So, what are the current NSX headlight/HID options available?
I havn't seen an HID kit on SOS's website, do they still sell them?
Are their any other HID manufacurers that have a kit for the NSX, or do you have to do some modifications to install a generic kit?
Hi Stuntman,
I thought I'd chime in since I happen to play with HID lights on a daily basis. I wholesale/retail them. But before I start, if you want to read all of this, go grab a Snickers because it may be a while.
I want to start by saying that I am not familiar with SOS's web site nor am I familiar with their kits so I cannot comment on their products. However I can tell you that there are MANY options available now for the NSX headlights.
I firmly believe people should make informed decisions. With that in mind, I thought I would share my findings of extensive testing on HID conversion kits from various manufacturers.
Here are just some of the boxes and ballasts.
And as you can tell, there are a lot of copy cats of the ever popular Philips kit.
However, there is one huge design flaw with the Philips kit. It isn't waterproof and the NSX headlight environment is not a good playground for anything that isn't waterproof/dustproof.
This is what the Philips kit uses to shield the ballast from the elements:
And this is what is inside:
These plastic housings can actually trap water in them long after you've washed your car or it has rained and on clublexus.com, where I am also a member, there have been instances where the plastic housings have actually aided in the damaging of the ballast due to it trapping water.
Now if the "industry standard" has flaws, what makes a good HID conversion kit?
I've done extensive testing on many kits including Philips, McCulloch, TechOne, HID Cool, Goldeneye, Klight, Bosch, and even OEM ballasts and the kits I offer are by far, the best bang for the buck. I can honestly only say that because I've tested a lot of kits out there.
My stress test requirements:
1) The ballasts have to be rubber injected. This helps to ensure the ballasts can hold up the elements. I soaked my ballast in a bucket of water for days and it still fired up with no issues. Rubber injected ballasts ensures water will not harm the internals, but it also ensures electronic parts inside will not get jostled around during harsh driving conditions. The Philips kit failed this test, as did the Bosch kit. Other kits failed in other areas and did not make it to the water test.
2) A wire harness must provide power directly from the battery to the ballasts. For safety reasons, I do not believe HID ballasts should connect directly to your headlight plug for power. The IDEAL way is to have the headlight plug trigger a relay and the relay then sends power to the ballasts. The kits I offer have this ideal wiring schematic. All kits, including the popular McCulloch kit, failed this test except for the Philips kit but the Philips kit goes for more than $400 and is not rubber injected.
3) Good quality wiring. I have seen some kits that have really thin gauge wires and cheap looming that you would be ashamed to put on a go-kart. I don't believe in selling cheap crap so even though it costs me more to go with better wiring harnesses, I firmly believe it's worth it. Even then, my prices are so competitively low, my distributors often find themselves marking up prices to well over $350
4) All in one ballasts. This means, no external ignitors. The McCulloch kit failed this test since it has external ignitors. All other kits had integrated ignitors in their ballasts.
5) Universal wire connections with Philips and most ballast manufacturers. That means the ballasts will connect with the most common wire harness. McCulloch failed this test and the rest of the kits failed by not even having a wire harness included. Again, only the Philips kit and my kit came with one for my testing.
So enough of the testing... on to real world applications.
I recently did an install on GT5's NSX and the only cutting required was for the dust caps on the back of the headlight housings. Two 1" holes were drilled out of the dust caps and grommets were used to ensure the headlights stayed dust free. The installation was VERY OEM-like. The included wire harness with my kits allows the ballasts to pull power directly from the battery so your headlight plugs ARE NOT supplying power. The passenger side OEM plug simply triggers the included relay and the relay then directs power from the battery to the ballasts. I know it sounds like a lot of wires but believe me - they're all in this picture below.
The only hint to something that is not OEM is (obviously no spare tire
) but other than that, the small red fuse wired inline to prevent a power jump from the battery burning out the ballasts. If there was a spare tire in there, you wouldn't have seen the fuse at all.
Here are some pics of the headlights post install but prior to remounting the headlight covers:
Passenger headlight
Driver's headlight
As you can see, no wires are visible between the headlight housing area and the spare tire bay. Once the headlight covers were installed back onto the headlights one would guess that the lighting was OEM. Yes, the ballasts are right behind the headlight housings but they are completely waterproof.
So that's about it. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask on the boards, via PM, or just give me a call at 602.300.7153. I may not be able to answer the phone all the time but I will if I can.
Thanks all.
Clifford
