I want to get some. My lights are aweful. I am scared Im gonna hit a deer at night. 100Mph and low visbility is bad.

I have been looking into them and now Im sharing some info...



HID-Frequently Asked Questions



Q. How exactly does HID differ from regular halogen car bulbs?



A. In a nutshell, HID does not use the standard filament system of standard bulbs. It works on a new system where a ballast connected inline with the system draws the 35W and drops the current down to increase the voltage to 23,000 Volts. It then creates an arc inside a Xenon gas filled HID bulb or capsule and excites the gas producing a nice colored light with a much higher Lumens rating.



Q. What is all this talk about 6000K, 8000K etc...?



A. This is one of the biggest misconceptions out there today. The "K" rating or Kelvin rating simply indicates the color output of the light on a Kelvin color temperature scale. It actually has NOTHING to do with brightness and EVERYTHING to do with color. A pure white light is around 5000K and a 6000K will give you more of a purplish hue. The 8000K system will give you a bluer type of color. Standard halogen bulbs are around the 3200K level which is more on the yellowish side. Once you go above 6000K it slightly changes the formula. You can have 6000K and up in various colors. Above 6000K it depends on the gas mixtures which can be produced to give off various colors. Typically, the higher the "K" number, the more color you will have.



Q. So since the color output differs aren't the bulbs tinted which will reduce the light output?



A. While unfortunately some "cheaper kits" do tend to take the shortcut and tint their bulbs which WILL reduce the light output, the bulbs used in our kits are always clear. What affects the K rating or light color is the amounts of Xenon gas (which burns blue) or Krypton gas (which burns more purple) concentrations used in different bulbs.



Q. Won't this system produce so much heat that it will melt or damage parts of my vehicle?



A. No! What produces heat is not the amount of light outputed, but rather the amount of Amperage or Current put through the wires. Here is a simple electrical formula. Wattage = Volts x Amps. A standard 55W bulb at 12V will draw 4.58 Amps while an HID bulb at 35W will only draw 2.91 Amps. You heard right! HID burns at less than HALF the heat of the bulbs that your vehicle came with from the factory..

yeah thats right..... i have 6000k and i think 4600k is brighter, only cuz our eyes is more inclined to seeing white rather than blue at night.

Here is what Phillips offers for Fd's



http://www.brightheadlights-hid.com/hid-9003.htm

So you have HID or just xenon gas bulbs?

The major difference is in found in the bulbs. Hid- Fog Lights run at 5400k and Stage 2 bulbs run at 6000k and are composed of a gas mixture that emits a very Blue hue, Versus a Stage 1 kit, which run at 4300k, and emit a very WHITE light. The Stage 1 kits are the same lights and OEM color in BMW & Lexus this color give you the MOST LUMENS (light output). The stage 2 system is the same exact system found on the European Le man Race cars. This system eclipses any other automotive lighting system in color on the market today. Nothing can even match the light color. Stage 2 is much more BLUISH hue than Any BMW, Mercedes, or popular luxury car on the market.



The choice of stage 1 or stage 2. If your looking for the most light output go with stage 1 (4300k) which is OEM color in BMW and LEXUS. If you just really want that more Blue / Euro look go with the Stage 2 (6000k) kit.

Also I didn't know if you guys knew this or not but HID's are illegal in some states and are no longer being imported into the States so buy them while they last. They will be extinct soon. :(

Im gettinga set asap.

i have High Intensity Discharge bulbs retrofitted into hella 90mm housings......... should have went with 4800k bulbs. would have been much more useful, although blue lights is nice too look at from outside the car

my recommendation is getting green hid like the ones that will come out in the new porsche carerra GT's and le mans cars. stage 2 just looks good..... but poor at night vision

I was leaning toward the 4000-5000k white.

I just want super bright. I don't care what color it is.

here are photos of my hid kit... they're kinda big pictures though



My Webpage



keep in mind that the car on the far left is a g35 coupe, the middle has halogen lights, and im on the right with unaligned 6000k blue hid lights

So are they worth the $450 the yare gonna cost me?

I know that when I was pimpin around my Father in laws Range Rover it had HID's and they were amazingly bright.

lower K hid is well worth it...... i paid 450 for mine, but blue does not go well with my eyes..... but HID is very well worth it

Dave here is what I can tell you after mucho research on the subject.

1.

The lower the temp color the more pure white the light is.

2.

No matter what kit you get it will never be as good as a car that has HID from the factory due to the fact that the rx7 lens and reflector was designed specifically for halogen lamps.

3.

In my case where I used H3 bulbs you run into an additional problem. There are 2 types of filament setups in car bulbs, Axial, and radial. One goes up/down, the other left/right. H3 bulbs go left/right, but there are no real HID bulbs that can do this. There are companies that say they have overcome this, but I've seen all of them in use and they all look the same. The light pattern is off a bit due to incorrect filamnet positioning.



Anyway, $450 is too much to pay UNLESS you are getting good ballasts(I.E. Made in GERMANY) If you are paying $450 for asian made stuff, look on ebay you can get a good setup(asian made) for around $350 with shipping.

So why did you use h-3 and not the stock h-4?

Your light kit the reason?

Also can I polish out the glass face on my headlamps to improve the light diffusion?

Yeah im almost sick enough of shitty lights to spend some $$ for an upgrade https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR#>/smile.png

I used the h3 cuz thats what the eastbear kit uses. the whole thing with stock hid powered cars is that yes the headlamp lens is perfectly smooth and clear, but the bulb is hidden behind a special reflector/refractor. I honestly can't say if polishing out the stock lights would help or hurt. The rain stopped, as soon as it gets dark I'll go take some halogen VS. HID pics

Thanks Homey,



Uhm what about using a round light from another car that has HID's stock like a BMW or Porsche and having Mark Koch from CarbonfiberParts.net make plastic side guard to fit around it and make it look flush? That would be a bad ass conversion huh? Round flip-up's.





Anyone have a bemmer to measure the lights and see if it is fesible?

damn you like spending $$ huh??

Dave I don't know what bimmer lights would cost, or if they would fit, however if you really wanted to get true HID performance and are willing to spend the money, I would reccomend a Hella HID kit and have that guy you mentioned build a custom surround.

If you don't care about having highbeams I would get this set:

FF200

http://www.hellausa.com/maineng/NewL.../74537_lg1.gif





Or if you wanted seperate low and high beams, then you would need theese:

microDE

http://www.hellausa.com/maineng/NewL...s/74522_lg.gif

Those are pretty badass.

I dont think i will really be doing that.

I will just get the replacement HIDS for my lamps most likely.

I was just shootin the ****.

dave, they have a bunch of hid kits that came out of audi's and bmw's in e bay. they come with hella ballasts, hella d2s housings, and hella 4300k bulbs (stock) i think im gunna buy one



so if you see someone named cmartinp28 bidding on something, dont bid on it https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR#>/smile.png

if you want a hid conversion try this: http://www.lighter.net/afe/products/rx7headlights/



hids are not illegal nor are proper conversions. what is being cracked down on are the hid replacement bulbs, like H4 and H3 hids.

fd3boost: also you can not really polish out the stock lens.



fikserx7: retrofitting hids into the hella 90mm housings is a bad idea and not to mention illegal. hella makes a 90mm housing meant specifically for hid and you should be using those. the hid bulb requires placement to within .005 (five thousandths) of an inch and also the rear reflector shape is different because the bright part of a hid capsule is a different shape. a hid light is a small arc and the ends are the brightest whereas a filament is a cylinder of light and the middle is the brightest part. you are not getting the most out of your beam pattern.

well, chuck from rotary extreme, fitted them into the hella housing..... but you're right i think the light can be brighter, although the pattern is there, the intensity is not what i expected.

Martin, the blue you have is perfect. Looks very cool!!!

Well technically i have glass polishing stuff that I have used on my windshield before to remove chips and wiper scratches. You can polish glass with the right tools.

I was just wondering if anyone has tried it before on headlamps.

obviously it is possible to polish glass, but i dont think youre going to be able to improve the stock lenses by any means.



also i wanted to mention color temperature as there seem to be some misconceptions. lower temps appear more red and higher numbers appear more blue. they can all be considered "white" as your brain corrects your perception of colors lit by a "white" light. only when you put 2 white lights with different temps near each other does it become really obvious. direct sunlight at noon is approximately 5500K. so its not really "the lower the temp the whiter the light".



also just because a light is closer to a sunlight color temp does not make it better for a headlight, your eyes use a totally different mode of vision at night. a more yellow light will actually improve contrast and make a better light. the blue tint of an HID light is its biggest downside.



many of the higher color temp hid lights are actually using a blue filter over them which may raise the color temp but by blocking some of the light it is actually reducing the actual lumen output.

If you remove chips and scratches from the lamps it would be an improvement and that is what I am talking about.

Of coarse one could just buy new lamps

In anycase you just read to far into what I was saying in the first place.

Is your windshield easier to see through when its clean or dirty?

You see my point? That was all i was saying I wasnt trying to imply that i could sand them down to a true HID quality headlamp..



You think we are stupid over here or something? https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...DIR#>/wink.png

try to polish it clear if you can ....... while you're in the polishing mood

yes i see your point now. sorry but earlier you said you wanted to improve diffusion. to me that means more than making sure the lights are clean and polished.

Fair enough.

The Hella 90mm H9 and HID uses the same kind of reflector and lens. Hella 90mm H9 low beam is even stamped with D2S.



Martin, go take a look at your low beam and see if you see both H9 and D2S on there. The problem with yours is that you wanted to use the 7000K HID bulb and I think I have warned you before you bought those. 4200K will let you see the road the best. Blue lights does not make you see better. The blue tint you see coming out of those BMW and Audi projetors are purely prismatic effect from the lens. If you sit inside the car, the color of the light is white.



Chuck Huang

The Hella 90mm H9 and HID uses the same kind of reflector and lens. Hella 90mm H9 low beam is even stamped with D2S.



Martin, go take a look at your low beam and see if you see both H9 and D2S on there. The problem with yours is that you wanted to use the 7000K HID bulb and I think I have warned you before you bought those. 4200K will let you see the road the best. Blue lights does not make you see better. The blue tint you see coming out of those BMW and Audi projetors are purely prismatic effect from the lens. If you sit inside the car, the color of the light is white.



Chuck Huang [/quote]

you're right chuck..... the eyes dont see blue.... its all good though... it looks pretty.





i was hangin out with jayspec7 last week, and his lights are so much brighter than mine

the lens says D2S because the front lens and black plastic assembly are used for both lights. it is the rear magnesium housing with the reflector that is different. hella saves money by only making 1 front lens assembly.

The result speaks for itself. The ones I have done have nice cut off without glare. The pattern looks exactly like my BMW 330i factory HID. I have all those pattern comparison photos on the website if you are in doubt.



Chuck Huang

wahtever chuck did worked https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...DIR#>/wink.png