AutoMatCentral HID kit Review

AutoMatCentral has a new premium HID kit available and I was lucky enough to have them send me a kit for review.

I was in the market for a new set of lights and was also tired of the halogen bulbs burning out. I was told and have read in numerous places that HID's last a lot longer and are a better bang for your buck so I decided that I wanted to get a set.

I decided on the 55 watt 5000k hi/lo kit. AutoMatCentral had a great deal going on that I couldn't pass up. the install was a piece of cake. I will admit that I am very mechanically inclined, however they come with instructions and the kit is pretty much plug & play without any modifications to your vehicle. After the install the results are very significant and I couldn't be any more happy with the kit.

I have seen a few people complain about the flicker of some brands of HID's and others have stated that the beam pattern is a bit spotty and all over the place. I am running with the original housing and the only mod to the original headlights is the BHLM. I have no issues with any "spotty pattern" or "flickering". My headlights are adjusted a little lower because the lift on my truck but I haven't changed them since the HID install.

With all this being said I would suggest if you are looking for a very high quality HID kit, a company with super fast shipping and excellent communication, then you should check out AutoMatCentral either on Tacoma World or directly on their website.

This is how they showed up minus the brown packaging box.




I then disconnected the old headlights and removed the rubber gasket that covered the old light backs.


Then I laid out the new HID.


Then I disconnected the lights from themselves so I could reuse the old rubber gasket.


then installed the gasket on the new lights. (I left the cover on the lights until I was ready to actually install them in the truck)


Then install the lights just like you would any other headlight.

 

This is a picture of stock lights.


And the new lights on low beam.


And the new lights on high.

 

I just want to say Thank You to Andrew from AutoMatCentral.com for being very upfront and helping me decided on the wants and needs of what I am looking for in the HID kit. Very easy to talk with and he actually took time to explain things for me.

 

Can we get pics of the front of the truck. I want to see the color of the beams. (hi/lo)

The high seems a lot more white as opposed to the yellow tone in the low beam.

 

The pics of the bulbs (not a lot of detail unfortunately), plus im on a phone......makes em look like xenon with a halogen hi beam no?

I swear I seen a short stubby bulb (halogen), and a long skinny tube with a steel rod (hid) surrounded in a large calpsule with a glare shield....they just a lot like xenon low with halogen hi....not "bixenon"....maybe that's the contrasting color in the high beam pic?




I thought it odd looking too.

 

I can get the front view pictures tonight. The low beam looks more like the stock bulb color and the high beam has the hid color to it. I like it better then the other hids I have seen because on normal driving at night I am not blinding people. And when the highs are on it is really insane how bright everything is. Even the reflectors on the guard rails look like led bulbs. They really illuminate things I would have never seen before like deer especially.

 

The lows look nothing like 5000k, especially not 55watt. My 35 watt 6000k kit from the retrofit source are a lot more whiter and brighter than those.

You sure everything is connected properly? Where the lights fully warmed up when you took the low beam pic?

 

I'm pretty sure everything was hooked up properly. I never had hids before. I think it would be pretty hard to not hook them up right. Just plugs right into the factory harness. Correct?

 

This is during the day at my lunch break. It's pretty easy to tell there is a different color. Without the fog lights is high beam. Did I hook them up wrong? Did I get faulty lights? Any input would help. Like I said I have no clue about hids. I just know that I want 5000k high and low beam.

Low Beam
http://www.tacomaworld.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/302826/size/big/cat/500

High Beam
http://www.tacomaworld.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/302825/size/big/cat/500

 

Sorry about the links. I'm at work.

 

Ok. I just took some night pictures. I noticed that when I turn on the high beam it takes a second for it to get bright. When I turn on the truck and the low beams come on there is no wait for brightness.

low


high


Discuss..

 

Doesn't sound like bixenon to me.

Sounds like a halogen/xenon combination......even the box said xenon on it tho, so im not surprised.

Are the lows bright enough to drive with and aimed well?

If so, having hid as high beams is safer for oncoming traffic I suppose....no need to worry about glare or retrofitting projectors if u can just turn the brights off when u see other cars.

 

^ makes sense. Some kits are only hid for the lows and go back to halogen on brights. Looks like he has something wired backwards?

 

I don't think that you could wire it backwards?? The harness plugs right up to the trucks factory headlight harness. No splicing or anything required.

 

Then again.....keep in mind that ballasts will not like rapid on/off cycling.

 

Then call AMC and see what they tell you, because that doesn't look right at all, IMO. They don't even look like 5000k, especially not 55watts... But if your happy with it, then just leave it.

 

The reason I want HIDs is for the clean crisp color, and to match my LED bar. Wish the low beams were whiter

 

I thought that all hids were bright white. Has anyone else had this issue?

 

the uninformed public see the cutoff of a true 4300K OEM projector and THINK its blue.....................just the cutoff should be blue

4300K HID lights is very white with a hint of yellow