Anyone familiar with hid headlights?

ZacharyTaylor001 · #1 03-02-2015, 08:29 PM

I had a pair of his headlights 10000k on my truck for a year. Ordered some 10000 fog lights to match. Obviously the color was off. So I ordered a set of new 10000k hid headlights so the color would come back and it really didn't make a difference. Any opinions?,

Ordinary Biker · #2 03-02-2015, 08:39 PM

Only the obvious. Anything about about 6000k and you are losing visible light to the color. If you want them for actually illuminating, don't go above 6000k. I picked 5500K for mine.

Second, plug and play HID's in a halogen reflector housing will not yield usable beam patterns, and will mostly serve to blind oncoming motorists. The wave length of HID bulbs are different from halogens, which is why HID's only really work as intended in projectors.

ZacharyTaylor001 · #3 03-02-2015, 08:52 PM

Well why would any of that make my color mis matched?

sirwheels · #4 03-02-2015, 09:23 PM

HIDs have minds of their own.

riscorpian · #5 03-02-2015, 09:38 PM

There is a three-tier spectrum of HID quality. You have the cheap ones that cost about $50 and under. Every kit is a lottery with those. First time I tried an HID kit, I bought two 6000k bulbs, and wound up with one 8000k and one 10000k with some of the cheapest, most unpredictable ballasts known to man. Second tier is the $90–$120 kit that actually delivers what it says on the package. You get ballasts that are generally quiet (maybe a light hum while warming up) and bulbs that aren't just the right color, but actually match each other! Third tier is anything more expensive than that. This is where people who are absolutely convinced that quality is directly proportional to price all the way like to buy stuff. You'll spend several hundred on kits that are identical in effective use to the mid-tier stuff. It's nothing but price-gouging.

That being said, Ordinary Biker is correct on the projector thing. You need projectors designed specifically for xenon bulbs to truly maximize light output. The bulbs will still work in standard halogen housings, but it is not plug and play. You'll have to take care to lower the aim quite a bit. This will fix the glare that tends to be associated with HIDs, but it will also kill the distance of the light output. It still beats standard halogens, but it's not as impressive as you'd expect. A projector retrofit is the only way you'll get the most out of it.