My Civic has HIDs!

[Patman]

I don't know yet if this is good or bad, but it appears that the previous owner of my Civic has installed HID lights on the car, as it's got that whitish/blue light and when I first turn them on they take a few seconds to come up to full brightness.

But I'm worried now, what the heck do I do when one of these bulbs burns out? I have no clue what bulbs to buy or even where to get them. And I realize that when one bulb burns out I should go ahead and replace both of them otherwise the light won't be consistent from one side to the other.

 

[beast3300]

They sell cheap replacements from ebay. Just look for the correct o.e. fitment (9003, 9004, etc). Once you know that it is just a matter of what color do you prefer.

All the sellers I dealt with on ebay just ask you give the color and bulb style in the comments when you paypal.

Other than that replacement is easy, they come out like the stock bulbs. However there will be two wires that connect each of the HID bulbs to their respected HID ballast box. All the HID bulbs fit any brand kit. They are all the same plugs/connector ends to ballast.

HID link

edit: you will need to know if they are 35watt ballast or 50watt to reorder bulbs.

 

[sciphi]

Do you see ballasts anywhere? That would be the dead giveaway for HID's.

For replacements, replace them with HIR bulbs, or a HID bulb rebased for a 9006 headlight. Cost is about the same.

How's the lighting, and cutoff?

 

[Patman]

I haven't poked around under the hood yet so I don't know where the ballasts are, and for that matter I'm so unfamiliar with HID lighting that I have no clue what the ballasts would look like!

I haven't driven this car in the dark too often since I got it, but in the brief period of time I have, I find the lighting to be excellent. Although anything is a step up from what I am used to, my Corvette's pop up lights are terrible (especially now that one won't pop up!) and my ex wife's 2000 Civic has the most horrible lights I've ever seen on a car, they are downright scary when driving on country roads in the middle of the night.

BTW, how do I find out what the wattage of my bulbs is?

 

[Smokescreen]

Unfortunately unless the HID are OEM or a proper retro-fit, the HID kit on your car are illegal. I know the extra light output is very alluring but I appeal to you as a fellow driver to stick with OEM bulbs that are supposed to be on the car for safety's sake.

Please read:

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/conversions/conversions.html

Proper aux driving lamps are safer and actually provide better focused lighting.

 

[scurvy]

Originally Posted By: Smokescreen
Unfortunately unless the HID are OEM or a proper retro-fit, the HID kit on your car are illegal. I know the extra light output is very alluring but I appeal to you as a fellow driver to stick with OEM bulbs that are supposed to be on the car for safety's sake.


I wholeheartedly agree and could not have said it better myself.

 

[HTSS_TR]

HID Ballast

 

[OVERKILL]

Got a pic of the housing from the front? I assume it doesn't have projectors (you would have noticed) which means it likely has illegal HID's.

 

[Cujet]

I retrofit my Jaguar X-type headlights with HID's. The original halogen H1 projector headlights were pathetic, regardless of bulb used.

You can talk all you want about illegal, immoral or just plain wrong. The HID are much safer to drive with, have a nice cutoff to avoid blinding other drivers and are very reliable. I looked carefully at my beam pattern from other drivers point of view. It's not bad.

And, my safety directly reflects on others safety too. If I can't see, that puts others at far more risk.

The better HID retrofit kits retain the stock low beam cutoff and pattern and won't annoy oncoming drivers.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: Cujet
The better HID retrofit kits retain the stock low beam cutoff and pattern and won't annoy oncoming drivers.


You're talking apples and oranges here. You put HIDs in a projector housing. Projector housings are far better able to cope with the different optics of an HID light source than a multi-reflector housing designed for halogen bulbs.

Originally Posted By: Cujet
The HID are much safer to drive with, have a nice cutoff to avoid blinding other drivers and are very reliable. I looked carefully at my beam pattern from other drivers point of view. It's not bad.


The HIDs don't have a nice cutoff. Your projector housings have a nice cutoff.

It doesn't matter the quality of HID retrofit kit you buy. An HID light source is an HID light source, and it's inherently different from a halogen light source. If done in a projector housing, the results are usually pretty good. If done in a halogen multi-reflector housing, the results are rarely good. Illegal either way, but much safer with projectors than reflectors.

 

[Patman]

I took a picture of my headlamp this morning, not sure if this looks any different than other Civic EX coupes though:

I looked around under the hood for the ballasts and they are buried in there pretty good. If I wasn't looking for them I'd never know they are there. The bulbs look extremely hard to get to as well, so when they burn out I'm definitely going to need some help to get at them (probably take them to a local tuner shop to get them replaced, just to be on the safe side)

On the plus side, the high beams are a separate bulb on these cars, and they are still running regular bulbs in there. That's a big deal on the Civic since the daytime running lights use the high beams at a lower wattage.

 

[Hokiefyd]

If you can, it would be telling to take a picture of the beam pattern of your light. Pull up to a garage door (or preferrably, a large dull wall) and take a picture of the lights shining against the wall.

Here is a beam pattern of good projectors. Notice how crisp the cutoff is at the top, and how there is very little stray light above the cut.

Here's one of an HID retrofit in a halogen reflector:

You can see a lot of stray light outside of where it's intended to be.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Cujet
I retrofit my Jaguar X-type headlights with HID's. The original halogen H1 projector headlights were pathetic, regardless of bulb used.

You can talk all you want about illegal, immoral or just plain wrong. The HID are much safer to drive with, have a nice cutoff to avoid blinding other drivers and are very reliable. I looked carefully at my beam pattern from other drivers point of view. It's not bad.

And, my safety directly reflects on others safety too. If I can't see, that puts others at far more risk.

The better HID retrofit kits retain the stock low beam cutoff and pattern and won't annoy oncoming drivers.


But you just said you have projectors. The issue isn't with projector housings sir. it is with regular housings.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
If you can, it would be telling to take a picture of the beam pattern of your light. Pull up to a garage door (or preferrably, a large dull wall) and take a picture of the lights shining against the wall.

Here is a beam pattern of good projectors. Notice how crisp the cutoff is at the top, and how there is very little stray light above the cut.

Here's one of an HID retrofit in a halogen reflector:

You can see a lot of stray light outside of where it's intended to be.


Well illustrated! My BMW is the first car I've ever owned with HID's. I really do understand the allure as the lighting is fantastic. But they are of course factory with a perfect cut off. I have not had anybody flash their brights at me in it yet either.

On the other hand, having been on the receiving end of many HID/stock reflector retrofits, I know how obnoxious those can be for other drivers.

 

[Patman]

How much of a PITA would it be for me to have this converted back to stock?

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Patman
How much of a PITA would it be for me to have this converted back to stock?


If they used adapters to plug into the stock bulb sockets, you'd just unplug those, and plug back in some stock bulbs.

You'll have to take a close look at what they did.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Yeah, HID retrofits almost always use the stock wiring and stock headlamp bulb connectors. So all you'd have to do is make sure the HB4 (9006) connectors are still on the ends of the wiring. Start at the bulb itself and work backwards. You'll likely have a thick cable running back to a ballast, and from the ballast, likely a smaller gauge wiring pigtail with a female connector on the end. Plugged into that should be the male HB4 connector on the vehicle's wiring harness.

 

[asiancivicmaniac]

Originally Posted By: Patman
How much of a PITA would it be for me to have this converted back to stock?


If you're not getting people flashing their high beams at you, why not keep them until they burn out. Or have someone drive your car while you drive another car towards it at night and see how bad the glare is.

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: asiancivicmaniac
Originally Posted By: Patman
How much of a PITA would it be for me to have this converted back to stock?


If you're not getting people flashing their high beams at you, why not keep them until they burn out. Or have someone drive your car while you drive another car towards it at night and see how bad the glare is.


I definitely don't plan on ripping the system out right away, my plan is to see how long the bulbs last first, or if I get hassled by the cops. I don't often drive at night, so I may go a long time without any problems here. But if this setup ends up being a big headache for me, I'll definitely go back to stock. I'll let a professional tackle that job though, it's a tight squeeze in there and I have very little patience when it comes to tricky stuff like that.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Patman
Originally Posted By: asiancivicmaniac
Originally Posted By: Patman
How much of a PITA would it be for me to have this converted back to stock?


If you're not getting people flashing their high beams at you, why not keep them until they burn out. Or have someone drive your car while you drive another car towards it at night and see how bad the glare is.


I definitely don't plan on ripping the system out right away, my plan is to see how long the bulbs last first, or if I get hassled by the cops. I don't often drive at night, so I may go a long time without any problems here. But if this setup ends up being a big headache for me, I'll definitely go back to stock. I'll let a professional tackle that job though, it's a tight squeeze in there and I have very little patience when it comes to tricky stuff like that.


Does anybody make a tasteful, quality projector kit for your car? That would be a good way to keep the HID's, and make them legal at the same time.