Pretty cheap HID's

[ssaldana]

One of my HID lamps from the McCulloch kit bit the dust a couple weeks ago. The lights were only installed on my car for 9 months.

 

Now I have to spend cash on new pair. Terrible.

[jsalicru]

The best deal is to get a used OEM set.

 

Im getting my whole set finished for ~100-140 tops.

 

My ballasts were sold to me for only $50 from a friend. Bi-xenon BMW ballasts. It works out because if later I want to switch to a full conversion, I can attempt to fit bi-xenon and my ballasts will already work.

[VXCL]

The best deal is to get a used OEM set.

 

Im getting my whole set finished for ~100-140 tops.

 

My ballasts were sold to me for only $50 from a friend. Bi-xenon BMW ballasts. It works out because if later I want to switch to a full conversion, I can attempt to fit bi-xenon and my ballasts will already work.

 

dont need any special ballast for the bixenons. you will most likely have to hook the solenoids to your high beam wiring and bypass the ballasts all together. that being said do yourself a favor if you ever go bixenon and get audi/valeo. not bmw/bosh or hella. they arent that great. had 03 bmw m3 setup in my last car. valeo ownz.

 

peace

[jsalicru]

the ballasts already have the wiring for the selenoid output... Im just not gonna use right now.

[lookslikeanevo]

Than you got lucky. Theyve been subpar HID's for years now. Theyve changed their name 3 times that I know of, probably more

 

i guess i did, but they didnt change their name, just that the same company makes kits for the same people. Only reason why they stopped selling was because nhtsa cracked down on illegal lighting equipment, and who was selling them.

[thcxlow]

Hi EVERYONE.

 

This is Edward Tse from Banzai Express LLC www.banzaiexpress.com

i stumbled upon this thread in this forum while searching the net

 

It seems like you guys want to do a group buy, but a few people have negative opinions on my company. So i would just to clearify a few things. Just to give you some information, this company was started by my partner and I. We are both car fanatics, basically anything with a motor in it we like. We were also always the bargain hunters. So, believe me, we know what it's like being the consumer, and we always keep that in mind. We always treat our customers how we would be treated. Our prices are competitive because we want all the bargain hunters who are just like us, to come buy from us, since we have the best price on the net with PRICE matching.

 

First off, username: FatBastard said, and i quote "wow..seems way too cheap. I think I would rather stick with a name brand that gives a lifetime warranty, I can't even see where they list teh manufacturer."

 

Who in the world will give you a lifetime warranty on a HID kit? Maybe on the ballast but not on the bulbs, bulbs only last around 3000 hours FROM ALL MANUFACTURERS!. Aside from that, I also carry a full ONE YEAR warranty on all my kits bulbs and ballasts.

 

Then username: gt_ltd , said "pretty cheap and crappy"

First off, i want to ask, what do you know about HID's? What do you know about my HID kits? You never even seen them, what makes them cheap a crappy? The only reason why they are COMPETITIVELY priced like that is because i realize my company is small and were just coming up. So in order to get bigger, im trying to move a lot of volume to make profit, instead of selling my kits at retail and making more profit on each kit. I'd rather sell more kits and make less profit, but through selling more volume it will bring in more profit. As for "crappy" part, i can say my kits are not. They are high quality in construction with MANY certifications. Ask yourself something, if the kits were so cheap and crappy, would i enforce my warranty? I cover the warranty, not my manufacturer. All these other small companies on ebay or wherever, that sell these kits for cheap, if you buy it from them and there defective, they make you ship it overseas to the manfucturer. Would you want to ship your kit to CHINA? TAIWAN? KOREA? Or would you want to ship it within the USA?

 

Do you guys consider companies like McCulloch and MTEC as "cheap and crappy"?

McCulloch and Mtec are both Taiwan/Korea/China based companies. There quality is just as good as ours. Resellers of MTEC claims there HID kits are MADE IN JAPAN which is a direct lie. MTEC is a taiwanese/usa based company which outsources there labor to China and most likely Korea. Same thing for McCulloch, there USA based company which outsources there labor to Asia. All there kits are made there also, and guess what, so are my kits. Except my kits have a price difference.

 

Second thing gt_ltd said was "the lowest temp they have is 6000K... what does that say about them? ;)"

What does that say about us?

I carry all kelvin from 3,000k-30,000k all the same price.

On top of that i have BLUE, PINK, and GOLD which are not even on the kelvin scale. They are brand new colors that just came out, these kits a bit more in cost though.

 

I would just like to say that i appreciate everyone's interest in my Company and the products. We welcome group buys. If you guys are interested, someone organize how many kits you want, and the colors/kelvin you need, and i will provide a price quote, those who need shipping, we can ship it USPS priority mail, those in NYC can come pick it up locally.

 

Any questions AIM Username is: HID NYC

email is: etse@banzaiexpress.com

 

Please don't hesitate to if you have any questions! comments, concerns etc.

[fatbastard]

First off, username: FatBastard said, and i quote "wow..seems way too cheap. I think I would rather stick with a name brand that gives a lifetime warranty, I can't even see where they list teh manufacturer."

 

Who in the world will give you a lifetime warranty on a HID kit? Maybe on the ballast but not on the bulbs, bulbs only last around 3000 hours FROM ALL MANUFACTURERS!. Aside from that, I also carry a full ONE YEAR warranty on all my kits bulbs and ballasts.

I will admit I don't know much about aftermarket HIDs but there was a group buy recently for Xtec which did carry a lifetime warranty: http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17448&highlight=xtec

 

I appreciate you taking the time to clarify things here on teh forum. While I do beleive there are great manufacturing facilities in Taiwan and korea, there are also a lot that suck. I would just feel more comfortable if we knew more info about the company fabricating them for you. I would be a lot more comfortable if there were more details and specs, like output lumens etc.

[gt_ltd]

Then username: gt_ltd , said "pretty cheap and crappy"

First off, i want to ask, what do you know about HID's?

I know that any color temperature above 6000K is just useless for street driving (did you take Physics in college?), and a good company will not sell things like that.

 

I know that Philips has the best HID parts, which is why they are found on cars made by Mercedes, Ferrari, BMW, Lamborgini, etc. But your parts are not from Philips.

 

Do you want me to go on?

 

What do you know about my HID kits? You never even seen them, what makes them cheap a crappy?

I do NOT know anything about your kits, but I do know that "you get what you pay for." I wasn't born yesterday.

 

They are high quality in construction with MANY certifications.

Certifications from WHOM? ISO? USDOT?

 

Ask yourself something, if the kits were so cheap and crappy, would i enforce my warranty?

If you can make profit outta this and survive, then you will enforce your warranty, otherwise you either go under or change name.

 

Yes the same can be said about ANY company, but I would rather do business with a company that has been around for years, and does make enough profit to at least survive.

 

I carry all kelvin from 3,000k-30,000k all the same price.

On top of that i have BLUE, PINK, and Gold which are not even on the kelvin scale. They are brand new colors that just came out, these kits a bit more in cost though.

Do you think you are selling underwears here? :lol:

[gt_ltd]

Wait, I think you sound like those hookers with all kinds of condoms. "They are brand new colors that just came out, but they cost $2 more.."

[Magic]

Great job guys, piss of a potential vendor, who went out of their way to attempt to educate buyers, and let those buyers come to their own conclusions.

[gt_ltd]

who went out of their way to attempt to educate buyers, and let those buyers come to their own conclusions.

 

Educate?! The seller didn't tell a lot of things, either he didn't know or just wanted to hide them. I, on the other hand, don't sell anything nor work for anybody. I can't care less what you spend your money on. I only posted facts.

[Magic]

If you cant say anything nice dont say it at all....

[lookslikeanevo]

^ ^ its funny to read threads like this, in the end, and you said it yourself, both you and "the potential vendor" just showed everyone that you guys really dont know much about HID's

 

yes phillips makes good bulbs, but that doens tmean they make the best kits, and those car companies you mention, while most of them if not all use phillips bulbs, not all of them...but another thing to know is that phillips will not rebase bulbs, meaning you can only get them in d2s, d1s, d1r, d2r fitments..so unless your going retro another projector in your housing, or use a h7 adapter then you really wont be using a phillips kit

[gt_ltd]

yes phillips makes good bulbs, but that doens tmean they make the best kits, and those car companies you mention, while most of them if not all use phillips bulbs, not all of them...but another thing to know is that phillips will not rebase bulbs, meaning you can only get them in d2s, d1s, d1r, d2r fitments..so unless your going retro another projector in your housing, or use a h7 adapter then you really wont be using a phillips kit

True. The following two paragraphs are taken from Xen0n Fact0ry:

It

is a general misconception about the so-called "Philips™ HID conversion kit" on the market today. There is no such thing as an HID conversion kit

directly

from Philips™ since Philips™ only makes HID bulbs and ballasts for OEM HID applications.

 

All

conversion kits that utilize Philips™ components have to go through rebased manufacturers to rebase the bulbs from the HID base to one of the halogen bases (h1, h4, h7, 9006 and etc.) so that they will be able to retrofit the halogen housings. The rebased manufacturers also put the whole conversion kit together.

But since the components came from Philips, their quality are better in general *. Based on my own research last year, the failure rate of kits using Philips components is much lower than those using components from somewhere else.

 

* of course there are exceptions, for more info go bug PGT. :laugh:

[lookslikeanevo]

sorry forgot to add or somehow lost train of thought that....some of the car manufacturers mentioned do not all use phillips ballasts, as a lot of people prefer matuschita(sp) balasts, and even mitsubishi balasts, but yes phillips bulbs seem to be the best...

 

also the rebasing of the bulb, or the companies that use the phillips bulbs and rebase them, also include mcculloch, bowmen, and other companies that people degrade because they dont know how to take care of their kits.

[gt_ltd]

include mcculloch, bowmen, and other companies

 

proof or

[lookslikeanevo]

^ill look for it in the next few days...but are you really going to believe or trust companies the rebased an OEM kit anyways?

[gt_ltd]

since you asked... i don't believe that mcculloch uses philips components.

[fatbastard]

I am not trying to crap on the guy or the product, just very skeptical based on the price and the lack of details...these could be great but unless they give some details it is very difficult to tell. I realize these are totally different industries but I know more about bikes so.....from my experience many of the major brands are made in Taiwan often in the same facility as a no name brands. For instance there are two main companies that make most of the pumps, no matter who brands them later. So much of the same materials..parts...tech...etc are "shared". I would not be surprised to hear the company making these kits manufacturers other kits for someone else and maybe these are well known. Info like this would make me feel a little better, at least I would be less concerned about shoddy solder work or asembly practices that are going to be a problem down the road.

[gt_ltd]

I would not be surprised to hear the company making these kits manufacturers other kits for someone else and maybe these are well known.

 

indeed. who doesn't want to make more money?

[LegacyMUN2k6]

I will purchse from this vendor, he put the time into explaning himself and his product. I hope he would still do a group buy even thoe a few subie-dorks kinda ruined any hope and should educate themselves first. Especially the ones that think they know hids like the back of there "blank blank, please insert choice of explict here." Goto hidplanet sometime and edcuate yourselves and please mccul's are not the greatest and you can see for yourself on there.

[lookslikeanevo]

^ i never said that they(mcculochs) were, and i also never said anything bad about the potential vendor....

 

i was hoping to buy from him too...but we'll see, ill contact him and set up the GB

[gt_ltd]

yeah, DO buy from the seller! it it works, then everybody is happy; if not, it just helps the economy.

[thcxlow]

It seems like i offended people, i didnt meant to offend anyone. I apologize if I did.

 

I would like to say a few things.

 

In regards to fatbastard posting that XTEC has a lifetime warranty, I want to say that you should check there warranty information, and read very carefully what they say about the Lifetime warranty. They most likely will not warranty a 5 year old bulb that has naturally burned out from "normal usage". They know, and most other people know that the bulb doesn't last forever, it will eventually go. There lifetime warranty is most likely for "defective merchandise" only.

 

Everyone has a different cup of tea. A lot more people than you might think like 8,000-12,000k, and all the other assortments. Normal Halogen bulbs make 700-1,000 lumens. 12,000k still has 2-2.5 times more Lumen output than halogen. Making 12,000k significantly brighter than any stock halogen, so once again, it's really the User's/Buyer's preference.

 

 

If anyone thought i hid anything from anyone i apologize again, i listed my company's contact information so i assumed anyone with questions, comments, feedback, etc was welcomed to contact me or an associate from my company.

 

Like everyone has said, phillips only makes stock/oem replacement kits, either d1 series or d2 series. Meaning, that only a car that came with HID's from the factory would be US DOT street legal to have a HID kit on it.

 

No, HID conversion kit in America is US DOT Legal as of yet.

Like everyone has said, phillips only makes stock/oem replacement kits, either d1 series or d2 series. Meaning, that only a car that came with HID's from the factory would be US DOT street legal to have a HID kit on it. You can't use a phillips series d1 or d2 kit in any other car than one that came with HID's and make it USDOT approved.

 

Certifcations that we currently have for our kits are ISO9001, TUV, E4, CNAB

 

All the kits i have are factory tested before shipment.

 

I would hope people try the kit out, and decide for themselves, i haven't had any dissatisfied customers so far.

Thanks

[fatbastard]

It seems like i offended people, i didnt meant to offend anyone. I apologize if I did.

No problems here, like I said I am glad you are hear to provide more info about your company.

 

In regards to fatbastard posting that XTEC has a lifetime warranty, I want to say that you should check there warranty information, and read very carefully what they say about the Lifetime warranty. They most likely will not warranty a 5 year old bulb that has naturally burned out from "normal usage". They know, and most other people know that the bulb doesn't last forever, it will eventually go. There lifetime warranty is most likely for "defective merchandise" only.

 

Agreed....I am sure there is some sort of loop hole, maybe it only covers bulbs for a year...whatever. I to am interested in your product but I would like to know more. Your website seems to have generic info on it regarding the differences between HID's and halogen bulbs. I was hoping to find something that compares the output (lumens) with the color temp.