Good bulbs, installation was a pain though, here's a tip
So far so good, appear as bright as my originals, before those died. Direct fit for a 2015 Kia Optima SX that had HID bulbs. OEM would have been a Philips bulb, but they were twice the cost. Nice bright white, not blue, or yellow. They buzz a bit if you listen closely, not really a concern, not audible unless you're right up next to them. Just an observation. They take about 2-3 seconds to come up to full brightness. But no flashing or other weird issues people have noted with some HID bulbs. Removing the original bulb was a complete PITA. KIA decided to use a thin metal C clamp of sorts to secure the bulb instead of just having you rotate the bulb to lock it in place. I'll provide the best description of how to pop that metal clamp off that I can. But you need to take a flathead screwdriver and push the tab on the clamp forward and outward at the same time. There's a little locking tab on the housing that holds the clamp but it won't let it slide sideways until it's been pushed completely forward. So try and catch the little opening in the metal with a screwdriver, push it forward, and then sideways or outwards from the bulb, it should pop off. Do not place the screwdriver behind the retainer, it will not pry outwards without being pushed forward. Place the screwdriver on the edge of the little flat spot on the metal retaining piece. If you can't push the clamp forward about 1/4" it will not release from the locking tab, which has a notch in it where this clamp is sitting. Then the other side is much easier once one side is off, you just wiggle it around a bit and it will come right out. The bulb just comes straight out after that. Installing is much easier, since the metal clip on the clamp will slide over the tab and basically just locks into place. You don't need any tools to install it. Super dumb. Couldn't even find a video on YT on how to do this. And any instructions people provided were just straight up wrong. I'll show some pictures here that hopefully will help you. I spent over an hour trying to remove the one light, and once I figured it out, it took 5 minutes to do the other one. The power cable has no locking feature, it just pulls off. But the cable can be a nuisance just because it gets in the way. Two tips though, one the driver's side, remove the ground cable for the battery. On the passenger side, remove the coolant overflow tank, or just remove the two bolts and move it out of the way. It's almost impossible to get into the bulb without moving these two things out of the way. The little covers rotate counter-clockwise about a 1/8 turn to expose the bulb and that stupid retaining clamp. Good luck. Don't let the dealer do this for you. You can do it, just be patient with snapping the clamp off that little tab and you'll be in business. See pics for a visual explanation. Hope this helps. Read more
