Alright so i just found this site with plug and play HID lights called http://shop.3bspecialties.com. I found them here on the org and was just wondering how reliable they are. I am really interested in them and they seem promising. The only questions i have is how bad is the glare on the original housing with these i will either order 6k or 8k still thinking about those, and fogs also for it. He said he can get me a great deal and i was just wondering how reliable this company is and how bad will the glare be?

 

ok i just read alot about them i am probably 100% going with them they have great customer satisfaction it appears, just some quick questions now...

How bad will the glare be in an OEM housing?
Is 8000k legal in Minnesota?
Plug and play means i just need to wire the lights and mount the ballast, anything more special?

 

Glare - Pretty bad
8000 K - Pretty ricer
Legal - No HID kits are legal in US/Canada, but good retro's are usually forgiven/ignored

Go to HIDplanet or theRetroSource to read up on HIDs. I would never use HID fogs, except for show. For best visibility you want even light from the bumper to far distance, bright up front reduces your eyes ability to see dimmer objects in the distance. Lastly all OEM HIDs are 4200-4500 K, good color (blue/purple hue) comes from the diffraction effect of the cut-off shield in their projectors. Putting bluish 8000K lights in actually reduces visibility and makes it harder to see in bad weather.

 

Alright i was looking at 6000k and i like those, and my car right now isnt HID. And how often are people pulled over for HID lights?

 

Depends completely on your area, how you're driving, and what your car looks like.

Point being HID bulbs in a halogen housing is a bad idea. You want HIDs, retrofit or get a set of A33B headlights.

 

Completely bone stock max, driving habits are good and i will get retrofits later but if i just get the plug and play now will the cops pull me over if i am doing everything fine bone stock max good driving habits would they pull me over just for headlights?

 

ohitz, i have 6000k in my stock glass fogf assembly. wiring it up took all of maybe 1/2 hour a piece. The thing on the glare is how you adust them. set to high you will **** people off. i adjusted mine in my fathers shop which has the wall to adjust lights on.. then i went outside and got in a car that was some distance away to see if it was in my eyes. it was a bit so i adjusted down a bit and now im good. they give a nice blueish white, no glare, and i havent been pulled over yet and im going on almost a year now. i can say when the fogs are off i can def tell as visibility is not nearly as good. the fogs help so much

 

6000 Kelvin would be the limit for me. Up here in Canada the Police have traps where they pull people over with even the slightest hint of a violation. My son's '98 Max got pulled for having minimal tint on the driver window.

Fines:

Tint $67
Non factory light mods (HID retro) $180
Clear Bumper lamps (with not orange enough bulbs) $180
Anti Radar plate on license - $67
Attitude - $priceless

We went to court and got the HID's and Bumper lights reduced to a combined $100 "mechanical failure" fine and could keep both if they pass a Provincial inspection. The inspection checks the color and visibility of the corner/bumper lights and the beam pattern and aim of the HIDS. The tint is gone and everything else will be modded to look less obvious.

 

Damn canada sucks. I would get pulled over everyday

 

Holy crap....that sucks. It must have been that cops time of the month or something.

 

I've got 6000k hid fogs and they're great I didn't get them for fog but more for night driving and the almost totaly eliminate the need for high beams they really help fill in the black spot directly in front of the car where the headlights don't light up. As for the install it's not just plug and play you will need to interface the factory harness to the HID kit to power it up. At least that's how I did mine I'm sure others have done it differently. I basicaly just cut the factory harness from the fog assembly and connected it the the power wires of the kit nice and easy only took me about an hour to wire everything up. I've had mine for about 6 months now and haven't been stopped for it... yet cuz it is illegal no matter where you are. Hope this helps.

 

I've had cheap eBay 8000K HID kits on my 4th Gen and my old Taurus SHO and I never got pulled over in RI. My 5.5 Gen has 6000K's in the fogs and I haven't had a problem yet. Just make sure you aim your headlights.

 

How was the light pattern on the road with the Hids in the stock housing?

 

The pattern will always be bad. I don't understand why people always want these lights. Retro later...Don't want to pay for 02-03 lights. Stock halogens light up the road just fine and don't get pulled over! I drive in places with lots of deer, zero street lights. Very dark, my 00 halogens do just fine. They are better than our 08 prius with LEGAL HID's. There is a reason these lights are illegal, they blind other drivers with legal lights. Either get 02-03 lights, retro first!, or skip it. Being a jerk to other drivers doesn't make your car look cool, it looks rice. Blue lights just look dumb on cars that shouldn't have them any way. Some loser at my school has a toyota sienna with 8-10k hid in stock housings. I can't see after the lights from that van hit me. Visibility is better with halogens than incorrect HID's, and thats all lights are really for anyway!

 

You are right. Our 2003 Murano with legal HIDs does a worse job of lighting up the road than my 2000 I30 with stock Halogens.

The Murano HIDs are brighter but have a sharp cut off which reduces the light down the road. The I30 halogens are not as bright but have a "soft" and gradual cut off. The result is better visibility way down the road.

I had always hoped that maybe HID bulbs in a stock halogen housing would give you the best of both worlds, but apparently not from what I'm hearing.

 

The best HID's have both a sharp cut off (good for other drivers) and auto leveling systems (good for you! & other drivers). I've been playing with a inertial/hi-speed servo system to produce the ultimate HID retro for my wife's '09 Max, but it's trickier than I thought.

Once you output more than 2000 focused lumens you are bound to glare/blind other drivers if you are not careful. A cheap 3000+ lumen HID kit in inproperly designed headlights is bad for both you (bad weather especially) and other drivers (all the time).

 

The light pattern looks horrible on both cars because they both have glass headlights. The HIDs light up the whole headlight assembly and the beam is scattered everywhere on the road. I don't have the SHO any more and my 96 has Silverstars in it right now.

 

I used to run hid's on my 97 Maxima about 5 years ago when plug/play kits were expensive and rare.

In stock housings, they absolutely blind other drivers.


When I drive around these days and look at cars that have hid kits (you can always notice) they just never look right. Besides blinding me and probably other drivers they just make the car look cheap overall no matter what type of car.

 

In a more useful post than my last one. Search the forum a bit and get some really nice halogen bulbs that are brighter than the stock ones. You can definately notice and other drivers won't dislike you as much.