i own a 2010 base blue sensation looking to pick up blue tint hid lights I've heard that cops can break balls with to much color can anyone steer me in the right direction as to pick one? would like same color as my car and still be legal .a friend told me you can pick them up cheap on the web for about 40 to 50 dollars .and how do i know if its the right color i want or do they have names for different shades. thanks for your replys in advance.

 

the color is determined by the Kalvin/Kelvin? bulb temperature. ex. 4k 6k 8k 12k. theres someone out there who can explain this alot better than i can. But the color of your HIDs depend on where you live. When HIDs kits first came out up here in AK cops pulled everyone over. Then it was only allowed to have Hyper white 6k-8k HIDs. but now after they passed this bill/law thingy anything goes. any color.

 

hmm i had 8k on my previous accord for like 2 years and cops never said a word about them

 

I think it has to do more about whether your lights are blinding people than the color. I've seen cops let 12000k (purple) slide because they were in projectors

 

technically any HID lights in a non hid housing from factory are illegal. cops just choose not to hassle most people, but if a cop wants to be a jerk, he can, and you can get a ticket for it

 

it also depends on the cop. one thats an A-hole or one thats just lazy or one that cares about more important things than colors of light

 

Always love another opportunity:

""Sorry but I do this everytime this issue comes up... I see it as my responsibility to warn everyone at least once. Now you can't say nobody warned you


In fact the only people who wont think you are a douchebag are your fellow ricer friends

RETROFIT, OEM, OR STAY HOME!""



Now, on the legal side of things... ALL non-OEM headlight modifications are illegal. ILLEGAL. Projectors or not. But, Does an officer know if the fit came with factory hid projectors? Probably not, and he's unlikely to ever notice if you did a good clean retrofit. Now, that plug and play crap you buy on ebay, Heck yes you will get a ticket, It's just a matter of time as more and more officers are educated on the subject. Not to mention people like me will be high beam flashing you everytime we pass you.



Besides, It's mosty urban gutter trash you see with these PNP KITS in my grandma's used old rusted out civic or her buick regal that now sits on useless 22" chrome rims its new owner put on. Or the occasional know-nothing yuppie in the Lexus suv his mom bought him. Where I live you rarely see these lights at all, maybe twice a week. The closer I get to Chicago the more idiots I see with these blinding blue lights EVERYWHERE and IT'S NOT EVEN LIKE THEY GET ANY BENEFIT FROM THEM! They have city lights lighting everything on the road to the point where you could just ride with DRL's on. It's a LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME kind of thing in the worst way because it actually blinds other drives unlike other illegal/silly/ricer/lolwtf mods that just annoy or distract.

Now, I for one am dissapointed with the stock headlights in the fit. They are not bright enough when I go out into the country to go camping on the weekends. But, I know I don't yet want to spend the time and money to retrofit HID PROJECTORS. So I stay stock! That's right just because you cant afford to retrofit is not an excuse to put in a cheap glaring PNP HID kit. Buy some Silverstars or other high wattage bulbs in the meantime.

tl;dr
So to generalize the only people who get PNP HID kits are too stupid (uneducated about the subject), too poor, or too self/image centered to retrofit.

 

This should be required reading...

Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply

Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply

The cliff notes are that HID drop-ins are illegal and you may end up with lights which are less effective and therefore more dangerous for both you and other drivers. You shouldn't do it.

 

I use Silverstar Ultras, and they work real nice, without the headache of writing a check to the local court every so often.

 

I would think that if you were going to have color to your headlights, you should have the yellow style that the French used to use. I seems that projecting light at the blue end of the spectrum would just make it more difficult to see.

I don't think I've ever actually used my high beams... I never drive out in the country at night.

 

The farther way you get from the 4K-6K range in light the more useless your lights become. Those people you see driving around with blue/Purple "HIDs" basically paid $40+ to see worst at night.

 

 

Awesome! +rep

 

good points. ive had problems with silverstars. ive owned several pairs before i got my hids and replaced the bulbs every 4 or 6 months atleast....dont have the time or money for that. sooooo....

 

i completely disagree with the last two comments except for somethings.

HIDs DO increase your visability. its a higher lum. lighting system that increases your visual range at night.

now the 10k 12k crap.......DOES decrease. its simply made to look cool. those kelvin temps create a glare that makes it harder to see.

An oem bulb is rated at 4300kish. which is closest to sunlight. thats why oem bulbs are built that way.

4, 6 and sometimes 8k hids are great for the driver and since i got them i couldnt be happier. it sets your car off as far as looks and increases my visability by a large portion. (i drive for a living.) i use 6k which is just pure white. in back forested areas it makes a huge difference and ive actually been able to avoid animals before partially due i think to my hids increasing my visual range.

there also a lower wattage system which isn't a strong point for the fit if you haven't noticed. so it helps maintain wattage in the rest of cabin/dash/windows ect.

as far as the legality. if its not oem, its not legal. period. is a cop going to give you hassel about them? most likely not ,due to there increasing popularity and commonality.

almost everyone hates them. projected or not if your car doesn't have the hid system built into it its illegal. projected hids are angled in a way where its less distracting for other drivers so oem is legal because the light is controlled. which oem hid systems are usually built projected.

so if you really want an hid system like me thats not projected. go for it. im willing to deal with cops and the occasional minivan driver who dosn't know what hids are that high beam me. whatever. i think there usefull and effective.

 

you want 8k.

for the fit

you want 8k hids. 9003 h4 bulbs. wires, ballasts and bulbs.

 

I find that driving with my highbeams on helps me to see better. I have avoided animals before, therefore I should drive around with my highbeams on all the time. That is essentialy your argument only with PNP HIDs which are worse than highbeams since they are more intense as you say.


Interestingly enough, I also find that pointing an industrial HID spotlight into the drivers compartment of oncoming vehicles with PNP HID lights helps me see better too.


If people are flashing you it means there is a problem. Even if they don't know what they are, you are obviously blinding them. I absolutely HATE when people with PNP HID kits flash their highbeams (which you can barely tell sometimes since you are already so blinded) at me after I flash them, like I don't know exactly what they have in their headlights. One guy even honked at me, needless to say I pulled an ebrake turn and followed behind him with my highbeams on. Is it rational or responsible, no, but the only way to modify someones behavior is to make them uncomfortable.


Underglow was popular and common once yet police eliminated that. They will get PNP HIDs in due time.

 

You've completely missed the point in favor of believing that your car looks good and is safer. To be clear, it is not safer but instead more dangerous.

True fitted HIDs have a lens that focuses that extra lumes to the road. Because the lens for halogen are not right for HIDs, the light is scattered. So not only are HIDs not focused on the road way, they blind on coming traffic. That isn't right and is more dangerous.

 

the bottom line is: if you choose to drop in HIDs into you OEM housings, you're being a dangerous, selfish person. you're creating a more dangerous situation for those around you just so YOU can see better.

...and really, if your setup is blinding that old lady across from you and she accidentally rams into your little car with her huge cadillac and kills you and your passenger, whose fault is it?

i don't wish death on any of you, but i'll go ahead and wish you enough fix it tickets so that you get the point.

 

This isn't meant as a defensive retort... have you guys used PNP HID kits? More than one?

For myself, I've used three different PNP HID kits, showing me, you get a variety of results from them. I mean this as what I see down the road and the reaction (flashes) from other drivers. If your baseline of how "bad" the headlights are because of the flashes, then the original OE bulb in a 1999.5 Nissan Pathfinder got me the MOST flashes, the most often (2-3 times a week). And this is a dimming 10 year old halogen bulb. I didn't get ANY flashes when using my first and second HID kit. I got a few flashes with the third (current) kit, until i aimed it down slightly. In between the first and second HID kit, I used a HID-sim and a replacement OE bulb. I still got flashed multiple times with the replacement OE bulb.

As for the picture neil posted. I have driven in front of the PF once while it had one of the HID kits, I had to drive the mini-van while the PF followed behind. At any distance, so long as the low beam was on, I did not get that result. The only way to get anything like that result was to be up close when it has the high beam on, which, incidentally, looks like a halogen bulb with high beams on. Although the third HID kit is kind of close.

The first two HID kits have a very defined cutoff line. As far as I can tell, exactly the same cutoff line as the halogens (beam pattern at varying distance from a wall). I made it a point to aim them so that for cars in front of me, the bottom half is completely lit up while the cabin is dark. Things to my right had more light than things to my left (as per 9003/HB2 standard). The third kit had a "leak" through the shield, which allowed some light upwards, which was partially negated by aiming the bulb down (further than the first two kits). As a side note, I didn't aim the OE bulb, since I assume it didn't need re-aiming (never been replaced to begin with). The replacement OE bulb should've had the same aim as the first two HID kits.

I'm going to end with this. A properly aimed and correct type HID doesn't annoy me (type: not using unshielded single beam HID to replace a dual beam bulb). In terms of "glaring" headlights, I find the ones that bother me the most, are simply cars that have mis-aimed headlights. And lately, those have been halogen and OEM HIDs. And you have to take into account, I sit higher up than most drivers (in SUV). So, if halogen headlights are blinding me but not as many HID kits, shouldn't that indicate something? If nothing else, much of the oncoming glare can be reduced by the aim (and using proper type in terms of HID kits).