| Hid, which is the best kit? - Click HERE for Original Thread |
| 95Max |
| any one here know wat is the best kind of HID kit? |
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| Inzane |
12000K. .............. just kiddin'. :D
Best is OEM.
After that, look for a retrofit kit with genuine Phillips components and something in the ~4300K range (+/- ~200).
Failing that, there are other brands that do the job but it might be hit or miss as to which companies' kits are of acceptable quality. They are not all created equal.
PS - Give this a thorough read before you decide to buy anything:
http://www.intellexual.net/hid.html
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| kyuu |
| Kaixen looks promising but don't quote me on a recommendation. The only way I will upgrade to HIDs is with a retrofit or by dishing out some big $$$ for USDM STi headlights |
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| GTS Jeff |
Any time the word "kit" is used, it refers to shoehorning HIDs into halogen optics, or using an aftermarket HID projector. A lot of people do this, but the more serious lighting experts will tell you that this SUCKS.
OEM retrofitting is the only proper way to go. This is when you retrofit OEM HID projectors into your car. Then go buy a pair of quality 4100K bulbs and ballasts. This will give you the best possible lighting. It does cost more, but so does anything done right.
Oh yeah, check out this page:
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/...bs/Hid/HID.html
I find that the link Inzane posted is mostly correct, but it makes a lot of false claims about how HIDs are 3x brighter than halogens blah blah garbage garbage. |
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| Inzane |
quote:
Originally posted by GTS Jeff
Oh yeah, check out this page:
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/...bs/Hid/HID.html
I find that the link Inzane posted is mostly correct, but it makes a lot of false claims about how HIDs are 3x brighter than halogens blah blah garbage garbage.
Thanks for the additional link. More [information] is always better. |
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| X_O |
| Removed - Next time you will be banned - Admin |
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| SilverNeonRacer |
I can't remember what brand I have, but 3 times brighter... heh yeah maybe 4 times brighter than my hi beams. much much brighter than my low beams.(I have a 4 bulb setup so I can run side by side)
I have ECE's coming with the sharp cutoff so that'll help. Also My HID's are highway use mainly, I might run around whyte ave, or Jasper ave, or roll into a meet with them on, but for everyday city driving it's just gonna be regular halogens, well either sylverstars or nighthawks(the GE bulbs) |
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| SilverNeonRacer |
quote:
Originally posted by GTS Jeff
Oh yeah, check out this page:
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/...bs/Hid/HID.html
I find that the link Inzane posted is mostly correct, but it makes a lot of false claims about how HIDs are 3x brighter than halogens blah blah garbage garbage.
I just read that, and I do agree, the road is white infront of my car, But with my headlight setup, as stated I can do a side by side comparision, I do that in the fog and use which ever configuration lets me see the furthest or the best. Also the manner in which i use my HIDs, glare for on coming drivers is not an issue. |
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| GTS Jeff |
quote:
Originally posted by SilverNeonRacer
I just read that, and I do agree, the road is white infront of my car, But with my headlight setup, as stated I can do a side by side comparision, I do that in the fog and use which ever configuration lets me see the furthest or the best. Also the manner in which i use my HIDs, glare for on coming drivers is not an issue.
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/...superwhite.html
Read the part on how brightness can be subjective...in truth, HIDs put out 2800 lumens, which is the exact same brightness as 100w halogens... |
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| Inzane |
quote:
Originally posted by GTS Jeff
100w halogens...
:blink: 100w halogens? I could definitely see people getting flashed for running those... |
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| chris f |
| I have installed a few diffrent brand hid kits now, know what the diffrance is? in 90% of them? the sticker on the outside of the box and on the transformer. a large number of them usr the same parts. look at what you want for power or"k's", find your seld a deal and get them insta;;ed right. one truck came into the shop and it had about 6 turn signal lights hooked up in the line for restance to fool the lighting computer. utter crap. make shure your getting a good install. |
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| SilverNeonRacer |
quote:
Originally posted by GTS Jeff
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/...superwhite.html
Read the part on how brightness can be subjective...in truth, HIDs put out 2800 lumens, which is the exact same brightness as 100w halogens...
heh yeah thats 35Wmore thanmy halogens.
It might be subjective, but what I have used them for thus far, they are far superior to what I have now for halogens. |
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| GTS Jeff |
quote:
Originally posted by Inzane
:blink: 100w halogens? I could definitely see people getting flashed for running those...
My headlamps provide a very sharp ECE cutoff, so no, I never get flashed. |
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| No-Pistons |
| i have the 8000k Extreme Hid kit works good for me |
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| BigTrucker |
I'm running 50W 6000k Xtec HID's. They are hella bright and ppl tend to flip me the highs when I'm cruising down the highway.
I got mine from www.xenonexpert.com
He's pretty good and offers lifetime warranties on most of his shit, which is always good when it comes to aftermarket HID's. |
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| SilverNeonRacer |
| I'm starting to think I shoulda got a sylvania HID fog kit with housing.... then nobody could bitch, as long as they're aligned right. |
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| GTS Jeff |
quote:
Originally posted by BigTrucker
I'm running 50W 6000k Xtec HID's. They are hella bright and ppl tend to flip me the highs when I'm cruising down the highway.
I got mine from www.xenonexpert.com
He's pretty good and offers lifetime warranties on most of his shit, which is always good when it comes to aftermarket HID's.
lol people flip you their high beams because your optics suck and is shooting all that light into their eyes instead of onto the road in front of you...:rolleyes: |
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| BigTrucker |
quote:
Originally posted by GTS Jeff
lol people flip you their high beams because your optics suck and is shooting all that light into their eyes instead of onto the road in front of you...:rolleyes:
my optics suck? how so.... |
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| SilverNeonRacer |
quote:
Originally posted by BigTrucker
my optics suck? how so....
If you read the links posted.. HID bulbs light up like so " | " as compared to halogen like " - " and thus the halogen optics(fancy reflectors in your light housing) send the light everywhere. |
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| BigTrucker |
| I'm pretty sure the projector sends the light out onto the street with a nice crisp cut-off. |
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| GTS Jeff |
quote:
Originally posted by BigTrucker
I'm pretty sure the projector sends the light out onto the street with a nice crisp cut-off.
If that were true, then no one would be annoyed enough to flash their high beams at you AND there wouldn't be so much obvious glare in your sig. ;) |
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| SilverNeonRacer |
quote:
Originally posted by GTS Jeff
If that were true, then no one would be annoyed enough to flash their high beams at you AND there wouldn't be so much obvious glare in your sig. ;)
Too bad those are just the angel eyes :P |
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| GTS Jeff |
quote:
Originally posted by SilverNeonRacer
Too bad those are just the angel eyes :P
:eek: |
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| BigTrucker |
| All Mazda 3's have projectors, take a look next time you see one on the road. |
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| SilverNeonRacer |
quote:
Originally posted by BigTrucker
All Mazda 3's have projectors, take a look next time you see one on the road.
I think the point is, if your projectors originally came with halogens, they're designed for halogens and thus will still make glare |
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| SilverNeonRacer |
quote:
Originally posted by BigTrucker
All Mazda 3's have projectors, take a look next time you see one on the road.
I think the point is, if your projectors originally came with halogens, they're designed for halogens and thus will still make glare |
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| GTS Jeff |
quote:
Originally posted by BigTrucker
All Mazda 3's have projectors, take a look next time you see one on the road.
Projectors designed for halogens don't work properly for HIDs, which is why real HID projectors are so damned expensive.
PS. Nice halos :) |
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| BigTrucker |
The projectors come with halogens in Canada and have an option to come with HID's in the US. They will have HID's as an option in Canada on the '07's. If I ever make it out to a meet I'll let you check 'em out.
Same part number in both countries for the headlights but just different option packages.
A couple guys are retrofitting S2000 projectors onto the 3's headlights but I'd rather spend $1000 on power mods then that.
Thanks for the compliments on the angel eyes. They were so much hassle to install I'm glad they were worth all the work. |
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| GTS Jeff |
quote:
Originally posted by BigTrucker
The projectors come with halogens in Canada and have an option to come with HID's in the US. They will have HID's as an option in Canada on the '07's. If I ever make it out to a meet I'll let you check 'em out.
Same part number in both countries for the headlights but just different option packages.
A couple guys are retrofitting S2000 projectors onto the 3's headlights but I'd rather spend $1000 on power mods then that.
Thanks for the compliments on the angel eyes. They were so much hassle to install I'm glad they were worth all the work.
Wait, are you saying that Mazda uses the exact same projectors for HID and halogens? That seems unlikely... |
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| BigTrucker |
That was always my understanding, I could be wrong tho.
Check out my cardomain site (http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2095959/1) and I've got a couple pics there of the HID's. Our camera was shitty so there is major glare in all of the pics from far away but on the up close pics you can see the projector. |
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| 95Max |
| i was just thinkin to put together the acura TL lights for mine ....but i dunno if they will fit |
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| BigTrucker |
| With enough money you can make anything work. |
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| BigTrucker |
| good to see a camera that doesn't suck as bad as mine |
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| b_w. |
i have a 6000k prolumen hid kit which was plug and play for my eurospec projectors
hid's
there is a very clear and precise cut off with these. the light output is at least 3 or 4 times better than whay i had with silver stars in
#2 |
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| Matrix World |
| We have sold Helios( the real one's not the Chinese made knockoffs also being sold in the market) and M-Tech without too may problems. 6000K being the most popular. These units come with a years warrantee and replacemnet bulbs are approx $150 for a pair. |
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| 95EagleAWD |
I have the NSX projectors retrofitted to HID in my car. Very good cut-off, never been flashed on the highway. However, I'm pretty sure my bulbs are in the 6000K-8000K range as they're much too blue.
I've heard for retrofits that TSX and Audi projectors are the way to go. |
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| SilverNeonRacer |
Ya, know.. with all the talk of optics and how light is produced in an HID, compared to a standard Halogen, I noticed something yesterday...
A normal say 9007 bulb has the filiment going from side to side, like ----
And an HID is front to back, like |.... well a H4 is also | Soooo theoretically the optics in a good H4 housing should work perfectly fine for an HID bulb, cause they create light in the same direction :P
After noticing this, I was driving home, and I put on my standard high beam(outter pair) Yellow Hella bulbs, in Euro lights housings. Then I turned on my HID's in Hella ECE housings. The HID's lit up the same areas as the standard bulbs, just brighter,.
Also since switching to the Hella ECE's non diamond clears the forground light that all these site say is bad, has been recuced, but the light down the road appears to be unchanged, just esaier to see.
Now if I would just get my ass around to getting an alignment.. things would be good. |
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| GTS Jeff |
quote:
Originally posted by SilverNeonRacer
Ya, know.. with all the talk of optics and how light is produced in an HID, compared to a standard Halogen, I noticed something yesterday...
A normal say 9007 bulb has the filiment going from side to side, like ----
And an HID is front to back, like |.... well a H4 is also | Soooo theoretically the optics in a good H4 housing should work perfectly fine for an HID bulb, cause they create light in the same direction :P
Ahh but the HID "kits" never place the HID arc in the exact same place as the halogen filament...even low quality halogen bulbs are sometimes manufactured with the filament in the wrong place, which creates problems too. Another thing to consider is that even if it were possible to place the HID arc in the same place as the halogen filament, an HID arc is not the same shape as a filament. It's curved, not linear. AAAND HID light, being shorter wavelength than halogen light, refracts differently (ie. more) in the optics than it should. Here's Daniel Stern on it again:
quote:
A halogen bulb has a cylindrical light source: the glowing filament. The space immediately surrounding the cylinder of light is completely dark, and so the sharpest contrast between bright and dark is along the edges of the cylinder of light. The ends of the filament cylinder fade from bright to dark. An HID bulb, on the other hand, has a crescent-shaped light source -- the arc. It's crescent-shaped because as it passes through the space between the two electrodes, its heat causes it to try to rise. The space immediately surrounding the crescent of light glows in layers...the closer to the crescent of light, the brighter the glow. The ends of the arc crescent are the brightest points, and immediately beyond these points is completely dark, so the sharpest contrast between bright and dark is at the ends of the crescent of light.
As for your personal, subjective, opinion on lighting...well it's useless when compared to real photometric tests. Daniel Stern again:
quote:
It's tricky to judge headlamp beam performance without a lot of knowledge, a lot of training and a lot of special equipment, because subjective perceptions are very misleading.
I know you trust your eyes, but just consider that maybe when the leading lighting consultants around the world say HID kitting into halogens are bad, and offer good explanations about why...then maybe you should defer your judgement to theirs... |
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| SilverNeonRacer |
Of course I trust my eyes... they're what keep me front hitting deer onthe highway.. and moose :D
I just found it interesting that they are aligned the same, and that H4 bulbs are aligned differently than other bulbs. |
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| GTS Jeff |
quote:
Originally posted by SilverNeonRacer
Of course I trust my eyes... they're what keep me front hitting deer onthe highway.. and moose :D
I just found it interesting that they are aligned the same, and that H4 bulbs are aligned differently than other bulbs.
haha you always have to stir the pot don't you..
Yeah the H4 filaments are aligned the same way, but as long as the light source isn't in the exact position it should be in, things won't work out.
Actually, have you looked into the xenon depot HID projectors for sealed beams? They're pricey but they'll really work well. |
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| SilverNeonRacer |
ehh maybe later when these ones blow up.....
The only issue I'm having with my HID's are when I turn them on they cause static in some Fm radio channels.
Actually I was thinking when they blow up I'll probably look at a full Sylvania HID fog lamp kit, with housings and everything. |
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