I was debating on either getting the AE lights or the 5.5 lights. One thing I like about the AE is that they are smoked around the assembly, that gives a aggressive look like a football player have a black line under the eyes. The 5.5, i like the round dual light but doesn't have that smoked look. So what would you think would look good, btw my car is Sherwood green. Any input would be great. Thanks!

 

K Pazzo 6 smoked his HID's. They look pretty sharp as you can see below. Check out his site for more pics.

 

Go with the 5.5 HID's. The way they light the road compared to regular halogen lights is unreal.
I blacked out my housing as well...

 

Obviously if money is no object then I would go with the 5.5 for the HID's. If money is an object, keep in mind that the AE will cost half or less than half what the 5.5 will. And it's already been said but you can actually AE your stock headlights, or smoke the 5.5's if you get them.

 

Those smoked HIDs look awesome.... I wanna try to do that sometime....

Anyways, like already said... HIDs are more expensive... but you can smoke em too and ya can't beat the illumination from em.... also bear in mind that there is a higher theft risk with HIDs....

 

go with the HIDs smoked, it looks excellent, here are pics of mine.







i even have the smoked signal and parking light look, which just adds to the dark theme

 

hey KCMC582, Do you have any more pics of your smoked HIDs? The few you posted kind of have a glare to them.
As to the original post, I'd say go with the 5.5 HIDs.

 

yes yes, my pics suck, haha. i will try and get more soon, thursday when i am not at work so long i miss daylight.

 

I'll be waiting around until then. hahaha

 

the HIDs on the 5.5's are really nice but the only thing about them is that they are easily and often stolen. They are the main reason the Maxima is #2 on the most likely to be stolen list. I have the AE headlights and was thinking about buying the 5.5 assemblies but realized that the added liability to my car wasn't worth it. There is a GD going on right now for Helios HID plug and play kits for the 5th gen for a very reasonable price right now and you get to choose anywhere from 500K to 12000K. Look into this....

 

that deal is VERY shaddy at this point.....talks about the guy stealing money and stuff like that.....not to say anything, but i wouldnt consider that deal. DEAD. I was planning on HID h3 from that deal, after that post....no way.
oh yeah Id say smoke your own headlights for the costs of the paint, save up and get 5.5 HID, worth the money. I ended up just doing that and well worth the wait.

 

I like that smoked headlight on the 5.5. Is it that something you have to do it yourself or they already have it like that you can buy?

 

It's a mod that you will have to do yourself, have somone else do, or maybe find someone selling a set in the classified section.

 

As cool as the smoked HID look is, I'm just scared about baking such expensive headlights in an oven to open them up. AE's were far less work, since you can just buy them and slap them in. They match the 2k-2k1 SE headlights very well too. I had them on my old Maxima:



But hey, if you've got no fear, go for the 2k2's and smoke them.

 

You can always throw an HID kit onto the AE lights. I have the McColluch 5300k. I've had them for over a year now with now problems at all.

 

Just take the uber-cheap route and AE your standard headlights - the chrome rubs off with a littl elbow grease...I'll be doing mine this weekend

 

Obviously you haven't checked as of recently, we now have the seller himself offering us the same deal. Check your facts before posting please.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=356247

 

Yeah, even Umnitza, from whom many 5.5 gens have gotten their DDE lighting from, is offering us the same deal of $275 for an HID retrofitting kit for our 5th gen.

 

yeah you can always paint or smoke the 5.5 headlights, thats what id get

 

If you dont want to do the work on the 5.5gen headlights and is also interested in saving some money then get the AE lights and purchase an h4 hid kit for your lights its plug and play and you will be fine. Just dont get anything over 6000k.

 

Why shouldn't he do anything over 6000k??

 

Because then he would lose too much output which is the main purpose of hid's.
Stock hid's are 4100k but most org members will tell you if you want output and descent color 6000k is the best route.

 

My AE headlights, the lens is kinda hazy right now so they don't look as jewel like as they should. I got 100K miles on those lights and with a HID kit they put out some intense light, I used 6000K Philips kit from a 3.2TL-S. Light output was too strong so I remove the lights in fear of getting pulled over.

 

So your saying that 12000k or 9000k for instance will have too high of an output??

 

No the total opposite a 12000k might look intense but can actually have less output than a regular halogen bulb. The brighest hid kit is the oem 4100-4300k. 6000k still gives you descent output and more color.

 

If money's an isssue then AE your headlights

 

Thanks guys, you're all awesome. That gave me an idea to make a decision. I will post them as soon as I get a project completed on my Max.