I have done some shopping and around from site to site...ebay has the best prices so far it just that i dont know if i want to trust something like this coming from ebay.....does anyone have any sites they would recommend, i also think i want to do my fog lamps

 

I had to do the same search as you about three months ago when I was looking for HID kits. I found with my research that all HID kits will come from the same manufacturers unless you buy a really expensive kit. With this knowledge I bought the CHEAPEST kit on ebay that came with ballasts and bulbs. I payed around $30 for the kit and I haven't had any troubles with them. I have looked at other kits and they all look the exact same as mine. Some claim to have different features, but they are all coming from the same place, just with a different markup from seller to seller. I would recommend buying the cheapest one with ballasts on ebay that you can find

 

Exactly right, i did the same thing with my last two cars. They were both 8K HID kits from ebay between $30-$40. I got the regular kit and a slim kit. They dont make a huge difefrenece so go for whatever is cheaper. I have been running them no problem for about a year.

 

Thanks guys I'm give it a shot, because I would like to do my fog lights as well any suggestion on How bright I should go....8000K 1000K or 12000 I dont want to blind anyone lol:icon_redcam

 

OEM HID setups are generally 4300K (bulb color temperature) bulbs. It's a white light, with very good color rendition. (remember, as the bulbs age, they turn blue/purple)

Aftermarket HID's are generally 6000K and up.

I purchased the ebay slim 6000K for my X-Type. I'm very happy with them, with 3 years of good service. However, they are clearly more blue than a new Acura or Lexus with stock HID's.

If I were to do it again, I'd try to purchase 4300K bulbs. They simply give better color rendition and are considerably nicer on really dark, rainy nights. The 6000K color temperature bulbs don't seem to light up a wet, black road very well.

My halogen high beams are not very effective on dry nights. But, when wet, the highs really do a better job of illumination. It's a stark difference.

 

Glissman, bulb temperature (the 8000K, 6000K, 12000K, etc) does not reflect the amount of light that you are getting out (read more about this). A 35W kit is going to output as much light as another 35W kit. yes, they make 50W kits and 80W kits, but I would not recommend them as these are not DOT approved. Having these kits installed gives a cop a reason to pull you over due to outputting too much light. 35W kits are the only DOT approved kits.

Now, as for the brightness. Like I mentioned above, only 35W kits are legal. The 50W kits will roughly output about 4300 lumen and the 80W kits output in the neighborhood of 6000 lumen. Keep in mind that a standard 55W halogen bulb only outputs about 1500 lumen. With the 35W bulbs, even inside of this limited range, you can see a lot of difference in the light output as the 4300K bulbs will output the most light at 3300 lumen. Every step you make away from 4300K, you loose roughly 200 lumen. So, 8000K bulbs are 2 steps away (4300K to 6000K to 8000K), therefore they are 400 lumen (2 steps by 200 lumen per step) only output about 2900 lumen. Not to mention you are starting to get into the blue spectrum and the ability of this to reflect useful light to the eye is starting to be called into question.

I can go into more detail on this subject if you want me to. But, hopefully this bit of information is enough to get you going in the right direction.

 

Yeah, my 8Ks are great at night and they get a lot of compliments. They aren't very good in the rain though. The 10Ks are too blue for me personally and they look like a tuner Honda. 12Ks are just purple.

 

The only problem about not buying a $200 kit is that the color temperature will be off from what it should be. I bought 12k's from the seller because they looked exactly like the 6k's that I wanted. So technically I bought a 12k kit and they do not look purple or extremely blue, but instead they look exactly like a 6k bulb.

 

Just to let u guys know I went with the 8K Icebreg blue 35w kit.....thanks again for the wealth of INFO really helped and also educated me on HID's

 

You will be very happy with the 8K. They work really well and they look awesome. You will never want to go back to that nasty yellow halogen bulb.

 

i have to trade out mine. thnx for all the info, i was also kinda confused with what to get