I just purchased a 95' Sc400 for my first car, paid 5250 with 114k miles. I drove it for the first time today and pretty late into the night, and I noticed the lack of visibility light-wise when there were no streetlamps. My budget could go from any price to 100 bucks. As mentioned earlier this is my first car and I've never had the chance to work on one before, so complete rookie here. Just wondering what PnP kit would fit my needs best, and basic info on headlight bulb replacements. Only looking to replace the low and possibly high beams, for now, I made some quick searches and found some kits to buy, but they all mentioned relay harnesses, ballasts, and warning cancellers as add-ons for the kit. I'm real tight on the budget for now and I don't want to purchase anything that I don't need. Just looking for a basic upgrade from the nearly non-existent stock halogens. Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

Its not entirely the correct way to do it but you'll want a 9006 kit for the low beams. I wouldn't bother with the high beams, at least on my car they're plenty bright. HID's need a warm up time so using them as dedicated high beams is kind of pointless, especially if you need to use flash to pass. The housing is also designed for halogens, not LED's or xenons.

The right way to do it would be to retrofit bi-xenon HID Projectors into the low beam and tap the shutter into the high beam wiring. This way you retain the halogen flash to pass but at night you'll have the HID projector high beam as well as the factory high beam. This is what I plan on doing.

 

So what dohcmerc said is definetly not the rookie way of doing it.
First don't bother with the high beams for the reasons already provided. Our SC lowbeams already have projectors in them. They arent ideal for HID but they are significantly better than a reflector housing that most cars have. You can get a plug and play kit within your budget. The DDM tuning kit is what i've been running for the past 3 years without any issue. 35watt ballast with 5500k bulbs is ideal but some people have gone to 55 without issue. The main thing is the extra heat that is generated by the bulb that could melt your housing. Alternatively, you could retrofit a different projector into the housing that is meant for hid bulbs to get the crisp cut off line and a brighter lighting.

 

I would start with cleaning the headlight lens and then use this good advice for changing the bulbs out.

 

Go with the newer LED's, last longer and take less power than the HID's and they are plug and play. Light output has been similar or better than HIDs on my cars.

 

any kit recommendations? And do the led's require all the wiring harnesses and relays etc. And just curious but what is a good price range for them, I see lots on ebay and Amazon for 20$ but it's hard to believe they will be quality.

 

I just picked up these brackets so I can put a D2S 5.0 in mine https://www.clublexus.com/forums/cl-...rofit-kit.html. I've built quite a few retrofits for some of my other cars so I'm excited to try it on this one.

But yes I will say at least with factory projectors, while putting LED or HID bulbs in there isn't an ideal setup, it shouldn't glare and should have somewhat decent light distribution.

I will certainly stand by my comments on the high beam though, if you want something brighter for that look into HIR bulbs.

 

They don't require extra relays or any of that nonsense which is why I only use them now, no crazy electrical issues anymore. They are just bigger than a normal bulb as they have a heatsink on the back, but they plug right in.
Just make sure you can clear whatever is behind it like the battery etc.. but on the SC there is lots of space behind the headlight so shouldn;t be an issue.

I got the beam teach led bulbs on amazon for my old Tacoma and a set for my wifes old camry in 2018. I have had one on my GX for even longer. All three sets are still running strong, and give out way more light than stock.
I think the cut off lines are clearer than my old HID set on the GX (which used to randomly not turn on the passenger side on auto on). In the old SC I used to occasionally burn an HID ignitor on one side as well.

Compared to having to replace HID components and randomly having one light not work with auto on, now my HID lights turn on with auto on literally every time, they are bright, and easily changeable.
The best part is they only cost like $20-30 as you mentioned. I have basically thrown out all my old HID stuff as I am never using that junk again.
Sometimes you just got to go with the better tech. I never liked the idea of those high voltage ignitors just to get a bulb to turn on, especially on cars that are so electric heavy putting in LED's will give the system a break instead of taxing it like HIDs do.