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Pretty amazing

 
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okay i should not have put tsx as junk. what i meant to say was they are not top of the line. but they are not at the bottom either. somewhere in the middle. for the price, they are good performers and much better than a valeo or e46. just not as good as a TL or s2k, which are ranked near the top and also cost quite a bit more.

 
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s2k retrofit in acura integra (none of these are my pics btw, just random stuff, mostly from hidplanet).


and look at this difference.

usdm TL projector



overseas TL projector (no stock foreground limiter)

 
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that's better. you almost hurt my feelings.


j/k

 
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two months and yes i put a thermal take heak sink of them just to be safe. so far so good...

and its not 180shipped....
http://www.retro-solutions.com/55wattballasts.html

110shipped. comes with 2 ballast. i use D2S because im running em on my phillips oem 4300k ones.

 
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Hey sleepy, I've heard that if you run higher wattage on the stock philips d2s it becomes more yellow. Is this true? Did you notice any color difference on the stock d2s with the higher wattage?

I really like the color of the 85122+ and don't want to go with cheezy colored bulbs to offset the color change. I was thinking about getting some 55w too.

 
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yes, they do become alot more yellow...but its still "white" and you see alot more


i forgot what bulb number mine are, but they were the original ones, not the ones that are whiter in color (newer ones)

 
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i also heard that running regular bulbs off 55w ballast does not give as good a gain as using 55w bulbs. i was planning the get the full 55w kit, complete with bulb for $180. to me it doesnt really make sense to invest in ballast just to run regular bulb. its like upgrading the wire harness and still using long life halogen bulbs.

 
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^i see ur point...

but as for me, i deffinatly noticed the difference. so it was well worth it..

mabee in a year ill switch to the 55w bulbs

 
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hey guys!,

I know earlier in this thread you were talking about the glare problem with the 01-03 stock headlights. I have 6000k HID in my stock 04-05 headlights....do i have anything really to worry about?? (other than its tech. illegal )

Im thinking of maybe going to 4300k instead btw

 
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well yea, blinding other cars lol. any wall shots? i can tell you how bad it is.

and looks like i found me some TL projectors for $240, a bit pricey but they are the ones i was looking for with the dot step instead of the slope. let the fun begin. i hope to have all the parts i need by summertime, the 55w ballasts and bulbs, some decent stock headlamps, and money to send them to customlightz and get it done the right way. i figure ill have the car for at least 5 more years if not longer, might as well have some nice lights.

 
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post a pic of your HID's against a white wall and we can look at the glare (if any) then we can get a better idea. H4's in general are bad about glare with HID kit's. the 9006's may not be as bad since they're only a low beam and not a dual-beam.

 
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i knew you'd come back to the dark side (er....actually....the "bright side") eventually. you and i have had several conversations about this.

if you don't want to do it yourself, spend the money to have someone else to it RIGHT. i know i complained about mine at first, but once i got them adjusted right (turns out a 1/4 turn of the screwdriver on my adjustment screws made HUGE difference) i absolutely love them and hope i never go back to halogens. i fully believe you're making the right choice here. in hind-sight, if i was to do it over, after the amount of time it took for fabricating, and cutting, and glueing, and waiting, etc, it would have been easier and better to just get some OEM housings and do some TL's. throw in some ZKW's and you may get a little excited!

 
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lol yea i had a chance to get zkws tonight too but its not worth $250 to me. the stock output is already quite good, and if i run the hi watt bulbs, even better

okay heres another pic i found. what you think about e46 shrouds? idk, i like the previous black car retro better i think. cause its too empty behind the shroud.


\

and look how lucky the 8thgen guys are. this is pnp kit in oem housing, 9006 i believe. its actually not bad! smooth light, almost no glare, decent cut. its not spectacular, but alot better than our crappy housings and hotspot/glare.

 
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okay another thing that worries me is the chrome bowl getting burnt from higher watt hid bulb. esp since its a sealed projector without vent.

 
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I plan to use the 55W setup in my TFX set up and realized that it's a sealed projector too.

Gearbox definitely go with customlightz. They do sweet work. This is my second time with them and they haven't let me down yet. The headlights look almost stock. I love how they do the custom shrouds.

 
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^damnnn thats the first 04/05 HL I've seen retrofitted!

do you have any pics of them on the car?

 
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i love their shroud/extender combos. looks very stock and they have done so many headlights already. have you seen their threads on honda tech and 8thcivic.com? theyve done literally hundreds if not thousands of civic retros lol. and all quality work. i just wish i had smaller housings cause the big reflector is hard to get it looking right. but im sure they will think of something.

 
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Once I get them back from customlightz I'll take more pics with them on the car along with the cutoff. I had the cutoff modified for a blue color and a rainbow prism effect above the cutoff. Color flicker is going to look crazy over bumps. It's also going to have a bi-xenon function.

I had to send it back for warranty because during shipping the shipper dropped it or something and the projector came loose. Customlightz stands by there work 100%, definite quality.

Yeah gearbox i wish my housing was also a little bigger. I wanted to go with TL/ZKW, but those things are huge and didn't fit. So I'll probably be going with 55W.

 
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what'd you pay if you dont mind me asking.. when you supply the HL housings?

EDIT:

nm I googled them.. 275 hrmmmm that's a tantilizing price!!!

 
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yeah its not bad. and the parts arent that much either.

so far i paid $250 for TL projectors, if i get the digital 55w kit, that only another $180, and im done except for wiring harness and shroud which should be another $100 maybe. then labor. not bad for a really bright setup. oh wait silly me, stock headlamps another $200 at least cause im not using the crap ones i got now lol. i guess its gonna be close to $1k afterall.

 
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I'm really considering this because I have the HID bulbs/ballasts/harness AND an extra set of HL's to send them, and their website says they can custom paint them as well at no extra charge ... seems like a pretty darn good deal

 
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do you have projectors? whatever you do, dont cheap out and get e46/bosch or valeo. or any other "cheapie" projectors $100 or less lol. go with something nice.

 
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Nope I have the PNP HID setup in stock blacked out HL's ... From the website it says for the 04/05 HL's they use TSX projectors for the retro, those are pretty good aren't they? they use S2K projectors for the 06/07 Civics.. don't those perform better? I wonder if I had this done I'd ask for S2K projectors..

 
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s2k is prolly the best projector there is. followed very closely by TL and LS430 and maybe some hybrid projectors like TFX. In the middle would be the tsx and some others, at the very bottom are e46/bosch and valeo. if you can afford $400+ for s2k, you should get those. you dont have to get their projectors, there are always a ton of different ones on ebay or hidplanet for sale forums.

 
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The headlights I had an extra pair. The projectors fx projectors costed $70, the tsx projectors(clear lensed) $110, the labor $275, custom shroud (MDX shrouds) $75, shroud extensions $30, color & prism mod/hardware $50.00, return customer discount -$50.00, return shipping $30.00. So all in all about $560.

Just keep in mind that not all the shrouds will fit every projector. I wanted the e46/a4 combo shrouds, but those didn't fit the TFX, so I had to go with the MDX shrouds. Bjorn at customlightz traded me my e46/a4 shrouds for the MDX shrouds and gave another $75 off since mine were more expensive. So, final price for everything: $485.

If you want better lighting, it's definitely worth it in my opinion.

Oh yeah like gearbox said do not go with e46/bosch projectors. The output is not that great. I have those in my current retrofit. If you have the extra cash go for s2k. Do it right the first time or you'll be paying twice like me.

 
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Hrmm so it seems as though you pay all the parts, and the 275 is just reflected as the labor... okay. 485 is still a good price though for the product you get..

 
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I don't regret spending the money. Definitely worth it for the quality you get.

 
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what shroud would look good for a 3 inch tl? im bidding on the big benz ones on ebay, it says 3 inch and they are big. but idk its the only thing ive seen.

 
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I believe the e46 shrouds(bi-xenon version) have a 3" opening too. They were pretty big when I had them. You can also go with the e92(new 4 door 3 series) shrouds. Those look decent and have a 3" opening. They say bmw dynamic xenon d1s on them.