First off,
Installing a "HID kit" into a reflector housing headlamp is highly
not recommended. This is because the light source is not an equal match to a reflector that was designed for a halogen filament source. In the majority of reflector headlamps the end result is a beam pattern that may appear to be brighter than halogen but at the cost of excessive glare that is dangerous to other drivers. Now, some people may say "well, I just compensate by lowering the beam". This still does not improve your vision at night because what you've essentially done is increased the foreground light (and decreased your distance light) which causes the pupils to constrict which then restricts your distance vision. Excessive foreground light will always fool the human eye in believing there is "better" light when there really is not. Another important note is that HID bulbs are just way too bright for a reflector housing. A halogen reflector simply cannot harness this light and the end result is a flood of illumination that overpowers the reflector.
The best way to improve your lighting is indeed to retrofit a quality pair of HID projectors. You've made it clear that you have a tight budget. There are some options that can reduce your overall cost. You can opt for a new set of aftermarket headlamps (like a set from TYC) for about $140. OR you can search ebay for a lightly used pair for $80. Then head over to theretrofitsource.com (TRS) and check out their budget friendly Acme H1 projector retrofit kit that includes everything you need for the project for $135. There are more better options that cost more in case you're interested. Obviously you will need to perform the retrofit yourself but its really not that difficult with simple tools. There are plenty of helpful youtube videos which demonstrate the entire process.
Here is a photo of a TRS Morimoto Mini H1 kit installed to give you an idea of what it could look:
If the HID projector retrofit falls outside of your price range still, you can then check out LED bulb replacements. Now technically LED bulbs should fall into the same realm as HID bulbs in that they are not designed to properly work in a halogen reflector but surprisingly there are some LED bulbs that do in fact work.
Each headlamp is different and will respond differently to LEDs despite having the same halogen bulb application. Testing and comparing is necessary to find that magical bulb. Do not rely on your eyes solely to tell you if something is better. A cheap lux meter can be your best friend when testing.
One thing to remember when choosing a LED bulb for your application is to find one that mimics the original filament source. Also most, if not all, LED bulbs that contain emitters which are domed are most always going to produce the worst beam pattern. This is because a domed LED emits a tight concentrated beam which ends up focusing its light in one specific region of a reflector where as a undomed LED has a much wider spread. Also a domed emitter is usually larger in size than the undomed LED (known as chip scale package chips or CSP). This has a disadvantage because there is too much light surface area. A LED bulb using CSP chips are much smaller and mimic the size of a halogen filament which usually translates into a better beam when compared to the larger emitter (but doesn't guarantee an overall better beam when compared to halogen).
Lucky for you my vehicle also utilizes the H13 bulb. I have tried a handful of different LED bulbs on the market and have concluded there is no perfect LED bulb. There are give and takes. And while the current LED bulb on my vehicle produces the best beam pattern I've tested (the give), it still isn't perfect. I would not even say its
considerably brighter than halogen. The lux meter does not lie though. After the LED bulb is fully warmed, there is a 20% increase in light output. What's alarming is that 32% of light output is lost in the first 30 minutes (the take)! The aluminum radiator just isn't sufficient to draw enough heat away from the chips to keep them cool & happy. Their obviously being overdriven. The result is a loss of luminance.
Also note that there is an increase of glare above the cutoff (the take). Nearly double over halogen. Its not noticeable in the images below because of the lower exposure. And frankly in person its not as noticeable. More testing at greater distances on the road to measure acceptable glare on the oncoming traffic side is needed to truly determine if this glare is excessive. Some headlamps just produce more glare than others (with original halogen bulbs) but that doesn't mean they don't fall within an acceptable range.
You'll notice the CSP chips I spoke of earlier. Tightly packaged and virtually the same size as both the low and high beam filaments in virtually the same location. These bulbs use the
Seoul Semiconductor WICOP Y19 chips.
And here is an example of a badly designed bulb...
I have plenty more examples of H13 LED bulbs. Let me know if I can assist further.
And for the record, I'm currently in the process of retrofitting a pair of LED projectors because I'm tired of the inferior performance of LED bulbs .
I've got a pair of Koito bi-led projectors out of a Prius. Twice as bright as halogen (lux measured) and twice as wide.
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