HID or Xenon?

[firstbonnei1994]

I have been trying to upgrade my headlights but not sure what to do. I have a friend who has xenon lights (not on bonneville) and they look alright to me, nothing cool. I have read the stickie on the forum about hids, and people seem to wanna stay out of pnp kits.

Is it true if i decide to put xenon on, i can just replace the bulb without all the ballast or anything else?

If i do decide to go with HID, should i go 6000k for headlight and 3000k for fogs, or 6000k to both of them? The car is 2000 SLE so the fogs are not parallel to headlights.

Any help is much appreciated.

[repinS]

You're right about being leery about the HID kits. If you install one, know that the quantity of light you have will increase (brighter), but the quality of light will decrease (scatter), in effect REDUCING your headlight performance from the stock 9006/9005 bulbs. You'll look cool (debatable), blind others, and see less. Also, by "Xenon" bulb I'm guessing you mean simply a coloured white or blue 9006/9005 bulb. In terms of glare, this is a better solution than an HID kit. Just beware that the bluer the bulb is, the poorer they will perform, especially in inclement weather (rain, fog, etc). I don't suggest HID fogs for the 2000-2004 SLE/SSEi style fog lights either. They are mounted fairly high on the bumper and are a fairly large housing, which will end up blinding everybody you come across. The 2004-2005 GXP and 2005 SLE fog housings, on the other hand, have projectors to begin with. Those are fine and I run 3000K HID's in them.

As my personal rule of thumb, 5000K is about the highest anyone should ever go. If you are after the same colour of any factory HID system on any car, you are looking at 4300K. The extra blue-white-purple flicker effect you see on the road comes from the optics of the PROJECTOR, not the bulb.

Cliffs notes? If you're after the colour only, go with the coloured bulbs ("Xenon" as you call them). Just don't go too blue or you will start to lose performance. If you want actual lighting improvement, you are looking at a HID projector retrofit into your headlight or foglights.

[rrounds]

You can mod the high beam light to fit the low beam side or go with these
http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=5133
Those are bright and will light up the street.

ROD

[sethjamesrimrodt]

You can mod the high beam light to fit the low beam side or go with these
http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=5133
Those are bright and will light up the street.

ROD

If you do this you will probably end up with a thousand little cracks on the inside of you headlights lenses, like what happened to mine.

[yourgrandma]

The secret is that they only started making halogens so the government can control your mind. What I did was cut a hole in the bottom of the housing and put a candle up there. The bumper makes a great mount for the candle base. The light bulb companies won't tell you this, but you actually get a better beam pattern and depending on what color candle you use, you can get any color you want!

[theax40]

*dang* that's why your lights look so good...

[nos4blood70]

[00Beast]

lulz Randy.

Xenon = the gas used in HID's.

[firstbonnei1994]

thanks for the suggestions.

Basically what i want is not the blue look, maybe 5000k or 6000k. What i really like about hid is how they spread through the road.They spread really wide, idk if that can be achieved with the pnp or its oem hid.

What do i need to get the HID working for 2000 bonneville? bulb, ballast thats it? I heard something about wiring harness specific for bonneville as it wouldnt work without it. So if i do order one only (any good websites?) will that be fine or i gotta make sure something specific is included for my car?

On a side note, i was thinking of doing daytime lighting with led strips. I know someone who has done it here, and they look really good. Any opinions?

[Sadden]

You will never achieve any "usefull" light with pnp hids.

Spend a couple hours here
Www.theretrofitsource.com

Then come hack to this thread...

[LeSabre in Buffalo]

If you want throw and spread, HIR bulbs are an excellent choice. They plug right into the stock headlights and are legal to use. They're basically the best halogen bulbs available. It's about $100 for a full set. Color is pure white.

[firstbonnei1994]

Reading on HIR, and they seem to be a much better choice if the user is not looking for the blue tint. Im considering these now. So if i get these (link in the bottom) i can pretty much just pnp? I heard we have to modify it to fit into 9006, but modification takes only about a min. what is that mod?

http://www.amazon.com/Philips-HIR2-Stan ... &carId=003

[Mad Myche]

[rrounds]

I would put the HIR1 in both the low and high beam side.
HIR2= 2400 Lumens
HIR1= 3000 Lumens
You do this just like you would by putting the standard high beam bulb in the low beam side for more Lumens(more light).

ROD

[rrounds]

Standard low beam light has 1000 Lumens and the standard high beam light has 1700 Lumens so going to 2400 or 3000 Lumens is a lot more light.

ROD

[firstbonnei1994]

its not illegal to use high beam bulb for low beam right? Also either way like even if i go with low beam hir (2400 lumens) i will see much more increased out put right?

Can anybody comment on LEDs?

[firstbonnei1994]

Also can HIR bulbs be used for foglights, if so what model 9011 or 9012? if not then any bright white bulbs?

im trying to find out a number so it will be easy to find. like 9006 for low and 9005 for high beams, whats the number for foglights?

[Mad Myche]

9005 upgraded to 9011 = 17% brighter than stock
9006 upgraded to 9012 = 36% brighter than stock

Technically speaking, a 9005 lamp housing is only DOT compliant when it has a DOT accepted 9005 bulb inside. Generally speaking nobody will really have any issues unless you are creating a lot of glare. The reason that the HIR conversion is not frowned upon is that the filament placement is near identical to the 9005/9006 that they can replace, so the beam pattern is not compromised.

IMHO, LEDs are not ready for retrofitting at this time.

The 9011/9012 are not suitable for fog/driving lamp retrofits. The filament geometry is different than the original bulb, so the optics will not be "tuned" to use the light correctly. The OEM fog lamps are merely cosmetic, and are designed for a bulb using only half the power that the HIRs use. So they may look cool, but they are more likely to not disperse the light as desired and the additional heat load will most likely damage the housings over time.
Heat damage was very common in police cars a decade ago- the strobes they put in the tail-lamp housings while only being 30 watts were generating enough heat to melt the lenses

What I would most likely do for fog/driving lamps is to retrofit to a quality lamp using a standardized bulb

[firstbonnei1994]

Thank you for the detailed info. I was going to do led just for the apparence but i guess it wont be too good.

Before ordering i wanna know if ill be fine ordering 9011(high beam) for 9006 bulb (low beam)? or i have to go with 9012 for 9006?

[LeSabre in Buffalo]

Go with the HIR2/9012 for the low beam. The small difference in light output is far outweighed by not replacing expensive HIR1/9011 bulbs every 6 months. And, the HIR2/9012 has the filament in the exact same spot as the 9006, or at least close enough to be unnoticeable. I can't say the same thing about the HIR1/9011.

Philips HIR2/9012's have a lifespan of 1500 hours or something crazy. The HIR1's have a lifespan of 150-200 hours. If you drive a lot, 150 hours is about 6-9 months. At $50 a set, HIR1's in low beams would get expensive really quickly.