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There are an awful lot of posts on this (I've been going through search results for a couple of hours), but many are (forgive the noob being critical) a little fanboi in nature. I'm trying to narrow down my choices for upgrading the dismal stock lighting on my wife's civic. I want to install HIDs and probably replace the housings as well. My choices as I see them:

* Stock units with HIDs installed (I'd prefer not to).
* TYC projectors (I know they're discontinued, but I can still get them)
* Anzo projectors (I don't like the halos, but I'd take them if the output was better than TYC's)

What I need are good reasons to pick one over another. I make decisions based on facts, so please help me out. I was going to get the TYCs before I saw a bunch of posts made by people who didn't like them. I am still leaning towards these, but what I need are facts. I've also seen pics of projectors that were a single lens made for a bi-xenon. Does anyone know anything about these?

 
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ebay projector lights like tyc and anzo have horrible light output. i would stick with stock reflector. dont get hid kit, it will glare all over and not provide great results. get a better bulb, im guessing you have h4? look at philips Xtreme power +80 or osram nightbreaker +90 will give a small boost in output with whiter light from powerbulbs.com. kinda pricey, but its the best bulb on the market. if too expensive, go with philips vision plus +50 which is very cheap and still better than a stock bulb. i ended up going with the Catz Zeta halogen booster ballasts on my 2002 civic for around $80 on ebay. its made in japan, basically they are dc-dc upconverters that output 15v+ of power to the stock bulbs instead of the normal 12-13v. this increases lumen output substantially as seen here.



i am currently using catz bulbs (3900k) with blue/gold coating and this is the result

 
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for comparison, here is stock non-boosted clear oem bulbs, same housing



and now non-boosted philips VP +50 bulbs



and non-boosted philips XP +80 bulbs (not recommended for boosting, the glass capsule is much smaller than normal and may explode if overheated)



and tyc replacement projectors with H1 +50 bulb



and catz 4300k plug and play hid kit stock housing. notice the "holes" in the beam pattern and it is still not very bright and uniform

 
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now pics of boosted output bulbs using catz zeta







and another couple shots of boosted catz rev white bulbs (these are only $20 shipped on ebay, search for catz H4)





here is a boosted philips VP +50



and compare to catz rev white boosted

 
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i say get the TYC housings and put some Valeo D2S HID projectors in. or if you really want a challenge, put some TSX projectors in the TYC's like I did. now that i've gotten mine aimed perfectly, i love them and wouldn't go back to halogens for anything. i even have HID fog lights.

gearbox and i disagree on some of the HID vs halogen stuff, but he's done just about every type of HID and halogen setup there is, so have a lot of respect for his input too. if i ever do have to get rid of my HID retro, i'll be going with the combination of halogens he recommended.

i'm pretty sure there's 1 or 2 2000 civic retros over at www.hidplanet.com

 
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i am thinking about going with osram hyper h4 clear bulbs that are 65w, but i dont wanna mess up the ballasts. it says bad things will happen if you run overwatt bulbs but idk, 65w isnt that much more than 55. for quite a bit more light. 1000 lumen stock vs 1340 lumen hyper.

heres another pic of my current setup, boosted catz 3900k bulbs, but i want brighter

 
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so you're running ballasts for halogen? what's the purpose?

 
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15.4V of power to the bulbs = much brighter, as you can see on the lumen curve. they are not hid ballast, they were made for halogens. all it does is take in the alternator power and amplify it. so if you have a perfect harness that supplies 14.2v to H4 bulbs, you will get 1400 lumen per side. add the zeta ballast to boost that to a constant 15v+ and you will get around a 600 lumen increase per bulb (using the same stock bulb!). much more if your factory wires suck. other advantages of having the ballasts are controled bulb ignition (saves bulb life alot), and NO dimming of the lights at all, even if you use every accessory on the car at once. another nice feature, headlamp defrosting if you live where it snows since the bulbs run even hotter