| Quote, originally posted by pwlorraine » |
I have factory xenons on our BMW X3, my g37 vert, and my (now sold) Audi A6 - I also installed xenons on my 1998 BMW e36 vert. The aftermarket lights on the e36 ar 6000K - hotter than the 4300K stock on the other cars but the difference is subtle - a little colder but without noticeable blue or purple. Xenons are easy to distinguish from a distance on a highway - they wind up looking white and making halogen bulbs look yellow. There are people out there who either buy blue-tinted halogens or put in very hot xenons and wind up with blue or purple colors - I don't get the point. They don't help visibility - total lumens fall above 4300K - and they don't look like a luxury car from a distance - they look like someone trying to look like a luxury car. There are people going for a custom look who may want this to match some other aspect of their vision - fine by me. But in general this feels like someone thinking that if a little cologne is good - a lot must be terrific! It winds up looking silly. Finally, on aftermarket modifications the beam pattern matters. I don't know if the halogen projector lenses are appropriate for xenons. Also, no aftermarket xenon mod is street legal - you (and the many others like you doing this) are counting on not being flagged. Problems - on BMW's aftermarket kits frequently throw "burned out light" codes - I don't know if Infiniti's test for bulb filament integrity. After market ballasts have had some past problems with early failure. The bulbs are fiendishly hot - Peter |
pwlorraine's got the gist of it, the only addition i'd add to this is that save the ballast, the EX35 might already be pre-wired for Xenons, which may be a bit different than a full conversion.
The real question i would want to know is are the cutoffs for the Xenon in place already, if not, you are not only being a danger to yourself (overglaring what YOU can see), but you are also a danger to oncoming traffic.
and yes, past 4300k is when you start losing usable light. 5000k is really where i would stop, because it has that nice slightly blue mostly off-white color.
the reason i say i dont trust that kit and the ballast is, well in reality the ballast is just resistor, but the problem is, with these online companies, they tend to make some shotty resisters. they have to be air tight, and everything on the inside has to be perfect, or you easily short.
I had CCFL rings on my TL, and as simple as those were, I still got new ballasts. It will NEVER be a convinient thing to repair anything involving your light, so might as well do it right the first time.
and why do the stock halogens suck? The truth is you see the most in your immediate field of vision with halogens. Xenons only cut through further. When i have time and when the weather warms up i want to change the Foglights on the EX to yellow. That is the most visible light and the safest light to use,
if it's for a looks thing, then you could try this projector, or you could look for a retrofit specialist
