HID headlight upgrade

LED in the interiors is a nice idea. It will look great.

 

Hello to all, I'm a newbie to this forum and I got my prius 2010 2 mos ago and not sure what model, all I know is prius III, no navigation package. Anyway I'am planning to replace also my halogen headlight with an HID and would like to know if this will affect the cut off beam. I replaced my 2004 camry with HID and it did blind the opposite cars and any info is greatly appreciated.

 

Yes, it will affect the cutoff. HID headlamps need to be designed from the ground up. Simply swapping in an HID bulb does not make for a properly functioning HID headlight. This is why HID conversions are illegal in most jurisdictions.

Tom

 

Because the 2010 Prius has a projector style lens for the low beams (same style lens as used by OEM HID's), it is less prone to blinding drivers. Since installing mine, I noticed that the cutoff has not changed vs the halogens (ie, light is not spreading out above the previous vertical limit) and as such, I feel that it is relatively safe to perform this mod on the 2010 Prius.

HAVING SAID THAT...it is illegal in all states, no matter what, to retrofit a halogen headlight car with HID's. While the Prius lens may make it safer, it has not been through the rigorous matching and validation process that an OEM system will undergo. Proceed at your own risk...

 

Having actually installed HIDs in a 2010, I can say it does not affect the cutoff.

 

Guys, thanks for your quick reply, yes the 2010 model has a projector lens and I'll give it a try, I ordered a unit for $65.00 and hopefully it will get here in a day or two and will let you know the results, tx again.

 

My statement above was based on personal experience...i have a 5000 degree kit installed and love em I'm sure you will too. Let us know what your experience is...

 

how did your upgrade turn out? I saw that a company recently released a package explicitly for the 2010 model with brackets and everything

 

link to this company?

 

It's not worth it...the "generic" H11 kits are very good...just need to tap into the existing headlight harness and stash the ballasts somewhere...and twist in the replacement Xenon bulbs. easy breezy. I still need to polish up the wiring as I just tapped directly into the headlight harness...i would like to have an actual snap connect adapter.

 

I just installed HID's on my Prius today, and what a difference. I ended up going with these guys, DDM Tuning, their kit only costs $65 and I also opted for their wiring harness an extra $20. The kit has really small ballasts so makes it really easy to install, I did end up doing it the difficult way and hid everything under the bumper for a clean factory install. Here's a link to the HID kit.

DDM 35W & 55W Slim Ballast HID Kit: DDM Tuning - HID Kits, HID Bulbs, DEPO Lighting, BMW and Porsche Performance Accessories

 

You shouldn't put a HID retrofit kit on a car designed for Halogen bulbs. The problem is the reflector (or projector in the 2010 case) is designed for the filament position in the designed bulb and in many cases will make glare for oncoming drivers really bad. In addition is messes up the beam pattern as well, lowering their effectiveness.

What I did on my last car and motorccle is replace the H4 bulb on these vehicles with the Osram Silverstar bulb. This is not like the crap "blue" Silverstar sold here. The Euro Silverstar is a regular "yellow" light bulb but with higher output but the same wattage. (55w/65w) So it won't melt the headlight but produces a brighter beam.

The part for the 2010 Prius (a H11 bulb) is the is OSRAM 64211NBR. It puts out about 1400 lumens at 14v -- which is about half of a HID, but should be a noticeable improvement over the stock bulbs. Also, human eyes are more sensitive to the light color produced by Halogen bulbs so while HID's produce double the light output, our eyes do not see it that way.

Going from my last car (With the Silverstar bulbs) to the Prius -- I noticed the headlights were dimmer right away. I love the highly focused beam on the Prius, but more brightness is needed....

I am going to try to find a place to buy these bulbs.

 

Ok, I found them and have placed the order. $60 from Amazon.com (via one of their vendors.) I will let you guys know how they work out.

The price of these from Germany is 19 euro each and then there will be shipping, probably $10 at least. So that would be $55 + shipping not a bad deal from the US vendor.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B001HDW5XO?tag=priuschatcom-20 Amazon.de selling them:
[ame=http://www.amazon.de/Osram-64211-NBR-01B-NIGHTBREAKER-Blister/dp/B001CCAFJG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=automotive&qid=1254341788&sr=8-1]Osram 64211 NBR-01B H11 NIGHTBREAKER +90% Blister 1: Amazon.de: Auto & Motorrad[/ame]

 

And yet those of us who have actually installed HIDs in our Priuses have not had any problems with other drivers being blinded by the glare, etc. And we haven't had any complaints about not being able to see as well or anything else.

 

I thought this was kind of interesting.

This is a photo of my headlights and foglights.

Headlights are 4300 K HIDs. Foglights are Osram Nightbreakers.

This photo was taken after they both had warmed up, etc.

My iPhones poor camera blurred the light really well. But it lets you see just how white the HIDs are (even some blue with 4300 K light), and how yellow the Osrams are. The Osrams look very white compared to the stock yellow bulbs. But compared to white bulbs, the Osrams look rather yellow.

Kinda neat.

 

I would be interested in seeing a picture of the beam pattern against a wall at 30 feet. Every conversion kit I've ever seen produced a beam pattern that was inferior to the original with hot spots and scatter.

Like this guy who put a conversion on a Ford Pickup:


He's too close to know how bad the scatter is. ...

Perhaps the Prius's projector design can accommodate the HID's without issue, but almost all cars exhibit poor performance.

Lexus RX350 HID lights:

 

Actually, HID conversions are illegal in ALL jurisdictions in the United States and, I hear, Canada.

People should be aware of and consider this illegality (and, of course, the cutoff/safety issue) before installing a HID conversion.

 

Adrian,
My 5000k's look just like the Lexus HID picture.

drewquant,
I have changed out all of my interior lighting bulbs with LED's...working on exterior now. Check out my post on page 4 of this thread for part numbers and links to purchase: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...ifications/68171-interior-led-lighting-4.html