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Well a friend of mine gave me a set of HID head lamp kits for my car. The light kit is the kind that replaces the stock bulbs with a Xenon arch lamp, ballast and ignitor. The color is 6000k white/blue. The kit was a Xmas present and was purchased from carhidkits site, so I do not want to offend my friend by never trying them, but at the same time I do not want to blind others on the road or get a FAT TICKET. What are the penalties if it is not legal? Heck, what is the legality of these light kits? I live in CA if that has any bearing.

 
Rep Power: 812

they are completely illegal in every state and if you get caught you could have to pay a big fine. it depends on the state. in CA, youre almost guaranteed to get stopped for it. just kindly tell your friend you do not want anything illegal that will attract the cops. maybe next time he will get you a real hid retrofit kit like some bmw projectors you can put in. just using the bulb kit is dangerous and you wont even get any better lighting, it will prolly be worse because reflector was designed to use halogen bulb. if you do not know much about cars and stuff, there are a couple kits where you screw the projector onto the stock reflector bulb hole so there is no cutting or ruining the factory headlamps. check hidplanet.com/forums for more info and search for the G1 and G3 projector kits.

 
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where i live they barley pull anyone over for having hid's in reflector housings this guy that works with me has 20000k in his headlights and his fog lights ( i guess to compensate for the loss of light) and they r really blue and he says he only got a ticket for them one time but it was because he was speeding and the officer tacked on a ticket for the lights

 
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I love HID's and have had them on 4 different cars but then again I live in MO and they aren't too bad about them. Then again I hear cali is a bit more strict. As far as Hid's they are gonna be bright looking at from head on no matter what but if you have a projector housing you can usually get away with after market hid cause projector housings have more focus (better placement in reflectors) granted it's obviously not gonna be "legal" but projectors for hid's are the way to go if you plan on going through with it. Don't get me wrong it will still be brighter but with a projector housing you won't get much "scatter beam" as compaired to a regular conventional housing that comes on all civics. Just my .02

 
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yeah even with my better quality kit, there was glare above the cutoff line.

hid kit 02 civic reflector housing

oldcatzcutoff.jpg

real hid projector valeo d2s

 
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Really very nice model of cars. I am appreciate it.

 
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i have hid's the purple ones in my car and im almost sure there completly legal here, why do they make them illegal?

 
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mostly for being a distraction. people will look and see pink hids instead of watching the road and cause a crash lol

 
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just dont go over 35 watt 6000k aim your headlights lower then normal and get eyelids to cut down on glare and you will be fine i have been pulled over several time for my tints and speeding and they never evan mentioned the headlights here in connecticut but other states ???

 
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Really good post.

HID Kit

 
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Same old Chinese stuff...

 
Rep Power: 257

yeah you mite as well go here there $25 dollars for a kit i know a ton of peoplethat have them and the qualityis good for the price.
http://www.ddmtuning.com/

 
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all of these kits are made in china but ddm and raptor have been good

 
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i wouldnt take the chance of a bulb or ballast failing at night, not worth the risk to me. those chinese products are such terrible quality.

 
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lol i roll with my stock bulbs in my trunk just in case.

 
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Actually the glare above the cutoffline is good for the forum newbies (not you, gearbox!), so they can see the sticky threads and the search buttons!

 
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lol. one thing i would say hid kit is good for is using it as DRL during the day. all the glare makes them very noticable and distinct. but if you drive at night, its not so good.