RSX Headlights: A Comprehensive Guide
Headlight technology is one of the most fought over topics on any car's forums. Blatantly incorrect manufacturer ratings make it difficult to compare bulbs, and most of the top search results are marketing campaigns disguised as informational articles that bend the facts to sell more product. This article intends to explain the technology, dispell rumors, and give you the best information to decide for yourself what the best headlight housing and bulb is for your RSX.
Headlight Housings
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| OEM 2002 - 2004 Acura RSX Headlight Housing |
If your RSX still has its stock headlight housings, you'll likely have reflector-style housings. These housings are characterized by mirrored reflectors surrounding the bulb, and every model of RSX was equipped with them in all markets. Reflector-style headlight housings work by reflecting the light produced by the bulb and directing it towards the road ahead. The reflector is designed to focus the light and create a beam pattern that provides adequate visibility.
Honda installed different reflector housings for the Type-R that were optimized for HID bulbs, and included HID bulbs from the factory. If you inspect the housings closely, you'll see that there's no projector lens; instead, you'll find the redesigned reflector. The Type-R's reflectors are designed to maximize the output of the HID bulbs and provide a sharp, focused beam pattern without blinding other drivers.
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| OEM 2002 - 2004 DC5R Headlight |
Since you're most likely not dealing with DC5R headlights, you probably have stock style reflector headlight housings with halogen bulbs. Reflectors can be paired effectively with halogen or LED bulbs.
In the aftermarket, there are more housing options:
Projector
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| Spec-D Tuning's Blacked-Out Housings with Projector-Style Low Beams and LED Halos |
I personally use these. They're made pretty well, install easily, and the projector lens is good enough to get light down the road a bit better than reflectors. The LED halos look pretty cool, though it's hard to see them during the day which is my only problem with them. They require a little bit of wiring to get 12V to the halos, but once they're on they really make a statement. There are other exact copies of these housings on eBay and Amazon under different company names as well. I had really good luck talking to support when I wanted to ask about a particular bulb replacement with Spec-D Tuning though. Are they perfect? Probably not. Are they good enough? Yes, and more. Headlight housings can completely change the look of the car, as you can see below.
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| My 2003 Acura RSX Type-S |
Retrofit
Retrofitting is the practice of baking your stock headlight housings in the oven until the glue melts enough to access the "guts", and painting parts of it or swapping in projectors, LED strips, LED rings, and anything else you can think of. There's a couple choices I'll list here, but I don't have experience with using any of them. Retrofitting can be done at home with the right parts and knowledge, but several online sellers specializing in light modifications offer made-to-order housings.
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| Diamond Light Works LED Halos |
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| Diamond Light Works with LED Halos and Honeycomb Pattern-Etched Projector Lenses |
Diamond Light Works has a bunch of cool options. The base price is $500 and it goes up depending on what customizations you choose. The pictures just show a few of the many options.
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| PrecisionWorkz Projectors with LED Strips and Crazy Colors! |
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| PrecisionWorkz Projectors with this Colorful Setup |
PrecisionWorkz is very similar at first glance to Diamond Light Works. There appears to be more customization options by far though, and they really try some wild combos. Prices start at $550 and go up.
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| Vision Autoworks / Stage-Motorsports Jewel Eye Retrofit |
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| RLX Jewel Eye Retrofit On-Car |
Stage-Motorsports and Vision Autoworks both have these super cool retrofits on their websites. As of February 2023, Stage-Motorsports is the only active supplier and they have a 5-6 month lead time. Both companies sold them for $1,850. It does not have room for high beams, so I don't believe they're street legal in the US.
According to Vision Autoworks' product page, they're made with the following modifications and parts:
- 2014+ Acura RLX LED Low Beams
- Retains OEM RSX Headlight Turn Signal and Parking Lights
- There are NO High Beams
- RSX Headlight Housing Inner Bezel Trimmed for Clearance
- RLX Bezel Painted Gloss Black to Match RSX Housing
- LED Drivers Have Pigtails and Sockets Attached
- 9006 to H1 Bulb Connector Adaptors Included for Plug and Play Wiring
- Retains RSX Factory Headlight Aim Adjustment and Horizontal Level Cutoff
- OEM Footprint LED Drivers Mounted and Sealed to Inside of Light Housing
I'm planning on writing a guide to execute this modification as soon as I get my hands on some RLX LED Assemblies.
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| DC5Creations 2002-2004 Style RLX Retrofits |
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| DC5Creations Headlights, Mounted |
DC5Creations did everyone with the 2002 - 2004 RSX a favor by testing out this retrofit. These are the RLX jewel eyes from above, just stuffed into our headlights. I'm sure there was plenty of shoving involved, and it doesn't look like the stock turn signals work, but at least we know they fit. They are sold out, but the website mentions you can email the owner of the website if you want a one-off job done. The sale price on these was $1,800, so be prepared for a large price tag.
Bulb Types
Halogen
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| Halogen Bulbs - Notice the Coiled Tungsten Element, and the Cap to Filter Out Bad Parts of the Spectrum |
The halogen bulbs are the least-bright option, and the most power-hungry due to the 80% loss of energy due to heat with only 20% being converted to light. They do make brighter halogen bulb designs, but they still don't last as long as HID's or LED's. They work by putting electricity through a piece of Tungsten until it glows. This technology has been around for a long time. They generally fail pretty quickly. An unforeseen issue with halogen bulbs is that when they fail, they just keep getting darker without fully burning out for a while. If you put these in someone's car that might not keep up with their maintenance or know what to look for, you risk them driving at night with low visibility. I would honestly not recommend these for anyone. LED's have gotten cheap enough that they can be bought for a tiny bit more, and you get much more light output and longevity for your money. LED's are also suited just fine for stock reflector headlights. HID's, on the other hand, are not suitable for the reflector headlights and are more expensive.
...If you absolutely must have the cheapest option, that's the least bright, has the worst mode of failure, and fails fairly quickly, here you go.
HIDs
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| Your Average HID Bulbs |
High Intensity Discharge lamps, affectionately known as HID's, are an alternative to halogen bulbs. Instead of using 12 volts to heat a filament, the HID uses a high voltage ballast (converter / stabilizer) to multiply the 12 volts into 42 - 85 volts, and then to 18,000 - 30,000 volts towards the objective of striking an electrical arc through a noble gas such as xenon. The result is a slight warmup period followed by very bright light. In fact, they get so hot, some people in cold weather climates prefer them just because they can melt ice off of your headlights when they're on. The bulbs are included standard on many modern vehicles, either with projector housings or specially designed reflectors. Aftermarket projector housings exist to allow retrofitting HID's to cars that typically come with reflector style headlights. The HID bulbs do have a drawback: life expectancy. HID bulbs fade in brightness over time until their ultimate failure by lack of usable output, and directly after that, refusal to light. Many websites that talk about the life expectancy speculate on the lifetime of their HID bulbs, so I checked with the main manufacturers.
Philips publishes fairly minimal information about their bulbs, but they do give the B3 and TC specs. B3 is the minimum number of hours that 97% of the manufacturer's bulbs last. Philips' HID bulbs specify a B3 of 1500 hours, so after 1500 hours have been reached, failure rate increases. TC is the point at which 63% of the bulbs have failed; 2500 hours is the TC for the Philips bulbs. On average, Americans drive about an hour a day, so if you assume 60% of that time is spent with headlights on:
(2500 hour TC / 365 days of driving an hour) x 60% = ~4 Years.
Osram specifies their "Xenarc Ultra Life" bulbs will last 186,000 miles, or 8,860 miles per year with 60% light on time. Originally those numbers were kilometers, and suitingly the numbers don't make sense for Americans. We drive, on average, 15,000 miles per year. That would give Osram's best life HID bulbs a best-case life expectancy of 5 - 7 years. Keep in mind throughout use, it will decrease brightness over its lifespan around 70%. Osram's highest performance oriented HID bulbs, the "Xenarc Night Breaker Laser (Next Gen)" does not specify a life expectancy, but they offer a 3 year warranty which is telling considering the "Xenarc Ultra Life" bulbs come with a 10 year warranty. If that warranty is calculated using European or Asian mileage averages, one can expect the brighter bulbs to last 1.5 - 2 years if driven the American average mileage.
Beam range of HIDs is affected by color temperature, brightness, and headlight beam pattern. Typically, they have longer range than LEDs, from 200 - 300m for high beams and 100 - 150m for low beams. If you consider that most RSX owners are between the age of 20 - 30 years, that group has an average response time of 0.25 seconds. At 80mph, or 35.8 meters per second, that's 3 - 4 seconds of reaction time on the low beams and 6 - 8 seconds of reaction time with the high beams. As you can imagine, reaction time becomes lower as you get past that age range, and distractions increase under it, so this is a best case scenario. MotorTrend's project RSX Type-S with performance tires, stainless steel brake lines, Axxis pads, 4-piston calipers, and slotted rotors stopped on a track surface from 80mph - 0mph in an average of 67 meters. With that in mind, in an absolute best case scenario of something sitting in the road you need to completely stop to avoid from 80mph, you have 67m less time to react.
Why you should buy HID headlights:
- You have projector headlight housings, you retrofit projectors in the stock RSX headlight housings, or you own a DC5-R with stock HID-friendly reflectors.
- You live in the country, or drive often in the country with high speed limits, where visibility at a distance is your prime objective.
- You live in a very cold area that gets snow or ice often and you have an issue with your headlights freezing.
- You are willing to sacrifice bulb longevity and pay a premium for them.
- You are older than the average RSX driver, can't see as well, or have a slower reaction time.
- You drive above 80mph often.
Here's a link to get the best ones everyone recommends from the RSX-related forums.
LEDs
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| You Average LED Bulb Assembly. The LED is Between the Two Verticle Circles |
Light Emitting Diodes, or LED's are semiconductor devices that contain a tiny material that glows when electrical current passes through it. They require very little power to produce a lot of light, compared to halogen and HID's because they convert most of their energy into actual light on the visible spectrum, instead of heat and infrared radiation. They can be very bright, beating out HID's in some cases, and come in different color temperatures depending on preference.
Consumer Reports interviewed light manufacturer "Hella" and they stated "HIDs may be out of the market soon because there are lower cost options". These lower cost options are LEDs. They can be used with or without projector housings, generate less heat, use less power, are instantly bright, last 10-15 years of regular use, don't require a balast, and are becoming cheaper and cheaper. Car manufacturers largely are switching from offering HID's to LED bulbs for their longevity, brightness, and the way it just makes the car look cooler and more modern. I absolutely love mine and wouldn't trade them for either of the other technologies.
Why you should buy LED headlights:
- You have reflector, or projector housings.
- You live in the city, or drive in an area with lower speed limits, where you don't need to see extremely far away.
- You are the average RSX owner age, between 20 - 30 years, can see well, and have a normal reaction time.
- You want the cheaper option.
- You want to never, or very rarely replace your bulbs.
Here's a link to buy what I use:
Disclaimer:
I may receive payment if you purchase products using my Amazon links. Thanks for helping keep the HID's on : )
