Confirmed. The factory HID headlight housings have the ballasts built right into the side of them, plus the bulbs are different (D3R vs H13)

 

That's why I had my bulbs capped. Makes a huge difference and will give you a normal light pattern. Bulb Capping

 

Holy Chit, I just realized my OEM Factory HID bulb costs $83! How long do these things last? I typically have my headlights on all the time to help avoid confusion between my moving car and a parked car and having them pull out in front of me.

 

Fortunately they last a good long time. Average HID bulb life is 2x-5X the life of a filament bulb.

 

That's what I was afraid of. Bulb type was my next question. If I remember, the HID bulbs from Retro Solutions came with an adaptor ring so they would fit the OEM housings. I will have to do some digging and find out what kind of "Mount" my bulbs have.

 

Not really. I closely compared the reflectors in the OEM halogen housings to the HID. There is a different design to the reflective surfaces scattering the light. The housings on my 06 still have the little metal shield if front of the bulb tip so I passed on the coating option. My lenses are beat looking, crazed and chipped. I really need new ones!

 

+1
05-06 housings have the little metal cap over the OEM bulb.
HIDs work better in those as compared to the 07-09 housings
with no little metal cap.

 

I've seen the ballasts sold separatly, I only know of two company's that see the OEM HID Buckets, Saleen and Steeda try contacting them for a breakdown...

 

Retro solutions kit, all the way. If you need help installing them, they can do whatever is needed over the phone. I bought the pure white. I didn't buy HIDs to look cool, I wanted to see the road at night. Stocks were unbelievably terrible. I probably could have had better light by holding a flash light out the window.

The new HIDs have allowed me to avoid hitting animals on the road as I see them in the ditch/field before they enter the road. Mostly small animals, but I did avoid a deer once. My opinion, they are well worth it. Even if it is a $200 conversion, you will not be sorry.

As for the fogs, I didn't convert mine. I didn't see the need. I use them as daytime lights or night-time-city-driving where everyone is really close and all the streets are light up by sidewalk posts. Don't really need extra light or want to worry about blinding people in such small quarters.

Make sure you have some sort of cap system for headlights as the HIDs have a very very bright arc point. That is what typically blinds people. Look at slickman's sig picture. See the little oval caps in his headlights? Something like that. Mine are not like that, but the stock black cap thing.

whooo, long post.

 

Yes, the ballasts are built into the headlight housings on the factory HIDs.