Keith Banks

I have a 92 hatch and was wandering if I can run hids in the stock headlight housing without changing anything?

mcnoople

....double post

mcnoople

You can, BUT you will have absolute pathetic night time vision. You will have crappy distance output. You will have crappy amounts of foreground light. You will have an excessive amount of glare for oncoming traffic.

AND IT IS ILLEGAL IN THE US AND CANADA

Anyone that tells you to put an converted hid capsule into a factory halogen reflector based headlamp housing is a goon. The are not legal in any 1st world nation unless the car was offered with them from the factory. If you are interested in improving your headlamps you need non-clouded lens with properly aimed halogen bulbs. You can also add relay harnesses to insure the proper voltage is reaching your bulbs.

Doing a HID projector retrofit is also technically illegal, but when properly done it will greatly improve you vehicle headlamps output without adversely affecting other drivers on the road.

3 good sites pertaining to vehicle lighting are

www.danielsternlighting.com

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/content.php

www.hidplanet.com

The first site is packed full of info about headlamp including what is and isn't legal and the reasons why.

The 2nd site is generally lighting info and discussion

The 3rd site focuses mainly on projector retrofits and includes a little on halogen based systems.

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

Technically, yes. Should you? No.

mcnoople is right, non-factory HIDs are technically illegal, and it's largely because of folks slapping PnP HIDs in non-HID equipped housings (e.g. your OEM reflector housings). My experience (having had HIDs properly retrofitted into my headlights since... 2005), cops don't give a damn, so long as you're not blinding anyone.

Furthermore, you tell me which looks better, left or right?


The left is an example of what happens when you haphazardly put PnP HIDs in non-HID housings. The right is what it looks like when retrofitted.

I'm assuming the 92 civic has H4 bulbs as the high/low? If so, do yourself a favor and retrofit some Morimoto D2S or Morimoto H1 projectors from theretrofitsource.com into your headlights. It's the easiest way to retrofit H4 headlights, and that method of retrofitting is reversible. The big difference between H1 and D2S is the type of bulbs you'll be able to use. D2S is what factory HIDs can be (e.g. BMW, MB, Lexus) and you can get much higher quality bulbs. H1 is typically a bulb size for driving/fog lights. They'll have a nearly equivalent light output, though I've heard the H1 projector puts out slightly more. I can't verify that claim though.

I convinced a buddy (mind you, has no previous experience doing so) to do that HID retrofit, and I was there to assist/supervise his work. From start to finish (including removing his stock headlights), he had the retrofit done within 2 hours. We were taking our time and watching something on netflix while we were swapping in the projectors.

Douggyf

I have an 05 civic with hid fog and head I'm not sure if they're illegal where you're at but in South Carolina and Georgia(sc were I live and ga were I work) never had a problem with the cops on it being legal or not if they're adjusted
right you should be fine I put them on every car I've ever owned and love them don't know if that helps

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

Any aftermarket HID is technically illegal, at least in the US. Even my pretty *** retrofit is technically illegal.

The thing isn't so much correct adjustment, it's the massive amount of glare when people slap in a set of HIDs in reflector housings not designed for HID lighting. Case in point, my post just above yours.