Originally posted by asu174
When I got my 2K2, I was a bit disappointed because I thought the HIDs would be MUCH brighter. I upgraded to 7000K bulbs and I think they are good to go now.......

Originally posted by asu174
Well I'll be damned! Maybe it's the color difference? Whatever it it, I like them better.

Back to the topic at hand......... Drive down a dark road and turn the lights off. then turn them back on and watch the entire road light up. Then you can truly appreciate your HIDs.

Originally posted by MetaOrbit


I think you hit the nail on the head. The higher kelvin rating corresponds to color temperature - i.e. the color difference. They may "appear" brighter, but in fact they throw less light on the ground.

Whatever the case, if you're happy with them - more power to you.

I agree with vito though on the original post - I sometimes think they're too dim. Then I just get behind the wheel of my Mom's pathfinder or my sister's Lumina at night and remember how great my headlights are

Originally posted by guapsnaman
I think mine would seem brighter if they were aimed higher.

Mine seems to be aim too low, I know there's a way around this.

Originally posted by vito1281
Has anyone else gotten so used to their HIDs that they don't seem as bright as they used to be?

I was driving today, and for some reason they didn't seem as bright as before, but I'm positive that it's just my mind playing tricks on me!

Anyone else have this happen?

Originally posted by VMosser323
I went to pick up a honey one night and she told me " I knew it was you because your car lights up the entire block!"

Originally posted by spta97


Drive the beater car - '95 Honda is it? Then you'll see how bright they are

Another thing that helped me out, I put in the PIAA Xtreme White fogs...brighter and whiter than stock. Helps put more white on the road!

I hear what you are saying though, when I first go the car I was like "My God! Look how dirty the road is!"

Originally posted by VMosser323
I went to pick up a honey one night and she told me " I knew it was you because your car lights up the entire block!"

Originally posted by NT2SHBBY
The higher kelvin bulbs put out less lumens on paper, but actually increase the ground lighting because of the increase in color...

my 6000's might not shine as far forward as the stock Philips, but they certainly put down ALOT of color to the ground which illuminates better.

What are the results of using 6000K, 7000K, 15000K HID bulbs?
Stage 1 refers to 4100K and stage 2 normally refers to something higher value K.
As an example, a 6000K bulb in some headlamps might not show much difference at all, others will look more blue. These are observations when standing in front of the car looking into the headlights from above. After getting over the initial thrill of cooler light, many drivers have noticed that important traffic information are not as appearant as with OEM standard bulb. White traffic signs is being lit too much and can feel glaring.
During winter 2002, exponensional use of Kelvin (K) rating is used as brightness improving advertisement. Its all just big empty words. Do a search for "kelvin color temperature" on a search engine (ie: yahoo.com) and you will see that it has nothing to do with brightness and all to do with color. Going upwards from 4100K means that your light turns blue at the expense of total brightness and yellow color. Theoretically, if the same brightness were to be kept, you would have to increase the wattage of the bulb from 35 to maybe 40W, and redesign the ballast. This would be a very costly solution, so thats pretty much why all automotive HID bulbs are 35W.