| theseans |
"It was $100 bucks on Ebay, inclusive of shipping, and from Beiging....and it envoked fear in me!"
That said, for 100 bones, I had to go for it. In comparison, Silverstar halogens go for $35 ea. in my neck of the woods. As well, this Asian-market brand HID kit is backed with a full 1 year warranty. Just as long as the average life-span of Silverstars, or PIAA's. How could I go wrong?
Yes, they're chinese, and may not last as long as a Xenon Depot Phillips kit, but I'm here to say that this cheap 4300k kit looks awesome. As well, I could technically install 3 of these kits and still be under the best Phillips kit price quoted to me by local North American vendors.
OK, any cheap kit from Asia will have some issues, right? For example, it wasn't exactly plug 'n' play as described. The bulb wouldn't even fit into the projector's socket. I compared the Xenon bulb with the old Halogen, and had to use a dremmel bit on my Dewalt chordless to sand down the socket to match. Now this sounds scarier than it was, took 10 minutes tops to do both. That said, it was an opportunity to accidentally knick the glass bulb, or touch it, limiting it's longevity. I did however, successfully install the bulbs second try, and they twisted in nice and tight. Wiring was plug n' play...directly into the old harness, with no need of direct connections to the battery or fuse panel.
Ballasts took 10 minutes to mount safely. Although I agree that the fog light housing method is a more professional install, hiding all wires, I questioned ripping apart the front end of my $40k mdx to install $100 ballasts. If I had invested $500 dollars on a Phillips kit like many of you, I probably would have been prepared to invest 2-4 hours taking off my front bumber for a cleaner install, but in the end, I managed to bolt mine invisibly to the left and right of the fan shrowd, using supplied screws and double sided automotive tape to eliminate vibration. This also gave me the ability to quickly change back to the original halogens if the kit fails, and it probably will for $100 bucks (I'm so certain of this in fact, that I still carry the old halogen bulbs in the rear hatch of the X). As far as being water tight, this is exactly where the original harnesses were, so no fear on my end. The fan should also help to draw heat away from the ballast. Ballast themselves, were watertight with proper seals and gaskets.
How do they look? The quality is visually as good as the TSX loaner I drove from Acura. As ultra white, and just as bright, with a terrific blue-ish cut-off. Lights up the road like my brother's BMW M5. It's really night and day from the original halogens.
Another fear was that they would draw way too much power and cause issues with the factory power service. It has been invisible in this respect....no dimming, or extra alternator and fan activity to report. I was really pleased.
Summary, $100 dollar hid hit is awesome. If you really want the factory Oem Hid look, don't invest anymore money on the Silverstars or PIAA's. Although noticeably whiter than old yellow halogens, they DO NOT look like Xenon, no matter what they tell you on the package, and they blow out almost immediately in most cases. Spend the extra $20-30 bucks, and do the real conversion. It only took 20 minutes to do 'almost' right, and should last up to 10x longer than halogen bulbs. That said, I'm skeptical, and will keep updating this thread on just how long these super-cheap, super-value Chinese Xenon hids last. |
|
|
| phins2rt |
| As long as you're happy with it, that's great. My fear with these kits is the time it may take to handle warranty issues, replace the parts, etc. That is very time consuming, not to mention a potential safety issue should something happen on the road. I put the time and money in up front with oem parts hoping I can forget about any problems with my installation and parts in the future (almost 3 years and no problems). I'm all for value but I had heard of too many non-OEM kits that were junk when I purchased. These Chinese kits will only get better as time goes on but right now they really haven't been proven yet. I still believe for these kits, you get what you pay for. YMMV. |
|
|
| theseans |
In case I wasn't clear, I couldn't agree with you more...thats my fear as well. I believe you get what you pay for, which is why I bought an Acura to begin with. Let me make this clear to everyone, I DO NOT expect this to be better than an OEM replacement assembly off a TSX, or even a Xenon Depot Phillips kit etc. In this case though...I simply saw something that was less than 30 dollars more than replacement halogens, and went for it. In all fairness though, even the $500 Phillips after-market conversion kits have not proven to be comparitive in quality and performance to factory OEM Xenon.
That said, this el cheapo kit seems to look and perform almost as well as the TSX OEM lights, if not exactly, and almost as easy as changing halogen bulbs directly. It really lights up the street!! So in comparison to Silverstars, or PIAA's (which was what I was really thinking about installing before the kit came up on Fleabay, and what I'm really comparing this thread too, this HID Kit is turning out to be a star! It will probably last longer than halogens, and if it doesn't, I simply unplug it and grab the old halogens from the back of the X. You could do it in the dark, so no fear there at all....
In a weird way, I want this kit to fail early so it validates our shared belief in getting what you pay for. In the interim, I've got far superior Xenon performance and OEM Xenon looks for almost what I'd pay for premium halogens (that would probably only last a year anyway). I can't lose.
I"ll update the post when it craps out to give everyone an idea of the quality of these cheaper kits.
quote:
Originally posted by phins2rt
As long as you're happy with it, that's great. My fear with these kits is the time it may take to handle warranty issues, replace the parts, etc. That is very time consuming, not to mention a potential safety issue should something happen on the road. I put the time and money in up front with oem parts hoping I can forget about any problems with my installation and parts in the future (almost 3 years and no problems). I'm all for value but I had heard of too many non-OEM kits that were junk when I purchased. These Chinese kits will only get better as time goes on but right now they really haven't been proven yet. I still believe for these kits, you get what you pay for. YMMV.
|
|
|
| theseans |
...pics shortly...
quote:
Originally posted by nerfkhat
pics?!
|
|
|
| Nathan @ NBO |
| I wouldn't worry about them drawing too much power, in fact, HIDs draw less current then conventional halogen bulbs. 35w compared to the 50w in regular bulbs. |
|
|
|
