, especially when met head-on. As mentioned above, the only real way to avoid the problem is to install projector/servo housings, especially if using a single bulb hi-low arrangement. And admittedly, some good kits use this method, versus the often expensive and poorly made H4(etc) conversion bulbs.


And anyway, HID lights, while "neat looking" have some educated detractors, who feel it is more of a fashion statement than a safety feature. It seems that, for the same reason the military uses the red end of the spectrum for night lighting, which increases/preserves night vision, the high temp blue end of the spectrum produced by the HIDs tends to diminish night vision, especially at thier periphery.

So, although you do have a brighter swath/depth of light illuminated by the HIDs, the cutoff at the periphery is much more pronounced. Practically what this means is that if something is lurking just outside of an HID illuminated path, you are less likely to see it, than if you had less intense/high-temp lighting.

And this is easy to replicate/test ..... if you have ever used a super high intensity spotlight in the pitch-black, say a forest, you certainly can see what it illuminates well, but switch it off quickly, or look to the edge of the beam, and you will see that your night-vision is obliterated until your eyes adjust again.

Anyway, just something to think about.

Everyone has an opinion on this subject, but I think the halogens on the Pilot do a good job, and money is probably better spent elsewhere with regard to safety, or other nifty gadgetry.

al

[iivtecracerii]

Originally posted by pike4fun
Secondly, you should understand that majority of glare will result from poorly retro-fit hid bulbs. Since all conversion kits are nothing more than a standard D2R or D2S hid bulb with custom base to fit the housing, depending on how accurately it's designed, it will either produce extremely dispresed beam or mimic factory output.

glare results from the housing of the headlights. halogen housings are not designed to reflect HID light. its not just as simple as it being another light source. incandescent light is produced by a glowing filament. HID's produce light by a burning arc of gas. completely different properties and lighting patterns.

OEM headlight beam patterns have two steps, and a sharp cutoff line, with basically no glare or scattered light above that cutoff line. i would be very suprised if you simply put a rebased HID kit in your housing and achieve the same effect, since most halogen housings will not be able to do that with HID light.

the following pictures were taken from www.hidplanet.com/forums.

[iivtecracerii]

Toyota Sequoia with M-Benz E55 projectors:

[iivtecracerii]

very bad output from an HID kit in halogen housing. not all housings will produce output as bad as this, but this shows how bad a HID kit in halogen housing could possibly become:

[How About That]

Count me in for the group buy, if there is one

[pike4fun]

iivtecracerii: thank you for the pictures. I do not believe that the two shots are comparable. Take a look at the distance between the cars and garage door. The closer you get, the more 'blur' you'll get.

Don't get me wrong, it's not my objective to argue the benefit or legality aspect of placing hid's in your oem enclosures. This group buy is for those that do understand and are willing to spend the money on this upgrade. Again, if you want to share your opinion on the subject, please use the 'Accessories' section of the forum. Better yet, set up a new Poll to find out what others think.

Respectfully,
pike4fun

[hkochat]

Originally posted by pike4fun
iivtecracerii: thank you for the pictures. I do not believe that the two shots are comparable. Take a look at the distance between the cars and garage door. The closer you get, the more 'blur' you'll get.

Don't get me wrong, it's not my objective to argue the benefit or legality aspect of placing hid's in your oem enclosures. This group buy is for those that do understand and are willing to spend the money on this upgrade. Again, if you want to share your opinion on the subject, please use the 'Accessories' section of the forum. Better yet, set up a new Poll to find out what others think.

Respectfully,
pike4fun

Dear Friends,

All the responses and inputs were indeed resourceful. Let us take people's views positively, please. It is always better to have the subject thoroughly discussed and exchange views. I feel these discussions as a part of research before investing into it. I have been discussing on the side line with xenonfactory.com to learn more about their HID conversion kit too. Jason was very helpful to explain my queries. I thought of sharing his expert description for you all. Attached below please see what I have been informed. I have attached two separate emails from him. The first one describes the technology while the second email focused on the legal aspects in the United States. Again, these are just views and not intended for any argument or to take it offensively, please. I am indeed interested in an HID conversion kit if it is worth spending money. So please take it positively.

Email 1 (Received yesterday)

Hi Harry,

Thank you for your interest in Xenon Factory products. We offer kits in 3000k, 4100k, 5000k and 6000k. For pure white you're looking at a 4100k kit, this type of bulb also happens to have the highest output of light in terms of HID technology.

In regards to your question about heat, the technology utilized by an HID system does not allow for much heat production. It is not linear to the heat produced buy the older Halogen technology where brighter means hotter. Even to add to this, a 4100k HID bulbs produces three times more light while consuming just over half of the power a Halogen bulb consumes. HID bulbs draw high voltage for about 5 seconds, and after that it's 35 Watts. Whereas a halogen is 55 watts all the time. There are so many different HID kits out there in terms of quality and price so I'd like to mention that this initial charge up is the reason why our kit comes with a separate wiring harness to draw power directly from the battery at all times. This avoids putting too much electrical load on the factory wires and makes the kit more plug and play.

The Honda Pilot takes an H4 type bulb for the low beam. This halogen bulb is a duel filament bulb which is used for your low and high beams. Since HID bulbs do not use filaments, they only have one focal point for the low beam. The functionality of your high beam will not be available because of this. However the difference in light output from low to high is greatly reduced since HIDs produce so much more light (4100k produces over 3 times more light than a standard Halogen bulb). Many people still do the conversion because it's not that big a deal but I thought you should be informed before you make a decision.

There is another alternative, and that is to purchase a "bi-xenon" H4 kit, which simulates the second focal point by shifting the bulb inside the housing mechanically. We do not carry those kits because we found the failure rate to be too high, and most people do not find the extra cost of this special bulb worth while anyway.

Just to mention, our kits are made completely with Genuine Philips components so you’re getting the best quality and they come with a three year warranty on all parts including the bulbs. Our kits also feature a double relay harness which comes in handy for diagnosing problems and even when it comes to safety, having two harnesses is good because you have two individual systems in place instead of the headlights running off just one.

Once again thank you for your inquiry and if you have any other questions please feel free to ask.

Regards,
Jason Kouyoumdjian
jason@xenonfactory.com
www.xenonfactory.com
416.616.6193


Email 2 (Received today)

Hi Harry,

Thank you for your inquiry. Right now, HID conversions have been banned from the US. This happened roughly a year ago because people were buying low quality HID conversion kits that were not properly rebased (did not maintain a correct focal point in the bulb), causing a different beam pattern, and being too bright towards oncoming traffic. Thanks to DOT, many of these distributors have been stopped from selling garbage kits to the public.

As of that, the ban still remains on HID conversions. However if done properly, there is no way for an onlooker to know if your HID system came from the factory, or if it is aftermarket. A big part of HID conversion has to do with the actual bulb itself. Philips does not make any Halogen base HID bulbs, they only make HID base (D2s base) bulbs. It is up to an aftermarket company to do the rebasing properly. If a conversion kit is made properly, it should be allowed to be used on the road.

So to answer your question, yes they are technically illegal on the roads, and so is J-Walking

Regards,
Jason Kouyoumdjian
jason@xenonfactory.com
www.xenonfactory.com
416.616.6193

[iivtecracerii]

there is probably truth to what he said, in that HID kits which are rebased better may perform better over the cheapo ones, but its coming from the mouth (hands?) of a salesman trying to sell his product, so you cant (or i dont, at least) fully trust what he says. i honestly do not believe that a rebased kit in a halogen housing will create a beam pattern like the sequoia in the picture above. if it would create a 100% DOT legal beam pattern, why doesnt Xenon Factory get their kits DOT approved? i mean, if they are compliant, there should be no issues with DOT approving their kit, right?

however, i would love to be wrong. you guys go ahead and buy this kit, install it, shoot some pics of the beam pattern, and prove me wrong.

[hkochat]

Dear Friends,

In addition to my posting, I also got response from Steve at xenondepot.com replying to my several queries. I thought of sharing his comments below for your information and as an added tool to make your judgement and decision.

Here is what Steve has to say:

Hello Sir,

Thank-you for contacting XenoDepot.com

As per your email:

1) Legality - Please view this link:

http://www.xenondepot.com/faq.php#q9

2) Our H4 applications are low beam only. We used to carry high/low conversion kits however we found that the mechanisms currently available in the market are prone to failure. There are still companies that sell the high/low conversions kits however we simply found that it wasn’t worth the hassle. The aftermarket high/low applications are completely different than the OEM Bi-Xenon applications.

3) With our product you will not be compromising your OEM headlight wiring harness in any way. Once the harness that comes with our product is installed you will not be running any extra current through the OEM harness. All you will be using your factory wiring for is simply to trigger the relay that comes with our product on/off.

4) I would not suggest going with anything above 6000k. Please view this link for information regarding color temperature:

http://www.xenondepot.com/htec.php

5) Group Buys: It’s definitely an option however for the month of January we will not be holding any group buys. Having said that let me know when you are ready to purchase and I will do my best to help you out.

Please view this link for pictures of our product installed in a pilot:

http://www.xenondepot.com/pghp5k.php

Regards,

Steve