HID questions

2757 Views 10 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Forte5GT, Sep 17, 2015

Trocko

Discussion Starter · Aug 30, 2015

Hi all!! I have creeped this forum for a while....... really lol.

Anyway, I am seriously considering the 2016 Kia Forte5 SX as my first "new" car, and have been trying to learn EVERYTHING I can about it...
I have been into my local Kia dealership MANY times test driving different Forte's and desperately trying to find a 6spd SX, but no one seems to have any

Which comes to my questions. Since I have no first hand experience (yet) with the nuances of Kia, I need some help

I have read a lot about people without the stock HID lights drilling the dust covers and putting H11 HID's in.
1) Do the reflector housings cut off the beam well? Or do they let it all hang out?
2) If one was to acquire the headlight assembly from an HID equipped Forte, would it be as simple as a plug and play? or would harnesses and ballast be required?

I live in Nova Scotia, and have been driving a Saturn SC1 for the last 6 years. Being low to the ground, I HATE people that convert their headlights to HID and either (A) Don't aim them properly, or (B) Don't install projectors in the housings. The blinding effect is real and I don't want to be the d*ck that is blinding other people. And you know, I really respect / enjoy / like clean installs.

These questions stem from something I found while perusing the web,

Yes, they are a wee bit expensive, but if its really plug and play, that would be an awesome upgrade (IMO) over the stock halogen lights.

I guess the TL;DR of this post would be:

Does installing HID lights in our reflector housings cause problems to other drivers?

Thanks for taking the time to read this post and I hope I made some sense.

See less See more

Save

1 - 11 of 11 Posts

honhon

· #2 · Aug 30, 2015

From what it seems like no one has had any issues.

I wonder with that price if they come with bulbs or ballasts

Save

Trocko

Discussion Starter · #3 · Aug 30, 2015

NO WAY, okay, total fanboy moment, but I saw your Youtube videos and have basically watched them all!!

I love the install videos, and was especially interested in the Blackstone lab report... Thats really cool!

I wonder if the stock HID lights come with ballasts built into the assembly?
And the HID bulbs won't melt the assembly?

I know from reading some things that If you put HID's in a saturn that you would melt the assembly lenses... Not exactly ideal!!

Save

Playwithmymind

· #4 · Aug 30, 2015

The stock projector works fine with HIDs, no heat issues and yes it has the cutoff. There are a couple different opinions on what the best kit is and whether you need the relay/capacitor kit or not.

I personally am running the Mirimoto Elite plug n play canbus set and have absolutely no issues. No extra capacitors and no relays, just a hole in each dust cover and mounting the ballast and done $150.00

The OEM HID headlight assembly I found was used and was $800.00 per side and there was no guarantee it was going to be wired the same or would function right with the non-HID system.

Save

Scoobdude

· #5 · Aug 30, 2015

The one advantage to the oem version is the auto leveling motor. I wild recommend upgrading the bulbs though. The aftermarket one on my wrx are way brighter than the oem one on our optima and forte

Save

Trocko

Discussion Starter · #6 · Aug 30, 2015

Yes, I was looking at the Mirimoto system from the K5 store. It's a little more for me being from Canada, but I'd rather something quality and pay more than something cheap that will just need replacing.

Those are from RockAuto, but yeah.... I would be interested to see if they come with everything or not.

The last time I ordered new light assemblies for the saturn, I was surprised when they came with ALL lights. Lows/highs/and turn signals. But yeah, one would need to check.

At least the stock projector has a cutoff.

Thanks for the valuable infos!!

Save

Playwithmymind

· #7 · Aug 30, 2015

Scoobdude said:
The one advantage to the oem version is the auto leveling motor. I wild recommend upgrading the bulbs though. The aftermarket one on my wrx are way brighter than the oem one on our optima and forte

I was curious about the leveling part and what controls it. The connector for the head lamp assembly seems to have the same pin locations for the lighting (looking at schematic) but neither have anything listed for the adjusters. Which makes me think it is part of another system.

Save

honhon

· #8 · Aug 30, 2015

Maybe it's something internal to the light. Like it powers up when the headlight gets power.

Ty for the kind words on my channel. I have some stuff coming soon I'll be uploading.

Save

Scoobdude

· #9 · Aug 30, 2015

Pretty sure the leveling motor gets power from the same plug as the hid. Not sure where the ballast us either. But in the oem sti ones they are in the bottom of the headlight assembly.

Save

Playwithmymind

· #10 · Aug 30, 2015

Scoobdude said:
Pretty sure the leveling motor gets power from the same plug as the hid. Not sure where the ballast us either. But in the oem sti ones they are in the bottom of the headlight assembly.

Shows the ballast attaching directly to the HID bulb

Save

Forte5GT

· #11 · Sep 17, 2015

Trocko said:
Yes, I was looking at the Mirimoto system from the K5 store. It's a little more for me being from Canada, but I'd rather something quality and pay more than something cheap that will just need replacing.

Those are from RockAuto, but yeah.... I would be interested to see if they come with everything or not.

The last time I ordered new light assemblies for the saturn, I was surprised when they came with ALL lights. Lows/highs/and turn signals. But yeah, one would need to check.

At least the stock projector has a cutoff.

Thanks for the valuable infos!!

Rock Auto sells the complete housing? I think you might do better by ordering from eBay through Korea which are OEM or close to it; possibly counterfeit, I don't know how rampant the counterfeit market is in South Korea.

Hon did the bulb replacement using Osram Night Breaker Unlimited. Got me to thinking that may be it's better to try this before I invested in serious HID retrofits like the one you mentioned.

Save

1 - 11 of 11 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month