HID FAQ

Hello,

I don't post much but I am not new to cars and trucks, grew up in a shop and all that.

I've sold HID kits for other cars on other forums and I see the exact same stuff here.

"I want tite lites YO. I gunna put those 10000K/55W HID's I got from e-bay in my cheap/stock reflectors YO!"

"I get flashed a lot so I know my lights are working, DAWG!"

"I can see just fine, screw everyone else"


It falls on deaf ears 99% of the time, people just don't understand it or don't care as long as it looks cool or benefits them at the expense of others.


Here is the part I would like stickied OR at least copied into the appropriate sticky thread:

I pulled this from other websites I have done business on, I researched and pulled together the links and what not. Some links are old and may not work but there is a lot of information here that should be read.

Hope this helps:


I find myself reading a lot of misinformation out there about HID lighting, light kits, retrofits, kits, etc.....

With the increasing popularity in HID lighting I feel that a lighting sub-forum might be warranted (This could be expanded to include tail lights, fog lights, trouble shooting, etc...).
At the very least a HID sticky under the appropriate section would be helpful.

I would be happy to assist in the creation of either.
Below I cut/pasted a response in another thread, links to other sites with good info. Feel free to modify as needed, as I am not always politically correct.

Anything over 4300K is wasting light output, thus wasting your money for putting HID lighting on your car in the first place.

You need to spend your money on a designed system, conversion kits, high color lights, cheap reflectors all produce glare. This is wasted light energy, blinds oncoming drivers and is illegal.

Quality HID's cost money because they are worth it.
Think beyond the cheap ebay price tag, think in terms of performance, longevity, quality. A quality HID is no more expensive than a quality halogen system over the total life of the light.

People need to read up on HID lighting:

http://www.intellexual.net/hid.html

http://faqlight.carpassion.info/

http://www.hid-online.com/hidonline/information/whatiscolourtemp.htm

Subaru site but lots of REALLY good info.
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=664361

Thanks Rich91710:

**NEW**
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/conversions/conversions.html
**NEW**

AND:

I borrowed content, links and sources from all over the web.
I can post references if necessary, a lot borrowed from Subaru forum.

HID FAQ and answers:

1. Does higher K (color) mean it’s brighter?

No!
The Kelvin scale is a measure of color temperature i.e. color of the light, not intensity or amount of light. HID setups that produce maximum light output are around 4100-4300K color temperature , and the higher you go, the less light output. A 10000-12000K HID kit will most likely be dimmer than your stock halogen lights. OEM HID's are 4100-4300K kits and will have the color of all the HID lights you see on cars that come equipped with them (like most BMWs, Mercedes-Benz', and other high end/luxury vehicles). The color is very white, while light output becomes progressively bluer as color temperature rises; 6000K is white/blue, 8000K is very blue, and above that you go towards purple. Also the higher the color range of the light the more it bleeds or glares. Amplify this effect by installing high color bulbs into NON-HID housings and the glare can become very bad.

Good read with pictures on color, glare and beam patterns: http://www.intellexual.net/hid.html
What is color temperature: http://www.hid-online.com/hidonline/information/whatiscolourtemp.htm
More on that: http://www.hidkits.com/tab_faqs_color.htm
General HID info (scroll to bottom for stuff on brightness): http://faqlight.carpassion.info/hl-general.htm

2. What HID kit should I buy, what is the difference in quality?

Aftermarket HID’s are sold by a large number of companies, although less so recently because of changing DOT/NHTSA regulations. However, to ensure the highest quality, make sure you buy HID that is made by an OEM HID manufacturer. OEM HID kits are the same products fitted to many vehicles (usually luxury) by manufacturers before they are sold as new vehicles. See this link: http://faqlight.carpassion.info/car-oem-hid.htm. Notice that almost all ballasts and bulbs used by car manufacturers are Bosch, Osram, Philips, or Hella. Bosch and Osram are not as readily available for retail, but Philips and Hella are. Kits that are not made by these companies are most likely not of the highest quality, although some aftermarket manufacturers such as Brightstar and McCullogh have been recognized as high quality products as well. Philips/Hella kits are generally considered the best.

3. Can I put HID into my stock halogen reflector lighting assembly?

Yes. But it is strongly recommended that you do not. Although it may not seem so, directing the light produced by a headlight bulb to the right places requires a good deal of precision. When you place a HID bulb into an NON-HID housing; the reflector assembly can not properly focus the beam pattern. Replacing those bulbs with HID bulbs that produce 2.5 to 3 times the light yields a terrible and glaring beam pattern. You will have light going all over the place, most importantly into the eyes of drivers of oncoming vehicles. Even if you can tolerate such a beam pattern, your lights would be a safety hazard on the road. Many people try to solve this problem by lowering their lights. However, to reduce glare to acceptable levels, you would have to lower HID lights in halogen reflectors so much that you would not have much of a useable light increase over your stock setup, thus defeating the purpose of upgrading to HID's in the first place. The effect is even worse the higher up the color range you go.

http://faqlight.carpassion.info/hl-hid-kits.htm
http://faqlight.carpassion.info/hl-reflectors.htm

4. I still don't care I want HID's!
The next best approach to getting HID's into our cars is by using an existing OEM quality manufacturer. However since our cars never came with HID's as OEM we must rely on the few manufacturers out there producing DOT approved kits and lamp suppliers. (I only know of Revision 6 and Hella please add others)
In the end it doesn't really matter what route you take as long as the HID’s you are using are indeed a designed and DOT approved system.

Manufacturers:
This was specific to the kits I was selling and manufacturing, but I feel the point is the same for reference.
http://www.rallylights.com/hella/90mm_modules.asp

5. Cost vs. Performance
Your quality OEM grade HID's are going to run you a pretty penny, it is not uncommon to pay $1000 for a pair of lights, more if you need to custom mount them or want more than 1 set. However few can argue the resulting performance benefit in a quality set of HID's. For roughly 10x the cost of a halogen bulb you will get 2.5x the light output, less power draw (35w vs. 55w) and superior longevity, roughly 7x-8x longer life over a halogen bulb and 5x+ longer life over most cheap HID units. If you take cost of ownership over the life of the unit, then quality HID's end up being only slightly more, however the large upfront costs can seem intimidating.

6. Conclusion
As you can probably see that combining an improperly designed system with a high color temperature is a recipe for glare, poor performance and unsafe conditions. What color do most 'conversion' kits push or advertise? 6000K+ usually, hopefully you can draw your own conclusions from here.

I hope this helps in some way or at least is a good read for those that really want to understand HID's and what not to do.

Adding in resource references, credit to the respective authors:

 

Reserved.

I wrote and copied this very quickly at work.
Tried to edit out non-Tacoma relevant info.

UGH I also screwed up the title. If the mods would like to change it to HID FAQ or something?

 

Good post

 

i can add to this as well. the first link to clearcorners.com is stellar it's alot to read but, these guy's have been doing super high end retro fits and custom led boards since the early 2000's as well as customlightz.com bjorn got his start a little later but, is still one of the few guy's that have made an honest to goodness business out of retrofitting back in 2004

another great link to consider is one by jvx driver to help with choosing a projector he took a lot of time setting up all the shots at night and making sure the conditions where the same to provide some very acurate views of the most popular projectors for retrofitting. everything from oem to aftermarket is looked at on his pages while he did omit some projectors his list is the most comprehensive i have seen to date.

there is a lot of great info already on tw a few members including myself have had some pretty good threads going about lighting upgrades and worth your time if your considering a retrofit or any hid lighting upgrade.

http://www.clearcorners.com/tech/
the links in the page above have wealth of knowledge on the subject of almost every lighting system available.

http://www.customlightz.com/
http://www.lightwerkz.net/

above in these links you can find imo the best retrofitters that can be had both are on the east coast and are a lot more affordable than the fellas over at clearcorners.

and finally jvx driver and the best projector shoot out i have seen to date his entire site has pics galore and even tips on how to mod your projectors as this can sometime have a drastic effect on their performance as well. although i don't recomend that just anyone mod their own projectors it does take a good bit of knowledge and skill to truly improve their performance enjoy
http://jvxdriver.com/single_comparison.htm

 

Just as well add Daniel Stern, as his name gets flogged all over the 'net (because his site is so readily floggable with good info):

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/conversions/conversions.html

 

Apologies if this is a stupid question but are HID and Xenon light the same thing? If not which is better? I keep seeing conflicting information when I look into it online.

 

Great thanks.

 

This was a lot oh helpful info! Thank you for clearing things up!

 

waiting for Brock....

 

Im thinking about getting some new headlights from ebay and getting an HID kit for them. Would it be better to buy the lights and then buy an HID kit from ddmtuning.com or just buy the lights on ebay that come with an HID kit? sorry if its a dumb question

 

Buy from DDM, and be careful when you buy lights from eBay.

 

ok thanks man

 

or better yet buy from SHARPHID.com

you can get DDM products with much better customer service!

 

ok cool thanks for the info

 

might be another dumb question but i have HIDS in a stock light housing,is there a different kind of light housing that i would need to get?

 

this helped IMMENSELY!!!!!!! in all honesty I am pretty much a #4. I don't like that my OE lights are too dim, and naturally I was going for the highest I could get (10k or so), BUT after reading this I am set on getting 4300 (a friend of mine has some HIDS on his Protege ... keeps getting pulled over due to VERY high glare from his, going to print this out and let him know because it's NOT just his ass on the line it's his wife and kids TOO ).

 

Great write-up and informative...TacoRidah - a 10,000K will be very purple and extremely dim, definitely try to stay between 4,000K and 5,000K for best visibility.

 

Well this does explain alot, so basically i wont buy hids for my stock headlights, because the glare all i wants is brighter lights, but then on the other hand nobody likes the dicks with the glare,
what New Headlights would you recomend and HID brightness 6K 8K?

 

my friend that has the Mazda I mentioned. I think his are 5k, I know they are fairly white (his HL housings are freaking fogged up BADDD, but the HID light still gets through) but I mean it's BRIGHT! I'm def. going to be getting something that isn't THAT bright cause as I said, even being IN the vehicle and looking my head started to hurt like I was getting a migraine. Was NOT a fun drive down the block or two for me.