Thinking of HID light kit this week

HID's are simple to install in the gen III Prius- no need to have an installer do it.

The Prius uses a projector system and needs a special HID bulb to prevent ground shadows from the standard H11 bulb. The Prius needs a H11B HID bulb.

There is a very large difference in light output between the common 35 watt systems and the more expensive 50 watt systems.

6000k is quite blue, stock HID's are nearer the 3000k temperature.
The higher the color temp, the less light you project onto the road.
6000k in not DOT compliant in the USA, and may get you ticketed or in major legal trouble if you cause an accident and some smart lawyer notices your illegal blue headlights.

Many here have had good results with systems from The Retrofit Source.
Specifically take a look at their "H11: Morimoto Elite HID System" with 50 watt ballast option, XB35 (H11) bulbs (made for projector systems) and if you go with the 50 watt system you need the relay harness to handle the added load.
You're looking at $150 for the system, but it's top quality stuff form a reputable company with an actual 5 year warranty!

 

Please consider an H11 to H9 bulb conversion rather than HID's. This will give you nearly double the light output for ~$20 while using a bulb type appropriate for the projector optics and more importantly, being 100% legal.

 

I got my Xenon Depot Volt kit from KBCarStuff.com

35watt kit works great. Only issue I had was with connector. Make sure it's seated and it works fine. For under $100 shipped for an AC ballast system is pretty awesome. Customer service is pretty good too. They responded to my issue very quickly.

 

BTW, the cutoff for the projectors are really good and work perfectly fine for HID's. Aim them properly and you have no issue blinding others. Though the retrofit may have a better cut off, the cutoff the factory projector offers are good as many factory HID projectors.

When the put HID kits in the Gen II's, that's where it's terrible! Light bleeds everywhere!

 

The cut-off is not the only issue with a conversion. Even with a sharp cut-off, your lights are only at a consistent height on perfectly level ground. Add real world roads with hills, bumps and dips, carrying passengers or a heavy load in the trunk, and the cut-off is no longer working as intended. The optics for HID and halogen projectors are also completely different as the elements are not the same shape or intensity, which is why with retrofits you get hotspots instead of the perfectly even light distribution of a proper HID setup. Add those super-intense hotspots to real world conditions, and you'll still end up putting a lot more than the legal level of glare into oncoming traffic in many situations.

 

All of my recent cars for quite some time have had factory HID's, BMW M3's and wagons along with my Lexus RX's... so I'm quite familiar with factory HID spreads and levelers.

The spread on the beam in Prius with factory projectors is really good compared to all of these cars. So if the spread isn't good enough and has "hot sport", then none of these factory projectors from BMW or Lexus are neither. On some Audi's, those in the past are even worse. Look up posts by others and if you have the time, I will post a pic of the beam.

In regards to the levelers, that only really applies if the car is substantially loaded in the rear. If the car squats enough it maybe an issue. I can see this issue if it's an SUV or truck. In the real world, what's blinding is when people drive on undulating roads. Leveler will do nothing to help as it's aimed way up in air. I should try this with my car loaded but I have yet to too any issue to to this either.

I guess my point is, if you don't like HID being retrofitted, you really don't like anyone having them as I think these perform much like the factory HID but without levelers.

 

I have owned cars in the past with HID's as well, I've seen dozens of pictures of the HID conversions here, and read almost every thread about headlights I can find for the Gen 3. The HID retrofitted beam pattern doesn't look that great to me. The optics are designed for a filament bulb, not an HID arc.

This is what a good HID setup looks like.


this is what a drop in kit looks like in the Gen 3 projectors


and another one

 

If the difference between pic 1 and 3 are not good enough for you, then a lot of factory HIDs system maybe as well. Also the photos are taken at different distances. Clearly pic 1 was very close and pic 2 and 3 are further away. I'll have to shoot one when I get a chance.

What doesn't seem to look right is pick 2 and 3. they don't seem to look the same.

Actually pic 3 shows it's cut off is pretty good using the car on the left as reference. The cut off is right around the hood.

The little rectangle boxes are from the 194 bulb not due to poor projection.

 

Here's a good side by side comparison. Honda Odyessy with Factory HID vs Prius aftermarket HID kit. The spread from Prius actually look better than factory and cut off is pretty darn close. Again those rectangle lights...




Installed 55w 4300k HID bulbs...finally happy with my Prius headlights | PriusChat

 

I almost used this same picture to illustrate what is wrong with these setups. The Prius drop-in kit has massively bright hotspots in the center because the optics are all wrong. It's overpowering part of the Odyssey's factory system, but what we can see of the Honda's is a much more even light source. Cut off is the wrong thing to be focusing on in determining these kits effectiveness.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by your first sentence. Picture 1 shows a good system with even beam spread. Pictures 2 and 3 show hotspots and even the cut-off being wrong (bowed in pic 2 which is far enough from the wall to show the effect) with drop ins in the halogen projectors.

 

You can say that it appears that there is a hot spot from the Prius. Main thing I see in this pic that is the lack of light from the Odyssey overall. You can conclude that as an hot spot from Prius or poor output from Odyssey. I see it as poor output from Honda. What I also really notice is the cutoff from the Prius is very comparable to the Honda. Not that it's an benchmark cutoff but it's fair to say it's good as some factory HID projectors.

 

Neither way, just letting the OP decide and they can make their own conclusion. Clearly we have. I think we have all the bases covered in this thread, upgrade bulb, HID kit and HID retrofit.

 

Not sure about being 100% legal... are you also saying that putting a 65w H9 bulb into a projector designed for a 55w H11 will not have a problem with hotspots?

SCH-I535

 

I think the reason this is ok is because you are merely amplifying the intensity of light in the positions that have passed the appropriate tests as regards to beam focus. OEM's are then free to spec a bulb of a given intensity depending on their goals. As Toyota must equip the Prius with the low beams as DRL's in some markets, the seem to have chosen a bulb with moderate intensity and great bulb life over one with great intensity and short life. As consumers, we may have different priorities.

When you put the HID bulbs in there, you are adding a light source that is not matched to the optics, so you are both increasing output, and spreading it into areas you don't intend to - ie. glare. The sharp cutoff controls this to some extent, except when you are on the real roads as I said above.

 

If it's brighter and it doesn't bother incoming traffic, is perfectly fine with my criteria for HID's upgrade

 

I would have gone with the morimoto 35w 6000k xb35 h11 kit. Built for projectors and the prius projector in particular.
Keep us posted with the kensun and how they work and look... They are way cheaper but may have the ground shadow issue