Hello everyone…first time poster here. Be gentle! For those that converted there lights to HID lights with the ballast, what did you go with? There’s so many options out there and the prices vary from under $100 to over $300? Also, were you able to use the projectors that come with the car when converting to HID’s? Thank for any information!

1992 SC 300 5 speed

 

I went with a very simple HID single beam 4200K Phillips 9006 bulb conversion kit from XenonDepot. This includes a universal harness and two ballasts. Over a decade of use and they've still been going strong. Absolutely reliable.

I have wanted to get one of Organized Garage Status's HID upgrades but I am not sure if they are working on SC/Soarer headlight housings any longer.

 

I upgraded to DDM Tuning 35w 5500k hid setup years ago and they were very good for the time, however since then led technology has come a LOOOONG way. I recently upgraded to a pair of LED bulbs that are much brighter than the HID kit I had. I'm sure there are HID kits that will outperform these LEDs but they were $60 for a pair so I'm very happy with them. ultimately which route you go is up to you but I wanted to point out that LED is a viable option too if you get the right set. Both kits i got were plug and play, no mods to any part of the housing. Ofcourse a projector upgrade to make a huge difference but I don't feel like ripping apart the housing.

 

V, will you be able to share what bulbs you went with? Does it have a fan attached to it? I’ve seen things on the internet that say they get really hot and can burn the wiring?

 

Even a 55 watt HID kit can't complete with the latest LED bulbs. Depending on the LED they draw 30-50 watts typical and that heat is wicked away via heatsink and fan, a HID bulb dumps 100% of heat into the headlight housing.

 

The bulbs I got were the 120W FAHREN Terminator 9006/HB4 Bulbs. these are not the best on the market but are plenty bright if you install them correctly.
You can use this data from CLR which is a youtuber that does an excellent job testing a ton of different bulbs to get an idea of whats good and whats not. There are a few bulbs on there that would be perfect for our cars but i didn't want to pay the premium price at the time.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...#gid=587956558

 

I used Morimoto’s 35 watt HID kit with 5000k bulbs. It’s way better than the cheap LED’s I was using.

i did have an expensive LED setup 10 years ago and it was inferior to HID’s and only lasted a year. I later switched to the cheap $10-15 eBay LED 9006 bulbs and they decent. They failed so often that I always bought multiple sets at once. After my terrible luck with LED’s I went back to HID’s with the Morimoto kit.

 

LED tech has improved dramatically the last decade.

 

It absolutely has. I have been keeping my eye on aftermarket and retrofit offerings. My concern has been how well the best LED bulb technology can play with our antique Halogen projector housings. My HID bulbs do not make for a perfect beam path and cutoff (it's night and day compared to the LED factory headlights in my GR86) but I am okay with "good enough" in this case while preserving plug-and-play compatibility with 9006 type receptacles.

There is always retrofitting modern projector and beam systems into the OEM housings of course.

Also SC/Soarers are somewhat electrically "noisy" old cars as I know you are well aware and so I hope that wouldn't present any long term reliability issue for LED retrofit technology.

I'm probably overthinking it. I am very interested for when some new generation LED retrofit kits with great reliability become available... if they aren't already.

 

I have for a while now heard good things about Morimoto HID retrofit kits. For now I think that would be my alternative kit to try if my XenonDepot Phillips kit ever has issues (so far for many years not a one. So long as the ground points for the ballasts are fine all is good).

 

I've bought many brands this one has the most consistent quality
https://auxbeam.com/

If the Auxbeam bulb can work in a 1990 Camry which has an ancient glass lens and reflector headlight assembly they will work is most any application. Camry has far far better light output than my Lexus HIDs.

I see no point in ever using HIDs again they are all heat and just okay light.

 

I remember hearing great things about the Morimoto HID ballasts and bulbs at the time. After having such bad luck with LED’s and HID’s before that, I wanted to splurge on the best kit I could get. It’s the best HID kit I’ve used but I haven’t driven the SC at night in a long time. The XenonDepot was the second choice on my list since they used to be a vendor here and many members ran their kits.


Wow! They are really that bright? I’m tempted to get a set for my GS300’s which have horrible light output on the factory reflector HID’s and halogens. After having such bad luck with LED headlights from $10 to $160, I’ve been skeptical of spending big money on LED’s again, but I may have to try again if it made that big of a difference in your Camry.

My sister’s boyfriend has an 88 Camry with halogens and they looked pretty dim to me. I bet the jump to LED would be massive like you said.

 

YES, they are amazing and high beam is excellent especially for a dual beam bulb (9004).
I've bought 6-7 different brand LED bulbs some have been good some unusable. None have been too dim but a couple produced a blinding light pattern especially this one.
They may work just fine in a different application, or not.
Stock halogen bulbs on this car are downright dangerous the Auxbeam's will yield 5x more light and a proper beam pattern I can't stress this enough. On the plus side the headlights are glass and all metal inside so they never fade or degrade. Fit a set of these and the headlights will last forever no getting broken via rocks
https://www.ebay.com/itm/224356942011

 

Auxbeam is definitely a nice brand. I run their bulbs in my foglights. That being said they have various versions of their bulbs so make sure you get the right intensity for the headlights

 

I recommend the GX bulbs. GX ultra seems sketchy they draw borderline too much power for most bulb circuits.