HID Headlight Kits

[jrizz1]

I am trying to find a HID headlight kit that will work with my 2000. I have tried the $75 kits on e-bay. I can get the lights to work, but the buckets will only go up electrically and must be manualy lowered. The company said I needed a $25 relay, but that did not fix the problem. Has anyone found a kit that works. I would like to spend under $150 if possible.

 

[bwing]

I am trying to find a HID headlight kit that will work with my 2000. I have tried the $75 kits on e-bay. I can get the lights to work, but the buckets will only go up electrically and must be manualy lowered. The company said I needed a $25 relay, but that did not fix the problem. Has anyone found a kit that works. I would like to spend under $150 if possible.

You won't find a quality HID unit for less than $1,200.

 

[Jistari]

You could get ACA's or Light Cannons for less than $ 800, expensive yes 1200 not quite.

 

[c5y2k]

I purchased two HID lights to replace the stock bulbs in the headlights and the fog lights. They are the new slim digital ballasts and they were around $60 each. I did have to purchase the resistor for $25 to fix the buckets up/down issue. So for about $145 total I have much better lights I did not get them from the auction site.

 

[Rex S]

Quality, DOT compliant HIDs are not cheap. $800.00 to $1,000.00/set. Add in a pro install and aiming and you will be pushing the $1,200.00. Cheap China HIDs are a hazzard to oncoming traffic and not much, if any, better than the OEMs.

 

[Hib Halverson]

"Rex S" is correct.
HID headlights are one of the biggest fads out there right now in the aftermarket. Everyone is trying to sell cheap HID conversions.

Good lighting is much more than just a bright blue beam.

I would expect to pay at least 800 bucks for a C5 HID conversion that both offers a practical improvement over some of the good incadescent stuff you can already get for C5 (such as "e-code" lights that were on export cars) and has the proper bulb design to prevent "blinding" on coming traffic.

I guess you have to ask youself: am I buying HIDs because I want the car to look cool at night or am I buying them to improve my lighting for safety....the saftey of both me and that of drivers in oncoming cars.

 

[KANE]

"Rex S" is correct.
HID headlights are one of the biggest fads out there right now in the aftermarket. Everyone is trying to sell cheap HID conversions.

Good lighting is much more than just a bright blue beam.

I would expect to pay at least 800 bucks for a C5 HID conversion that both offers a practical improvement over some of the good incadescent stuff you can already get for C5 (such as "e-code" lights that were on export cars) and has the proper bulb design to prevent "blinding" on coming traffic.

I guess you have to ask youself: am I buying HIDs because I want the car to look cool at night or am I buying them to improve my lighting for safety....the saftey of both me and that of drivers in oncoming cars.

x2 what Hib said.

Jrizz1-

Since your Vette is about 9 years old, what shape are your lenses in? Are they cloudy or still very clear? Perhaps if you don't want to spend the money for quality HID lights you could look at where you can make incremental improvements.

JMHO- I never did enough night driving to really need HID bulbs. I found H4 conversions for my C3s to be good enough.

 

[c5y2k]

I must say I expected to get this type of response. The bottom line is I can see the road much better than I was able to with the OEM bulbs. I have never been "flashed" for lights that are to bright. During my daily commute I get passed by other drivers that have done the same "cheap" lighting and I don't consider their lights to be bright. I do think the $800-$1200 projector lights are better but IMHO they are not that much better to justify 8x the cost.
As far as my cool blue lights at night my 4300K bulbs have little to no blue. If you want to talk safety I'm more concerned with people talking or texting on their cell phones while driving than someone with lights that are bright, at least I know they can see me.

I would guess in the end we will agree to disagree. All we can do is express our opinions and experiences and let the OP decide which one is best for them.

 

[JETZ]

ACA.

 

[ßill]

JETZ, I like the looks of what you have done. Any chance of getting some details? Maybe pic's of the install and part numbers?

 

[killain]

Better Lights ?

I wanted better lighting for my car and I wanted something great. But as noted above is like anything 'High Performance' It all equats to how much you want to spend. Anything cheap, well it just what you get, Cheap. I wanted better lights, but without a major job that installing a professional HID system is. But I looked at other routes and I have to say, What i got from Sylvania is not bad, not great but definitely better than stock. I used the Xtravision bulbs, which are not as bright as their Silverstar, but only a little. I picked the Xtravision because their life is rated at 375 hours and the Silverstars go dark at 150-170 hours. But changing bulbs is only a bandaid remedy to better lights, If you drive a vehicle with professional HID system installled, it's hard to go back to standard lighting.

 

[mtndv8]

I started with a Fog light HID bulb/ballast conversion...

...I liked the output enough to invest in low beam bulb/ballast conversion.
Living in Nevada means sometimes driving long lonely roads at night so a high beam bulb/ballast conversion followed.
Well we know what happens when we flip from low to high beam and that delay while the high beam warms up can be dangerous at highway speeds, so I added the fog/lows always on relay mod to keep all the lights on while driving with the high beams.
This worked fine for me, no glare issues, no oncoming drivers flashing me, until I rode in a car with true HID projectors...:W

Now I'm building these...

If you want to skip the :bash, get the silverstars and walk away!! otfl

Aloha

 

[Junkman2008]

Well, I have some pretty extensive experience in this area so I'll clear up some of the things that I have seen in this thread.

First off, all bulb type kits are not equal. Most folks get theirs off eBay and you'll find everything from lousy to quality type kits offered. One thing that I have noticed is that you get what you pay for. Every guy who I have seen complaining about their lights doing something funky after applying the known fixes always took the cheaper route, searching eBay for the lowest possible price they could find. The vendor I bought my lights from dropped his prices some but they have held steady for over a year now. That pretty much tells me where his profit margin is and that he wasn't going to go in the hole trying to match prices with guys selling HID garbage.

Another thing that I noticed was that the better kits always had German ballast. Apparently, the Germans have this figured out and the quality of their ballast show. Those with ballast made in China and Taiwan seem to always be having issues. Like I said, you get what you pay for.

I had the bulb type HID's up to a few days ago. I ended up installing a powered harness (bypassing the stock wiring) in order to eliminate the issue with my buckets not raising the first time I turned on the lights. This totally remedied that problem. I then remedied the problem where the lights would go off when I turned them off but the buckets would on occasion stay up. That was what the resistor was for, however, I used a 194 bulb to solve my issue.

Since folks did not understand what was causing the lights to act differently than stock, they had a hard time understanding how to fix it. Here's the whole problem in a nutshell.

The C5 headlight circuit is a 55w circuit. The ballast used with the bulb type setups are 35 watts. This drop in wattage is what caused the buckets to perform abnormal. Since my degree is in Electronic Engineering Technology, I knew that I could increase the total wattage of my headlight circuit by increasing the voltage drop withing my headlight circuit. All headlight circuits are parallel circuits and voltage adds in parallel. Since voltage times current equals power (VxI=P), creating another voltage drop in parallel with the circuit caused the wattage of the circuit to raise, which also increased total circuit power and eliminated my bucket issues.

Now that I understand how the circuit works, I should have just bought 55W ballast and that would have eliminated my issues too, but hindsight is 20/20.

With all that said, here's are two videos of me rolling down the freeway with my HID's on (actually, my girlfriend is driving and drifting all over the lane :ugh). Notice how everyone else headlights dissolve when they enter my headlight beam. The second video shows me changing from my stock HIGH beams to my low beam HID's. As you will see, the difference is phenomenal. They are more than worth doing the upgrade and they are 20 times brighter than going with those Sylvania HID bulbs. Those things are a joke compared to ballast HID's (contrary to what was posted earlier in this thread). In this picture, you can see how the passenger's side HID upgrade is significantly brighter than the driver's side stock headlight.

Here are both videos:

Low Beam HID's on the Freeway

Stock HIGH Beams to HID Low Beams



Now with all that said, know that this setup is illegal in every state in the US. You cannot by law use a HID bulb in a non-HID enclosure. The C5 fog lights are actually HID enclosures and thus, this upgrade is totally legal there but NOT in the stock C5 headlight housings. Also, if you aim the lights properly, you will not blind oncoming traffic. Some guys don't bother to do this and give the rest of us a bad name. There's also the aiming mechanism with the C5 that if not freed before it is adjusted, will snap in half and make aiming impossible. This is the problem that a lot of guys experience and is why so many people are driving around blinding oncoming traffic.

Fast forward to today. I have finally decided to go with a true HID setup. It was not cheap ($1100). These are the light cannons with city lights (halos). One look at them shows why they are so expensive. This setup was designed by a fellow Corvette enthusiast I know and was designed from the ground up by him. These are not fixed headlights, they will still be popups.

These are really sweet and are going to throw off even more light than I had. The ballast are 55W and of course, made in Germany. I'm working on the install as you read this.

Check out this mess of wires... :ugh

So, I will finally be legal but I had nothing but a positive experience with my former setup. It really all boils down to, "you get what you pay for."

 

[Toms007]

Very well explained AJ.

 

[Junkman2008]

Very well explained AJ.

Thanks Tom.

 

[JETZ]

Hi Bill!

The ACA lights are not being made at this time as far as I know, but I've heard that might change.

I got my lights through Caravaggio, have couple pics of the install, but can't locate! :eyerole

I love these lights, but I would get the 'Light Cannons' built by 'Radioflyer', if I didn't already have them. The Junkman, is going to love them!

Frank

JETZ, I like the looks of what you have done. Any chance of getting some details? Maybe pic's of the install and part numbers?

 

[JETZ]

Nice write up JM!

Well, I have some pretty extensive experience in this area so I'll clear up some of the things that I have seen in this thread.

First off, all bulb type kits are not equal. Most folks get theirs off eBay and you'll find everything from lousy to quality type kits offered. One thing that I have noticed is that you get what you pay for. Every guy who I have seen complaining about their lights doing something funky after applying the known fixes always took the cheaper route, searching eBay for the lowest possible price they could find. The vendor I bought my lights from dropped his prices some but they have held steady for over a year now. That pretty much tells me where his profit margin is and that he wasn't going to go in the hole trying to match prices with guys selling HID garbage.

Another thing that I noticed was that the better kits always had German ballast. Apparently, the Germans have this figured out and the quality of their ballast show. Those with ballast made in China and Taiwan seem to always be having issues. Like I said, you get what you pay for.

I had the bulb type HID's up to a few days ago. I ended up installing a powered harness (bypassing the stock wiring) in order to eliminate the issue with my buckets not raising the first time I turned on the lights. This totally remedied that problem. I then remedied the problem where the lights would go off when I turned them off but the buckets would on occasion stay up. That was what the resistor was for, however, I used a 194 bulb to solve my issue.

Since folks did not understand what was causing the lights to act differently than stock, they had a hard time understanding how to fix it. Here's the whole problem in a nutshell.

The C5 headlight circuit is a 55w circuit. The ballast used with the bulb type setups are 35 watts. This drop in wattage is what caused the buckets to perform abnormal. Since my degree is in Electronic Engineering Technology, I knew that I could increase the total wattage of my headlight circuit by increasing the voltage drop withing my headlight circuit. All headlight circuits are parallel circuits and voltage adds in parallel. Since voltage times current equals power (VxI=P), creating another voltage drop in parallel with the circuit caused the wattage of the circuit to raise, which also increased total circuit power and eliminated my bucket issues.

Now that I understand how the circuit works, I should have just bought 55W ballast and that would have eliminated my issues too, but hindsight is 20/20.

With all that said, here's are two videos of me rolling down the freeway with my HID's on (actually, my girlfriend is driving and drifting all over the lane :ugh). Notice how everyone else headlights dissolve when they enter my headlight beam. The second video shows me changing from my stock HIGH beams to my low beam HID's. As you will see, the difference is phenomenal. They are more than worth doing the upgrade and they are 20 times brighter than going with those Sylvania HID bulbs. Those things are a joke compared to ballast HID's (contrary to what was posted earlier in this thread). In this picture, you can see how the passenger's side HID upgrade is significantly brighter than the driver's side stock headlight.

Here are both videos:

Low Beam HID's on the Freeway

Stock HIGH Beams to HID Low Beams



Now with all that said, know that this setup is illegal in every state in the US. You cannot by law use a HID bulb in a non-HID enclosure. The C5 fog lights are actually HID enclosures and thus, this upgrade is totally legal there but NOT in the stock C5 headlight housings. Also, if you aim the lights properly, you will not blind oncoming traffic. Some guys don't bother to do this and give the rest of us a bad name. There's also the aiming mechanism with the C5 that if not freed before it is adjusted, will snap in half and make aiming impossible. This is the problem that a lot of guys experience and is why so many people are driving around blinding oncoming traffic.

Fast forward to today. I have finally decided to go with a true HID setup. It was not cheap ($1100). These are the light cannons with city lights (halos). One look at them shows why they are so expensive. This setup was designed by a fellow Corvette enthusiast I know and was designed from the ground up by him. These are not fixed headlights, they will still be popups.

These are really sweet and are going to throw off even more light than I had. The ballast are 55W and of course, made in Germany. I'm working on the install as you read this.

Check out this mess of wires... :ugh

So, I will finally be legal but I had nothing but a positive experience with my former setup. It really all boils down to, "you get what you pay for."

 

[Junkman2008]

Nice write up JM!

Thanks Jetz, although I will be glad when I finally do get them in. :eyerole

I'm slow as grass growing in the desert with mods like these.

 

[mtdoragary]

Tom, I have the ACA's with the 35 watt ballasts and I have the headlight bucket problem. I tried installing the wiring harnesses with the relays, along with the little harnesses with the diodes that keep the low beams on when the high beams are on, but couldn't get them to work. Lack of instructions is a REAL pain with this many connectors to fool with! So I'm ready to go back to the stock wiring, but what size and power resistor do I use? And where do I install it?

Well, I have some pretty extensive experience in this area so I'll clear up some of the things that I have seen in this thread.

First off, all bulb type kits are not equal. Most folks get theirs off eBay and you'll find everything from lousy to quality type kits offered. One thing that I have noticed is that you get what you pay for. Every guy who I have seen complaining about their lights doing something funky after applying the known fixes always took the cheaper route, searching eBay for the lowest possible price they could find. The vendor I bought my lights from dropped his prices some but they have held steady for over a year now. That pretty much tells me where his profit margin is and that he wasn't going to go in the hole trying to match prices with guys selling HID garbage.

Another thing that I noticed was that the better kits always had German ballast. Apparently, the Germans have this figured out and the quality of their ballast show. Those with ballast made in China and Taiwan seem to always be having issues. Like I said, you get what you pay for.

I had the bulb type HID's up to a few days ago. I ended up installing a powered harness (bypassing the stock wiring) in order to eliminate the issue with my buckets not raising the first time I turned on the lights. This totally remedied that problem. I then remedied the problem where the lights would go off when I turned them off but the buckets would on occasion stay up. That was what the resistor was for, however, I used a 194 bulb to solve my issue.

Since folks did not understand what was causing the lights to act differently than stock, they had a hard time understanding how to fix it. Here's the whole problem in a nutshell.

The C5 headlight circuit is a 55w circuit. The ballast used with the bulb type setups are 35 watts. This drop in wattage is what caused the buckets to perform abnormal. Since my degree is in Electronic Engineering Technology, I knew that I could increase the total wattage of my headlight circuit by increasing the voltage drop withing my headlight circuit. All headlight circuits are parallel circuits and voltage adds in parallel. Since voltage times current equals power (VxI=P), creating another voltage drop in parallel with the circuit caused the wattage of the circuit to raise, which also increased total circuit power and eliminated my bucket issues.

Now that I understand how the circuit works, I should have just bought 55W ballast and that would have eliminated my issues too, but hindsight is 20/20.

With all that said, here's are two videos of me rolling down the freeway with my HID's on (actually, my girlfriend is driving and drifting all over the lane :ugh). Notice how everyone else headlights dissolve when they enter my headlight beam. The second video shows me changing from my stock HIGH beams to my low beam HID's. As you will see, the difference is phenomenal. They are more than worth doing the upgrade and they are 20 times brighter than going with those Sylvania HID bulbs. Those things are a joke compared to ballast HID's (contrary to what was posted earlier in this thread). In this picture, you can see how the passenger's side HID upgrade is significantly brighter than the driver's side stock headlight.

Here are both videos:

Low Beam HID's on the Freeway

Stock HIGH Beams to HID Low Beams



Now with all that said, know that this setup is illegal in every state in the US. You cannot by law use a HID bulb in a non-HID enclosure. The C5 fog lights are actually HID enclosures and thus, this upgrade is totally legal there but NOT in the stock C5 headlight housings. Also, if you aim the lights properly, you will not blind oncoming traffic. Some guys don't bother to do this and give the rest of us a bad name. There's also the aiming mechanism with the C5 that if not freed before it is adjusted, will snap in half and make aiming impossible. This is the problem that a lot of guys experience and is why so many people are driving around blinding oncoming traffic.

Fast forward to today. I have finally decided to go with a true HID setup. It was not cheap ($1100). These are the light cannons with city lights (halos). One look at them shows why they are so expensive. This setup was designed by a fellow Corvette enthusiast I know and was designed from the ground up by him. These are not fixed headlights, they will still be popups.

These are really sweet and are going to throw off even more light than I had. The ballast are 55W and of course, made in Germany. I'm working on the install as you read this.

Check out this mess of wires... :ugh

So, I will finally be legal but I had nothing but a positive experience with my former setup. It really all boils down to, "you get what you pay for."

 

[Junkman2008]

What bucket problem are you having?