We've all seen those high end cars such as Lexus and BMW who have those nice looking lights on their cars. They look so good. the color is not white but more of a blue and it gives the car a sleek and sexy look even at night. And the illumination? It leaves you in awe how much light is projected on the road by these high end cars and how much more of the road they can see than you can with your halogen bulbs. So you go home and find out its "HID" technology. High Intensity Discharge lights? sounds good doesn't it? So you look on eBay or wherever else you shop and try and find these lights, awesome, these kits range from as little as $75 to as high as even $300-400.

But before you place that bid or take out your credit card to buy those lights, read about what HID does for your car when you don't have one of those high end cars.

Those high ends cars have headlights especially designed to project that HID light (which can be as much as 300% more light than halogen) onto the road and not cause it to blind on coming traffic. Most high end cars nowadays have Projectors in their headlights which project light onto the road and cut it off at a certain point so no light is projected above that point to blind oncoming drivers.

Q: So can i put HID lights in my halogen housing?

A: YES, you can. but should you? NO. HID in halogen housing causing lots and lots of light scatter. That light isn't projected onto the road properly and thus is all over the place, including straight up where its blinding anyone who is coming towards you. Not to mention your blinding the person who you are driving behind because they are getting crazy reflections off their mirrors which gets them.

Q: Is there a way to put HID's  on my halogen headlight equipped car then?

A: YES, there is. There are many aftermarket companies that produce aftermarket projectors that you can install in your car and make the HID lighting safe to use. You can find many of them here on eBay itself. You could even buy parts from a car that had HID projectors (such as the Acura TSX, E55 BMW) and retrofit those into your headlights. Altho this does not make your headlights 100% legal, it does let you not blind oncoming traffic, and keep the look of HID like those on high end cars. Although both ways may require some $$, its worth it to make your lights look good, and to not blind oncoming drivers.

Q: How much do aftermarket projectors cost? Retrofits?

A: Ebay projects are anywhere from $100 - $400+ depending on your cars set up. Retrofits depend on what car you pull the projectors from and what kind of parts you use, but usually its going to be upwards of $500 & the time it takes to put them together.

Q: Why can't I just buy HID's off ebay and use them in my car?

A: its not legal, your blinding everyone else on the road, putting everyone + yourself at risk. All these Plug n Play HID's also mean your putting extra stress on your wiring harness during the period the HID's are firing up which can overload it and fry it, then your gonna be spending hundreds or more redoing your wiring harness. This is because when HID's are turned on, they require a fairly high amount of energy to get started, after that the energy levels drop to usually 35watts. That first period of firing up those HID's is drawing more power than your stock wiring harness is built to handle.That also is somewhat of a fire risk, overloading your stock wires is dangerous. Don't put anything at risk over some HID's.

HID glare:

You'd be amazed the amount of glare that HID lights put out. If you think staring at the headlights of a car coming towards you is blinding, imagine staring at the headlights of a car with lights 300% brighter than normal. That's even worse than staring into regular halogen high beams. Not only do you put others at risk of an accident, you put yourself at risk of an accident from oncoming drivers who cant see. Don't just stick a HID kit in your halogen housing and call it a day.

HID's are not legal in halogen housing!  

HID's in halogen housing are also illegal in most areas. So not only are you going to blind oncoming drivers and put yourself and others at risk, your risking getting a ticket and having to deal with the whole process of  than removing your HID kit and going to court to get your car inspected to pass again. Why put yourself through the hassle all cause you wanted the cool look of HID?