Pics of my HID Upgrade

[batman75]

I bought an XtremeHID 6500K upgrade kit from XenonDepot.com

The kit is very high quality and made entirely in Japan. It's a 35Watt kit because I wanted it to match OEM specs rather than risk damage from an over-rated kit. I discussed this with my Infiniti service advisor and this was his perspective too.

6500K is white with a slight blue tinge, which looks great, but is supposed to be less bright than 4300K OEM spec. I took a bunch of photos, and I found they perform extremely well, and are arguably a match for brightness to our Lexus ES350 OEM factory-included HIDs which are 4300K Philips.

These pics are taken outside my house, and there is no street lighting or external lighting from the house. All lights on the house are off, so the light you see is entirely from the car. You will notice the standard projectors which carry over from the stock Halogen lamps, provide an excellent cut-off line. The aim may seem high against the garage door, but that's because the driveway is on a hill and slopes up.

See pics here:

[batman75]

In addition here is a comparison to my OEM Lexus Xenon HID headlamps to illustrate how good they are. As you know OEM Lexus system is Philips ballasts with Philips Xeneco 4300K D4S bulbs. This is the gold standard also used by BMW.

First pic shows Lexus on left, and Infiniti aftermarket on right.


Second pic shows the Infiniti lighting up garage


Third pic shows the Lexus lighting up the garage for comparison of brightness and color

[jamesstock]

Awesome! Thank you for the pix. I have a couple questions I like to ask you.

The last 2 pictures showing the 'lights' from each vehicle in the gararge, seems to me the Lexus OEM Xenon / HID's light beam touches the 'floor' more than XenonDepot's HID in the EX35.

Do you get more 'road' coverage (further and wider beam pattern) after the XenonDepot's HID's installed?

Also would it be possible to take a shot from either from the driver's seat or maybe from the moonroof. I like to see how much coverage the HID beam has on the road and how 'far' it'll get to (w/out the fogs on).

Appreciated your help!

[EXceptional]

Can I ask a question?

Are the OEM Xenon's junk? Or do the economy Models of EX's come with plain ol Headlight Bulbs and the loaded ones come with Xenon Bulbs?

I'd sure like to know why people are doing this Mod.

I think what I have (Xenon) is prety good.

[batman75]

Can I ask a question?

Are the OEM Xenon's junk? Or do the economy Models of EX's come with plain ol Headlight Bulbs and the loaded ones come with Xenon Bulbs?

I'd sure like to know why people are doing this Mod.

We did the mod because our car did not came with Xenons but with Halogens. It is kind of bizarre because our car is also pretty loaded - Tech package (lane departure warning, lane departure prevention, around-view monitor system, navigation, ipod integration, XM radio, Nav traffic), Comfort and convenience package (wood trim, heated seats, garage door openers, memory seats, sunroof, etc.). Also has roof rack. The only 3 features I could identify this car does not have are Xenons, panoramic roof, and automatic wipers. Personally I don't like Panoramic roofs because I think they compromise the rigidity of the car.

It was a used car from Infiniti Corporate so that may be why it has so much equipment but such an obvious option missing.

[batman75]

Awesome! Thank you for the pix. I have a couple questions I like to ask you.

The last 2 pictures showing the 'lights' from each vehicle in the gararge, seems to me the Lexus OEM Xenon / HID's light beam touches the 'floor' more than XenonDepot's HID in the EX35.

This is misleading. It is largely because the EX35 is a higher car and the car are sloping upwards on the driveway. This combination of factors creates a larger spot where the light doesn't touch the floor. On a level surface, and seated behind the wheel, you can't see this unlit patch. All the tarmac you can see from the drivers seat is lit.

Do you get more 'road' coverage (further and wider beam pattern) after the XenonDepot's HID's installed?

Also would it be possible to take a shot from either from the driver's seat or maybe from the moonroof. I like to see how much coverage the HID beam has on the road and how 'far' it'll get to (w/out the fogs on).

Appreciated your help!

Unfortunately I am leaving for Phoenix tonight and then going home to Miami so I won't be able to take more pics for a while. These pics are of my parents cars in Atlanta - I was visiting and did this upgrade for my Dad at his request. But here are some pics with the fogs off.

External view with the fogs off. You see the unlit patch I mentioned.


Internal view from drivers seat with the fog off - you see it lights same area of road surface as with fogs on in the earlier pic. Also you can't see the unlit area because of the hood line.


Also to give you an idea of the strength of the Xenons versus the Halogens, I took a shot against the hill of the car with xenons only, and xenons plus high beams so you can see how powerful the highbeam halogen light is compared with the xenon light. It makes it clear the xenon is very bright.

Xenon only (same as in previous post)


Xenon with high beams - you can stil see the clear Xenon cut-off which shows the Xenons significantly overpower the highbeams.


Bottom line - I think this significantly improves visibility over stock bulbs. It has been striking to me when driving the car. However I am not the primary driver of this car. My car is a Lexus GS460 not shown in either of these pics. This car is mainly driven by my Dad, and he raves about the improvement in visibility.

That said, if you really want to max visible light you should get 4300K or 5000K which would deliver more usable light at lower Kelvins. This is the reason all OEMs have 4300K as stock.

Also if you find the range isn't good enough, you can always change the aim of the low beams. Infiniti has designed the car so the beams can be aimed manually. I think the stock aim was fine on this car. However I may tweak it if we buy HID fogs.

[jamesstock]

BatMan...thx for your response. Forgot to ask you if there's any drilling / modifications required to put the lights in? Or was it simply plug N play?

[batman75]

It's plug and play. Just need to find a place to put the ballasts.

I actually got a car electronics shop to do mine. It cost $70 for installation labour. The kit came with the mounting hardware. You basically mount the ballasts with double-sided automotive tape, and secure it with plastic ties. I think the best place to secure it is the front impact beam.

Also don't touch the bulbs with your hands since they are sensitive to oil. Best to handle them with nitrile gloves (which were included with the kit I bought).

[ybe4094]

Awesome! Thank you for the pix. I have a couple questions I like to ask you.

The last 2 pictures showing the 'lights' from each vehicle in the gararge, seems to me the Lexus OEM Xenon / HID's light beam touches the 'floor' more than XenonDepot's HID in the EX35.

Do you get more 'road' coverage (further and wider beam pattern) after the XenonDepot's HID's installed?

Also would it be possible to take a shot from either from the driver's seat or maybe from the moonroof. I like to see how much coverage the HID beam has on the road and how 'far' it'll get to (w/out the fogs on).

Appreciated your help!

jamesstock,

The cars equipped with OEM HID lights use completely different projectors. I did this HID upgrade mod on my EX35 using the kit I purchased from DDM tuning. My results are very similar to the results posted by batman75 in this thread. The original halogen projectors equipped with HID bulbs will give you a huge improvement over the stock halogen setup. Nevertheless, you will not achieve the same light coverage as you would get in a car with OEM HID projectors. The halogen projectors equipped with HID bulbs will give you pretty narrow light pattern with some glare spots. If you look at batman75's picture (third from top) where the light is shining on the garage door you notice two glare spots above the center of each headlight. Plus, if examine the rest of the pictures, you notice that the light pattern is narrow. Don't get me wrong, it's still very good, great cutoff, much brighter, but not as good as on my BMW 3-series and Acura MDX OEM HIDs. In summary, it all depends on how much you are willing to spend. In order to achieve the best results, you would have to replace both headlight assemblies. Being an electrical engineer, I am very satisfied with the quality of the kit I purchased from DDM Tuning ($53 shipped). Basically, plug and play installation, no external relay required if you chose the 35W kit. I hope this helps.

[jamesstock]

ybe4094,

Thank you for the insight. I did lots of research online on HID retrofit vs a HID kit. Going w/ the HID retrofit seems to be a better outcome in terms of 'beam pattern' and 'coverage'. But of course price will be alot more than just getting the HID kit. Now my question for you regarding your DDM HID kit is if the 'bulb' is 'beam pattern corrected'? What I mean is that if the DDM HID kit Xenon bulb is adjusted to match the halogen H11's light source 'height' / 'location'. If the bulb that comes w /the HID kit isn't beam pattern matched w/ the Halogen H11 bulb, then the beam will be everywhere. Kbcarstuff.com says that their HID kit is 'beam pattern corrected', but DDM tuning doesn't say. kbcarstuff.com / xenondepot offers just 1yr warranty while DDM Tuning offers lifetime warranty AND at 1/3 of the price! That is a pretty good deal.

[ybe4094]

ybe4094,

Thank you for the insight. I did lots of research online on HID retrofit vs a HID kit. Going w/ the HID retrofit seems to be a better outcome in terms of 'beam pattern' and 'coverage'. But of course price will be alot more than just getting the HID kit. Now my question for you regarding your DDM HID kit is if the 'bulb' is 'beam pattern corrected'? What I mean is that if the DDM HID kit Xenon bulb is adjusted to match the halogen H11's light source 'height' / 'location'. If the bulb that comes w /the HID kit isn't beam pattern matched w/ the Halogen H11 bulb, then the beam will be everywhere. Kbcarstuff.com says that their HID kit is 'beam pattern corrected', but DDM tuning doesn't say. kbcarstuff.com / xenondepot offers just 1yr warranty while DDM Tuning offers lifetime warranty AND at 1/3 of the price! That is a pretty good deal.

Yes, the DDM Tuning bulbs are beam pattern corrected. The two bulbs (halogen vs HID) are of course different in length but the location of the filament in the halogen bulb matches the location of the xenon gas inside the HID bulb. But, as I mentioned before, the problem is not in the bulb. The problem is in the projector lenses. The halogen projector lenses are designed to have a very narrow beam pattern. You can run a simple test on your car. Turn on you headlights and look at the beam pattern. You will see a conus beam pattern coming from your headlights. Installing an HID kit will not change the light pattern; it will simply increase the light intensity. The improvement will be huge but the light pattern will remain the same. Once again, it's a question of money, $53 for the HID kit or around $1000 per each headlight assembly.

[batman75]

I think the quality of the kits from Xenondepot are better than DDM Tuning. The high-end kit I bought is called the XenonDepot XtremeHID kit and it is made in Japan. It uses genuine Philips quartz glass on the bulbs. They use laser alignment to get an optimal beam pattern. These aren't cheap chinese kits and I personally prefer to put quality Japanese xenon ballasts and bulbs on my Japanese car. It doesn't seem right to put low-cost Chinese kits on a Japanese luxury car.

There were also some even more expensive kits that offer Philips ballasts and Philips rebased bulbs but those kits tend to be over $300. The Japanese XD kit is $175.

On the whole I PM'd a bunch of forum members, and I found the people with $50-60 kits mostly had a pretty good experience and would buy them again, but there were a number of people who mentioned they had a warranty issue after 1-2 years. With the Xenon Depot kits and the German kits offered by people like HIDConcept everyone I contacted had been running them without trouble for 3-4 years already.

Even if the warranty support is there on the less expensive kits, I'd rather have a kit I can be fairly confident will last for the period I keep the car, than be in a situation where I need to claim on the warranty.

[ybe4094]

I think the quality of the kits from Xenondepot are better than DDM Tuning. The high-end kit I bought is called the XenonDepot XtremeHID kit and it is made in Japan. It uses genuine Philips quartz glass on the bulbs. They use laser alignment to get an optimal beam pattern. These aren't cheap chinese kits and I personally prefer to put quality Japanese xenon ballasts and bulbs on my Japanese car. It doesn't seem right to put low-cost Chinese kits on a Japanese luxury car.

There were also some even more expensive kits that offer Philips ballasts and Philips rebased bulbs but those kits tend to be over $300. The Japanese XD kit is $175.

On the whole I PM'd a bunch of forum members, and I found the people with $50-60 kits mostly had a pretty good experience and would buy them again, but there were a number of people who mentioned they had a warranty issue after 1-2 years. With the Xenon Depot kits and the German kits offered by people like HIDConcept everyone I contacted had been running them without trouble for 3-4 years already.

Even if the warranty support is there on the less expensive kits, I'd rather have a kit I can be fairly confident will last for the period I keep the car, than be in a situation where I need to claim on the warranty.

That's fine. I am not trying to endorse DDM Tuning. I used them simply as an available and relatively reliable supplier. I am an electrical engineer by major and in this economy almost everything (from iPhone to car components) is produced in China. Everything depends on the quality of the production process. The point I am trying to make is that the quality of the HID kit (the bulb plus the ballast) will not drastically affect the outcome of your retrofit project. Almost everything depends on the combination: the lense plus the reflector. This is clearly seen from the pictures you've posted. By the way, great pictures. For comparison, my retrofit results completely match your pictures.

[skimrn]

Thanks for the info so far. I am seriously considering upgrading my wife's 08 EX35 to Xenons. I can't believe it has halogens also.
Sounds like you found a quality HID kit. There are SO many companies out there selling HID conversion kits.

Questions for you.
Did you end up with 4 ballasts for both hi/low beams from Xtreme HID kit? Do you have both hi and low beams in Xenon? I do want both hi/low beams in Xenons...

Thanks again!

[ex35tdt]

It's brigher because it has too much glare, just like high beam. See the 2nd and 3rd picture in the first post. This won't pass inspection and you need to paint bottom of the bulb.

If you compare side by side the H11 halogen bulb with H11 HID, you will see the point of light source of HID bulb is a bit far away than halogen and this is why the shield inside projector no longer block the light above the cutoff effectively.