Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior HID's and projectors?

I am a little lost here, there is a local guy who has a '04 Celica and was asking about K HID and what was best to get, and he mentioned a few times that his car has "projectors" ... what is with that, and is it stock? More importantly, is that what a HID kit strives on, projectors to properly utilize the special bulbs to make them bright? If so then that would be a perk and one could save a lot of money.

all 2000-up celicas have projectors. most of them are halogen projectors while 2003-2005 have the hid option. you can buy a conversion kit and just hook it up to the stock projectors, but the have too much flare, the cut off is crappy, and you dont get much put put as you would with a oem projector. you can buy oem hid headlights from the dealer, but it cost over $1000. what i recommend is to do a oem retrofit. Audi A4 valeo projectors fit really nice in our headlights. http://www.hidplanet.com has a retrofit kit for about $400. a lot lost than a conversion kit. the come with a4 projectors, oem 4100k phillips bulbs, and oem hella ballast.

prettymuxch what dis said. If you look at a ca with an hid and not projector style lens it looks kinda liek reg zenon white blue, but realy bright. if you look at hid with projecotr it has that prism effect wher it changes color. projecot focuses light much better. example of non projecotr hid are last model acuras.

Projectors are the type of housing the lights use. All HIDs use projector housings, as do all 7th gen Celicas, and most other new cars. Basically, it focuses the light much more efficently on where it should be going. Ever shine your low beams onto a wall? Notice the perfectly straight line the top of the lights make? That's what projectors do.

All HIDs do not use projectors. prior to the new models acura tl's and cl's had hid and no projector. New infinity suv as well as acura suv's use HID and no projecots. not a pre-req to have them. jsut looks better to had projectors.

Dan beat me too it but yeah he's right.. projectors just bascially put the focus the light better on the road...


also the best light output is 4100k-4300k ..

best bulbs to get are Philips or Osram-Sylvania brand bulbs.. and both do not making anything over 6000k...

anything over that is typically labeled novelty bulbs since light performance diminishes and they rather not ruin their professional reputations for producing something that yeilds less that stock quality results and the longevity of the bulb might not be as long since it's not coming from a big company

Similar to what I thought, but how well would our cars be able to use lets say Philips 4300k bulbs with our stock projectors? In other words, would it be worth it and would they be brighter than stock? Obviously they wouldn't be as bright as they were made to be used with a proper HID kit.

Hmm... good info, wasn't aware of that. It certainly seems like it would be a bad idea to have such bright light without projectors to keep it where it should be.

yup thats what I'm thinking...but hey its all in the engineering since it's designed to hold HID light





They would be brighter than stock, hence be worth it

... though you'd probably want to fill in the two holes in the projector shiled which cause flares/ufo's above the lights horizon line ..

Just that with our stock halogen projector you won't get the same color effect as an hid designed projector would.

which is why stock OEM hid's typically have that prism effect. The coloration is the result of the light projectors; the lenses: it's transparency, it's curvature, the tiny grooves etched into it; the projector assembly, the shield, and the reflector bowl. All these components work together to produce a signature of light unique to that particular optic's design.

erick you are the man