aircooler

Hello all,

I will be buying a HID lighting kit this week, and was wondering if anyone with "experience" in this area could offer some input on selecting a kit?

I will be getting the 8000k bulbs.

I know 928SPLST sells a kit, however I have two local sellers that are significantly cheaper.

I'm not one to just jump on something because it is cheap, but these kits seem just as good quality wise, as any of the others. To be honest, most of these kits seem to me to be the exact same 2 or 3 components with different stickers and boxes.



Kit Specifications
• Input voltage: DC 9-16V
• Input current: 3.6A
• Trigger voltage: 23KV
• Initial firing current: 8.5A
• Operate voltage: 85V
• Bulb loading capacity: 35W
• Life: 3000 hours +
• Operate temperature: -40~+105oC

Any BTDT?

Cheers,
Michael

Bill Ball

IMHO, if you aren't doing this with H4 bulbs and lamp housings, this is not a great idea. The US DOT H5 pattern is very diffuse and you will blind/annoy people with bright HID H5s. Also, with most inexpensive and even relatively expensive kits you give up high beams or they use some Mickey Mouse way to give you a lousy high beam. The conversion to H4s requires that you replace the entire headlamp. H4s with a bright bulb is quite an improvement over H5. H4 HID, with consideration about high beams, could be real nice.

Nicole

Light is not just about brightness - it's also about pattern and a few other functional things. HID looks cool, but unless it's designed as a unit with the lamp housing and reflector, I don't think it can really be precise and provide the advantages you expect from it. That's why I'm with Bill here. If I had a choice I'd rather go H4 than HID.

AO

I'll take the counter argument. I have the H5's with the 6000 HIDs from 928 Spec. (BTW, 8000 will be very purple - just so you know). I love them. It's like having instant daylight. They are so bright I never use my highbeams anymore. I have them aimed just right so oncomming traffic is okay, however, If I've recently jacked up the front, people do flash me until the front is settled down.

On my old 82, I had the H4's, and while they were very nice, the HIDs IMHO do a superior job of lighting up the night! YMMV.

AO

One onther thing... I would not put HIDs into an H4 housing. I think the focused knife edge could be more dangerous to oncoming traffic than a difussed pattern when using HIDs if not precisely aimed.

69gaugeman

Michael,

Where are you buying them? I am looking at doing this as well.

Thanks,

Mark Anderson

We just got a car in with this set up. The Headlight he put them into has the lens cracked but the HID system appears to be fine. $150.

Bill Ball

That sure is the counter argument! I think the H4 pattern is much better with brighter bulbs due to the knife-edge. If you aim them so the edge is 3 inches below lens center at 25 feet, you won't blind oncoming traffic. Try that with H5's. The light is relatively all over the place.

aircooler

Thanks for the input guys.

Is there anyone with input pertaining to the quality vs. price of these kits?

You know, I never use my high beams. I have the OEM 88 H5’s, and if I select high beams, I “blind” all comers. When I am driving at night on a non-lit street, I find that the H5 low, coupled with properly aligned driving lights is just fine.

I also have another issue. I think my huge audio suite is drawing a lot of power. I think that the HID will use less juice, and free up more amps for the rest of the car. So I hope to do the H3 driving lights as well.

Rod, I’ll drop you a PM. I don’t want to talk this kit up, until I can get a good take on the quality, and how these guys are to deal with.

Cheers,
Micheal

Alan

My input having bought a low budget HID system is that they pretty much all seem to be well made now. As to the quality of the internal components themselves - hard to say.. but you can get "off brand" versions at about half the price of well known brands (Philips/Hella etc). I suspect in the end they are made by the same people....

HID systems seem to have reached the point where over the last year they have become so widely used that they are almost commoditized - with the exception of the major brand labels (for a while more...).

I have an H3 system in my Fog lights and I like it a lot.

For H5's and H4's you need a dual mode system (with a moveable low beam shield) IF you want to retain high/low beam modes. Note that in this case the best you can hope for is that the low beam is well focussed - meaning the HID arc is in the exact same location as the low beam bulb filament - however with a movable shield this will be in quite the wrong place relative to the high beam filament... not much you can do about this. Its possible to wire shielded (low beam) HIDs to stay on with low & high beam and rely on your driving light for supplemental high beams.

Due to the HID start-up igniter delay you will not find dual arc HID's they just don't work that way...

Personally I think the best combination is HID H3's in the fogs - wired to stay on in high-beam mode. Couple this with H4 headlights and uprated bulbs (say 65/100). To me there is a huge difference with highbeams on... and yes of course this is blinding - its only for use when the road is empty...

Don't plan to use HID's in the driving lights/supplemental high-beams since they won't come on at full brightness for a few seconds...

HID's are usually about 35W each running vs 55/65W stock

Alan

PS those units look exactly like mine - just with different labels

PPS Mark - New price of these on ebay is now about $150-180... check...

Mark Anderson

Still have them. Any offers?

Mark Anderson

Bill if you would like this used set we have I will send them to you N.C. since you have been doing so much to help out the rest of us these days.

Bill Ball

Wow, that's awfully generous. I'm happy with the H4s and not sure what I would do with that kit. Thanks so much for the compliment.