I bought the 6000K H4 HID kit made by Mcculloch.
First off, the light bulbs were not shielded. OEM regular halogen bulbs have a small shield directly below the filament to prevent glare. (light bouncing off the bottom of the housing reflecting upwards and blinding oncoming traffic).
I get nothing but drivers flashing their high beams at me. I spent close to one hour lowering the headlight beam pattern and driving around the block to check. As it is now, the lights are as low as they can be adjusted and still waaaay too much glare. I am embarrased to drive at night with these lights as they are, they are just a ticket waiting to happen.
Second, the 6000K is way too white bordering on the purplish white. Althought he light is very pretty in color, there isn't enough of it to make it worth it in my opinion. I had Silvania silverstars and those light bulbs put out as much light as the 6000K HID I now have, different color, but more usable light.

So if I could do this whole thing all over again I would get 4700K HIDs WITH a shield.
I think anyone buying an HID kit for their XB must request H4 light bulbs with the shield .

hey take a pic i would like to see what you are talking about and to see what they look like

i dont know if u got mc cullough sir..

cuz many companies buy ballast from each other and use their
own bulbs(from china/korea)..
i dont really care for mc cullough but im certain
that their kits came with glare guards for 1, and they
never made a 6000k kit..
they have a4300k(discontinued shortly after production)
5000k(most popular) and 8000k.

u got a mccullough ballast only..i got the same brand..no blindin here =P

how was much was your HID's anyway?

got mine on full sponsorship.so free...back when mccullogh was allowed to legally sell the retail would be 550 w/ street price around 475.

yeah some pics could be useful. id like to see how they look :?:

I think this is the best representation of HID color's I've seen. A camera can't really show the colors from the actual car too well so I think these pictures were photoshopped or adjusted to what they would look like.

http://www.istoreparts.com/images/lighting/colorchart.gif

Anybody know of any kits that won't put out too much glare? I guess the McCulloch's are out of the question...

and this folks is why you do it the right way ,..

HID RETROFIT ... the only true way to have hids

kits are crap

i wanna get that for my box

i wanna get that for my box


i got the 8300k mecca tune hid for my box. Im sure it will look really good wit your blue onyx since 8300k is really blue.

i wanna get that for my box


i got the 8300k mecca tune hid for my box. Im sure it will look really good wit your blue onyx since 8300k is really blue.

and i am sure you will see so much at night :roll:

sigh .. kits are crap .. but if you MUSt have one ... get a 4300k kit

i wanna get that for my box


i got the 8300k mecca tune hid for my box. Im sure it will look really good wit your blue onyx since 8300k is really blue.

and i am sure you will see so much at night :roll:

sigh .. kits are crap .. but if you MUSt have one ... get a 4300k kit


i see everything at night, dont even need high beam. You can see it a mile away.

Well it turned out the place I bought the kit from, sent the wrong type of bulbs for the XB housing. I sent them back and they are sending me a set of H4 with the glare shield so they will work like the OEM type.
I will post in a few days about how well these other bulbs work.
I am changing to 5000K , but I will also buy a set of 6000K bulbs (an extra $120)
BTW, I paid $300 including shipping,

i wanna get that for my box


i got the 8300k mecca tune hid for my box. Im sure it will look really good wit your blue onyx since 8300k is really blue.

and i am sure you will see so much at night :roll:

sigh .. kits are crap .. but if you MUSt have one ... get a 4300k kit


i see everything at night, dont even need high beam. You can see it a mile away.

i think you are misunderstanding me

im not saying you cant see the light .. its the fact that the stuff that you are lighting up is very dim .. its proven .. the higher the kelvin rating the worse output you have

hence the reason why all OEM hids are 4100-4300 K ... ... 8000k is too blue and you are lucky if it is any better then lighting up the road then standard halogen

Well it turned out the place I bought the kit from, sent the wrong type of bulbs for the XB housing. I sent them back and they are sending me a set of H4 with the glare shield so they will work like the OEM type.
I will post in a few days about how well these other bulbs work.
I am changing to 5000K , but I will also buy a set of 6000K bulbs (an extra $120)
BTW, I paid $300 including shipping,

please do post your new findings, this is finally an honest opinion on some aftermarket parts... I would like to express my appreciation for your honesty, instead of the bragging that some people would take for saying "I have HIDs"... but don't have the balls to say "they suck"...

I had some aftermarket 4350K in my BMW, bought the car off the lot, had to choose between white w/HID and red w/out...
http://www.githens.us/messageboardpics/bmwclean.JPG
but I never bothered to adjust them, I just threw them in and probably once a night I got the "flash" from other drivers... I was aware they were blinding, so I pulled them and ebayed them off... as they had been ebayed to me... cheap experiment...
http://www.githens.us/messageboardpics/bmwhid.JPG
driver's side is stock... passenger's side is 4350K Philips.....

and yes, I traded this in on my '05 xB and I have never looked back... of course the cops haven't seen me in a while either...

i wanna get that for my box


i got the 8300k mecca tune hid for my box. Im sure it will look really good wit your blue onyx since 8300k is really blue.

and i am sure you will see so much at night :roll:

sigh .. kits are crap .. but if you MUSt have one ... get a 4300k kit


i see everything at night, dont even need high beam. You can see it a mile away.

i think you are misunderstanding me

im not saying you cant see the light .. its the fact that the stuff that you are lighting up is very dim .. its proven .. the higher the kelvin rating the worse output you have

hence the reason why all OEM hids are 4100-4300 K ... ... 8000k is too blue and you are lucky if it is any better then lighting up the road then standard halogen

no i understood u and my hid do light up the road really well. My friend has 6000k hid and mine has just about the same output as him. if you get the purple hid which are 10000k or more than that makes it dimmer. the 8000k isnt like those fake blue bulbs which are really dim and you cant see anything wit them at night.