Question,

How many of you gen5.5 drivers have had to replace one or more of your HID bulbs yet?

I noticed mine out today on the drivers side. There is glass residue in the headlamp housing seen from the front. I thought these lamps would last longer than this.

What is the avg cost of this for us? Is there a sticky in here to do it yourself? Owners manual says to take it to dealer (of course) with no kind of replacement instructions.

Thanks for any input guys.

i have a spare bulb if you need it.

There is residue on the inside of the headlight? Sounds like the bulb blew from too much power...I don't think they blow if they burn out...check to see if the ballast is ok. Take out the lights and see if the ballast is chared.

If it's the bulb, good time to upgrade.

You don't have to take it to the dealer to have this replaced. It's just a matter of taking out the bulb and putting another one in. Now might be a good time to get some nice aftermarket bulbs if you want a higher temperature rating. I'm waiting for the stock lights to go out before going this route. The overall lighting design is bad on our cars. If you alarm goes off, the HID's flash. If you don't use the auto feature and skip past it, the HID's turn off for a second as it passes the parking lights setting. The life of the HID bulb is greatly reduced by how many times it's turned off and on so I have no idea why Nissan didn't take this into consideration.

Yeah, this is true. I try not to use my HID's in the full on position on the light switch. I only operate in the "auto" feature (unless absolutely necessary, which is rare). I believe if you have to change the bulb, you may have to take out the whole headlamp assembly. I know in mine, I have absolutely no room behind the headlight for my hands.

e-mail me with details and what you're asking for it. Thanks guy! Jettmiester@yahoo.com

Thats what I thought...too much power. There is glass and pieces in the headlamp unit visible from the front of the car.

Call me a dunce, but I have no idea how to remove the ballast to check it for charring. And What if it did get too much power? Then what?

About the "upgrade" ypu mention. What is the cost and work required. This HID stuff is all new to me.

Thanks again

By upgrade, we mean get a higher kelvin rating bulb like 6000K. Check the info on this site, they have a chart on what the ratings are. Keep in mind higher temp rating, less useful light output, but you're lights will be bluer to purple depending on what bulbs you get. http://www.hidking.com/d2bulbs.htm

check your owners manual on how to replace your headlight bulb

Read as stated in my 1st post: Perhaps other Owner's Manuals are differnt and have instructions whereas mine does not?

you got PM....

If it's the bulb, it's as simple to replace as a regular bulb. Umnitza has things for HIDs...you need D2Rs for the headlights...I'd go with 6000-7000K.

If it is so easy to get another bulb for the 2k2/2k3 hids, what the hell makes them so expensive

It's an HID bulb..not a regular halogen (which are cheap to produce)

HID bulbs actually run less electricity than halogen...heard its only 35 watts wheres halogen are 60ish...the only thing is, HIDs require alot of power to start them up

I avoid using the auto feature during the day...sometimes I run into places where there is no light and my HIDs will turn on (ie tunnels, garages) and turn back off....that will waste the life of the HID bulb if they are constantly turned on & off...

Hey steven, what kind of wheels are those? It looks great!

if you want good light output and nice color stick with 6k at the most. The higher in K you go, the less you will see on the road.

i still dont understand if i can replace my HIDS in my 2k2 with the same bulbs for 150 bucks why does it cost over 1000 bucks to buy the whole kit

My other question is...

Has anyone ever had to replace the ballast? How much does that set ya back?

I think it used to cost +$1000 a few years back. Nowadays a generic kit run $260-$400 and Hella/Philips ones between $500 and $700. And I don't think changing a ballast would change anything in terms of color and light output.

what is the temp rating on the stock HIDS?

Most OEM is 4300k

the HID's on the Max's are not covered by the factory warranty?

It should, most cars with HID is covered IIRC.

they made a point of it at Infiniti when i bought my I. nissan should do better with the max.

What do you mean? They made a point that it WAS covered?

yeah. apparently at "that time there was no one else doing that. at least that's what they told me.

4300 huh i didnt think that the stock HIDS where that low

So in other words if i picked up a pair if 6500k HIDS from that site they would be better then my stock HIDS?

4300k is the brightest lightest HID output. The recommendations everybody is giving here is to go up in Kelvin for more color. I replaced my factory bulbs with 6000k for more of a blue color, but I did lose just a little output. My friend has 8000k for even more blue but he has even less output than me. Hope that helps a little bit

so i guess staying at between 4300 and 6000 will give me the brightest light. why go for more color if you are going to defeat the purpose of the hid

Because most people who have non-projector type HIDs like our cars, when they see a BMW, Mercedes, Audi...etc driveby and see the intense blue colors given off by their projectors, they like it and want to simulate it.

And even if you changed your bulbs to 12000k, which is insane blue/purple, the light is STILL gives off more lumens than a halogen bulb.

now would going with 5500k cause me to lose brightness from my stock 4300's.

Yes, but enough to create a big difference? no...

i have seen aftermarked projectors for non-hid maximas. do they make one that can hold an hid bulb, and has a projector lens as well?

The only one I know of is the one on eBay with angel eyes. It has a "projector" but supposedly it is pretty bad quality. Most aftermarket headlights are made to be a direct replacement and again I don't think there is one that holds a D2R/D2S bulb. I've seen many people on this board buy one of those eBay projectors, and then retrofitting some OEM projectors from other cars with great results.

and do not buy the 5000k phillips bulb, people have said it looks like halogen rather than HID. the highest i would recommend is 6000k. but as for our maximas, our shield (vs lexus, etc...) makes the HIDS look more colorful. so 4300k in our cars produces more colors. my friend has a lexus is300 and it has already colorshifted where as mine are 8 months old and i have more color than he does due to the shield design.

is there a certain temp. when it is considered a HID and not a halogen

HID is HID because of design, not really color temperature. There are 3000k HID kits which look like uber bright halogens, and cheap HID lookalike halogen bulbs which range from yellow-white to white to blue.

xenon gas by design perhaps?

If it was that simple we would all have HID lights. Here is a site that explains it nicely.

http://www.halcyon.net/dir/faq_07.shtml

Thanks for that link.

Not sure if I agree with this now: Advantage of HID

Longer Service Life. An HID lamp will last, on the average, 3 to 5 times as long as a halogen bulb. In normal use, your Halcyon HID bulb should last beyond one thousand ignitions.

Got my new bulb in. Piece of cake.

The ballast was clean and smelled of no charring. Guess it was a freaky thing. The bulb burns at such a high rate of degree that some pieces melted themselves into the plastic housing. Got most glass out by prodding them with a coat hanger! LOL

If it does it again, I guess I should replace the ballast?

Anyone know what new Headlamp housings go for (without the electronics or bulbs, just the plastic housing) for our cars?

Thanks again for all your tips and suggestions.

BTW, I did not "upgrade". Went with stock for now to see how it all goes.