I have a '96 850R that I am looking to upgrade the headlights on. Anyone have suggestions on good HID conversion kits? I want to do it right and not get pulled over for having an improper headlight system. Thanks for any help.

 

There isn't a right way to do it that I've come across. Without the proper projector headlight lens you are going to annoy oncoming traffic and get ticketed if the officer wants to.
Regular headlight assemblies built to house normal halogen headlight bulbs do not have the same control of the light beam leaving the housing as do HID lenses.
I'm not sure about the "Angel Eyes" at IPD or on Ebay. They have a projector style lens but they come with both halogen and HID as an option. You could ask them if they are legal but without replacing your headlight assemblies there is no way to do it legally where you would be safe from a ticket. That and having some nut hunt you down and take a hammer to your new HID's because you blinded him. I wanted to do that to a co-worker who put them in his standard housings on a chev PU every time I got stuck in front of him leaving work at night. They were really annoying.

If you put them in standard housings made for halogen the other thing is the lens wastes a lot of the light as it's spread out. You don't get the same crisp intensity of a real HID setup so it doesn't light up the road as well as true HID but it's probably a bit better than halogen but you're sending too much of the light up instead of down out front.
IMHO - - Please don't do it.

 

Thanks for the advice. The halo projectors look cool but I've read mixed reviews on them. Does anyone on here have the halo projectors with an HID setup? I'd love to hear what you think about them. Thanks.

 

I have the halo's but haven't installed the HID's yet. On the box they came in, it says that it is not compatible with HID bulbs. IIRC, you can do it, but you'll need to modify the housing so the HID bulb sits further back to have the proper light distribution.

 

Thanks for the advice.

 

@#&$%

 

The problem in doing a retrofit is the higher output of light does not all go forward onto the road. A lot of it does but a lot of it goes up, left and right. To get the benefit of the light you really need the projector lens to focus the beam forward and down.

Putting a HID in a regular headlight just scatters too much light into oncoming drivers eyes which is why so may people hate them. It also doesn't give you that much more useable light compared to the number of times you might get flashed by someone thinking you have your high beams on. Just my opinion.

 

with those IPD housings, HID actually works pretty well, just adjust the beam correctly
my only complaint is that the LEDs they use for the rings are REALLY dim, and not exactly easy to replace... I'll be making a how-to in the next few weeks/couple months of changing those out with something you can see... the halos look cool, but the only time you can actually see them is at night... when you need headlights.