ive searched and wondered on opinions for hids ... i just recently bought these headlights which are double projectors
http://acekogyo.com/TIC/HL-TL/OCT2007/OCT26/FR-5019B.jpg
now ... i bought a set of i think 9006 low beam bulbs from my friend and they are 8k blue nokya halogen bulbs ... completely removed the cut off shields cause if im correct they are suppossed to be covering the top not the bottom ??? ... modded blue leds into the high beams so it has a unique look ... and switched the high and low beam positions cause the highs used to be far inside and the lows outside ... so im looking into an hid kit ... and im lookin 8k cause its the bright white with a hint of blue ... i dont want straight blue ... i want function over rediculous looking blue that you really cant see ... the projectors are totally sealed except the crystal is exposed and has no cover ... ive seen projectors that arent a bowl but are actually open vented ... ive heard hids are illegal in stocks cause they are blinding and not dot approved ... and my car is already a ticket nightmare for the 5-0 ... im in indiana and if anyone knows the laws out here that would also be a help ...

im also lookin into maybe doin a retro of a dif projector so its better output but thats later ... chime in if anyone has done this on these cause im seriously interested ...

are hids hotter burning or colder? and what exactly should i do just the lows or highs too?

all opinions are gonna be greatly appreciated thanks

What you mean you took the cut-off shield completely???? That cant be good. Can you show a pic of that. I live in indy how often you get down here, wouldnt mind helping you with this or the retro-fit part of it bc i just finished mine. All aftermarket hid's are illegal

As for heat they may run a couple degrees cooler. For the color IMHO 4300k are the best you get a bluish/purplishfrom head on and a lil yellow from some angles then white on the road. 4300k will give you a stock look and cops wont pay much attention to them, unless you get 8000k like you were talking about

Do the lows only with hid's because if you do hids in highs, when you turn on your highs they have to warm up to get to there full potential and when they do that you just have to turn them back off. Hids are not made to do that, Not worth it to me just get some good halogens for brights

What you mean you took the cut-off shield completely???? That cant be good.

i was thinking the same thing! The projector lens reflects everything upside down. So your cutoff would be on the top and the light output would be on the bottom. lol. I've also done a retrofit into aftermarket headlights. Let me tell you its totally worth it!

My retrofit thread is here: CLICK! (http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=197895)

TheRetrofitSource.com also recommends the 4300K bulbs for the most usable light. Anything higher than that is just for looks. I went with 6000K and its plenty bright (check out the pics on page 10 of my thread). HID's do put out a good amount of heat but the bulb life is over 2000 hrs if I'm not mistaken.

As far as legality, I've had my lights finished for a week or so and no cop problems. No one has flashed their lights at me cause my lights are too bright. It could be because of the amazing cutoff of the Acura TSX projectors. Basically, any OEM projector will greatly out perform the projectors that are in your lights now. There are many options for OEM projectors also (eBay).

^your retro-fit thread is way better than mine

^ both of yours was probably better than mine.

But yeah, i would put teh shield back in teh projector. it may look like it would be blocking the light, but the lens actually flips the light upside down. its kinda like how the eye works.

well the cutoff shield on my projector fogs were on the top and they were mounted right side up thats why i got confuzzled ... as for the cutoff shields they are long gone from the projectors and thats kinda hence why i wanna do a retro when i get some moneyy ... for 100 bux i think im gonna buy a hid kit and if i get flashed ill try to turn em down or ill take em out til i retro ... any ideas of color temp cuz now i heard that 8k is REALLY blue and not slight tint ... my projectors are open and dont have a lens over em is this a problem? and they are only held on my 4 adjustment screws on the back so idk how they would fit unless they are a perfect fit ... ill try to get some pics

well ... for some reason now i wanna do a retro to my stocks ... i dont think ill like these projectors

well ... for some reason now i wanna do a retro to my stocks ... i dont think ill like these projectors

thats what i did.

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/8486/img2636rld.jpg

As for color temperature, its really up to you. do you want output, or do you want color?

The best color temp for output is 4300K, which is roughly sunlight around noon. As you go up higher on the Kelvin scale, you lose output, 8000K being one of the worse since its pure blue light (and blue scatters very easily). But having color with a retrofit is rather pointless, you would prefer more color at the cutoff so you get that 'twinkle' effect.

oh, and i would highly suggest you put the shields back if youre gonna put a kit in those projectors. you wont be able to see teh road very well and oncoming traffic will see your headlights as moving stadium lights.

Yea if you took the shields out of your projectors, your just throwing light everywhere.

Do what kauai did it looks really good like that. Just do a retro take your time and do it right and you will get what you want.

thats what i did.

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/8486/img2636rld.jpg

As for color temperature, its really up to you. do you want output, or do you want color?

The best color temp for output is 4300K, which is roughly sunlight around noon. As you go up higher on the Kelvin scale, you lose output, 8000K being one of the worse since its pure blue light (and blue scatters very easily). But having color with a retrofit is rather pointless, you would prefer more color at the cutoff so you get that 'twinkle' effect.

oh, and i would highly suggest you put the shields back if youre gonna put a kit in those projectors. you wont be able to see teh road very well and oncoming traffic will see your headlights as moving stadium lights.



well i really love this look so much better than my aftermarkets ... i think i will look around for some good ideas ... and im definately not looking for pure blue hids ... im looking for right around 6k cause its a clean white with a small tint of blue ... looks plus function ...keep it kauai do you have any pics or your retro i really am interested in that

uhm, some of the things you guys said are not really true..

8k is not "PURE blue".. 8k is actually 60% white and 40% blue...

4.3k doesnt have blueish nor purpleish hue, it only has yellow.. if you see color hue in a car that has 4.3k is just because of the projectors. The projectors are some crystal things, and crystal can separate the colors out of light. 4.3k is the color of the sun, barely and according to optics it has the best light output.

6k doesnt have that much of a noticeable blue hue, it does but you wont notice.. its more like pure white, dont look for pictures of 6000k on google, most of the pictures with 6k will look like if they had 8k, thats because of the cameras, they can "catch" colors we cant.
For example, both of these pictures are 6k, they dont look the same:

http://media.photobucket.com/image/6000k/BMWERKEN/HID010.jpg

http://www.yoshidashouten.com.au/img/6000Kcar_500.jpg


im a hid seller, i also install kits. as for which ones of those look like real 6k, the bimmer ones look just like mine ( i also have 6k in my mach hids)
Some will burn me, but ill tell you this, if you want some blue hue, dont get 6k, get 8k. They are NOT as blue as you guys tell..

now THIS is what you should NOT GET!!!, its about 20,000k, with it, cops will follow you as if you had a donut car lol, also they dont throw usable light.
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/7746/img0623nd3.jpg



And just one thing, if you decide to go with retrofit (which is your best option, although its still ilegal), get some help, i have known many people who fkd the headlights. also, do it on very good to excelent condition headlights, since you would do it once and keep it like that, you dont want your sweet retrofited headlights to turn faded and yellow. lol

good luck!

thanks for the input svtrsst ... i like the crisp white that has just the little hint of blue ... i want all the light with a lil style ... the halogen bulbs i have now are 8k alikes and they are actually pretty bad for output ... but i just want a clean look ... and im def looking for help on the retro cause i really would like to not mess em up

look.. heres a comparative, 8k then 6k then 4.3k then halogen
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff296/SVTRSST/scale.jpg

i have 50w 6k:

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff296/SVTRSST/focus%20svt/DSC01346.jpg

okkk .... its been cold in here for a lil ... just got my hids last wednesday and damnnnn are they nice ... i got the 6k for my lows and they light up so nice ... and for those of you sayin i shouldnt have cut my cutoff shields off ... these projectors are def poor quality of the chinese market ... i just had to aim them a lil lower than i had em but i dont get flashed by anyone at all ... im soon to be buyin the highbeam kit in like 4300 k or 5k ... i know overkill but i live out in the middle of nowhere so its useful especially with the high 4 conversion i have done ... xentec is the way to go off ebay with like a .03% failure rate and when they fault they turn off and dont burn ur car down ... i woulda loved to buy the kits sold on here but moneys really tight and 60 bucks from california was too good of a deal to pass up ... any questions and i will be glad to answer

id you are willing to buy hid for highs, take in mind that hid needs to warm up, and because of that your highs will have some "lag", but when they get warmed up.. you will be as bright as las Vegas from the space ;)

yep i kno they need time for warmin up but it wont bother me cause my lows will still be on :D ... hids are the BEST way to go for lighting even if you dont want colors ... think ... u spend close to 50 bucks on sylvania silverstar ultras and they are the brightest halogen you can get for the money ... or you can spend another 10 bucks or so and have 3 times brighter ... HID ftw

do you have foglights?, if so, do the fog light mod and install some hids there aswell! freakin bright lol

I'm liking the 50W bulbs in the Mach housings... What needed to be changed to go from 35W to 50W?

you will castrate me for this but.. i dont care it has been working pretty good hehe..

Well, you know the conversion kits, well, there are also OEM kits made by the same guys, this is d2s kits. I decided to go with it because for some reason i didnt like the output of the oem.

you just need to buy a d2s kit, remove the hella system, and install the new one, as you might have seen, the conversion kits come with lots of wires and the way to put the kit is passing the new wiring by the hole that the hella ballasts needed for their own wiring. Its almost like plug and play, since d2s systems aint the same all the time that makes the d2s conv kits not 100% plug and play, more like a 90% plug and play :D

i have had it for more than 1 year and 6 months and its still good, no problems at all.

Have you noticed any dimming in the cabin when turning on the headlights, or a brief drop in RPMs?

i guess you are asking me, uhm no.. everything is the same as before, you wondering for the higher wattage?, well.. i also installed hid to fogs so i guess that compensates

i do have fog lights but they are the cheap auto zone projectors that the h1 bulb is white but the lens makes it yellow ... im lookin for a cheap set of universal projector fogs that i can put hids in and say screw the yellows ... its a clash of colors blue white and yellow .... id rather have all bright white 6k lights for all my cars

^ i dont know if you would be interested but i have a set of 2010 ford fusion projector fog lights, i will let them go cheap, 40 bucks shipped :D let me know if you interested

post wall cutoff shots.