Best hid kit?

Thanks. Your car looks great. How long did it take you to install?

 

I wanna say around an hour but most of it was hiding the wires and ballasts.

 

So this doesn't affect the high beams? Are the high beams the bulbs to the right in your picture above?

 

Exactly, HID kit is only for the low beams. The high beams (on the right) are still using the factory halogen bulbs.

 

OK, thanks.

 

I would like to point out that I have owned DDM kits and cheap eBay kits. They are very similar, if not the same thing (slim ballast type kits). Also, the Xentec ballasts are plastic, not metal, and are a different type of ballast (DC vs. AC, not sure which) - they don't make the cheap bulbs as bright.

I was finally fed up with color-shifting cheap bulbs, and cheap ballasts failing to strike an arc. I went and got the Morimoto kit and it is awesome! Not only are the ballasts tiny (same size as the "slim" cheap units, just twice as thick) but the 6000k kit is brighter than the cheap 6000k kit. No longer am I worried about how many lumens I'm losing versus 4300k or 5000k. Everything including the bulbs is better build quality. This ought to be the last kit I buy...for this car O

Also, I didn't use the Morimoto relay harness...I didn't feel I needed it, but if you are looking for one, let me know.

 

My morimoto should be here in a day or two. Got the can-bus per TRS. No need for the relay. Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

I had the DDM kit before, never again. Xenondepot's Xtreme kit are excellent never had an issue with them, very reliable, great customer service too from Mike. 5000k is a very nice compromise and looks awesome.

Photon intensity and dispersion is a function of your projector lenses and reflectors behind it. A quality 35W kit works great on the Gen3, only gripe is the squirrel finders releasing some light so you can see highway and street signs in area where there is no street light...it doesn't give it that clean look laser sharp cut off. Something I'd like to do is a retrofit with a Honda S2K projector, amazing lenses and of course very expensive...

 

The lack of a sharp cutoff is the byproduct of frenzel lenses. It has nothing to do with squirrel finders. If you were to install high quality clear lenses you would have a nice sharp cutoff and likely more color at the cutoff.

 

I'm pretty sure our Gen3 projector lenses are not frenzel, they look quite clear to me compare to my subaru that I had before which was frenzel, the cut off is quite sharp even on the oem lenses...when i can, I'd definitely go for a better projector lenses, may be the TSX is a nice compromise between quality and price. What is your setup for your retrofit kit?

 

I ordered the ones from DDM, got to love the 3 weeks wait from China

 

Look at them closely with a light source. I just looked at mine, with a headlamp on, while I was working in the garage and the lens is definitely not smooth and clear. Are you sure they are not fresnel? The lack of a defined cutoff is a classic characteristic of a fresnel lens.

TL Lens Swap: Comparing Oem, ZKW, and ZKW-R Lenses

 

I think part of the reason too is that, the projector was not meant for an HID bulb.

 

Good point.

 

I look more carefully and they are in fact fresnel lenses but not as obvious as my subaru that I had before. There is some glare if you drop and HID kit in the OEM headlamp system but not as bad as some other projector lenses. I guess swapping out the OEM lenses with a the Acura TSX ones will clean that right up real well.

 

Even with the stock halogen bulb, the cut off is not sharp. Looks like what it shows on the ones with HID kit.

 

Please do a write up if you do it!

I'm scared to mod anything on this new car. Once you start you just can't stop. LOL

 

1 mod a year then we're staging an intervention

 

Good idea!