# Headlight Xenon Upgrade?



## Dieselard (Jan 2, 2012)

I purchased my brand new 2012 Cruze 1LT RS and absolutely love this car in every aspect, except one. The headlights do not seem that bright and do not light up the entire road (Country roads)

I was looking to upgrade the headlight bulbs, and possibly the fog lights as well. Is their a kit out that will allow me to get brighter lights without the HID ballasts? I do not want cheapo headlights

I am looking for a white light, tint of blue would be ok, but mostly pure white.

If you guys have any suggestions, please share.

Thank you in advance! 

I was thinking about the MTEC bulbs, some say they only last a few months? I also was researching the Phillips X-treme bulbs, and the sylvania Xtra vision bulbs aswell. I also found on the American made Cruze the headlight bulbs are a H13 or a 9008 and the fog lights are H8.


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## 4piecekit (Mar 17, 2011)

Your best bet is to upgrade your headlight harness and then buy the Philips X-treme bulbs or something similar. Read Sciphi's thread about upgraded lighting the old school way. It's just a few threads down from this one. It's complete with pics and the reasoning behind upgrading. Also search for maven. He's a vendor on here that can build you a custom GM-spec harness that will allow the stock bulbs to burn with their full potential.

Oh and whatever you do, do not but the MTEC bulbs. They're crap and you will be disappointed.


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## Dpedraza (Oct 24, 2011)

well if you do decide on xenon lighting please run it the proper way by using projectors. I had the xtreme power and for me I didn't like them BUT that's because i was spoiled and was used to having xenon lighting in my cars. Lol


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## maven (Feb 27, 2011)

Id recommend the Phillips Xtreme Powers and a direct power relay harness if you want the best halogen output. It wont be "pure white" but itll be as good as you can get with H13s.

If youre going to go HID, Id highly recommend going with a projector retrofit and not plugnplay bulbs. Id be happy to talk to you about retrofit options and pricing.


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## Dieselard (Jan 2, 2012)

maven said:


> Id recommend the Phillips Xtreme Powers and a direct power relay harness if you want the best halogen output. It wont be "pure white" but itll be as good as you can get with H13s.
> 
> If youre going to go HID, Id highly recommend going with a projector retrofit and not plugnplay bulbs. Id be happy to talk to you about retrofit options and pricing.


I am thinking of going this route, Now I do not know much about HID lights, would you mind explaining this retrofit projectors? I am assuming you have to modify the headlight?
Now what i don't want to do is butcher the stock wiring, or butcher the stock lights. 

What would be pricing on this method?


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## maven (Feb 27, 2011)

Dieselard said:


> I am thinking of going this route, Now I do not know much about HID lights, would you mind explaining this retrofit projectors? I am assuming you have to modify the headlight?
> Now what i don't want to do is butcher the stock wiring, or butcher the stock lights.
> 
> What would be pricing on this method?


Retrofitting is the process of installing an HID specific projector into the stock headlamp housing. Retrofits I provide do not require any modifications to your wiring, or your stock lights. Right now I have a special price on a complete setup including new lamps and everything needed for a "plug-n-play" swap to retrofitted headlights starting at $749. http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/56-vendor-group-buy/4879-special-intro-pricing-retrofits.html


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## Dieselard (Jan 2, 2012)

maven said:


> Retrofitting is the process of installing an HID specific projector into the stock headlamp housing. Retrofits I provide do not require any modifications to your wiring, or your stock lights. Right now I have a special price on a complete setup including new lamps and everything needed for a "plug-n-play" swap to retrofitted headlights starting at $749. http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/56-vendor-group-buy/4879-special-intro-pricing-retrofits.html


Do you have any pictures of some sort of whats involved? Thank you.


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## maven (Feb 27, 2011)

I dont currently have any pictures as every light is custom built to order. There are pictures of my other work available in the "retrofit feeler thread"


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## tbjonesy (Mar 2, 2017)

We just purchased a 2017, love the car, but after having the Xenon headlights on our Buick Regal, we want to upgrade to Xenon. Is that possible also?


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## evo77 (Sep 5, 2011)

tbjonesy said:


> We just purchased a 2017, love the car, but after having the Xenon headlights on our Buick Regal, we want to upgrade to Xenon. Is that possible also?


This thread is 5 years old and is under the 1st gen Cruze area.

For 2nd gen Cruzes there have been members that have swapped in HID "kits" and claimed to improve their visibility. However this goes against the rules of adding a xenon light source inside of a halogen projector which most always results in a improper beam pattern and slightly more glare above the cutoff. Not to mention more foreground light which is always mistaken by the human eye to believe that the lighting has improved, when it reality it has not.

The only *REAL *way to improve your lighting is to perform a genuine retrofit which involves opening the headlamps and removing the stock halogen projectors and swapping them with OE xenon projectors. Or even aftermarket projectors that are basically copy cats of OE projectors but at a much affordable price.

Here are some good sources for you to begin your research:

www.theretrofitsource.com

Informative video channel on the subject:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCouxvsyPeBGyQaSnQWFZQZQ/videos
https://www.youtube.com/user/RetrofitSource/videos


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