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Are HID kits illegal now ?

11K views 53 replies 37 participants last post by  mondale 
#1 ·
I did a quick search but I couldn't find anything here. Basically I was thinking about getting a set of HID's for my little brother's 00' GSR(for Christmas) and I went to ebay and they are very cheap now. I remember reading a post on this site that CARB was trying to pass a law to make them illegal even as oem equipment across the nation. I hope someone can help me and I'm sorry if this has been answered before, maybe I wasn't looking hard enough. Any response would be greatly appreciated. Happy Holiday's to all ! Be safe!
 
#27 ·
I put a kit in my 2g Plug and play but its 4300k and I still get a cutoff line. Its not mint like a retrofit but at the same time theres no glare and I'm not lighting up trees lol. I wouldnt dare go over 6k in general though I hate the color nonsense esp. the 10-15000k purple garbage that all these morons are buying because of the color. Its nothing but straight glare it feels like your driving into purple fog. If I had more money I'd buy a set of audi projectors from ebay and retrofit them into the stock headlights some how because those bs projector lights on ebay are going back up in price.
 
#28 ·
Gsxant said:
I put a kit in my 2g Plug and play but its 4300k and I still get a cutoff line. Its not mint like a retrofit but at the same time theres no glare and I'm not lighting up trees lol. I wouldnt dare go over 6k in general though I hate the color nonsense esp. the 10-15000k purple garbage that all these morons are buying because of the color. Its nothing but straight glare it feels like your driving into purple fog. If I had more money I'd buy a set of audi projectors from ebay and retrofit them into the stock headlights some how because those bs projector lights on ebay are going back up in price.
Can you post some pics?
 
#32 ·
These lights are unsafe for oncoming traffic. I drive over the road in a semi truck and i see illegal headlight, fog light, and auxilary light use every night. In most states fog lights, auxilary driving lights, high beams are illegal on any state road within 300 to 500 feet of any moving vehicle. And yes the officers in my town will pull you over just for this offense. they write alot of DUI tickets this way. I agree with the law.
 
#33 ·
Both fog lights and HIDs are illegal if they're IMPROPERLY installed. For instance, if you we're just to slap a HID bulb into your stock OEM housing/reflector you'd pretty much blind everyone in front of you. The whole point of a projector (which ALL OEM HID cars have) is to focus the light for a better more even beam, and to keep the light below the eye level of other drivers. An OEM HID that is set up properly with the use of a projector is perfectly legal, many new cars come this way stock after all.
 
#46 ·
I have a McCullogh 6000K HID kit installed into a set of cheap Ebay Halogen projectors.
I bought the kit right when the DOT ruled all retrofit kits to be illegal and that was back when good companies were still making these and using quality parts like Phillips ballasts and Sylvania bulbs. Now, I think, all you can get on Ebay is cheap Chinese junk that may or may not work for a while and may or may not burn your car down, I don't really know - but the kits are a lot cheaper then they used to be. I paid (or got ripped off, depending on your POV) about $250 for mine - which I thought was cheap compared to the $400-$600 kits I'd heard of.

6000K is bluish, but still gives usable light - not like the ricers with 8000K, 9000K, 12000K purple shit. It gives a nice contrast to my yellow 2500K halogen PIAA bulbs in my foglights.

The cutoff in the projectors is designed for halogen, but it does keep it from blinding oncoming drivers, however it doesn't offer the best spread pattern. I really need to retrofit in some real HID projectors from an OEM application to make the best of it, but I like the way it looks.
 
#48 ·
Sry 4 OT,but let me get this straight.

In the U.S. aftermarket HID kits are illegal, but everyone uses them because the cops aren't interested or don't know if it's stock? Here in Europe they would kick my ass and I would lose my licence lol.

I wouldn't install such a kit, even when it's street legal. I don't like to blend people so they can't see the road and are looking for the nearest tree to hit it.
 
#49 ·
In the U.S. aftermarket HID kits are illegal, but everyone uses them because the cops aren't interested or don't know if it's stock? Here in Europe they would kick my ass and I would lose my licence lol.
The cops generally just aren't interested. But I avoid douchey colors like 12000K Purple or 3000K yellow for my low beams because of that. If you ride around with purple lights, unpainted body kit, and yellow accents with a fart-bomber muffler on a '92 Accord riding on its bumpstops, you will automatically be pulled over in certain neighborhoods where I live and issued a number of citations.

But I have never been bothered in my '98 Eclipse which is obviously too old to have stock HIDs.
 
#50 ·
^^^Some cars in the U.S.A. come from the factory with H.I.D. so when passing a law enforcement officer he wouldnt know if your car is supposed to have them or not and in this country a police officer has to have a cause to pull you over, they cant just pull you over because you MIGHT have the wrong type of bulbs in your car, thats how people get away with it.
 
#51 ·
^Exactly^

BISHILVR said it better what I didn't make clear. It is sort of the same way with tint. Not all of them carry around tint meters, so must don't bother. They wait for a "ticket pinata" to come along like a riced out import to pull over because most likely they will find something else wrong like no registration, expired tag or license, no insurance, etc... Possibly having illegal HIDs is not probable cause to pull somebody over, even if it is obvious that an old Civic or Eclipse did not come with HIDs from the factory.
 
#54 ·
I discussed the legality of aftermarket HID's with an automotive teacher who had researched the topic thoroughly because they are annoying as shit, and came to a conclusion. He told me that here in MN, the installation of the kits is has been deemed illegal, BUT the legislature that allows police officers to enforce this law has been tangled up in red tape. This was a year ago, so it may be enforced by now. Either way putting HID's in a standard non-projector housing is only good for blinding deer and upsetting people.
+1 for retrofit or GTFO
 
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