LED or HID Conversion Kit?
 

I'm looking at upgrading my halogen bulbs from a 05 Matrix. I think it has a Halogen reflective housing, so if I go the HID route, it may blind other drivers, am I correct?

If so, how are LED conversion kits? Are they comparable? are they just as bright? Any recommendations?

Goal is to increase light output, but at the same time, not blind other drivers on the road. TIA!

you will blind drivers correct. and don't fall for that "i can just aim it down" crap. not only are you diminishing your spread/depth of vision, but you will still blind people. it's not the beam of light that blinds people, it's the surface area of the reflector in the housing being much bigger than projectors that makes it blinding.

LED stuff is just getting underway and developed, but you have to pay to play in this department.

stick with halogen, get some good quality silverstars or something like that. halogens are good enough, but of course don't get cheap ones.

if you really really want HID's, get projectors. it's very worth it to retrofit a projector into your reflector housing.

good luck

How much am I looking at it if I get a HID projector kit both locally and online? and which one?

I thought about getting Silverstars, but the online reviews aren't that great for them.

Get the Silverstar Ultra's. They, imo, are the brightest halogen bulbs on the market short of going up in wattage which may burn out your factory harnesses. Only downside to the Ultra's is how short of a life you get with them. I think we get 6 months out of a set but they have a 1 year warranty IIRC.
My wife's CRV had the Silverstar Ultra's but they recently burnt out so for the time being, I put stock GE H4's back in and the light output is down by quite a lot. And the colour is very yellow compared to the Ultra's.

If you go the projector retro route, expect to pay over $300 USD for the kit from The Retrofit store and expect to pay someone that much to do the install.

That's exactly what's holding me back from trying them.

Don't know if I want to spend that much on an old car.

false.

$50 projectors. these are cheaper than the regular priced ones due to imperfections. but usually it's just like one scratch on the outside. these will give better than oem projectors cut off and spread.
B-Stock FX-R 3.0 Projectors - Closeouts

$50 for d2s xb35 bulbs
$whatever for random ballasts on ebay (d2s of course)

oven + common sense to install.

Do I need to get a D2S wiring harness as well? If so, which one? TIA!

And do I must use Morimoto D2S XB35 bulbs?

for wiring harnesses, i've always just made my own with a relay and some wires, but for simplicity, you have to get the harness that matches with the matrix plug, i believe 9005 or 9006 is the bulb size of the matrix?

you don't have to use the xb35 bulbs, but for the money, the have good value over the oem philips/osram stuff.

you should go email them, they're really helpful

its sooo annoying reading "blahblah hid retrofit, dont blind people blah blah"


yes SOME cars blind the fck out of people because the way the lenses/reflectors are designed

ie.. my car blinds the shit out of people with HID's, im aware and thats why i converted my fogs to running lights.

my EF didnt give off much glare at all, sure it didnt have a perfect cutoff but it wasnt bad at all

think of all the cars driving around with HID's in halogen style headlights.. and how few actually blind the fck out of u

im aware everyone has their opinions but i see it far too often that people generalize and have such a strong opinion over such a grey area.

now that being said, you wont know how much glare your lights give off unless you try. but if it is a concern then of course go with retrofits or find a pair that may have already been retrofitted?

as goes for the LED/HID it would be more a factor of money. i would go the HID route as bulbs and ballasts are so easy to come by

i assume you are modding your matrix? im sure their are matrix forums and they can give you a more direct answer based on that specific car.

again, yes some cars are very bad for blinding.. and some are just fine so there is no point wasting lots of time and money into something that might not be needed at all

Thanks, that's actually what I was thinking tonight as well.

Unfortunately, the online Matrix community is pretty dead.

Also, how can I keep DRL when I install HID?

i dont know enough about the matrix bulb setup. but usually cars with drl's just run a lower amount of power to the low beam. if thats the case then there will not be enough power to run the HID's.

but, some HID bulbs with a high and low function will operate the low beam like a normal halogen and run the high beam off HID

best to figure out what kind of bulb you need and go from there

google is your friend here as the matrix isnt a very common car around this forum

Depending on which trim you have, you should be able to rewire your fog lights to be your DRL.
I have an 01 Infiniti QX4 and it is a very simple job. I've just been too lazy to do it. I can't imagine your Matrix being any different.

Those FX-R projectors are B-stocks. There is no guarantee that it is as simple as a scratch or imperfection on them so buyer beware.
Also, the FX-R's are not that simple to retrofit into a headlight. OP may need to spend at least 6 hours or more to install them.

Google says an 05 Matrix runs a 9006 bulb for the low beams. I believe it uses a 9005 high beam. The cheapest route is to buy a 9006 HID kit for the low beam side and run a halogen bulb for the high beam side. I believe your car might be running the high beams at a lower voltage for the DRL.

I had a 2004 Civic, same bulb type as your Matrix (9006). My high beams, which were also DRLs, were 9005. I ended up going to projectors as the HID in reflector housing didn't really increase my light output and just made everything more white.

As said above, HID in reflector housings CAN blind other drivers, personally I've not had any issues with cars, but those d-bags in lifted trucks who have them are my biggest pet peeve on the road.

If I were you, I'd buy a HID kit from The Retrofit Source, try it out, and if you don't like "blinding" others - or the marginal increase in light output you will get - you can just buy the projectors separately from them. FWIW, the Morimoto Mini H1 is pretty much plug and play, literally anyone who knows how to remove and bake their headlights will have no problem installing them.

I'm not comfortable with removing and baking them. Think I'm gonna just stick with halogens for now. :(

Anyone got recommendations for HID installations?

The ultimate bi-xenon headlight retrofit kit for Sport & Super cars, pelican parts will be selling them

Attachment 24182i love the cut off marks

I meant, like a shop or a RS mechanic. :)

hardly. the driver's side isn't even installed correctly. rotational axis is off by at least 10 degrees.


to above posts mentioning $300?? no way.
using b-stock projectors, i've done retrofits have cost me about 100 dollars each time.
i've done the b-stock stuff at retrofitsource and i haven't been bitten 2 for 2 now...

the only retrofit i've done that was not b-stock was using a fx-r projector, cost me about $200 everything done. it's not that hard to retrofit it. took me like an hour with a dremel and jb weld. well worth the results though compared to the mini h1/mini d2s projectors though

Aligned them in car when I sealed them they moved a bit, easy fix.

Here is the build thread

Porsche Headlight Retrofit [from CAD, prototyping to finish) - 986 Forum - for Porsche Boxster Owners and Others

On the weekend, installed LED headlights on my friends 2012 Yaris. Significant improvement in terms of light visibility and no glare. 6000K color. Definitely recommend if anyone is wants improvement over halogen and doesn't want to spend money on a retrofit or on HID blinding lights. As some have mentioned above, HID in halogen housing, some cars are just ridiculously blinding =/

Let me know the reliability on the heat sync fan. I heard that the fans die fast on those new led

I did my first retrofit on my pathfinder almost 3 years ago using mini h1 projectors. It was quite easy that a year later I removed them and have TL projectors installed. I've done quite a few retrofits and I wouldn't recommend the fxr as your first attempt. Also, go with 50 watt ballasts and good quality bulbs and you won't regret it.