[WickedGoat]

With all the rage in LED bulbs, I am interested in a set of HIDs for the GTO. I have LEDs in there now and while they are decent, I can’t help but drive my wife’s Acadia with factory HIDs and like them more. I probably shouldn’t be worried too much about this since I don’t drive the car much at night but I would still like a good light set up. I have a spare set of headlamp bulb covers to modify for the bulb wiring and I don’t mind running a heavy duty wire and relay setup to the battery if it is needed. So, who is a good brand/vendor to buy from these days?

 

[Sacrifice]

You wont get much better light output without going to a better projector imo.

 

[Nothubertjfarnsworth]

You wont get much better light output without going to a better projector imo.

i agree.

 

[MuhThugga]

Retrofit Source is a good place for HIDs.

What LED bulbs are you using? A lot of the designs are downright awful.

 

[Fox Mulder]

Put a set of off-the-shelf H9 halogen bulbs in the low beams. That's what's in the highs, same physical bulb but higher output and you just have to snip a small tab inside the connector to make them fit.
Cheap, easy and no unwanted changes in beam pattern or color temp.
Had this setup in my '05 the entire time I owned it.

 

[Nothubertjfarnsworth]

it's too bad HIR (not hid) headlamp bulbs never caught on.

 

[Nothubertjfarnsworth]

that does give me a little idea.... too bad i didn't think of it before.

a non-gto idea.

 

[zech912]

my HIDs are tremendous, night and day difference from stock, light up the road like the 4th of July. So much so that when I bought my MK7.5 VW GTI I actually investigated turning the LEDs into HIDs, which would have been nuts, I soon realized that the VW lights are themselves excellent.

However, I cannot say who the good HID merchants are now, I bought mine way back then from Bavtoys, who sold quality rather than inexpensive items. my suggestion would be as you probably already are, seek quality and brand name rather than cheapest for HIDs.

edit: very interesting that some oem are using HIDs, I thought everyone had switched to LEDs.

 

[WickedGoat]

Retrofit Source is a good place for HIDs.

What LED bulbs are you using? A lot of the designs are downright awful.

BPS Lighting H11 Perfect Fits. They aren’t bad, just looking at other options.

 

[Napalm]

Quality LEDs can beam right. I'm using Sylvania LEDs in my f150 at the moment. Works well otherwise I'd use diode dynamics

Hids I used xenon depot for all the retrofits on mine and ones I helped with. Philips bulbs and only use 35w.

Still have a set in my g8. Looks and acts stock. Yes that means auto headlight. No drl though

 

[WickedGoat]

I’ve looked at Xenonpro and they look like good quality kits. I pulled the DRL relay years ago so no issues with that. I’ll keep doing some reading. I’m not gonna pull my headlamps apart to do a retrofit. They are too difficult and expensive to come by should I fuck it up. Since I am not experienced enough to mess with something like that, the GTO headlamps shouldn’t be my first.

 

[JJ06GTO]

I’ve been looking for an options that doesn’t require me to use the drilled out dust cover caps.. doing that usually means no HID. I just have a set of Xeno Depot HIDs in right now.

 

[WickedGoat]

I’ve been looking for an options that doesn’t require me to use the drilled out dust cover caps.. doing that usually means no HID. I just have a set of Xeno Depot HIDs in right now.

I don’t think there is a way around that. @Nothubertjfarnsworth is selling dust cover caps so you could buy those and keep your originals. I bought 2 for this very reason. Do you have the Morimoto kit from them?

 

[JJ06GTO]

I have several extra oem headlights laying around in the basement so I have plenty of caps. Was just trying to get a cleaner look on the headlight and avoid the hole caps i currently use lol. I’ll just put a rubber grommet on the dust cap hole I made and that should clean it up.

 

[Kfxguy]

I'm a headlight snob. I like alot of light on the road. I've tried all sorts of lights and the best i've come up with is 55w HID. Not 35w. Go on amazon, read reviews and find the best kit that way.

 

[Sacrifice]

55w can melt housings sometimes

 

[IBM06GTO]

You wont get much better light output without going to a better projector imo.

These headlamps flake apart due to age and engine temps, last thing anyone wants to do is bake open irreplaceable headlamps to swap in a true HID projector.

IMHO it is the best option tho.

I threw HIDs in my OE lamps and honestly the cut off isnt bad so blinding people isnt the issue, the poor projection is.

 

[peachferrari]

I've been happy with DDM Tuning over the years for HIDs. They're not expensive and they work well. I've always stuck with 35w as well, they're plenty bright enough and you don't worry about too much heat.

 

[whippersnapper02]

The OEM lighting is terrible for sure. I want something that works with DTRL because I want to keep the function. There's a few LED kits out there that have drivers that can handle this but I haven't found anything for out bulb size.

 

[Sacrifice]

I've been happy with DDM Tuning over the years for HIDs. They're not expensive and they work well. I've always stuck with 35w as well, they're plenty bright enough and you don't worry about too much heat.

Im surprised ddm is still around. I remember i bought a set back in highschool so 14/15 years ago