well me and some friends are gettin some HID's from a friend at a new local shop, we get a lil discount for buying multiple kits. im already set on getting a set of 3000k yellow HID's for the fogs...after seeing a new civic si, i noticed he had a nice lighting set up. it was oem HID's, yellow fogs and yellow high beams....looked pretty nice. i already have one of the high beam bulbs burned out so i figured adding a set of HID's for the highs would be nice. im doin it mainly for looks (rice....yea i kno) but im guessing i should be getting better high beams in addition to the looks. i just want to know is there any thing i should look out for...smart idea? will it work safely without anything overheating or shorting out....the lights may be used more frequently then i normally use highs (i wont be driving around with them on for extended time tho)

anyone else done this already???

 

haf stock HID kit on, but changed bulbs to 8000k already, pretty bright, was considering of changing the high's to HID also but seemed like a hassle to wire stuff and put a relay in, so thinking of just putting those cool blue " xenon " or watever they call it bulbs in, duno if it's any good, but anything is better than hardcore yellow >=)

 

Its not a practical idea to have a separate HID system for the high beams. HIDs take a few seconds to power up and get to optimum temperature, usually with high beams you need it right away and you only need it momentarily. Most OEM manufactures wont make 2 separate systems, they will instead use a Bi-Xenon system. Thats basically a high/low output from one system.

So go ahead and do it if you want to for show but its not gonna be very practical for real use.

Also, 8000k HID's arent as bright as 6000k. Optimum brightness ranges from 4500k to 6000k. After 6000k visibility starts to go down. Think of it this way, a white light (4500k - 6000k) is brighter than a blue light (8000k) or a purple light (10,000k+), or a yellow light (3000k).

 

kool, thanks for the answers...i think i may go with the 2nd kit, i live in the city and dont use the highs too much anyway, only to signal other drivers or somethin. my concern is that too much power will be drawn or i may short somethin out. but if i have nothing to worry about then ill do it along with the fogs....im goin wit yellow jus cause its the "JDM" thing to do lol, i always loved the way the old lexus's did it, it reminded me of the japanese gt cars with yellow lights.

 

i don't think they used yellow in their high-beams. why don't you just get yellow parking lights? i think i would get pretty pissed if someone was driving around with some annoying yellow highs on all the time just cause they think it looks cool.

 

HID for high beams are not worth it, plus im sure you dont drive around with your high beams all the time. You probably use it to flash most of the time. HID's must warm up like the poster above mentioned, if you flash them, the bulb life drastically shortens. I wouldnt do it.

 

I'm surprised nobody has come up with a heated HID capsule for high beams. Wouldn't that resolve some of the warm-up problems? Of course it would have the downside that the bulbs would pull power even when not on..

 

HID capsules take more than a few seconds to warm up... about 30 seconds. Turning the bulb back off before it is warmed up is bad for the bulb and will shorten it's life dramatically. Using them as high beams and flashing them is a bad idea, they will not last long. If it's just for show, go for it, but it's not really practical.