I'm thinking about upgrading the factory H11 Headlight bulbs on my 2011 Prius TWO. So far suggestion that I've received is upgrading to H9. Would that be the best way to go for night time highway driving? What about HIDs or LEDs? Will HIDs consume too much power? What are some good HID or LED conversion kits?
I went to HID's from Retrofit Source about a year ago and highly recommend them. Easy plug and play installation. LED's will be almost impossible.
Are these similar or better than the Morimotto ones? Toyota Prius HID Xenon Headlight Package Deal - Toyota Prius HID Lights
my 2 cents: I highly suggest HIDs w/ballast. Its just too simple and looks great. These 2 videos eased my anxiety of any difficulty I thought there was. this is what I have: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ZF4MW8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Here is some info: 1) HIDs are illegal in headlights not designed for HID. Whether it is is enforced is a different question. Most likely you will have no problems on the road, in terms of being pulled over, if you use bulbs with temperature below 5000K. All manufacturers are using 4300K (more toward white than blue) 2) HID will use less electric power (~35W per bulb) than regular bulbs (~55W). There are also 55W HID kits but those will be too bright and blinding for oncoming traffic. 3) The light produced by HID is different from the light produced by incandescent bulb. Colors look somewhat different when object is illuminated by HID light. (The HID would be the image on the right) 4) During the rain and fog, HID light would loose more in visibility vs incandescent, as shorter wavelength of HID scatter more by water droplets. This is especially true for high Temperature bulbs, >5000K 5) LED conversion kits (i do not mean original LED Toyota headlights here, but ~$100 kits sold on Amazon) would give you high brightness but very poor beam shape and will be bad for oncoming traffic. Some of those kits with cooling fans at the end are too long to fit to Prius and will require relocation/modification of the washer tank or other things 6) ...? maybe others will add something Alex
Thank you Captain Now you assumed that "<" means something for a person who is asking the question - Alex
I have the 55w ballasts & not the slightest problem / no overheating, no blinding of the oncoming traffic /
Not sure if OP profile is right, but if Gen II, don't get HID's. Those factory reflectors are terrible.. Even the factory HID are blinding. If GEN III, projectors work great with HID's. Countless thread on this.. HID's, 35watts, no issues since I got them 2 years ago.. KBcarstuff.com
On my 2009 WRX I have a HID kit from DDMTuning. I had it on there since 2010 and it is great and had no issues. I plan on getting a set my my prius i just bought. It is reasonably priced and works great.
Factory HIDs in Gen II are not terrible. They comply to all required beam shape specifications, otherwise they would not be certified and allowed on the road. The reflector shape for HID is specifically designed for the position and shape of the light source (plasma ball) of HID bulb D2R. And it's different from the reflector for incandescent bulb for Gen II. And for this reason (I agree with you here) putting aftermarket HID in reflector not designed for it is terrible. - Alex
All the reflector HID systems have much to be improved. Though they may have met the standards at the time, there are better options now and available. The reflector system I've used and seen have way too much glare. Systems I recall these in are the Lexus ES300 and Toyota Sienna. Though there is auto-leveling to comply, it's doesn't make up all the glare. If OP were to retrofit, put in a projector and get them aimed properly.
2011 Prius already have projectors. My 14 Sienna also has projectors. I installed 55W 6000K HIDs on it. The cutoff is sharper than my Prius's LED. The Prius's LED lights shines white from the driver seat but the LED looks blue from the outside. The HIDs I installed on the Sienna shines white with very slight bluish beam from the driver seat but the HID looks like H9 incandescent .
I got some 4500K H9s - just a bit cooler than 4300K standard color halogens. Modified H9s make a big improvement (almost double the luminosity) of standard H11 halogens. Most cost-effective improvement possible other than HIDs.
