Increasing output from a light source beyond what headlight optical is designed for is not legal.
Experience has shown that upgrading a light system correct is NOT plug and play as every single HID kit pusher wants you to belive. There are one good reason to ask seller at least 10 questions before purchasing any kit: $500!
US Manufacturers has decreased dramatically after DOT (Department of Transportation) started asking for samples summer 2003. Its obvious that any headlamp upgraded with a HID kit would not comply to original lamp specifications, and would therefor be considered illegal. Manufacturering and/or selling HID kits in the US risks civil penalties and obligations to return full purchase price to evry buyer of sold HID kits.
Kits are genrally made in everything from basements to half professional facilities. Its a small world:
Suvlights is in the CA, US.
They do not sell HID kits any more, but they have quite a few parts for doing
all kinds of headlight upgrades, even connectors in loose weight.
Phoenix Micro-Lite Inc. (US) has disappeared from the web, but was early HID pioneers in the US.
They are just mentioned for historical reasons.
Hid Kits has been away from the web for many years. They were loacted in TX, USA. Unlike
all others, they used to make their own ballast. Evryone who tries doing that will get a lot of complaints.
Making ballasts for HID is not for amatures. It took Philips years to get develop
a design that would function at least 10 years.
Autolamps are in the UK.
They use Philips ballasts and bulbs only. Questions have been raised since 2004 if their kits has
been put togther in Taiwan. Some skimping on relay quality has been found.
HANA,
makes Vision kits, are in Korea. K2 Kits (10 out of 100 bulbs has been reported defective.
After having quality issues with self made ballast and Osram ballast, Matshushita
was tried for a while with execellent quality. Appearantly, they are now back a new
version of their own ballast.) is a derivative product of Vision.
SIJ in Taiwan. Bulbs have been spotted with SIJ label. SIJ is made by the
company Mycarr Auto Acessories Co Ltd., which rebases even Philips HID bulbs.
Xenon Werks is in Asia.
Owned by MTC Lighting (Malaysia) SB. MTC Lighting also owns and operate the US based
Hidforless. There has been quality issues with
some hidforless kits.
PIAA are in Japan. They started
up with light bulbs only. They have never been big on HID kits for headlamps. They
are more known for their overpriced auxially lights. Wonder if they are going away
from ligthing? Other automotive accessories like winshield wipers and storage boxes are now
visible on their website.
BellOfHID are in Japan. Ther ballasts are made by Panasonic. Catz HID kits
are basically relabled BellOfHID kits.
Xenon Depot is in Thornhill, ON, Canada. They seem to continue selling HID kits regardless of US regulatory changes in summer 2003.
Mtec-GmbH
is in Frankfurt, Germany. They cooperate with Autolamps-online.com.
They make the "Xenall" kit that are
distrubuted around europe and Australia. They also sell highly effcient FF-lamps for LeMans cars.
This must not be confused by the Japanese comapy Maruta Technology (also shorted MTEC)
Hanabi (unknown manufacturing contry - probably Japan. Hanabi means fireworks!) seems to have quality problems with ballast.
During mid 90s not many offered HID kits. At its peak, around 2002/2003, kits were sold in any automtive store. The amount is too big and varies to much to be able to mention them all here. They are sold throug all kinds of channels, through speedshops to ebay.com. Quality does not seem to be connected to how kits are produced. Very few, if any of hid kit companies are OEM suppliers of automotive lighting. Serious OEM suppliers do not sell non street legal hid bulb kits. They make street legal complete hid headlights (Examples: Hella/Sylvania). The volume of the HID kit marked are low. Margins are not as high as when kits was introduced during late 90s, when retail price could be as high as 1500 usd. Even thou price have come down quite a bit, do not expect a HID kit to get as low as filament bulbs. The manufacturing for HID systems will always be considerably more complex.
To be general, there is no answer to this question.
The base of the bulb is either custom molded in high
temp plastic or rebased using high temp epoxy (not available in your local
HW store!) using materials like stainless steel or aluminum.
Has high quality harness
with the following specs: 105C degree rated insulation,
12-14AWG wire, relays fed from battery/alternator.
2 versions available, with or without shield - even for 9005/9006 and H7, not only H4.
Full instruction describing install process, where to
(not) mount ballast, troubleshoting guide, including overview over experiences
with the most popular cars.
Original bulb clip will still fit.
HID bulb does not occupy more space than an halogen bulb.
Purchase option for HID bulb return wire facing up or down. Select: For projector based only: facing down. Reflector headlights only: you should try both directions for best results or follow sellers recommandation.
Money back guarantee within 14 days or more - even if the bulb has been tried into a housing and has received no scrathes.
Splash proof ballast and connectors
No, anyone trying to sell you a kit made by Philips USA is is a scam. Philips International has a world wide reputation to take of and will never make something that can be unsafe or illegal. Bulb and ballast might be made by Philips, but Philips will only be a 3rd party supplier of parts to the person or company that puts the kit together. As you can see in the "How do I recognice that a HID kit is worth buying?" section, there are more parts and ingenuety going into a high quality conversion kit. In early 2000's there were PHilips HID kits offered in Asia. Asia has a lot less laws and restrictions in the automtive sector than North America/Europe.
No - for the same reason as above. See what Hella has to say about illegal retrofit kit.
Common manufacturing sense would say that low volume production would be using metal base from a halogen bulb, and higher volume would be molding base to the the HID capsule. First one is typically in steel, second is typically a black plastic mold.
Gluing HID glass capsule to an already existing halogen base is a cheaper way of producing kits than having a machine glue on a custom high temperature resistant base. If used correct materials and enough R&R is put into the final product, the results should be the same. Unfortunatly, some kit manufacturers settle for less than OEM quality standards, and totally overlook that standard hardware store glue cannot be used on the bulb, or lack of adequate equipment for focal point verification in the production line, or similar.
OEM Bi-Xenon usually has a moveble projector shield with a optimized reflector and curved lens. Aftermarked Bi-Xenon is ment to replace dual filament halogen bulbs H4, 9004, and 9007. Most 9004 and 9007 headlights are not suitable for the higher lumens of an HID bulb, so take precautions if you consider this. There are a couple of H4 Bi-Xenon systems out there:
- The "HID Plus with a moveable
"spoon" for H4 headlamps that will block/unblock light downwards.
The included ballast were first Osram, but were later
changed to the well known Philips/Hella. The blue coated bulb and hardware are made in Asia. They were first
released in 7000K around march 2002. They are also sold by autotoys.com.
In fall 2002 a 9000K version came out. US Distrubutor is appearantly
SPW Industries. HID Plus goes under the
name Magatech in Japan. The supplier is the Korean trading firm
KDG
This is Eddie's comment:
I'm a former clamshell HID user... took it off my truck after a week of
driving with it. Low beam pattern spread was actually less than OEM halogen.
High beam is a joke. They were so blue, bluer than a cheap blue tinted halogen.
The seller says violet hue, those things are going to be extremely purple,
probably more than u ever want.
- Hidkits.com solution with a retractable bulb using a spring loaded solenoid.
Burner brand is unknown. Ballasts are made in house. "Highlandsun" has tested
them and posted results here.
- Autolamps-online solution with a retractable bulb using a spring loaded solenoid.
It is based on Philips ballast and burner, which is more or less the reference for quality nowadays.
Things to consider:
Because HID kit is illegal to use in Halogen headlamps in North America/Europe, there simply is no recognized manufucaturer that bother to put together high quality kit. Why would a recognized manufacturer sell a product that are illegal to use? They would risk recall (pay customer back in full) and lawsuits. Since 2005, the price of getting a complete, well working OEM HID package (projector unit, hid bulb, hid ballast, wiring harness) only costs slightly more and will totally outlast any HID kit.
