HID lights(2012 tacoma)

I've been wanting to go in the HID direction but don't really know where to start. I love the look of them on a truck. Help please. I need to know what all i need to buy for it and the best brand.

 

www.theretrofitsource.com

 

just throw some h4 35w hids from ddm tuning in them. i love mine, mine are 5k and i think there the brightest color

 

this if you wanna do it right

 

ABSOLUTELY!

Don't go with straight HID bulbs, retrofits look awesome and maximize the light output and projection. Our housings aren't designed for HID bulbs so it will have major glare. Do a search on retrofits I'm sure there's a lot of pics that show the beam patterns and outputs of both.

Not too difficult either I did mines early this year and they're great.

 

Do you happen to have pictures of the light output, And how easy was it to wire up?... I put DDM HID's on my old E34 but that was just the low beam. How is it with the Highs?.

I ordered DDM Tuning's "slim" HID kit, 35W, 5000K Hi/lo on monday and should get it in Friday or Saturday.

I am a big fan of retrofitting, But not a big fan of taking apart my headlights and the cost to do it. I even told people not to put a plug and play kit on their trucks due to glare... My halogen sylvania ZXE lights are starting to discolor (one is whiter then the other) and are $60 a set. the DDM HID's were only a few bucks more.

So I did some googling because not every factory HID car uses projectors... Like the Lexus GS300/GS430, Lexus IS300, Lexus LS430, Acura 3.2TL/CL, Acura 3.5RL, 2003-2005 Nissan 350Z, 2003-2005 Infiniti G35, 2005-2008 Ford Mustang with OEM optional HIDs etc...

I noticed with them that not the whole headlight bowl illuminates like this


That is because the lower portion of the headlight is what will reflect the light up... I noticed the DDM Hi/lo kit's have a glare guard like so (actual product)


So I am hoping that it won't be blinding to other people (too badly at least), I have seen other Tacoma's with PNP HID's that weren't blindingly bright... Like Bozack's


When I install them, I'm going to park it facing the garage door and tape where the halogens lights are on the door and adjust the HID's so it'll be a even match. If they can't be adjusted to where it wont blind other people anymore then I already seem to do with the halogens. I'll remove them.

 

^^If you want to add HID's the correct way, that is the only way to go. I don't care if you have a glare guard or not, they'll still throw light differently than a halogen. I'm not a fan of doing things cheap just because it's either cheaper or easier. Do it right, do it once and enjoy the results. The light output from a complete retrofit will absolutely blow away ANY plug and play kit. There is no comparison.

 

In most cases, I do agree with you... It is more so curiosity. If I don't like the output and continuously get "flashed" I will remove the kit and put in place halogens (piaa, nokya). It's kind of the point to throw light differently, I'm more concerned about the lights pointing up no matter what I do which is where I hope/wonder if that glare guard will keep it from doing so. As long as I will be able to see and it won't blind others I don't really care... It's illegal in california with or without a retrofit. $67 vs $300... I don't expect it to be better then a retrofit but don't expect it to be as bad as a kit without any glare gaurd.

Everything you've said I personally already know and have still decided to feed my curiosity.

 

That wasn't necessarily directed at you, the OP mentioned that he has little or no experience with HID's so he should at least know the difference between a retrofit kit and a plug and play kit before making his decision. Lots of people make the decision to go with a plug and play kit are fully aware of the performance they could get with a retrofit and that's their choice. You are correct about the glare shield, they do help but do not eliminate the problem. I have a kit with a glare shield on my motorcycle and I don't get flashed but I still want projectors when I get the money to upgrade.

FWIW, the factory Tacoma headlights actually aren't bad at all for a halogen housing. A higher performance bulb like a PIAA, Philips or Osram will give you great light output and you won't get flashed at all.

 

If a vehicle has a reflector housing headlight and had an HID system as an option the reflector design is different for the HID system. The whole headlight is changed to accomodate the HID system. Halogen and HID reflector housings are not interchangeable.

 

I have ZXE's in them now (kinda burned the bowl a little bit somehow [too bright?]) and I can see just fine, But they're starting to discolor un evenly. Which is why I am just now getting around to trying out HID's

I thought that too, I had a 2003 Acura 3.2TL Type-S from 2006-2008 which doesn't have projectors (i've had my truck for over a year and did play with lighting a bit already [which is why it's taken so long to consider HIDs]).

I've seen all the cars I listed with halogen bulbs (OEM bulbs for my TL were $114 each, and a blown ballast is a common issue and $130+ to replace each) and they too looked completely stock and when they switched them to halogens the glare guard was removed. I got curious about the light output... So I started looking into how they can interchange without blinding the driver or traffic.

The bowl isn't all that different, Here for example is a 2007 Mustang..

Non-HID



OEM HID



The only difference is the glare guards.

 

I actually stopped by and visited with Andrew yesterday. He gave me a tour of the place. Too notch people and products. I will be retrofitting my truck in the very near future

 

And possibly the shape of the housing. The reason you get the glare with HIDs is because they emit light differently than halogens. Halogens only have one bright coil in the bulb but HIDs emit light along the entire length of the bulb. I'd bet the HID housings have a more pronounced curve to keep all that light on the road.

 

The close ups and from what I have seen in person on Mustanks and Prius'... The headlight diameters, the reflective mirrors and angles are all similar. Just the glare shield/guard is what is the only difference.

I'm doing more google work on this to keep my debate fresh with legitimate reasoning and evidence. A company actually makes aftermarket add on guards/shields for other bulbs that don't have it... Casper Shield, Here's what I've found so far...

Projector on the top and non projector on the bottom with the shield... Which really does not look that bad, It seems to be a fairly decent band aid. (It's on a corolla)

 

You need to do some engineering and analysis work on this.

 

I have a general idea how this works, and in trying a specific HID kit with my "theory" is a pretty good idea to get some analysis done... Do you have a engineering degree? or just what other people have told you?... We're probably not so much different on this subject, Because common sense does entail that a retrofit is the best way to go about it.

I had a simple question after observing cars with non projector HID's make a switch to halogen due to cost and noticing every car that does have a OEM HID system without projectors have a bulky glare shield. Apparently I'm not the only person that has wondered the same as companies like "casper shields" sell them a la carte... And since the 9003 HID hi/low bulbs have a glare guard, I want to find out for myself just how the light out put will be.

And until my kit arrives later this week, searching for people expressing their experiences and opinions on it is a pretty good way to get a quick answer.

But thank you for your contribution... You did absolutely nothing but get me to do another explanation for my defense. Congratulations.

 

That shield doesn't look like it's half bad although it looks a little too crisp for me to believe that it's just an add-on shield. Was that a marketing tool from the company?

Actually, I just searched and found that picture in this thread:
http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/sho...ing-to-purchase-Casper-Shields-(Glare-Shields)

 

The new Mustang actually has a projector. You can see it in the center at it encloses the bulb.

 

Here is a picture of the 'cutoff' using the casper shield and more what I would have expected:

This looks very similar to my motorcycle HID kid that also has the shields. Notice the lack of a crisp cutoff and the amount of light scatter above the hot spot and above where you would expect a cutoff line. The shields make them better but do not solve the problem. Also, the base vehicles reflector housing plays a role in how good or bad the glare will be for oncoming traffic.

 

Indeed thats the thread I got the picture from

The new ones do 2010+... But the 2005-2009 Mustang's didn't use projectors on their optional HID's.

That definitely does not look as clear as the one I came up with, It's visibly "fuzzyer" above the hot spot but not glaring all over the place as everyone (and myself in the past) have made it sound. That looks like I would be able to adjust to not be blinding other motorists.

Just to clarify, I'm not saying a PNP kit will be as good as a retrofit. A retrofit is the 100% absolute proper way to go to Xenon's. And a PNP kit will not even come close in quality... I'm more interested to see if it will be "good enough" for a temporary thing or someone that is cheap and lazy.