I want to get new High beam and low beam headlights. Are the stock highbeams already hid? can any 9005 size bulb fit? Can I install 9005 HID 20000k without a conversion kit?
And as far as the foglights go can i do the same with a 20000k bulb? as long as they are H3?

Basically are the stock high beams and fogs already hid capable?
and wouldthese two products be compatable with my 2002 I35?

http://store.ijdmtoy.com/ProductDeta...SKU47&CartID=1

http://store.ijdmtoy.com/ProductDeta...SKU49&CartID=2

 

High beams and fog lights are halogen style in stock form.

The links you posted arent HIDs either. Those are just LED bulbs.

http://forums.maxima.org/group-deals...5-shipped.html

Those are HID kits. Also, there is no reason to put HIDs in the high beams. First of all, when you turn on your high beams, the fogs turn off. Second of all, when you power on HIDs, it takes a moment for them to warm up and brighten. This means you wont be able to quickly flash someone for whatever reason you would need to.

 

PICTURE TIME!


Once you go past essentially 5k... your visibility goes down. Your HUMAN eyes cant utilize the light. the K spectrum below shows what the "K" in the 8000k is as per kelvin scale.



so take notice that the 4000Ks is the white light. (12pm NOON sun light). a little after that gives you color of blue tint.

ANyhow once you go past that 5k point the light your shining is just blue/purple, not bright. often people think 8K is brighter cause its being used in a NON-HID housing and thus glaring. Also there is a slight dif. in where the salt is located in the capsule amongst the brands and types (especailly aftermarket). Also the stock D2rs have shileds on the bulb itself to prevent Glare. So if you use a D2s is a 03Max OEM hid headlight, then the lack of reflector will yield "brighter light" in the form of glare.

I have Oem Nissan HID reflectors in my Retrofit BELOW, and use D2S(projector bulb) HID at 5k. I find it to give me a bit more spread due to teh lack of shields on the bulb. I loose a sharpness in the cut-off line, because of the lack of shielding.

If you use the dif. "K" bulbs in a OEM HID projector, you will see the diff is only color and not the effective visibility/range, if anything the visiblity is negated as you + in "K". If you want that color, go ahead but Optimal setup would be 5k and 3k fog(lexus capsule mod ftw). Thus giving you full use of the visibile light in the spectrum. I'v been using a set of phillips bulbs + Oem Nissan ballast since 2004. My the setup survived my first car... and now is in current car.

The high Kelvin rating also in bad weather is less effective. The 4k and below light (better as you go lower) can pass through water particles etc. where as the high "K" light gets scattered.

If you dont want your fogs to turn off, run your Headlights via a HID relay/harness. That will remove the resistance needed by the car to turn fogs off when highbeaming.

 

Isn't it illegal to run lows/brights/fogs at the same time? I thought it was 4 lights at a time, hence the reason your fogs go out when you turn on high beams.

 

... that depends on location. You can be cited for driving with fogs (the yellow ones are the worst) when the weather does not warrant it. If you are running HID in the fogs and dont have them installed correct causing glare etc, the cop can easily ticket you.

That depends on cops, location and the driver being pulled over.

The engineering behind the fog lights going out when you hit highbeam is not becuase of ticketing etc. It has to do with your eyes. A lot of people dont realize how much they are messing up their visibilty by installing HIDs in FOGS, BIGHTS, LOW.

-the fog light is supposed to illuminate the area IMMEDIATELY in front of the car.
-The lows illuminate a wider and deeper area within a given amount of distance in feet. Also the cuttoff line has to be at a certain height. also the headlight it self has a limit on how low it can be mounted on the car (there is a lighting standard that all car manuf. must follow, I dont know the exact #s however, Im going off memory from reading.)
-The HIGHs illuminate Above horizon and further than the lows. Essentially the max amount of light the reflector can disperse.

So back to our eyes; Our eyes are funny in the sense that if you light up the area right in front of you really bright, it messes up the distance we can see. If you light up the area Further away, it makes it a bit harder to see whats right in front of you. Thus when you hit high beam, the fogs turn off to help you see the distance. If the fogs are lit and you hit highbeam, your eyes wont see much more distance becuase you have the bright fogs lighting up the area immediately in front of you. All this gets x10 (not accurate #) when you use HIDs in fogs etc. Esp. ones over 4K.

This is why the ideal set up would be

Low : 4-5K (most useable light)
High: Halogen (No heat up time, HALOGEN properly seated in the reflector housing for most visibility as the location of the light in the bulb vary from HID to halogen and between bulb types.)
Fogs : less than 4K (the less intensity of the light helps to preserve Low beam visibility + illuminated the immediate are in front of car without disturbing the Low beams ability to illuminate.)

LAST BUT NOT LEAST. most people dont notice these things unless you live in areas without light at night. Meaning you use moonlight in the dark to walk around. No street lights, no lights from houses etc. Just areas with PITCH black. This is where most of this makes a dif. Driving through NYC, i probably wouldnt even realize if my headlights didnt work cause its so well light as is.

 

Very good explanation HomerMAC, I've noticed that after putting 6k HID in my fogs my lows seem less powerful. Would white LED's that are much less powerful have the same problem?

Not to be picky InfinitiForever, but couldn't your two headlight threads have been combined?

 

This is all great reading, great to know someone knows their cars. However, I have a little question. I have an 05 maxima, apparently it came stock with HID lights. The problem is, when I turn my lights on, the drivers side comes on, flickers, then goes out. The passenger side light works great. When I turn the light switch from auto to on, the drivers side comes right back on, but will flicker off again. I've heard a number of reasons from fuses, to a short, to the ballast, and I've dismissed most. I'm leaning more towards the ballast being out, or something with that. How can I be sure that it's the ballast? and where is it located? Any ideas would be great, thanks!

 

Since we are on the topic of HIDs, how long do HIDs generally last?

 

I think about 3000 hours, most places say the "life of the vehicle" but I've seen 3000 hours on multiple websites.

I'm not sure how to test the ballast, but I would look at/replace everything else like fuses or relays involved in the system. Sounds like it's having trouble igniting properly, which seems to me like it would lie in the ballast.
As far as location I'll tell you what my I35 looks like, you can usually see them looking up from under the front bumper. They should be directly under the headlamp and should have high voltage orange warning stickers on a little silver box.

 

the ballast is attached to your headlight.

click below link, read + pics avail
http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/maxima/2005_Maxima/lt.pdf

better than me trying to explain where it is. Also they have the procedure to follow to check it . Sounds like you might have a bad GROUND. I know grounding had caused this type of behavior in the past.

And HIDs last a long time. so far my set has been running for 5-6 years. on my daily driven car.

putting in any type of bright light near you will impare your visibilty distance wise. I dont know how bright the LED fog bulbs are, never tried them. Also having super bright Dash cluster lights also impare distance at night. I know.. its all ridonculous.

 

The bulb may last up to 3000 hours before turning off, but the usable light will be even less than a halogen bulb. This is not 100% accurate, but a phillips bulb(85122+) will lose a large amount of light by the time it reaches its half-life(somewhere around 60% IIRC from hidplanet). When it comes to aftermarket bulbs, the times will vary greatly. Some may burn out in as little as 400-500 hours or less, while others can last the full 3000 hours(still losing quite a bit of lumens, a lot quicker than OEM HID).

i know this was last updated last month, but I thought the info i put in the post was useful enough to bump this up