Installed HID's in my 03 Camry SE V6

[bewshy]

Spent about 6 1/2 - 7 hours installing my HID's. 95% percent of that time was mounting and find a place for everything. The color looks very OEM with no tints of yellow or green. Just WHITE!
I am very impressed. I had my fiancee drive her G20 from the street down (about 1/8 mile) to check for excessive glare. She reported that there wasnt any until she got right next to my car (about 5 - 10 feet from the lamp). We also did this with a Subaru WRX, a lowered Civic, and a Dodge p/u). Beam pattern is good with the light extending more on the passenger side.

By the end of the week I will have pictures of my HID conversion and the 9005-->9006 silverstar swap.

[1200mk]

what kit did you buy?

[bewshy]

Catz 4k 9006/5 kit from liteswap. I was checking out autolamps-online (I bought from them in the past), but there customer service has been lousy the past few months.


Eb

[thisdj78]

Congrats bewshy!

Post pictures ASAP bro!

[fungke]

congrats

tell us what kit you bought and how much...post pics please.

[thisdj78]

Originally posted by fungke
congrats

tell us what kit you bought and how much...post pics please.

Bewshy and I both post on an HID forum.......He's got a Catz HID kit 4100k.....he got it from www.liteswap.com

[fungke]

holly shit that expensive. i think i will just stick to getting immitation HID bulbs.

was it really hard to install?

[thisdj78]

Originally posted by fungke
holly shit that expensive. i think i will just stick to getting immitation HID bulbs.

was it really hard to install?

Yeah $399 maybe alot...but you could always piece together a kit one by one on ebay for alot less then that, you just gotta look out. Some people sell their OEM kits and dont know the worth:

2 ballasts, bids currenty at $31:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=2423962142

bulbs at $39 each:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=2424053913

note: you need both the bulbs and ballasts

Is it hard to install? Well it depends....if you buy a custom kit like bewshy did, it will be fairly easy, almost plug and play. But if you want to save money and buy the OEM pieces as shown on those ebay links....then it will take some modification, but I could answer some questions if you go that route because I bought my HIDs piece by piece and I had to modify everything to work in my car.

[fungke]

stupid question...
is there a significant difference between getting the kit and just getting the wanna be HID bulbs?

[thisdj78]

Yes.


Real HID:

Pros
1) Lasts the life of your car or 3000 hours
2) Uses alot less power then halogen
3) Alot brighter (3200 lumens)
4) OEM luxury look

Cons
1) Price
2) Takes more time to install
3) Glare (if not installed correctly)
4) You lose your high beam if you have 9004,9007 or H4 headlamps

Fake HID-like bulbs

Pros
1) Cheaper
2) Cool color
3) Easy to install

Cons
1) Cops notice these (ask me how I know)
2) Dimmer because of tinted bulbs (1000 lumens) unsafe in bad weather
3) Higher wattage...could burn wiring harness
4) High failure rate
5) Ricers have these


If you must stick with Halogen..........go with Sylvania Silverstars...I haven't seen them in person, but even HID buffs swear by these. They are alot brighter then those fake HID bulbs, the color is closer to pure white...and they are safer.

[fungke]

cool, do you know how much those Sylvania Silverstars cost and where to get em? maybe i will get the HIDs later on. also....does that mean that the headlights will be bright but your fogs stay the same?

that's why there a full kit with everything correct?

[thisdj78]

Originally posted by fungke
cool, do you know how much those Sylvania Silverstars cost and where to get em? maybe i will get the HIDs later on. also....does that mean that the headlights will be bright but your fogs stay the same?

that's why there a full kit with everything correct?

Retail on Silverstars is about $50 a pair, but Walmart even has them now at $37.......but if you really want to try to save money..again, ebay is the answer, but keep in mind, after you pay shipping, you may end up near Wal Mart's price. So if I were to buy some, I'd go to Walmart:

Here's some Ebay auctions for Silverstars:

http://search.ebay.com/ws/search/Sal...0&BasicSearch=


No, HID does not effect your fog lights....some people put HID in their foglamps in ADDITION to their headlamps, but thats overkill for my taste.

[bewshy]

If you have H3's for fogs don't even bother. Complete waste to retro those to HID. I leave my fogs off now, because they make no difference what-so-ever, now that I have the HID's. The connecting of the wires was easy, but find a mounting spot for everything was a MAJOR BITCH! Took me like 6 hours. Of course I bought my own looms and zip ties to secure the wires and make everything look "clean".

Silverstars are the best vs. the other crap like PIAA, Polarg or the other "ricer"" bulbs. I've tried them all.

You can buy a pair of Silverstars at Autozone for 40 bucks. I ran the 9006 silverstars and then did the swap to 9005 (I was happy with the increased output). One thing I noticed about the HID's was my lamp was alot cooler I had the 9005's in less then a week before I switched to HID's.

I've used HID "kits" from both Hid-Online (Autolamps-online) and Catz. Overall I was more impressed with the Catz.

[bewshy]

hey thisdj78

By the way....your HID setup looks good.

[thisdj78]

Thanks man, can't wait to see your pics.

So why was it so hard to find a mounting spot? I guess the new Camrys' must have a smaller space around the engine because on mine I had plenty of space to mount the ballats flat.

One the left side (facing the car) I mounted the ballast in front of the coolent tank, and on the driver's side it's mounted in front of the battery, almost under the headlamp.