8000k or 10000k Hids?

Title says it all. Was leaning more for 10k but just looking for some other people opinions on looks and quality?

 

[DjDom]

Title says it all. Was leaning more for 10k but just looking for some other people opinions on looks and quality?

If you plan to use them on the street, don't even bother.

Anything 7000K+ will kill your eyes.
If you want functionality go for 4300K, that's the whitest light and brightest.
If you want some blue tint to it, go for 6000K.

I think 6000K are the most popular.

 

[Anime]

If you're using HID projector housings, then as suggested, 4300K for functional street use, 6000K if you care more about the lights being blue than having light on the road to see with.

If you're thinking of putting HID bulbs in the stock housings, don't. Get some Sylvania Silverstar or Philips Crystal Vision Halogen bulbs instead.

 

[Cody C.]

not street use. pure show car.

 

[FIND]

not street use. pure show car.

Then do a projector retrofit into some of the clear aftermarket housings and make it look good instead of some retrofit bulbs that will only impress high school kids.

Going to be an interesting show car, considering the guy building it can't even afford to replace catalytic converters.

Save your money and buy some good quality halogen bulbs, or, in the future, when you have no mechanical issues to worry about and have a few hundred bucks in spare change, then do a projector retrofit. You will be glad you waited and didn't bother with some cheap ass, blind every other driver on the road, make it harder to see where you are going retrofit bulb.

Besides, girls don't care what color your headlights are anyway. They just want to ride in comfort.

 

[Cody C.]

catalytic converter is a seperate explorer, i have 2 97s and a 07. and money isnt an issue, i have enough to spare but would rather go a cheaper way, nothing wrong with that. why pay for a brand new one when all you would need to do is punch it and itd run exactly the same as a new one? hmm now instead of paying $200+ on a new one, i now have that money to spend on other things.

 

[Cody C.]

Im not gonna waste money on a retrofit, thats just retarded. Stock Housing FTW

 

[FIND]

Enjoy being an #######. I hope you run into plenty of LEOs that aren't feeling lazy or generous, who decide to ticket you for this annoying, dangerous and illegal modification.


How about some pics of this "Show Truck"? I know I don't see cars at the car shows with their headlights on, unless they are trying specifically to show off their lighting, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

 

[Cody C.]

Cops here dont care where i live and ill post pictures as soon as i get a camera

 

[FIND]

A show car by a kid who can't afford a catalytic converter, a camera, a good looking headlight retrofit, and puts blue HIDs in stock 15 year old housings... I can't wait to see

 

[Cody C.]

1. Its not like im killing the enviroment and causing global warming, their are PLENTY of cars all over the world running with no converter, plus im not in california cops dont care... 2. cameras are pointless unless your a 15 year old girl. 3. doesnt matter if you have halo, projector, stock, etc. every headlight is almost identical, only difference is style and a little more light output. you have your style and i have mine. 4. hids look the same no matter what housing their in. if your refering to the front of the housing where the lens is, no their not 15 years old i bought new ones 1 month ago.

 

[diesel_s]

HID's is my field of expertise. Will a retrofit help, not really. It controls the light but kills projection. Before you guys start hounding me about retrofits, yes I do like them but no I don't care for them. Yes I have a car with factory HID's (2006 Acura TL) and it isn't my first car with a factory HID system (also be mindful that not all factory HID systems come with projectors and/or reflective bulbs), yes I have had a bomb retrofit done not only on one of my cars but on my little brothers 350Z and a few friends cars, i love how it looks but i love how the 55 Watt 6K system looks on my 08 ST in the factory housing. The key to a quality HID system is buying a quality system that properly projects light and then readjusting your factory housings to compensate for the brighter light. And again, before I get jumped on by the purest, I have a 55 Watt Bixenon HID system in my headlights and a 55 Watt 3K foglight HID system as well, I readjusted my housings and have NEVER been flashed before. Ironically, my completely factory Acura TL gets flashed often. And again before I get hounded again, I'm not just some guy who thinks he knows about HID's, i sell them and install them, and have been selling them at Dynamic Sound for a while. I have buddies who work for the Retrofit Source, who will retrofit your car way before they'll do their own because they don't care for projectors.

Best HID option, 4300K - 6000K, anything above 6K is purely for looks, not vision, especially once you cross the 8000K threshold. The more color you add the less light output you get, the only "color" exempt is yellow which is 3000K, that is best for cutting through fog and rain. Now, any modification to your headlight across all 50 states is illegal, so for all the guys who feel they're better because they have retrofits, you'd actually get a ticket faster than someone with HID's in a factory housing, its for causing a distraction to motorist. I have cop buddies all over the place, they will tell you the same thing.

Being that you said its for show, you can do 8000K, but for those times that you may need to drive at night, I'd suggest a 6000K 35 watt kit, you get a very nice white light with just a tad bit of blue. It gives you a very nice color that is similar to newer BMW's, Audi's, and what not without the sacrifice of functionality. Anything above 7000K won't hurt your eyes, its from 4300K - 5000K that can hurt eyes when not properly shielded or aimed.

 

[Cody C.]

Since i drive it to shows on occasions what would be my best option 8k or 10k?

 

[diesel_s]

8k, light blue, has decent light output. If its raining however, it becomes damn near invisible.

 

[FIND]

The blind leading the stupid now I see.

HIDs in a halogen light housing will never "properly project" the light because the halogen housing is designed for a specific amount of light to be coming from a specific source at a specific position. Headlights are not like a reflector in a flashlight or a spotlight. They are designed to shape a beam of light into a certain pattern. They do this by using lots of maths to figure out angles of reflection based on a filament at a fixed position with a fixed orientation.

The reason an HID bulb fails in this aspect, even if we buy a quality system (pro-tip: there are no quality systems, just some companies sell the same stuff for more money and say it is a quality system. They are all made in the same chinese factories by guys getting paid less an hour than you spend every time you wipe your ass), is because the HID produces a ball of light at a position which frankly, is variable depending on the retrofit bulb you are using, is not the same shape, size or position of the filament it is replacing, and is far brighter than the original calculations for the reflector geometry accounted for. Aiming down rarely helps as much as you think it does because there is still going to be scatter, and because the HID generally lights part of the high beam portion of the reflector even while in the low beam position.

Yes, any modification to your headlight housing is illegal. I haven't seen any cops EVER that are more likely to pull over for a projector retrofit than a PnP bulb, but cops can't be sure that your headlight is not a DOT approved headlight without actually researching it. See, unless the officer knows for sure that no one has produced a DOT approved projector housing, then they don't have probably cause, and they can't be with all the ridiculous aftermarket crap you can find online. Funny how that due process works. They do however know that a PnP retrofit is illegal, and they can and do pull over for that, especially when it is an annoying color, they are in a bad mood, or yours is particularly blinding. Either way, if you are going to do something illegal to your headlights, you may as well do the thing that isn't going to cast ridiculous glare into people's faces. Furthermore, if I hear one more time about how "No cop has ever pulled me over, I never get flashed" from people, I swear I am going to lose it. Here's the thing. Most people won't flash you, no matter what. Aside from the fact that they don't want to chance a confrontation, most people just get annoyed and ***** about it silently, because that makes them feel better, when they can tell you off, even if you don't hear it. Plus, many people don't react that quickly to it, don't think to do it, or just don't do it because they don't want to flash the other drivers around.

Until SOMEONE can show images of a decent beam pattern coming off a PnP retrofit, the facts stand that they ALWAYS cast unsatisfactory amounts of glare into oncoming traffic. If you disagree, take a picture of your headlight beam against a dark wall at 20 or 25 feet. I will match those conditions and show you the beam pattern from a halogen reflector, and a proper HID projector or reflector.


Also, every time you use an apostrophe for a plural, Jesus kills a kitten. That, and you are just some guy who thinks he knows about HIDs, just like the guys who work at best buy think they know about car audio, or computers, or the guys that work at walmart's tire and lube think they know about cars. Get an education in optics before proclaiming yourself an expert.

 

[diesel_s]

Lmao I'm not some guy who "thinks" he knows about HIDs, I am a guy who knows about HIDs. What you fail to realize is that the quality of the HID kit matters greatly, the installation is everything. Being disrespectful to anyone with a varying opinion from yours is a sign of opinionated ignorance. I don't need to put up a photo of someone's or my own HIDs against a wall, if you paid attention enough you would see many vehicles with HID's that DO NOT blind oncoming traffic. There are many people on this site with HIDs that have never blinded another car. My own system has never even blinded anyone from behind either, it doesn't dispurse into rear view mirrors.

A quality HID kit installed into a properly functioning factory housing will shoot out an even dispersed beam of light when the housing is properly re-aimed. Here's a real protip: there are many quality systems and the price has absolutely nothing to do with it. I suggest that if anyone gets a real education it is you, and not just a real education in HID systems but learn how to deal with people in a civil matter. I read the way you went after the guy who started this thread, not a good look for you. Here's another protip: not all cars with factory HID's came with projectors or D2R style bulbs. You know what the difference is between some Nissan Altima's with and without factory HIDs? Nothing but the socket the bulb fits into, the housing is the same.

Going to cut myself short, I can go at this with you all day, and prove my point over and over even with thousand of pictures from incalculable amounts of customers, but what's the point? I'm just some blind guy leading stupid people who is just as smart as the guys at all best buys who think they know audio. Lol. Speaking with you sir, honestly, it's like a conservative trying to have a conversation with an Eco-nut. Nothing I say will ever matter to one so opinionated and close minded.

 

[FIND]

I'm glad you believe all that.

I love how the "HID experts" and fanboys all over always insist that they don't need to prove that their HID retrofit doesn't suck balls, and insist that the rest of us are just ignorant for not noticing all the "quality" kits.

Sir, I am a scientist at heart. Show me evidence I am wrong and I will change my assessment. Give people bad advice and claim to be an expert, when you clearly only know as much about them as the guy at the counter in McDonalds knows about burgers, and I will call you a moron.

Also note that I never stated that all HIDs came in a projector. I am quite well aware that many come in reflector housings, but those reflectors ARE designed differently than their halogen counterparts. Why don't you try speaking to an engineer that works on things like lighting and find out for yourself if the only difference is "the hole they fit in". Just because the light looks the same from the outside does not mean they are the same.

 

[diesel_s]

Again, your only way to get your point across is to insult whoever you're arguing with. Want to name credentials, lets go. My father is an engineer in both civil and electrical engineering, I am a student in mechanical engineering who spendsy free time when I'm not working going to automotive conventions around the country continuing my education, my boss is an electrical engineer and my fellow coworker is an industrial engineer. We don't just talk HIDs, we test and experiment everything we sell and even things we don't sell. We've experimented with different reflector housings, both hid and non HID. There was a reason I could name the Altima, we took a "halogen" Nissan Altima housing and put an HID bulb into and got a similar light pattern to the HID housing Altima, and vice versa. There's a reason I don't feel the need to prove my point or argue with you anymore.

You don't read things to well. I stated that retrofits are cool and I have had them done before but I don't too much care for them. By the way that guy you dissed at the McDonalds counter may just be the rocket scientist that can make you look like an idiot in any subject sir. Don't compare and disrespect people. We have varying opinions, I'm open to both sides, I have proven facts on both sides. You however are stuck mentally on one and have closed your mind to anything not in your favor therefore resulting in you having to attempt to belittle anyone with a varying opinion.

To everyone on this thread and to the gentleman who started this thread, I apologize for the argument that broke out on it. You asked a simple question that didn't need a war. Since you want 8k or 10k, in the interest of some form of functionality, I suggest 8k. As far as you and I go sir, there's no point in me responding to someone who is set in their ways like an old dog. By the way, I simply pointed out there are several types of kits out there, some of a much higher quality than others, I didn't suggest everyone is an idiot for not noticing, you did. Have a nice day.

 

[FIND]

I'm real glad you believe what you typed.

Some engineering student. "I don't have to prove anything because facts are on my side." Yes, that is exactly how science works. Insist the facts are on your side, even if you cannot demonstrate the existence of these "facts".

So, where can I find these "proven facts"? Your assertion to have observed these phenomena alone do not make them proven, nor do they make them facts. Therefore, if you are insisting they are proven facts, I should be able to find them plenty of other places where reputable people have made the same claims and backed them up by evidence.

 

[DjDom]

I'm real glad you believe what you typed.

Some engineering student. "I don't have to prove anything because facts are on my side." Yes, that is exactly how science works. Insist the facts are on your side, even if you cannot demonstrate the existence of these "facts".

So, where can I find these "proven facts"? Your assertion to have observed these phenomena alone do not make them proven, nor do they make them facts. Therefore, if you are insisting they are proven facts, I should be able to find them plenty of other places where reputable people have made the same claims and backed them up by evidence.

I don't want to get involved in this argument, but guys, just stop.
You're here to help the guy decide what to get, not to break out in a war.

And, I actually agree with both of you.
There are halogen housings that work for HID lights from the factory.
However, the second gen explorer housings would probably do very poorly with them.

In fact, I had a Ranger driving behind me with an HID kit, and he was blinding the hell out of me. His lights were so uneven that it was aiming everywhere it didn't need to aim. All my mirrors, through my windows, everywhere but the road. When he finally passed me, I noticed that his lights weren't lighting up the road, but lighting up the trees. Now, that's a crappy HID install, but it's also based on the housing.

Now will you both agree that you BOTH have good points and are correct in a way.

K, thanks.