Enough talk about hid headlights, they are just really expensive headlight bulbs that make your tc look like a luxury car going down the road (lexus, beemer, benz,porsche.) I currently have a set of PIAA Hyper White Bulbs that have a blue lens they are heela bright i get compliments on thenm all the time, PIAA is a lot of bang for your buck!!!!

 

Anytime the light shines pass a colored glass, the brightness or lumen diminishes. The blue glass bulb of all the hyper whites, super whites, duper whites actually put less usable light on the ground compared to a stock, yellowish halogen. People have different agendas when putting HIDs in their car. Some buy the 14000k bulb to be heela blue and heela cool but can’t see **** at night. Others do the research and prefer to drive in safer environment by projecting a wider and brighter beam in from of the car.

 

HIDs will last as long as your car. Regular silver bulbs will last months.

 

HID>PIAA
ditto to maxima

 

What was this rant about man??? Did you really need to start a thread so you can tell us your junk fake HIDs are super rad and blue??

 

PIAA Hyper White Bulbs
thats what I have too!
It's really bright.
cost a bit less than $100, i got 1 year warranty with it.
I want the blue parking light with it, finding it.. if someone can help me it will be great.

 

this is a result of boredom i guess.......
i have used PIAA's and they are overpriced silverstars that give a fake impression that you have HID's. and in my opinion they are great if you dont want to/ or dont have the money to invest in a HID retrofit etc. etc.

 

HIDs are not justified on cost. I have replaced the regular bulbs on my other car ONCE in 5 years cause one blew. I dont think I have ever gone more than two sets on the same car (but I also buy regular halogens and not the silver, blue, whatever overpriced bulbs that only last 6 months). So, I spend what, $30 maybe on headlight bulbs over the life of the car? Hell, even if I replaced them three times I would still be a fraction of the cost of HIDs. So justifying them on life and cost is nowhere near correct.

As far as view, yes they are better, but I can see more than fine with a good set of halogens.

As far as bling, which is what most people struggle so hard to get with retros that end up blinding other people in the end, I really dont even notice what type of headlights are on a car. And would hardly judge a car as luxurious over the headlight style. So for me they arent anywhere near the money.

As for all the expensive HID lookalike bulbs, 99.9% produce less light because of the filtering and last a fraction of the time regular halogens do. So I could care less, I am happy with the ones I have

As far as starting this thread... I have no idea why it was started

But my main point is that if you want to spend ridiculous amounts for HID lights, thats cool, but I hope and pray that any of them that glare into others coming at you get pulled over and fined out the ****. Not to mention the effect on a motorcyclist. Try riding towards someone with cheap super brights or bad retros with no windshield in front of your face.

 

yeah, i would say its bling factor, especially with the Tc since there is no real off the shelf projector available as of yet, and halogens work for a fairly long time as the man above states.

 

HIDs w/o projectors

 

^^^ Whats wrong with the IS300's set-up. See not all cars need Projectors. Just most cars are not meant to use HID lighting/don't reflect right in the stock halogen housing.

 

Have you driven in front of an Escalade/QX56/Range Rover/Navigator before? I'd rather get a little glare from a plug and play kit in a car, than a truck/suv with its beam right into my rear view mirror.


IS300/older TL/older RL/ES300/RX300/a lot of older mercedes....

Also, I don't know whats up with everyone posting that EVERYONE should do a retrofit. If you think an unexperienced person installing a plug in play kit is bad, try an unexperienced person baking their headlight open, trying to mount a projector in their headlight, and hoping to have it aim relatively straight. I purchased a plug and play kit because 90% of my driving is at night and I love the way it makes my car look. Theres no way I would feel comfortable modifying MY headlight by mounting a projector in it.

 

I stand by my opinion.

 

I've driven in front of them... it's worse when they tail you... otherwise it's not bad unless they're lifted, in which case it's like they're high beaming you... still, if you want to put HIDs in for status/performance/looks, it's done best when done right.

 

But I can either have an auto dimming mirror or adjust a standard one when it is behind me. The dangerous part is the glare when they are coming towards you.. you have no way to get away from that, and that is the main reason why there are laws concerning this. A lot of the cheap kits allow the light to shine up and over into the oncoming traffic.. those people should be fined hardcore for that. It is worse than just having regular headlights aimed incorrectly since the output is so much more intense.

 

Chris: like superwhite said, those models have special housing for their HIDs. But, I'm done arguing. Everyone's free to do what they want to their car. Just make sure you don't end up paying one way or another. I have better things to do then get angry at people with poor HID kits, as long as people keep it safe. Besides, it doesn't take bad bulbs to make the road dangerous.

 

I owned porbably 5 sets of PIAA, when new they're good but the light intensity diminishes over time, plus none lasted more than a year or only a little over a year, except for my first plasma white i got back in 1998 but it came from japan....my HID on my 330,, 31/2 years, intensity has not change a bit....

 

After reading this post i do have a few things to say. Your Piaa and silverstars are a good way to get a "better" light bulb than stock. But like many people say HID is the way to go. As far as having a HID kit only with projectors i find that to be untrue. For example the older acura tl and cl's had HID's without projectors. I personally own cars with both setups and the yes the beam pattern on the projectors does have a better cutoff but the tc light isn't bad.



But like everyone is saying make sure you get a good HID kit and not some cheap one. Also make sure the kit is 35w and does have a plug and play setup.

 

Some argue that ANY tint on your traditional halogen diminishes the light output. As for me, if you're going to pay close to $100 on PIAAs, you might as well upgrade to HID. Also, some argue that there is no true 'good' bolt-on HID kit unless you do a proper retrofit..inevitably its your money so do what you please.

I like that quote

 

very true but if you do go with a reputable company such as Xtec or Prolumen you will be fine. The people you should really talk to about HID kits is anyone on the BMW forums those people have a wealth of knowledge on HID kits. Granted Projectors are better for all intent purposes DSR bulbs are fine. I know my kit from Xtec is all plug and play as well as a DSR bulb in a 9006 application. Talk to UMNITZA or go to the site that is where i got my original Xtec setup as well my projector headlights. That guy is a talking encyclopedia on lights. And you are right let people do what they want to do with their money.