The best way to go is with a retrofit. Most aftermarket if not all, are poor quality and poor light out put. I speak from experience I had a set (not the ones you posted) and they sucked. The fitment and out put was horrible
I was assuming all daytime running light assemblies comes with HIDs, please correct me if I'm wrong. Also,I wasn't much concerned about the light output because, I barely travel, but I would love to have a retrofit Audi DRL. How much does labor usually cost for retrofitting, also I would assume AUDI headlight assemblies wouldn't be cheap themselves either
Well you can keep your stock headlights and just add an LED strip (which means taking apart your headlights) inside like the Audi's have.
I am not a wiring expert so I can't explain how to hook up the wiring. As far as the taking your headlights apart and putting them back together, there are several threads on this. Check the DIY threads that are stickied at the top of this forum.
Stay away from the Spyder lights, and just do a retrofit like I did. With the Spyder projector headlights even though they are more stylish, you will get less actual light. Just visit HIDplanet.com and take a look at my gallery under Fulaman, here I'll link it:
I was reading the HIDplanet forums like last 30 minutes and the projectors sold by members are cheap, yet I am sure if I can do the mod without messing up the whole assembly.
I have the chrome version of those Spyder projector lights.
With 6000k HID's, the output is okay (see the video from my update thread). There is some glare staring directly ahead from a blob of light above the cut-off line. The fitment is good too.
The LED halo's are a joke unless you've got them on without any other lights at night (I rigged it to my dome light).
Overall I'm happy with the looks of the Spyder lights, but you get what you pay for.
Your thread with DIY instructions was superb, I really appreciate the amount of time that you put for those videos. But I'm confused about the LED parts, so are you saying that you get the Spyders with LED's then take them off, because they were not bright or something, and install them as a dome light?
You will actually get less output from the Spyder Projectors than the OEM Toyota Multireflectors (both with halogen or both with HID). Really the only way is to do a retrofit if you want TRUE HID. You can get Acura Projectors, Lexus Projectors or Infiniti Projectors. Or do what most people do save time/money and get Mini projectors from theretrofitsource, which aren't bad. I would stay away from the Hella Projectors (which is what BMW, Mercedes and Audi use). It is amazing that Japanese Luxury Car makers have superior HIDs over their European counterparts. So much for Euro Quality.
This is the kind of light you can expect if you do a Retrofit with the FX-R 3.0 (which is what I have):
btw, Videos don't do the output justice
The FX-R 3.0 actually have better foreground lighting than the FX-R 1.0 however, the beam is not as wide, though wide enough to light up 5+ lanes on the freeway/highway/expressway
These are Acura TL projectors retrofitted on a truck:
If you want just a good low beam HID go with Lexus RX330 projectors. If you want a good Bi-xenon projector I would go with the Acura TL, FX-R 3.0, or the LS430/460 projectors for a super wide beam.
If you want just a good low beam HID go with Lexus RX330 projectors. If you want a good Bi-xenon projector I would go with the Acura TL, FX-R 3.0, or the LS430/460 projectors for a super wide beam.
Fulaman you convinced me that I should definitely get retrofits HIDs instead of spyders, and I don't know if I mentioned it yesterday, I have never seen such wide and bright headlights, as yours, in my whole life. As I was saying, I won't be able to do retrofits myself so I will probably take it to the shop, that I saw in the retrofit website, located in Virginia. Do you think the shop could possibly install audi style LEDs to the assembly while they are retrofitting the FX-R 3.0 lens?
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