Gen 4 vs black stocks
Sir_Hiro on here just got his Retro's done by someone out in PA. I'll link him to this thread and see if he can make a comment.
Last edited by z062007vette; Sep 24, 2013 at 03:59 PM.
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From: Skamokawa, WA
What's the point in putting HIDs in your stock headlights if you have to aim them down? Not only do you lose your distance by aiming them down, you also lose your distance by the excess foreground light. I know HIDWerks sells HID bulbs that actually "tilt" in the proper place for low beam and high beam. But bi-xenon lights from anywhere else, like DDM Tuning, are a joke. I'd say either get the Gen 4s and swap out the crappy halogen projector for a set of Mini H1s or go with the stock headlights and do a retrofit with those with any projector you want.
With good bulbs the stock housings are not bad at all, i use phillips night guide bulbs in my stock headlights and they are plenty bright. However if you must have HID's I would recommend the Gen4 depos which are outstanding and look the best out of all of the ebay projector lenses. Some car's can get away with HID bulbs in factory housings, some cant, the design of the factory housing on our car's just doesnt work well with HID's scatters far too much light in the wrong directions.
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From: Skamokawa, WA
It could range from less than $300 to over $600. It depends what you want. I did my Mini H1 retrofit for around $300, including ballasts. My EvoX-R retrofit was almost $600 because I went with XBALED halo rings, premium shrouds, OEM bulbs (Philips 85122s), and new TYC stock headlights from Amazon. I'm reusing my Morimoto 3Five ballasts I've had for 2 and a half years with AMP to D2S adapters. So the cost depends on what you want. With the XBALED halos, I custom made a relay harness with a fuse tap that goes into the DRL fuse slot so they restore my DRL functionality.
I got gen 4 black and they look decent, they fit well if you take the time to align it with the body of the car. the light output is good enough for me and I only have a cheap ebay hid kit. I want to paint the crome part in black also but I don't have the time for that right now. I'm happy with the depo gen4 but if I had the time and money I would build a set of retros, they look better.
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From: Texas
What's the point in putting HIDs in your stock headlights if you have to aim them down? Not only do you lose your distance by aiming them down, you also lose your distance by the excess foreground light. I know HIDWerks sells HID bulbs that actually "tilt" in the proper place for low beam and high beam. But bi-xenon lights from anywhere else, like DDM Tuning, are a joke. I'd say either get the Gen 4s and swap out the crappy halogen projector for a set of Mini H1s or go with the stock headlights and do a retrofit with those with any projector you want.
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From: Southern NH
When people say aim them down they don't mean aim them all the way to the ground. I couple clicks down is fine. I can see pretty far in front of me doing it that way. And my HIDS are from HIDWERKS and they are the real bi xenon bulbs. I've seen people with projector style lights with HIDS coming towards me blind me more than stock headlights with HIDS.
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From: Columbus
Probably going to get the black stocks. I'll do some research on retros before I buy hids. I hate the crome on the gen 4's I rather not pay money then crack them open expecting them to condensate. How do you aim the stocks down ?
Last edited by cOHbalt; Sep 24, 2013 at 07:23 PM.
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From: Columbus
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From: Skamokawa, WA
That's how we all learn how to do our own retrofit. Research! Mini H1s aren't so bad. Some trimming is necessary. When I did my EvoX-R retrofit, I bought new headlights for them to go into and took my time. I learned as I went along because you do run into problems.
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From: Columbus
This is a good idea. If I get the black stocks this will free up my oem Crome ones to experiment with
