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I removed an illegal HID conversion from my Celica, and installed a legal one. The illegal swap with celica projectors wasn’t as blinding as many reflector swaps you see driving around, but you couldn’t aim the headlights low enough to keep from blinding traffic occasionally. It was worst on small hills. I even used washers to lower the lights even more than the max factory adjustment.
Purchased true factory HID lights off of wrecked Celica out of a junkyard. Also purchased a new level/aim switch from Toyota and all the proper factory connectors. I refinished the yellowing HID headlights with a 3M refinish kit. Finally I built a new relay harness using parts from Waytek Wire.
So the kicker- price. Illegal kits go from $50 to $200 depending on quality, harnesses, etcetera. The used headlights were $450ish, Refinish Kit $20, Level Switch $70ish, Factory Harness Connectors $40ish, Relay Harness Wires, Connectors, Pins, Etcetera used at least $100, ignoring the cost of tools and parts I stocked up on. So obviously more expensive, but it has DOT stamped on it. That is worth something to me.
Another alternative is LED headlights are starting to be available for some vehicles. I have seen sealed beam versions for trucks and jeeps. While those are expensive, considering the potential cost of a legal HID retrofit they don’t seem so bad.
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