I just won HIDs for my car in a raffle!

[Xyxyll]

Install them correctly, I've seen tons of cars with them added on and they didn't bother to align the lights so they blind everyone else. On more than one ocassion i've seriously considered following them home and taking care of the lights for them.

same... I hate HIDs.

[bofh]

bofh, the 'k' stands for kelvin, iirc, not 1000.

oh yeah. my bad.

Shouldn't it be a K instead?

either way, I need some sleep.

AH geez, I never even said congrats on the free stuff. Um Congrats.

[Cristobal]

Congratulations on winning the raffle! I don't want to rain on your parade, but I think I'll suggest you take a close look at the kit you've won before installing.

If the kit you've won replaces the whole headlight/foglight, including the reflector then you should be ok. (Assuming no problems with your cars headlight wiring, but that's another issue.)

But if the kit you won is just to replace the halogen bulbs with HID bulbs and ballasts, you probably don't want to do it. The geometry of the light source in an HID bulb is quite a bit different than a Halogen and produces a vastly different beam pattern than Halogens do. This requires a reflector designed for use with HID bulbs. The reflector needs to direct light down the road while maintaining a sharp horizontal cutoff line to help reduce the glare seen by oncoming drivers. Simply replacing Halogen bulbs with HIDs will give you a beam pattern that is most likely neither safe nor legal. Another common problem would be throwing too much light directly in front of the car or immediatly to either side. Both of these conditions can lead to a perceived improvement in vision as the eye notices the improved near-car brightness -- but because the eye is attracted by this, it doesn't focus as far down the road as it should.

For that matter, color temperature and "whiteness/blueness" are not all they're hyped up to be: higher wavelength light -- blues and purples -- scatters more readily and creates more glare for you and other drivers, particularly when there's precipitation. So I'm glad to see that you've opted towards the lower end of the spectrum.

Take my comments with a grain of salt: your kit may be fine... but there are a lot of bad ones out there that do more harm than good.

If you want to read more, danielsternlighting.com is an excellent site. See here for his comments on HID's http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...nversions.html

[cockerkiller68]

I agree for the most part. I put new HID bulbs and ballasts in stock halogen headlights in my Lexus. They actually work pretty well. The light is awesome compared to stock!! Put it this way, if it's really dark out, I use HIDs instead of my high beams!! Clean white light.

If I blind you, get outa my way. j/k mine are adjusted

[Hasty8]

I put the 7500ks on my Lexus...Don't get the 5k...get higher...at least 6000k. I wish I had of got 9000k now that they're installed. Congrats!!

That's brilliant.

Sacrifice visible white light for looks.

You do realize that the blue/purple range does not provide enough light to properly see right?

And I agree with Pyro. One of the days I'm gonna slam on my brakes and permanently adjust those bright lights. That or let the guy get infront of me and turn on my KC's!

[teufelhunden]

Cristobal- I'm not sure if Mazda uses the same reflector for both the Halogens and the Xenons that you can get in the 3, but I've seen side by sides of the same car with halogens and then xenons [aftermarket], and the Xenons have produced a good line, like you spoke of. I actually notice a line with my halogens now.. and I can actually see where one light begins and the other ends, as the left headlight is adjusted a smidge higher than the right. So, I should be fine. If not, they'll be on eBay.

Xtec kit, btw.

[bofh]

So, I should be fine. If not, they'll be on eBay.

Brilliant!