so im debaiting buying a conversion kid off of ebay. any one ever heard of mecca tune http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=36476 or McCulloch http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=36476


Which kit would u guys get?

 

i got 8500 right now my boy got 12k damn those things are nice
get 12k looks crazy nice but they are alot of $$$$$ if you dont want to spend alot get 8500 looks good

 

Anything above 6K and you start losing usable light output unless you like attracting "the Man"

 

I bought McCullough 6000K hids from superhids.com... I really like them, my friend has had some mccullough HIDs on his car too for almost a year with no problems at all.

 

maxima99SE thanks for the useable info about the kit.

 

i just bought meccatune 8300K. i'll plug them in and upload pics...check back with me by this saturday..

 

hahaha i hwas hoping to order them today

 

bump 10 characters

 

compared to my boys 8,000k blue kit, my 6,000k purple kit throws out almost double the light on the street. But then again his kit has much better color.

Ant

 

no problem. but definitely avoid Hanabi kits if you find one for sale... they're not plug & play.

 

Arg. This is when i wished that hidforum.com was still up with their forums.

Hanabi kits ARE plug and play (at least the 8000, 8600k kits were).

McCollough's kits are par-below par. There were numerous problems posted about it here and on hidforum.com.

Meccatune's 8300k kit on ebay is crap. BaiCheSE i warned you against it and you still went for it. (wasted my time replying to your pms) The ballasts may be Hella, but the bulbs are cheap japanese based bulbs. And if you think you will be able to replace those bulbs once they will prematurely burn out, you're wrong. From my research on that particular type of kit on hidforum.com and reading others rant on it, they concluded extra bulbs will not hook up with that kit.

Correct me if im wrong, but thats what i concluded through my research.

McCollough's kits have a problem w/their ballast. They prematurely fail just like the hanabi kits.

Best plug and play kit would be the Phillips 4300k or 6000k kit. Expensive, but worth it. Best HID setup is retrofitting your housings.

 

does anybody kno if the cefeiro (a32) comes with hids? caus ei wondering if i get their headlights could i get oem hids to go wit it from japan or something?

 

No they dont, but you could add them in of course. Sources say the visibility on them with regular halogens arent great. The beam pattern is a little better than that of a 9004 housing (what isnt).

 

ManualMaxima's 6000k Hanabi kit is not plug & play.

 

woah im confused i never bought any HID yet.. BaiChe never warned me about anything...and i definitly didnt PM u.

but on the other hand thank u for the info about the ebay kits, im not gonna buy either of those brands anymore and am going to use the spare cash to add another amp to my system....btw i love ur max, the color rims kit everything...

 

Thank you for the compliment

I was referring to Baiche with the pm part.

I spent almost 400 for my first crap HID kit, then went out and spent another 500 for the right kit (next to retrofit). Be sure to do a lot of research before spending that kind of money.

 

I run a McCulloch kit - 6000k - with no problems thus far (installed for about 3 months). Right now I'm perfectly happy with the kit, and of course I would have preferred a Philips or Hella kit, but the price was right. I'll be sure and let everyone know if it craps out on me.

 

i have mccullough HIDs 8000k for 5 months, no problems and completly plug and play. 396 shipped 2day with upgraded harness's. www.hidplace.com

 

nismotic,

thanks for the advice. I do appreciate the heads up! i have a friend that i saw these lights (the meccatune ones) with, and i liked them. he had them for about 1.5 years...and no problems yet....best of all...

buy it with a credit card that gives you some protection against defective merchandise...thas what i do to protect myself incase things go sour.

i'll post pics once installed.

 

I have a set of Z-max HIDs and really don't know how reliable they are but they've treated me alright so far.......but have had a couple occasions where one bulb didn't light up on the first try, but by turning them off and on again they would both light up

 

Wow I really wish people with HIDs in maximas would really consider doing the retrofit projectors. It pisses me off to see cars with lights so blinding it make me want to get out of the car, take my .357 your headlights and blow those biches away. Just to let you know THE MAXIMA HAS POOR BEAM CONTROL WITH HID SYSTEMS. They blind the shiit out of people if you haven't noticed.

From experience, the mccullough 6000k kit that I had for about 2 month before selling was a POS system. The beam pattern was unfixable (seemed like I had on my brights all the friggen time) and the wiring keep shorting out. These things are total crap. I really wish the hidforum was still up. If you guys with mcculloughs would go there you would be really surprised on how much they extole that system. I'm sorry about all the rant and raving but i've blinded too many times in the past by crappy HID systems.

Phillips and Hella are the ONLY way to go...

 

is it not possible to just aim the headlights down a little? wouldn't that fix the problem?

 

I have a D2R kit, 4100K

 

It will only help so much before you start taking away your own usable light. As far as blinding people, I don't see what the big deal is. Hasn't anybody ever been in traffic with a HID'd BMW, Lexus, or Benz? They aren't exactly easy on the eyes. A BMW X5 with HIDs will burn your retinas!! Granted, I'm sure our cars with HIDs in reflector housings are a bit more harsh, but why does everyone act like projectors eliminate glare?? HIDs are bright as hell no matter how you've got them mounted up.

 

Projectors control the beam pattern and although may not eliminate total blinding of the victim in front of you, it helps...so much better than throwing it in 9004 housings.

If you dont see the big deal, i'll re-aim my headlights to point up higher, and drive behind you =op

 

Exactly - projectors do more to give you more usable light (and spread it better) than they do to reduce glare.

 

I love this argument about how SOME SUVs blind people (mostly due to their height and when they crest a hill or bump) so it justfies blinding ALL people with the crappy 9004 system with HIDs ALL the time? Do you think of the other +90% that may be one of your loved ones that are blinded oncoming?

Our 9004 headlights with HIDs will NEVER have a pattern better (i.e. poor) than it did with standard 9004 bulbs despite whatever brand of HID capsule you put in there.

 

Most of you guys with aftermarket HID kits haven't really experience what a bad kit is about yet. Having them for only 3-6 months or within a year is not enough to say that the kit is working flawlessly or great. HID are suppose to last the life of the car, right? Wait about a year or two and then come back to tell everyone how is it. My "misterjung" kit lasted me 2 years without any problems at all. Then one bulb started turning greenish and died. I couldn't get a replacement from misterjung so I sold the remaining parts (at a great lose) and did a retrofit.

Like everyone said, 9004 are terrible for HIDs. I blinded people left and right for 2 years. I know how it feels because my brother would follow me in the Maxima while I drove his. Damn...it's blinding like crazy even when properly aimed (lower than normal). Because there's no clear cutoff like projectors, the light is just scattered everywhere. You can only aim it extra low to a certain point when you start to lose visibility.

I say...if you're planning on spending $300-500 for a kit, might as well use that money for a retrofit.

The old hidforum is gone because of some great hacker. But now, there's a new forum. HIDPLANET

 

The reference to the X5 was just an example of how all cars with HIDs blind people. Are we blinding people worse than those with projectors? Yes. But I don't see the big deal. I've had mine in for about 3 months and have only been flashed by oncoming traffic a handful of times. But in all occassions I was the one coming over the crest of a hill and shining light downward toward a car lower on a hillside. I've even been behind cops, then next to them at a traffic light and they didn't look twice at me. Even the cops in my area just shrug it off and accept the fact that HIDs are bright as hell.

But if projector housings were readily available, you're damn right I'd have them. Until then, I'll keep scouring junkyards trying to piece together a projector kit.

 

The majority of OEM HID equiped cars I see DO NOT blind oncoming traffic. I don't know about your area but I'm in SoCal. I don't believe all OEM HIDs have self leveling devices to account for fully loaded cars... It's a matter of aiming them properly. "Aiming" 9004 HIDs down helps (but doesn't really fix) glare but it defeats the purpose of having better lighting.

It's just a matter of courtesy whether or not you care or think it's a big deal...

Most people don't flash you when your cars headlights are bright... so it's not that they don't care or your lights too bright. Cops pull over people with these "types" of violations depending on their descretion and/or mood. Aftermarket HID are illegal in all state, iirc.

I'm just saying projectors (aimed properly) are the best for HIDs. My H4 Cefiros with HIDs are much better than the 9004s but definitely not as good as projectors.

 

HID equipped cars are ALWAYS going to be brighter than halogen equipped, so all of them are susceptible to people thinking they're being blinded... most grandmas probably think any car with HIDs is the second coming of Christ. You can spot them a mile away, and you can almost always catch an angle where they're hitting you with at least SOME glare (which will always be more glare than a halogen can produce). I work as a valet and see HID-equipped cars all the time - glare is always present, but good kits (and especially projectors) minimize it to just a few small angles. In the Ohio valley, we have plenty of hills to climb, and the light from an OEM kit is often just as vicious as mine. I agree that 9004 is NOT an optimal format for them, but we have to deal with it unless we fabricate projectors.

No argument there because I don't think it's that big of a deal, but I do aim mine down a bit.

Oh, people are just being polite and not flashing me? I didn't realize the driving public was suddenly so courteous!! Thanks for the update - I was still living under the impression that everyone is an a-hole and will flash, honk, or flip you off for any reason. How silly of me...

As for the cops, I think it has more to do with the fact that a nice 4th gen (without tuner mods like a 4" exhaust or crazy graphics/decals) looks good enough that it could have factory HIDs, so the cops don't think twice. If I'm in a '91 CRX, then yes, I would expect trouble. My point is that unless the cops in your area are knowledgeable AND are hard-*****, legality shouldn't be much of an issue.


Well we agree on that one. But look at the pic in my sig - I took it at right about eye level for sedans. Is it really THAT menacing??

 

I totally agree with you, but i believe it was the sale of AM HID kits that are illegal.

 

Its not blinding per se, but it is very bothersome. The glare is noticeable and can also be a distraction for the driver ahead. I am being a hypocrite due to the fact i have phillips 6000k kit in my 9004 housing, but i pointed my headlights pretty low and had someone drive my car behind me. The glare is still noticeable and bothersome after a while.

The only OEM HID kit that has been bothersome would be that of SUVS.

 

It's really difficult to see on photos as there is lense flare, color shifts, etc... I know I am just nitpicking a relatively small safety issue (in my eyes, excuse the pun).

There are a few guys in our local Maxima group that have HIDs in their cars. If you were to have 9004, H4, and projector HID "projected" onto a wall about 20' away next to each other on the same picture .... a camera shot will really show what i am referring to.

There really is no way around cresting a hill using HIDs and not blinding folks. It just will with that much light output (OE or otherwise). I'm really referring to the other 95% of the time on level ground and streets.

Before my Cefiros, I didn't even consider putting HIDs into the crappy 9004s that we have on our cars... In fact that was the reason I got the Cefiros HLs. But then again it is a individual's own decision to do whatever and determine if it's "acceptable", albeit legal or not.