Ok, I was very close to buying PIAA Plasma GT-Xs, but realized I was doing something wrong. I wasnt following my own advice that I, so often, give to people... "Take your time, do it right, and never settle for less." So I'm getting HIDs.

But the problem is, theres so much to go through, what do I do? I narrowed it down to three good companies: McCulloch, Phillips, and Hella. Now what about color temp? I want to keep it close to the look of the S2000's HID setup... especially since my headlights are also projectors. S2000's HIDs temp is at 4700k. I'm going to want it a tad more noticeable to people that I have HIDs, so I'm thinking I want 5000k - 6000k. If anything, I want a very slight blueish look, and not purple. The purpler it is, the more akward my hyperwhite turnsignals will look.

So now that I've narrowed it down to three companies and the color temp options... anyone want to help me narrow it down to the final product? Give me any experiences, pictures, or info you've read/heard.

Here is a picture I was able to find with McCulloch's 6000k HID kit. Also keep in mind that this is a picture... and it could possibly look totally different in person.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v69/Silverbo1t/6000KProjectorGround.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v69/Silverbo1t/6000KProjectorWall.jpg

Now I have never seen them in person, but I have heard the McCullogh HID's look more Purple, like Audi HIDS. NOw I can't vouch for this, as I have never seen them in person. But this is what I have heard.

I've never seen the other 2 in person. Typically though, 6K will give more purple is the color than 4700K. It is defiantly going to be more purple in look than 5000K color temp.

ANyways, good luck with the HIDS..I was under the impression that in cali HIDS where illegel to put in a headlight housing that didn't come with them as an option. I know that's a reason the super plasma's apple to a lot of people. As for what I've heard, as I said above, I have heard McCullogh looks purplish like Audi HIDS. This is probably due to the 6K color temp. 5000K would have less purple if you are concerned with color being different than the hyper white signals.

Also, remember that the farther away from th color of natural light you get, the less useable light output you have (color will be greater, however usable light output is less). It's a trade-off some do not mind, since HIDS have such a great output, but one to keep in mind. I find HIDS around 5000K give or take to be the most pleasing to me. Thats my 2 cents.

I wouldn't call PIAA Super Plasma GT-X's not doing it right, just settling for less in your case, LOL, since you want HIDS.

Good luck with the purchase, post pics when ur done

Yeah, PIAA's arent settling for less... they're awsome bulbs.. .its just for my case. I was going to get them because they're the best way of having the HID look, w/o really having HIDs. HIDs are illegal in Cali, but thats also why I was looking into getting 5000k HIDs. They'll look like OEM hids from other cars, and they wont attract attention. Alot of cars around here have stock HIDs, so I'd just blend in. I might consider 6000k, but only if its not that blue, or purple. But then again, after a few hundered hours of use, HIDs tend to change a little and have a tad more coloration to them. I think that if I stick to 5000k, it'll all look the same, since its pretty much pure white. I might just go with one of the good companies that gives me the best deal.

Yeah, PIAA's arent settling for less... they're awsome bulbs.. .its just for my case. I was going to get them because they're the best way of having the HID look, w/o really having HIDs. HIDs are illegal in Cali, but thats also why I was looking into getting 5000k HIDs. They'll look like OEM hids from other cars, and they wont attract attention. Alot of cars around here have stock HIDs, so I'd just blend in. I might consider 6000k, but only if its not that blue, or purple. But then again, after a few hundered hours of use, HIDs tend to change a little and have a tad more coloration to them. I think that if I stick to 5000k, it'll all look the same, since its pretty much pure white. I might just go with one of the good companies that gives me the best deal.

Yeah, I'd stick with 5000K, and then try and hide the ballist as well as I can, just in case, you know? Besides, 5000K will give you the same color temp as the PIAA Super Plasmas, which tend to"blend in" IMO. It will look more real and brighter of course, cuz they are...but it seems like a safer bet where HID conversions are illegel. Matt said once he thought he heard if you shoved an OEM HID lighting assembly into your non-HID headlamps it might not be illegel. Me was never able to confrim or denouce this though, but it's something to look into. Anyways, keep me posted on what you find and do with all this.

Actually Eckoman, as I was telling Paul and from my experience, McCollughs are more bluish like Acura and Nissan HIDs, and Philips are more purplish like Audi and BMW HID's. I'm not sure how Hellas are, but I'm thinking they are more close to pure white... :confused:

Actually Eckoman, as I was telling Paul and from my experience, McCollughs are more bluish like Acura and Nissan HIDs, and Philips are more purplish like Audi and BMW HID's. I'm not sure how Hellas are, but I'm thinking they are more close to pure white...:confused:

The higher up in the color spectrum you go, the more purple it will start to get. 6000k like the MCCollughs is outside of the white part of the spectrum, so it will appear more bluish/purple than white. No OEM makes HID's with a Color temp that high. The further you get from the color of natural noon sunlight, the less usable light output you have (Natural sunlight tends to be 5400K in the northen hempishere on average, though depending on the date in can ranges between 4900-5800K on average). A general rule of thumb though is the furthur you get away from the color of natural white light, the less usable light output you have. The higher up in the spetrum you go, the more brillant the color but less usable light results. This is why you see better with a 5500K HID kit than a 8000K HID kit @ the same output level. It is also why OEM's tend to keep there HID's around 4200K-5200K (though the color temp they chose can range slightly into or out of that of course. A lot of Auxillery HIDs are around 4200K Syvanias Xenarc Auxillery lighting kit is around 4200K i believe). Here is a pic of the Kelvin Color Temperature Spectrum

http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/503/70393nomograph.jpg

As you can see, around 3800 is where it starts to go "white." Bulbs of this color temp tend to be a white with a yellowish tint to them. The PIAA "Star White" and APC "Extreme White DOT Legel" bulbs lay at this color temp. They have a much more white look to them but the tint is a yellowish white.

The "white" part of the spectrum seems to lay between around 3800K-5500K. If you look at the graph, when you get much beyond that, even a few hundred degrees Kelvin, things begin to change. Before 3800K it gets progressivly more yellow, and after 5500K it begins to get more bluish/purple/violet. It seems to be a little bit after 6000K that light really starts to look purple.

The further from a given end of the white part of the spectrum you get, the less the white seems to have slight a color tint corisponding to that end of the spectrum. Of course, the Middle of the White spectrum is where the Light will appear the to be the most "pure" white looking. As you get further away frm the middle towards the higher kelvin temp side, it begins to take on a gradual blueish/purple tint until the light gradually becomes noticably more blueish/purple than white. The same goes for the lower kelvin color temp part of the white spectrum. The further you get away from the middle of the white part of the spectrum towards the lower kelvin temps, the more the light gradually takes on a slight yellowish tint until it gradaully becomes noticably more yellow than white.

As I said, the white part of the spectrum seems to be around 3800K-5500K. If you look at the color temp graph, much beyond that and you see the color starts to look noticable less white and more yellow (if you're towards the lower end below 380K) or blueish/purple (if you're towards the higher end above 5500K). Look @ the graph above, it will help you understand what type of color output to expect from what Color temp of a bulb.

I found some HIDs on Ebay that are 12000k... I think I'm going with that haha

I would want a tad over 5000k, but not as high as 6000k. As far as I've seen, there isnt any HID kits that lie in between. If thats the case, I'll get either McCulloch or Phillips... depending on which one I could get the best deal on.

I found some HIDs on Ebay that are 12000k... I think I'm going with that haha

I would want a tad over 5000k, but not as high as 6000k. As far as I've seen, there isnt any HID kits that lie in between. If thats the case, I'll get either McCulloch or Phillips... depending on which one I could get the best deal on.

I know Catz used to make HID kits in 3 different color temps...4500K, around 5500k, and around 6500K. I know something happened where Catz "recalled" their HIDS due to complaints of them being too bright. If I remember the Dept. Of Trans. or some government agncy got involved and forced it. Anyways, they kind of seemed to fall off the face of the earth when it comes to the US market after that and the website addy they had for the US went too. I think partof their problem was they didn't advertise it "for off-road use only" like so many other companies do with HID conversion kits. I think that caught them in a bad legel situation later on.

Now I can't read a darn lick of this, but hear the the only website I found for them, their Japanese one...hahaha

http://www.fet-japan.co.jp/
http://www.fet-japan.co.jp/catz/index.html
I can't read much of it, but I think they seem to have 3200K ("rising yellow"), 4500K ("rising white"), 5500K ("aqua white"), 5700K ("supreme white"), 6500K ("galexy white"), and 10000K ("blue impact") HID kits over in Japan. Maybe you could import one of the 5500K or 5700K ones? I don't know. Maybe you could find one of the 5500K HID kits they sold here used. That still makes bulb replacment a problem.

Anyways, maybe keep looking. There have to be other kits (from other companies) besides the Catz that are now only in Japan with Color temps in between 5000K and 6000K, since that seems to be what you are looking for, less than 6000K but a little more than 5000K.

Anyways, I personally like 5000K much better than 6000K. :biggrin:: 5000K happens to be the color temp of my PIAA super plasmas, lol. :rofl:

I actually bought the 5300K Mccolluch Kit but didnt install it yet. I heard that you need to rewire your lights so that the HID draw won't burn out your headlight wires. I am still thinking of getting rid of this kit which is actually pure white with very light tint of blue, and getting the philips 4300K kit which is the actual color of the BMW/Benz/Audis and some Hella bi-xenon projectors which will give a really sharp cut off. If anyone wants my kit its still brand new, we can talk.

HID's power draw should not be a facto at all. They are not a high wattage bulb, and use much less wattage than a standard halogen bulb. The put out much more light ouptut (lumans) but use much less wattage. As long as you hook them up correctly using the proper harnesses, etc (eventhing you need should be included with the HIDs, espeically with the reputable brands), you shouldn't have any problems with having your headlight wires fry with HIDs, as they are not high wattage at all, they are lower wattage than stock halogens!!!

I was actually reading some info on this site here http://faq.auto.light.tripod.com/headlamp-harness.html. This is the actual wiring i'm going to use once i decide if i'm keeping my kit.

Silverbolt, will you be installing projectors as well, or just the bulbs? I really don’t suggest you stick an HID kit in without projectors. You see, the optics of your head lamps were designed to reflect out a certain amount of light, at a certain amount of wattage (measured in lumens). When you simply stick an HID bulb in there you get a lot of glare from light spilling out the sides and stuff. I use to drive a city bus in NYC and the big thing in neighborhood I use to drive in at the time was to stick these systems in a stock head lamp housing. You would get the cool color but you would get lots of glare. (Especially with our stock head lights). It use to annoy the hell out of me! :disappoin Consequently it would gave the cops reason enough to pull them over.

"Take your time, do it right, and never settle for less." You’ve got the right idea! The cool thing about using projectors is that you get a cool cutoff line. Especially if you use EU projectors.

Silverbolt already has projectors, so he will definatly be using the projectors. His goal was to get projectors and have real HIDS in them. He got the projectors a long time ago, however he never got around to getting the HIDS until now.

On a side not, I am not familer with the term "EU" for projectors, what did you exactly mean by that?

Silverbolt already has projectors, so he will definatly be using the projectors. His goal was to get projectors and have real HIDS in them. He got the projectors a long time ago, however he never got around to getting the HIDS until now.

On a side not, I am not familer with the term "EU" for projectors, what did you exactly mean by that?Never knew that. Ho well. The reason I was recommending them is because I have a real gripe with people who install HID kits without projectors and blind everyone at night! I think it’s real rude. I wasn’t aware that he had projectors! What kind’s he got?

Sorry typo! ECE or European projectors I mean, which differ from DOT projectors. ECE projectors tend to concentrate/ focus on the ground more, where as DOT projectors tend to diffuse the light more. I like the ECE projectors because of cut-off. Some of the projectors like the Valeos even have a lite blue edge at the cut-off.

Does anyone know what happened to the Classified section? I have some HIDs I need to put up.

Never knew that. Ho well. The reason I was recommending them is because I have a real gripe with people who install HID kits without projectors and blind everyone at night! I think it’s real rude. I wasn’t aware that he had projectors! What kind’s he got?

Sorry typo! ECE or European projectors I mean, which differ from DOT projectors. ECE projectors tend to concentrate/ focus on the ground more, where as DOT projectors tend to diffuse the light more. I like the ECE projectors because of cut-off. Some of the projectors like the Valeos even have a lite blue edge at the cut-off.

I was actually thinking about using a projector from an S2000, but thats going to be more money than I would like to spend on my car right now... especially since I'm planning on buying a new car.

I dont have ECE projectors... After someone clipping my front and smashing my front end in, I just bought an aftermarket headlight that came with projectors. They wont turn out anything like an S2000, but at least these will prevent glare, and look alot cleaner than if I were to use them in a normal housing.

Does anyone know what happened to the Classified section? I have some HIDs I need to put up.


Sorry, I have no idea. I only moderate and look over this part of the forums.