Questions on HIDs

[Landon75]

i have some general questions about the HIDs i want to get some and want to get some more info on them. my car is a 2001 Saturn SL2 i wanna do both the headlights and the foglights, i want them for better vision and because they look cool.

Here are my questions...

how much for a decent set?

What does the 5k 8k ect. really mean and what would be best for me?

do you have to take apart the headlight housing or just pop them in like a replacement bulb?

Will i still have high/low beams?

are they legal in Texas?

And finally will they take away more power than my current stock headlights?

sorry for all the questions, i just like to get things cleared up before i buy stuff.

oh and feel free to post links to some kits that would work for my car!

thanks in advance!

[audiofanaticz]

i have some general questions about the HIDs i want to get some and want to get some more info on them. my car is a 2001 Saturn SL2 i wanna do both the headlights and the foglights, i want them for better vision and because they look cool.

Here are my questions...

how much for a decent set?

What does the 5k 8k ect. really mean and what would be best for me?

do you have to take apart the headlight housing or just pop them in like a replacement bulb?

Will i still have high/low beams?

are they legal in Texas?

And finally will they take away more power than my current stock headlights?

sorry for all the questions, i just like to get things cleared up before i buy stuff.

oh and feel free to post links to some kits that would work for my car!

thanks in advance!

HID sets vary in price, most of all of them come from china, and are very simular from 1 kit to another, but may cost 2 or 3 times as much.

I ordered a good 20+sets of HIDs from www.ddmtuning.com for various people, friends, family, myself etc. Average cost is around 60$ per set (with mounting brackets, wiring harness).

Their raptor style ballasts are bulletproof, their slim ballasts I dont care much fore, and cost $10 extra.

The 5000k, 6000k, 8000k, 12000k etc etc is the temperature of the hid bulb. K means Kelvin.

The higher the number the more blue/purple the bulbs are, BUT the less light output they have.

So a 6000k bulb will be much brighter and more white then a 12000k bulb which is more purple and has less light output. Stock hids in many cars are around the 4800K-5300K range. What is best is your own liking, no one can answer that but you!

To order your bulbs, you first find out what style bulb your vehicle has. Then you goto your hid retailer of your choice and order said hid kits with the same style bulbs.

If your factory lights have highbeams and low beams in 1 bulb, then you normally pay more for the special harness and bulb type. If your vehicle has separate bulbs for highs and lows, you would need to buy and install 2 sets to keep your high beams.

Technically HIDS are ILLEGAL in ALL STATES unless it is OEM equipped with your vehicle, OR you buy projectors and retrofit the projectors into your headlights (steve meade has a video on his youtube channel how to do this, but every vehicle is different but the concept is the same). You could also buy new headlight housings that have projectors, but the cheap ebay kits for $200ish are usually made of plastic, have the potential to melt, and most are made for Halogen style bulbs, not hids, but some have had okay luck!

I have HIDs in all my vehicles for a good 5 or 6 years, and never have gotten pulled over, and dont use projectors. I run 55watt raptor ballasts with 6000k bulbs. I have my lights aimed well and they do not blind others (at least I was never flashed yet, or pulled over for it).

HIDs take more power for the initial start up (the first 10seconds or so, when the ballasts are warming up before putting out their full light).

After the ballasts for the hids are warmed up they draw less current then your factory halogen headlights. You will also not notice the hids dim like normal headlights do from the amps sucking power to make bass since most ballasts operate in the 9volt to 16volt range to achieve full output.

I highly recommend using the prewired relay harness that you can usually buy from the hid retailer, which will make the headlight suck the juice from the battery, and not through your factory headlight wiring. In some but not all vehicles the factory wires can not support the needed amperage for the initial turn on of the ballasts, the relay harness fixes this.

[Landon75]

i have some general questions about the HIDs i want to get some and want to get some more info on them. my car is a 2001 Saturn SL2 i wanna do both the headlights and the foglights, i want them for better vision and because they look cool.

Here are my questions...

how much for a decent set?

What does the 5k 8k ect. really mean and what would be best for me?

do you have to take apart the headlight housing or just pop them in like a replacement bulb?

Will i still have high/low beams?

are they legal in Texas?

And finally will they take away more power than my current stock headlights?

sorry for all the questions, i just like to get things cleared up before i buy stuff.

oh and feel free to post links to some kits that would work for my car!

thanks in advance!

HID sets vary in price, most of all of them come from china, and are very simular from 1 kit to another, but may cost 2 or 3 times as much.

I ordered a good 20+sets of HIDs from www.ddmtuning.com for various people, friends, family, myself etc. Average cost is around 60$ per set (with mounting brackets, wiring harness).

Their raptor style ballasts are bulletproof, their slim ballasts I dont care much fore, and cost $10 extra.

The 5000k, 6000k, 8000k, 12000k etc etc is the temperature of the hid bulb. K means Kelvin.

The higher the number the more blue/purple the bulbs are, BUT the less light output they have.

So a 6000k bulb will be much brighter and more white then a 12000k bulb which is more purple and has less light output. Stock hids in many cars are around the 4800K-5300K range. What is best is your own liking, no one can answer that but you!

To order your bulbs, you first find out what style bulb your vehicle has. Then you goto your hid retailer of your choice and order said hid kits with the same style bulbs.

If your factory lights have highbeams and low beams in 1 bulb, then you normally pay more for the special harness and bulb type. If your vehicle has separate bulbs for highs and lows, you would need to buy and install 2 sets to keep your high beams.

Technically HIDS are ILLEGAL in ALL STATES unless it is OEM equipped with your vehicle, OR you buy projectors and retrofit the projectors into your headlights (steve meade has a video on his youtube channel how to do this, but every vehicle is different but the concept is the same). You could also buy new headlight housings that have projectors, but the cheap ebay kits for $200ish are usually made of plastic, have the potential to melt, and most are made for Halogen style bulbs, not hids, but some have had okay luck!

I have HIDs in all my vehicles for a good 5 or 6 years, and never have gotten pulled over, and dont use projectors. I run 55watt raptor ballasts with 6000k bulbs. I have my lights aimed well and they do not blind others (at least I was never flashed yet, or pulled over for it).

HIDs take more power for the initial start up (the first 10seconds or so, when the ballasts are warming up before putting out their full light).

After the ballasts for the hids are warmed up they draw less current then your factory halogen headlights. You will also not notice the hids dim like normal headlights do from the amps sucking power to make bass since most ballasts operate in the 9volt to 16volt range to achieve full output.

I highly recommend using the prewired relay harness that you can usually buy from the hid retailer, which will make the headlight suck the juice from the battery, and not through your factory headlight wiring. In some but not all vehicles the factory wires can not support the needed amperage for the initial turn on of the ballasts, the relay harness fixes this.

wow man thanks for the input you answered my questions and more. im gunna look at my options and ill post what find.

thanks again

[audiofanaticz]

Here is a couple color charts from DDMTuning.

From looking at autozone.com and checking your vehicle info, it says your car uses the 9005, and 9006 style bulb.

So you would have to buy 2 kits to have hids for your high and low beams, plus a 3rd kit for your fog lights

Your low beam bulb type is a 9006

Your high beam bulb type is a 9005

Your fog light bulb type is a 880st (this is a lower wattage bulb, 27watts iirc, and a small fog light housing, Im not sure if I would use a hid bulb in such a small housing. It could melt your plastic housings). But its completely up to you and trial and error. I never worked on a Saturn SL2. Sorry

[Landon75]

yeah man i was reading the ddmtuning stuff its really easy to install i was readind the manuals. so i was wondering what would be the difference between 35w and 55w raptor kit, what exactly is the hid harness (dual in dual out), and with that harness would i still be using stock low beam wires. i dont want to use the stock bulb wires if i dont have to and i think im just going to stick with the low beams for now. im gunna get the 6k when i end up ordering them.

[audiofanaticz]

The difference between the 35watt and 55watt ballasts is just that, one is higher power, and will result in a brighter bulb.

However with the higher watt ballasts you loose a little color.

The best way to describe it is.

A 55watt ballast with a 8000K bulb will make the 8000k bulb look like a 6000K bulb on a 35watt ballast, but it will be brighter then the 6000k bulb on the 35watt ballast.

So a 6000k bulb on a 55watt ballast even brighter yet!

The pre wired relay harness (double in double out) has a negative wire with a ring terminal that attaches to your negative battery post, a positive wire with a inline fuse and ring terminal that attaches to your positive battery post.

The double in double out is how they are wired. The double ins would be where you plug your factory headlight wires into. The double outs would get plugged into the ballasts.

There is 1 input and output per hid ballast. (you should use 2 harness if you buy 2 sets for your highs and lows, not needed for fog lights since the clips maybe different, but you could cut the input plugs off and hard wire it if need be).

So pretty much your factory plugs plug into the harness, your factory wires will pretty much act like a remote wire from a radio to an amplifier, and use very low current, when you turn the headlights on, it will turn on the prewired relay which will suck the juice from the battery, not the factory vehicle wiring.

A pic of the double in double out harness. there is 2 in this picture of mine.

[Red-navi-916]

Hid colors alao vary by company

[Babyjuice]

^^^ true that the hids I have are 8k but look like 10k. Idk the brand I have since I.bought mine through one of those guys on the streets that nobody knows and everybody thinks he's the local crack dealer and come to find out he just sells hids on the cheap through his jobs retailers license. So it depends on the brand but a majority of them are pretty much the same