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Review: XenonDepot's Xtreme 4300K HID Kit

17387 Views 25 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  DragonStrike
15
I have recently installed the Xtreme 4300K HID Kit from XenonDepot and I have decided to share my experiences on this forum in the form of a review. As many of you are aware, I have had HIDs on my CT pretty much since I bought the car. They were no name, generic kits installed by my mechanic.



Why I Swapped Kits
My experiences were not good with these generic kits. The only good thing I can say about having it installed is that you don't get your hands dirty. The kit brought a guarantee, but I had to replace the ballasts on 5 separate occasions and I got the Kit installed in September. A new car should not be opened up that much. They tried everything to stop me from coming back with complaints. The first problem was the projection looked ridiculously wavy, they told me that's just the way it's going to be because of the added brightness. NOT TRUE!!!! I was relentless and then they got me a different set of bulbs. They in fact did remove the waves in the projection and told me because the kit was 10000K and not as bright. ALSO NOT TRUE!!!! Then, I had the issue of the lights not lighting up on the first attempt. Then, I had the issue of the lights randomly turning off. It got so bad I found myself pulling up behind cars just to check if they were both on. The problem with those cheap 30 dollar kits is that you're taking a shot in the dark when you buy one. You could get a good kit or you could not. It's that simple. Then you have to make a claim to the company and send the kit back to them at your expense, where ever that is. They'll send you one back but you're still running that same risks. I finally got fed up and shot an email over to Steve from XenonDepot.

Customer Service
I sent Steve an email and in his reply, he asked if we could discuss what kit to get over the phone, which was incredibly surprising. He in fact is a very cool guy and you can tell he's really trying to help me. This kind of customer service from an internet company is unheard of to me. All other companies keep it strictly at emails and just let order what you want without any feedback. He really wanted to make sure that I was buying something I would enjoy and left no stone unturned before I finally made my purchase. The item was shipped that same day and received the item in less than a week. If anything is wrong with the lights and I do need to return it, they will pay the shipping costs. That's extremely rare and added another level of comfort to my purchase. I can't get that kind of service walking into some stores lol.

Product First Impressions
Immediately after opening the box, I saw an huge difference between the kit I removed from my car and the Xtreme Kit. My old kit did not have a relay because I was told a relay was not needed. After my experiences, go with the relay. The Xtreme Kit ballast was much smaller and had a sleeker design than the generic ballast. The Xtreme ballast looked properly assembled and just plain better. I felt I was putting a good kit in my car.



Installation
I did install the kit myself but was not able to take pics because it was wayy too cold and I wanted to get it done ASAP. There are few installation posts up on the forum and I followed CCT's method. I jacked up the car, removed the front wheel for the side I was working on, removed about 5 clips and the screw in the fender well, and pulled the cover back to work on the lights. The only tricky part was installing the passenger side relay. I had to remove the engine covers, the radiator brackets, and run the wires through there. Very easy to do once I figured it out lol. The bulb fit right in without having to shave anything down (I had to do that with my 08 sedan). The complete installation took me about 2 hours (Only because I've seen the car get taken apart so many times lol).

How the lights work
So far, the lights are awesome. I have not yet had a problem with the lights. I thought I had a problem but it was because I did not tighten the bulb in properly (smh). They always ignite thanks to the relay, have yet to flicker or fade. It is at the proper brightness in seconds. There are no error messages. The projection is straight without the waves I was complaining about. There's only so much I can say I will let the pics speak for themselves (no fogs in these pics).

































Conclusion
The Xtreme HID Kit from XenonDepot is the best HID kit I have put in any of my cars. The entire process was excellent from the customer service to the prompt delivery to the product itself. I have had this kit for more than 3 weeks and have not had any issues. By this time, I had already opened up the car twice to replace the ballasts on the other kit. You can find cheaper kits on eBay but you get what you pay for and this kit is worth the extra money. I am very critical about anything in I put in my car and I can say that the Xtreme Kit is excellent and would suggest it to anyone that is interested in putting HIDs on their car.




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wow Pedro! Thank you so much for taking the time to post up such a detailed review! I am very glad to hear that you are happy with the product. I know customer sometimes find it surprising that I prefer to speak on the phone however I really do find it easier to talk to people over the phone as opposed to strictly going back and forth with email. At the end of day, it makes my life (and the customer's life) easier when customers get what they want as they are happy with the product and know what to expect.

Enjoy your new kit buddy!!!

Steve
Pgarc01,

Nice Review. Steve has a good product and unlike many other vendors truly stands by his product even years after. I can attest to that. :)

I am just curious where did you mount your ballast's and how did you ground it. Not the relay ground but the other main ground? As in my write up you can see where I mounted mine pretty much in the OEM position under the OEM ground on each side. Basically right behind the fog lights on the frame of the body.

Here are the OEM ground points and mounting positions.

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I used the OEM ground points as well. When I opened up the fender well the screw was right there in my face lol... Since I have fogs installed as well I stuck the ballasts together using the double sided tape included in the kit. The fog ballast was mounted on the frame beneath the headlight.
wow Pedro! Thank you so much for taking the time to post up such a detailed review! I am very glad to hear that you are happy with the product. I know customer sometimes find it surprising that I prefer to speak on the phone however I really do find it easier to talk to people over the phone as opposed to strictly going back and forth with email. At the end of day, it makes my life (and the customer's life) easier when customers get what they want as they are happy with the product and know what to expect.

Enjoy your new kit buddy!!!

Steve
Thanks Steve, I definitely am enjoying the kit. No more worrying about how long the ballasts are gonna last or if my bulbs are on. They look great on the car, the pics don't even do them justice lol...
I used the OEM ground points as well. When I opened up the fender well the screw was right there in my face lol... Since I have fogs installed as well I stuck the ballasts together using the double sided tape included in the kit. The fog ballast was mounted on the frame beneath the headlight.

Good to know. Thanks.
Great review...makes buying them much less of a crap shoot. Thanks!
Lol no problem... I know what HID kit to buy can be confusing since there are a million different opinions about them. I've had so many problems with these generic kits that I had to post a good review for the first good kit I have ever purchased lol... Like spikeitaudi said, he's been using this kit for years and loves it... The peace of mind I was looking for
Thanks for posting. I am glad I only have to buy this once...and sorry that you had to spend cash many times to find the right set up.
dont mean to beat a dead horse but....

the kit you bought and installed, is it high and low beam, or just low beam...and are there any hi/lo kits available?
gtlyons,

The Honda Crosstour uses two separate bulbs for the low and high beam meaning that upgrading your low beams to HID with an HID Kit would have no effect on the high beams. To upgrade your low beams to HID you would need to get an h11 HID conversion kit. I personally would not suggest upgrading your high beams to HID for 2 reasons:

1) HID bulbs have a warm up period when first turned on meaning that if you had them installed in your high beams and required a quick burst of light your HID high beams would not be very functional.

2) It is strenuous on the components to be turned on/off repeatedly ie: flashing someone.

Steve
hmm...ok steve, i'll bite, do you have any kts for low and fogs? and what temp/color avail?
Hi,

The Crosstour uses an H11 bulb for both the low beams and fogs meaning that you would need to order 2 x H11 HID conversion kits if you wanted to upgrade both. Color temperatures are available from 3000k-8000k. Are you familiar with color temperature or interested in a particular color?

Steve
hmm, so 2 kits, that can get expensive.... and no, i have no clue what temps/codes/colors are available or what they mean
Hi,

HID Kit Color Temperature: Take a look at the this link for more info:

http://hidkitsblog.com/2011/03/21/hid-kit-xenon-upgrades-kelvin-temperature-k-explained/

Scroll down to "HID Color Temperature"

Essentially, if you are looking for the brightest, whitest, and most OEM functionality I would suggest going with a 4300k HID kit. For the fogs, many people go for 3000k (yellow) as yellow light is excellent in snow/fog applications.

Steve
ok...so is there any kind of chart that shows what color any particular temp. will give off?
so i'm guessing that's a 'no-one has thought to put together a chart'. all good, guess i'll have to hunt and peck to find out the hard way
gtlyons,
I apologize for the delay in getting back to you. Here is a very good chart showing various color temperatures:



Steve
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Thank you Steve, no problem on the timing, I work in Sales myself and can understand having to say, I don't know, but I will find and get you all the info. Now my only question is just how much is a kit for my lows going to run...any super sales/dicounts/rebate/coupons running? Btw, hit me up if you're looking for a new Honda!^^
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