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HID lights

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 8:43 am
by Robert Wollenberg
I have almost no experience with these other than installing a few for customers. I'd like to understand them on a higher level though. I understand that the color intensity has nothing to do with the brightness. I understand that most HID kits are 35 watts as apposed to a typical halogen bulb being 55 watts. That's pretty much where my knowledge ends. What are the pros and cons of replacing a halogen bulb with a HID in a halogen housing? I've read it's ok, i've read it's not. You guys know anything about that? it also appears the legal limit in Texas is 7000k, which isn't too big of a deal. I've been trying to figure out the best way to go for fog lights, and that seems to be very arguable too.

If anybody has any insight, I'd really apprecaite it.

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 9:07 am
by Bwcad1
The reason there lower wattage is they typically produce more heat and can melt the bezel's of normal lights. HID's are nice and once you get past 7000k you really are getting into purple which looks dumb anyways. There are newer high end kits for reasonable price and they are a good upgrade for people in suburban or rural areas.

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 3:38 pm
by Ryan from Ohio
I sent a few kits out and had some troubles with quality. So be very aware of this potential. In the end I decided to stop because they were not worth the hassle. If you want these personally thats one thing, but I would highly advise against selling them unless you have the really good ones.

ddmtuning.com sells a multitude of them. They have the 35 and 55 watt kits. More watts = more output which makes more heat (as bill stated).

The K rating is essentially the color ratings. The lower the numbers the mroe yellow, higher numbers are blue/purple. I advise a 4000-5000K's

http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/Apexc ... or-HID-Kit

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 7:45 pm
by Chris from Washington
HID lights in a normal halogen reflector type housing will often cause a lot of glare on other drivers. Some try and point the lights down to fix this, but doing to me kind of defeats the point of having the better lights.

The best way to upgrade to HID is to do a projector retrofit. Basically getting a OEM HID projector and installing them inside your Reflector housing. I'll be doing this with the Camaro soon.

http://www.HIDPlanet.com has tons of info on HID's. You should really check them out before you do anything.

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 5:13 am
by Bwcad1
Yup. I replaced min in the gen but i had projectors before i had HID's. Ya you dont want anything to do with the 69 and 99 dollar kits there bad news.