HID legality & Personal Experience

[chuloloco]

I was thinking about buying an HID kit for my 92 Camry DLX V6. I originally wanted to get 12000k HID's, but after asking MOD EXPRESS they say anything above 6000k is illegal. I would like to know, for those of you who have 8000k and up HID's or just know in general about HID's, if you've been hasseled by cops or other motorists. Also, I know that to ensure the safety of other motorists I would need to retrofit my headlights so I don't scatter the HID's and blind people. Does anyone know roughly how much they would cost for my car? I would be getting the clear DEPO headlights. If I weren't to get my headlights retrofitted, how badly would the HID's scatter with my DEPO headlights and how dangerous would I be to other motorists. Thanks for your input.

[MrSo0h0o]

any aftermarket HID kit is illegal. even a retrofit is considered illegal. the reason why they prob said anything above 6000k is illegal is because above that, the color of the HIDs is a blue/purple which strain the eyes much more than say, 4300k(white light) and will blind people much easier. to retrofit, it will cost at least 400 i would say. HID's in a halogen reflector headlamp will scatter the light everywhere except for where you need it and it is VERY dangerous to other motorists.

[cdtran]

HID's of anykind are illegal unless it came from the factory. Retro fitting is still illegal, but not as bad as a pnp kit. In terms of the law, its the same violation, but when you retro hid's you put the light where it's suppose to go, and don't draw unwanted attention. The reason you don't want anykind of hid's above 6000k is that the amount of usable light goes down the drain. You get the most lumens from 4300k. With real hid's at 4300k, the bulbs will color shift up to a little over 5000k.

There is A LOT more information about hid's out there, and most of it can be found at hidplanet.com/forums

btw, with the retro in my 93 camry, 05 accord, 07 camry, and soon to me 2000 land cruiser(almost started), I have never had any issues with people flashing me as I pass them. Never had any issues with cops either. Everything is "oem" and when I pull up to any car with a pnp kit, I just laugh as everything around them gets dark as I pull away.

[tomcat1346]

I have a 2000 Camry (4 cyl). recently, a cop pulled me over for a burned out headlight (warning only, no ticket). When I replaced the bulbs, (if one goes out, the others aren't far behind) I got a set of GE Super Bright Whites. What a world of difference! I've noticed a lot of cars on the road with those "blue bulbs", and have seen that they don't light up the road much. (But they DO dazzle oncoming drivers!). My 4,300k lights light up the road very well. A lot brighter than the standard lights I had before.

[geoff5093]

I would not get any HID kits above 6000K at all, even 6000K is cutting it. If you got 12000K then you would have a purplish-color output, which would definitely get you pulled over.

4300K is the best for light output, but I prefer 5000K.