Change Halogen to HID help

[4EST]

I was considering making an upgrade to the lighting on my 2012 2.5s and I've tried to do some research to find info on the best way to upgrade my headlights but I'm a complete noob and ive confused myself about how to upgrade to HID's. I would like a brighter light with the slight blue color.

I may be totally confused but this is what I understand. Please tell me if I'm way off...

I have a 2012 2.5s with none of the "extras" or upgraded packages. This means I have projector halogen lights with an "H11" bulb ?
I cannot simply upgrade by getting HID bulbs, as they run at higher temps and will burn or cause damage to my stock headlight assembly. Is this true?

I have also read that my lights would need to be "retro fit" in order for me to do this correctly, which appears to be costly. (Like around 900 or 1000) Is this true?

I thought that an HID conversion kit would be a simple "plug and play" way to upgrade my lighting. Am I wrong?

Any help you guys could provide is greatly appreciated!

[uriel_22]

I have the same questions :/
have you found out anything about it?

[seldomseen]

Just purchase an aftermarket HID/Xenon kit online. Just google HID light kits...99% of the kits are plug & play and can be self installed within 1 -2 hour in most cases----retro fitting a kit is unnecessary and old school. Your projector headlamps will be perfectly capable of handling HID bulbs and will not be damaged. Google a few HID kits and report back with information about the kits you're interested so we can provide feedback.

Aftermarket HID kits can be purchased very cheaply these days. You will want to consider bulb temperature as too as well. 4.3k - 5k bulbs are ideal for lighting visibility/performance and color.

A lot of people are going with 6k bulbs nowadays, but you will experience degradation of lighting quality/clarity, but will have a very blue light color. Stay away from the 8k bulbs because they're a really useless for lighting performance and visibility particularly during inclement weather.

[4EST]

Thanks for the info seldomseen!! I never made any changes to the bulbs because i was afraid of damaging something due to the heat but if plenty of others have done this without harming the housings, i'll definitely look into it!

[uriel_22]

good! Thanks a lot for the guidance, I was looking for 6K but, like you said, maybe 5K will do the trick.
based on what I've read, I'll wait until black friday sale on hidextra.com, these are good ones right?

[seldomseen]

You may in fact be happy with a 6k bulb. However, a 4.3k or 5k is the absolute best way to go if you want optimal lighting performance and lighting aesthetics from HID lighting technology. You'll appreciate the 4.3k-5k bulb if you drive in very dark unlit areas and during inclement weather snow/rain et cetera, particularly at night.

[JCJPark]

You have the newer of the Altima coupe models which means you already have projector headlamps. This means you only need a HID kit to convert to a full HID setup and you can skip the retrofit part. This should cost anywhere from $30 to $90 depending on brand and quality but they all work the same way, just plug one end to where the original bulb would connect and put the HID bulb in where the original bulb was and find a way to attach all the extra wires and ballasts of the HID kit to the car. The HID conversion kit comes with ballasts and wires that convert the factory 12v to high voltage to run the HID bubls. The "retro fit" part would be retrofitting custom projectors into where the original light bulb reflector bulb is which in your car, already comes with projectors in place of the old fashioned reflectors.

[seldomseen]

good! Thanks a lot for the guidance, I was looking for 6K but, like you said, maybe 5K will do the trick.
based on what I've read, I'll wait until black friday sale on <a class="vglnk" title="Link added by VigLink" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://hidextra.com"><span>hidextra</span><span>.</span><span>com</span></a>, these are good ones right?

I'm not familiar the aftermarket HID kits anymore (my first kit was back in '99) but the product seems legitimate for the price. Do a few google searches on this particular brand to determine if their ballast/bulbs are reliable.