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[bretthans]

I have tried an HID kit in my Insight. The kit came with Philips D2S HID bulbs rebased to H4, included the aforementioned EBay adapter plate, and mounted into the stock Insight headlights.

Pros: I got a lot of light. Compared to the stock halogen headlights, it was like night and day. I didn't need the missing high-beams. Overhead street signs lit up brilliantly.

Cons: I got a lot of light where other drivers don't want it. The Insight reflector and lens are designed for halogen bulbs and have very little cutoff when fitted with HID. I polished the headlight lenses and re-aimed the headlights but still was blinding cars and semis alike. I was flooding the passenger compartments of both oncoming traffic and cars that had just passed me. Semis were flashing their rearward lights at me (you, know, the ones they use to tell you your high-beams are on).

I finally just took them out and put the old halogen bulbs back in.

You might have better luck with D2R HID bulbs, if you can find them. These have parts of the bulb masked, are designed for HID reflectors, and emit less light, but they might be a compromise between blinding other traffic and retrofitting projectors into the existing headlights.

Even retrofitting projectors is not a perfect solution because, while you no longer use the stock reflector, you're still stuck with the stock lens. It's still better than the other solutions, though.

I myself am looking for a way to mount my existing HID kit somewhere else in the front of the car besides the stock headlights because:
1) modifying the stock headlights would cause me to fail the annual state safety inspection.
2) the stock lenses would not be in the light path

If I don't want to hang them in front of the air intake grill like foglights (which to me is not attractive), the only other option would be to remove the bumper cover and install them there. There's very little room in there, so I'm not sure they would fit without protruding. I am looking at some of the OEM Bi-Xenon HID projectors available and trying to find the shallowest ones. I would possibly enclose them somehow and add a Lexan cover for the projector lens.


Just my 2 cents, which doesn't buy much.