New Member Question :) HIDs?

[UAV_Driver]

Hi all

Just picked up my shiny new 09 A/C a few days ago... Have a questionon HID headlights. I haven't been able to find an answer to this withsearch, so I figured I'd ask it here.

I want to put HID's in my A/C. I've gotten several recommendations fromlocal places to use 5000k because they look the closest to stock HID's.My question is with the headlights themselves... I want a "stock" HID look,not the slammed 95 civic bathing everything 180 degrees in front of mewith blue light look.... Is this achievable with the stock A/C headlights? Theylook like they're fairly recessed, giving them a bit of a "lip" overhead thatshould cut down on this alot. Was also wondering if taking the "mushroomcap" (don't know how else to describe it) covering the stock halogen bulbsoff would help or harm it.

Thanks in advance

[RaiderKID]

I went with 6k... they look the best in my opinion

[PHENOMenalVinyl]

6k... they look the best in my opinion

agreed

if you want stock/oem look and a sexy hid look get 6k thats ur best bet if you want a lil hint of blue get 8k.........i have 8k but thats bc idk y actually bc ide rather have 6k lol

[QR25DE]

6000K Here, wouldn't go any higher or lower. 6000K give a pure white light and offer the best in night driving condition IMO.

[blackteam02]

i have 5,000k for my high beams, and 30,000k for my low beams.

my highs are sIIIIck, yeah i think theyre closest to stock hids. as for removing that little cup/cap over the low beam bulb..your lows will just look like high beams! ive done this before on my ford exploder, but let us know how it turns out, take pics!!

[Heels1010]

30,000 k? do u mean 3000K Yellow? how are the 5000k hi beams? I was worried about having hid hi beams because u turn them offand on constantly and would burn out quicker.

[blackteam02]

yeah 30,000k-what it says on the tags n box. its a special color i guess, its a DEEEEP blue color. its just for looks, no real function, i use hi's more.

as for the 5000k: nope no problems yet ive had them on for over a year now and no signs of fading yet!! yaaaay Xentec!! i do tons of on/off switching.i dont think you'll have a problem unless you link'em up to a strobelight kit ie. police.

[Blackmobile]

you won't get a proper stock look with aftermarket hid's. not unless you do a retrofit and rip open the headlights. the fact is that a non-oem headlight uses a reflector bowl, so when you put in an aftermarket kit, it's also using the same technology. so you will get a bit of a "flood" of light, but as long as you aim them properly it shouldn't be an issue with blinding oncomming traffic, most of our cars haven't needed to be aimed. as for taking off the reflective mushroom cap, that will do more harm, it will decrease your light output. hope that helps

oh yeah, got with 6k hid's, they look sweet

[rjdmmfl1]

OP, the reason stock vehicles use 4300K is because it provides the most actual light oputput in terms of "lumens"... I put 5000k in my wife's factory non HID headlights and she loves them (and she's not into car modding)

I repalced my factory 4300K H ID's with aftermarket 5000K HID's... and indeed light output is slightly less than the factory 4300K, but not very noticeable...

regarding putting them into the non HID headlights, for our cars, it won;t be a problem... the reason the civics and older 90's based cars are blinding folks is because of how the headlights were designed. nowadays, even factory headlights have a pretty decent beam cutoff pattern, so adding HID's doesn't really cause glare the way the 90's designed headlights did...

you won't get a proper stock look with aftermarket hid's. not unless you do a retrofit and rip open the headlights. the fact is that a non-oem headlight uses a reflector bowl, so when you put in an aftermarket kit, it's also using the same technology. so you will get a bit of a "flood" of light, but as long as you aim them properly it shouldn't be an issue with blinding oncomming traffic, most of our cars haven't needed to be aimed.

most of this is INACCURATE! Both the factory HID and non HID headlights use "reflector bowls" to reflect light for the headlight. The only vehicles that don't use these are vehicles with "projectors"

the difference in the Altimas that come with HID vs the ones without (in addition to the ballast and bulb) is the orientation of the reflectors inside the headlight. The HID headlams have a different vertical reflective surface which suts down a glare a bit more, compared to the non HID headlamps. this isn't really discernabl;e to the avaerage person until you look at both of them very closesly (I have)...

so again, tehy both use reflective bowls, they both have better than average cutoff lines, so you won't blind folks if you put in an HID kit in your altima...

what color you ue is entirely up to you... I agree with what the companies have been telling you OP, I would go with 5000K as it puts out pure white light, and although it puts out a bit less lumens than 4300K, the look is much, much better than 4300K... once you start with 6000K and above, you REALLY start putting oput A LOT less light compared to both 4300K and 5000K, and the blue look looks a bit rice to me, but some folks love it... just look at some photos of various colors and go with those, but my suggestion would be 5000K

[Blackmobile]

well i'd have to semi disagree with that, i'm right that non-oem headlights use relector bowl, and if you put in an aftermarket kit you're using the same type of reflector bowl.

but i agree that I made it sound like oem hid's don't use reflector bowls but that's not true, they do as you said. so if the op wants a total oem-hid lookalike then he'd have to retrofit his headlights to have the same type of reflector bowl that the oem-hid headlights use. i think i made it sound like oem's use projectors, which i might have had in mind cause i can't get projectors off my brain but thanks for the clarification doc

[rjdmmfl1]

well i'd have to semi disagree with that, i'm right that non-oem headlights use relector bowl, and if you put in an aftermarket kit you're using the same type of reflector bowl.

but i agree that I made it sound like oem hid's don't use reflector bowls but that's not true, they do as you said. so if the op wants a total oem-hid lookalike then he'd have to retrofit his headlights to have the same type of reflector bowl that the oem-hid headlights use. i think i made it sound like oem's use projectors, which i might have had in mind cause i can't get projectors off my brain but thanks for the clarification doc

ur right, the beam pattern is NOT 100% the same in the non HID vs HID headlamps,,,, you get a little bit more of a scatter in the NON HID headlamps than you do with the HID headlamps and this is entirely due to the differences in the design of the reflector bowls...

I've pulled both my car and my wife's car up next to each other and reflected the headlamps on the same wall, and you can clearly see a difference in her NON HID headlamps, vs my factory HID headlamps... definitely more scatter and not a 100% clear perfect cutoff line like you get with the factory HID headlamp..

i think I know what u were getting at, i just didn't want the OP to be confused...

and i definately feel you on the projectors..... phucking design phuckers at Nissan and their retarded bulging curved overpriced projectors...

look at these for the G35 http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ories

less than $600 for factory headlamps... why r we getting screwed so royally????

[Rmuth25]

6k is by far the best option. Has a nice white light with a subtle blue tone. I dont know where you live, but light output is kindof important for me, I live out in the sticks where there are plenty douchey deer that would love to jump in front of my car.

The 6000k have a good amount of usable light but still have a good blue tinge.

[QR25DE]

lol @ douchey deer