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Ninja here...
New guy and just purchased a super clean 2004 Civic LX.
With this being a lifer car I am going to be making my own mods and first up is the lighting so I want to pick some brains.
LED bulbs...
What is a good and affordable brand to look for?
I want to change all my tail, turn, backup and license plate bulbs to LED but I don't want to have to change the socket and housing assemblies. Also I don't want any performance and load issues like hyper flash or slow flash due to load from say the air compressor kicking in.
eventually I want to replace the interior dome lights to LED as well.

Headlights... I am going for style here so I was looking at matte black projectors.. My fave that I have seen online are the R8 style replacement assemblies.
I don't know if these are HID compatible or not... also... not sure if I want to go HID.
HID... problems, best, affordable, worth it?

any and all comments, support, and help is welcome, If I missed the actual thread on this topic, please feel free to quote or link it to this one.
Thanks!

 
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Welcome

Best option for light is to do what is called a retrofit. Those lights that you posted a pic of will leak and supply poor light output. Retrofitting is a way to put HID projectors into your stock headlights.

Check out this site for more info:

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/com...trsdefaultview

 
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Hi! Welcome to the forums!

I considered changing mine out for LEDs too, but you need a load resistor or you get the hyperflash situation you described. That, or the LEDs won't turn on at all. There are a few manufacturers who sell them, but you usually will have to order online. I've heard there is really very little difference between LED and halogen in this case.
For parking lights, however, I'm using . They're designed for interior spotlight use only, but they're brighter than hell and look pretty cool too... just look at my sig picture!

Which brings me to my next point...

HIDs on their own aren't so great. You trade a little more visibility for a lot more glare (for yourself and other drivers). HID projectors, on the other hand, are great! Not only do they focus the HID beam to where you need it, but they also allow for a nice cutoff so that you don't blind anyone else coming at you.
Aftermarket headlight assemblies are generally considered to have inferior reliability to the OEM ones, so a lot of us choose to retrofit instead. This means we put HID projectors into our OEM housings. TheRetrofitSource is probably the gold standard, and this kit is their most popular. The have a pretty good warranty on all their parts, too. Not cheap, but soooooooooooooo worth it and not too hard to install if you have the tools.

 
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Aw dammit GolNat, you beat me to it!

 
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Haha, but your explanation was better. Disadvantage of using my phone most of the time, difficult to type long threads with quotes.

 
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Retrofit Source is going to be my go-to when I swap out mine... though I have found some new targets for funds since deciding that, so it may be pushed back... but the quality and customer service there is well worth the premium, I've been told.