Xenon bulbs, make any difference?

[MX3 GSR for dummies]

You sound as if you think i'm trying to sell the guy something. Or that i'm just trying to make myself sound cool. I bought an HID retrofit kit off ebay, and installed it on my car and it made an unreal differance in night time vison for my mx-3. I have the kit where you put the HID bulb in the stock housing. Its not in a projector or anything. I really can't afford do spend thousands of dollars getting projectors from high end cars, so i did the next best thing. And i love it.

Details...what kit?

[jschrauwen]

You sound as if you think i'm trying to sell the guy something. Or that i'm just trying to make myself sound cool. I bought an HID retrofit kit off ebay, and installed it on my car and it made an unreal differance in night time vison for my mx-3. I have the kit where you put the HID bulb in the stock housing. Its not in a projector or anything. I really can't afford do spend thousands of dollars getting projectors from high end cars, so i did the next best thing. And i love it.

Not my intent at all. But merely trying to find the source of your new found upgrade. It wouldn't be the first time that someone has stumbled onto a unique find that could be of benefit to this BB. Normally when someone does stumble onto something unique and workable for our cars it's almost a given that those individuals are very forthcoming with pics, links, info, feedback etc. I posed the question because none of this was forthcomiing. It gives rise to perhaps a misconception that our lights can be retro-fitted with HID's, because thet can't. They can however be fitted with a different style of bulb that has been transplanted onto a 9004 base and may provide a brighter, whiter light. What's missing is that the particular bulb may contain similar gas composition for the manufacturer/vender to get away with saying that it's a Xenon bulb and thereby qualify in calling it HID. It wasn't mentioned what this kit included, bases, ballasts etc that would also be liken to HID. The end result is of course a brighter perhaps whiter light but this light pattern will be refracted in numerous unintentional directions. The focal positioning of this new bulb retrofit may not be coincidental to the normal 9004 and thereby giving a diffferent reflective pattern from the parabolic lense which intern must be syncronized with the flutiing of the outside clear lense cover. All of this has to work together. Yes there was much more light, yes it appeared much brighter and yes the relative safety of operating this may be in jeopardy since now there are numerous uncontrolled light patterns being refracted that will now pose a potential problem for oncioming vehicles. Rest assured that similar type mods do generate this type of after affect. The safest best alternative would be to stay with a good qulaity 9004 halogen bulb (silverstar, PIAA, etc) that's not over rated wattage-wise and will not overheat existing wiring harnesses to the point of possibly causing a fire. As previously requested, if it's possible to get details on this kit, it would be much more beneficial to this BB than just saying " I bought an HID retrofit kit off ebay" and nothing else.
FWIW, many are not aware that by simply rewiring our existing headlights to be fed directly from the battery through proper relays and better gauge wiring, it's possible to recoup approximately 20% of potential light loss. The rallyelights website covers the procedures for this.

[slowmx3]

The kit contained everything that was in the picture of yours. The ballast and ignitor are one unit in this kit as opposed to two different units. Everyone rants and raves about how you can only make a working HID system in a projector housing. It is true that route will provide the best lighting possible, but it just isn't possible for alot of people, myself included. What i really need is a new headlight bracket for my drivers side because the one on there can't move right to left so i'm shining my lights in the ditch... The kit I got is 8000K, very nice blue color to it. When i get home from class tonight i'll try and get some more info on it. But for now just go to ebay and search for HID kit. Many options come up... But watch out for the ebay scammer! Has anyone heard about that?! scammed like 120 people on like $200-400 ipods all at the same time and then dissapered with like $130,000. Crazy world!