Hi All -
I did a search on previous posts and saw some mentions of users installing after-market HID upgrades, but no mentions as to the result. I'm looking for the following information

• Where did you purchase your kit?
• How much did it cost?
• Did you DIY, have a dealer-install, or private party install it?
• Have you run into issues with the ballast and power supply?
• What temperature did you get? Recommend?
• Do you know of any warranty issues (including extended warranty violations?)
• Are there any legal issues in your area (for an aftermarket/Non-OEM kit install) that you've run into?
• Did the install cause issues with DRL
  • If not, did you install over the DRL system or in addition to?

My friend had installed a HID it on their 2003 corolla SE but his lights blew out when he'd start the car if he had his lights on because of the power-sag; I'd hate for something like this to happen on my car...

Thanks!

 

I had HID on my Infiniti (they were called Xenon headlamps in those days), my brother has them on his '05 BMW 330 and his even turn with steering input. They are not worth investing the time, much less the money. My experience was the only time they add any value was when reading street signs at night in the rain. In fact, the sharp contrast between the bright edge of the lit area and dark of the totally not lit area can sometimes surprise you if an animal suddenly pops into view. With Halogens, that line is less crisp and you see a shadow of the animal first. I can't comment on if the aiming of a xenon would be higher than that of a halogen, but you certainly could adjust it at the risk of annoying other drivers.

Of course, the cool factor is there, so if that's the reason and 5 pairs of Oakleys or Ray Bans are not as cool, go for it! It's your car, it should look how you want it, but don't kid yourself that there is a reason for it beyond tinkering with the car or going for the blue/purple look.

 

I have installed the Xenon HID kit. I bought it from Autoxen.com and its a 6000K kit. It came with ballast and igniter combined and the whole thing was just plug and play kind of kit. Took me about 30 minutes to install the whole thing. You mount the ballast+igniter box (about 2 in. x 2in. size) close to the headlamp. I mounted mine just under it. The factory H11 connector connects right to the ballast and the other end will connect to the supplied bulb so the power drawn is actually about the same as the factory halogen bulb to the ballast box. I replaced the H11 low beam bulb only. The difference is day and night, very bright but still the cut off line is very distinct which is controlled by the factory lens unit. There is no bother to the other drivers. You can actually see the cut-off line and how is does not bother the drivers ahead of you. No body has ever honked or high beamed to me so far and I have it for about 4 months now. It works great with any issue with the DRL. I don't do anything different and leave the lights on auto. It comes on with the sensor and when its dark, it comes on right away when I start the car and never had any problem with it.

The support was great from Autoxen.com guys. It list this kit for about $309.00 but before ordering I called and the ask for any discount and they shipped it to me for $279.00. It arrived on Friday and I installed on Saturday. I wanted to make sure about the wiring so I called them for help. I got somebody on the phone even on Saturday who was knowledgeable and was able to help me with my issue. I would definitely recommended them.
I'm not sure about the warranty issue. I did not buy the extended warranty. My TCH has about 6500 miles now.

 

I had HIDs on my '04 RX 330, and they sucked. My '05 RX 330 had the HIDs that turned when you turned the steering wheel, and they were a little better. The standard headlights on my TCH illuminate much better than the HIDs on either RX 330.

 

Yes, I agree there is a cool factor, but HID's are not without good intent/purpose.

Because of the mechanism used to cause lighting in HIDs vs. halogens, the lifetime of the bulb is nearly tripled, even against newer Xenon gas filled halogens, this tethered together with the fact that halogens dim over their life due to the atom displacement from vaporization. (Important considering out cars have DRL's that have the bulbs on nearly all the time)

In addition, four times more light per lumen is produced with a lower yield of wattage (The same wattage it takes to get 1700 (55watts-low beams) lumens out of our halogen can produce 3200lumens our of a HID).

At 4100 kelvins a HID will produce a more natural white light versus the yellow tinting you get with halogen or incandescent, this increases the contrast ratio for inanimate objects in your driving site.

As a hybrid vehicle owners we made our purchase for either both or one of the two reasons: we want to reduce fuel consumption and emissions and/or simply save money at the gas pump.

Selecting HIDs also follows this path - lower wattage/energy used and fewer bulbs purchased versus standard halogen lighting.

Food for thought... That's all.

 

Were these factory install or upgrades you did after purchase?

 

Factory.

 

I got my kit for about $404 from xenondepot.com. I got the 4300K for the natural white light.. Any higher causes a bluish to purplish tint and would draw attention from your law-enforcement peeps. They also use Phlips brand ballasts and bulbs, not some 3rd party no-name brand.

I installed it myself. I had an issue putting the ballast on the drivers-side. There isn't a lot of space to work with ther. After I removed the plastic panel underneath the vehicle, I found a lot of free space to put it in. I had to use industry-grade double-sided sticky tape to mount it (3M auto-aclrylic foam tape, high-temperature resistant). On the passenger side, I simply placed the ballast under the headlight housing and secured it using the included double-sided sticky.

As for warranty issues, some folks have spliced their existing H11 connector to tap into a 12volt battery source. I ended up running 2 16AWG wires all the way to the trunk to directly connect them to the battery, as recommended by the manufacturer. They stated:

Note that the factory fuse for the TCH low-beam headlights are 15amps.

Other kits pull power directly from the stock H11 connectors. That worried me because if there were any wiring issues/meltdowns/breakages to the stock connectors, I believe it would void the warranty. I haven't looked at the gauge rating of the stock connectors so I dont know if it can handle over 15amps.

So in my install, all the H11 connectors do is trip a relay so that the HID's are drawing power directly from the battery. If needed, I could always (and easily) put the H11 halogen bulb back. I think I read somewhere that the power draw now on the stock H11 connectors is something like less than 1 amp.

It took me a while to figure out where and how to penetrate the firewall, as well as concealing the wires all the way to the trunk.

There are no issues with the DRL. DRL's still turn on when HID's are off (provided you have the headlight selector to "auto"), and turn off when HID's are on. HID bulbs fire up nicely. As for legal issues, as far as I know and that I've researched, no aftermarket HID kit is "legal". This is due to certain requirements that need to be fulfilled, hence only factory installed HID's are legal. That said, I've seen no posts with people complaining that they got pulled over due to their aftermarket HID's, with the exception being those individuals installing HID's in a halogen reflector housing. This causes the HID beam to be scattered, making it seem like you're driving with your brights (high-beam) on. Since TCH's include a projector housing, there is no worry for that except for a minor "squirrel finder" glare. This is used primarily to illuminate road signs. People claim that this glare is ok with halogen's, but unbearable with HID's. I've experienced it myself and I dont think it's that bad. I've seen misaligned halogens and other halogens producing a worse glare than the HID's.

If I had to do it again, I may go and have it installed by a 3rd party reputable installer. I was quoted $600 for everything initially, but sought to save money by doing it myself. I took me a while to do it myself. It took me 2 months off and on. I probably spent 12 hours total to install. Just be reminded that I am new to it and took things slowly. I could probably do it again in a much shorter period of time now.

Good luck. I would highly recommend getting HID's if you have the means. They difference between them and the stock halogens are tremendous.

 

Thank you for responding - this was very helpful and informative.
-a

 

Got mine thru ebay.com last week for US$90+shipping.
Colour (temp) is 6100K and consdier as 'diamond white' colour.
It is brighter than stock H11 but still not as good as original GS and Sienna XLE HID.
Put it on over the weekend (25 minutes) and worked fine.
I just use the 'plug-n-go' wire and connected to the existing H11 socket.
Legal issue, since Camry XLE has an HID option. Dealler said as long as temperature below 8000K should be fine.