That halogen vs xenon comparison is very farfetched, but I will put it this way. Even 35W HID kits are bright, and if you are going for "bright" instead of "color" then you'd want 4000k or 5000k. Any higher then the color tints with some blue and blue is never as bright as white. I took a picture of my girlfriend's Sport Trac as I was installing a cheap ebay bi-xenon kit (wich surprisingly after 2 years still works flawlessly). She has 35W 8000k HIDs. They are far brighter than the Ultrabrights, and they are 8000k. They would be much brighter were they 4000k or something more white. This picture has one stock bulb and one 8000k HID. Can you guess which one is which?

Oh, and ddmtuning is a GREAT place to get HIDs because they have EVERYTHING you need to get you kit working, they have EVERY color you want, they have EVERY bulb you are looking for, and they have BOTH 35W ad 55W. When you buy cheap, you get what you pay for. With these guys you aren't buying cheap, you're buying a great product without busting the bank.

 

how was the installation with those HIDs

 

This one was kind of a pain because they required a relay system to initiate the solenoid that actuates the high beam. But there was an instruction manual that showed which wire needs to be connected to what, like the ground, the 12+, the high beam input wire, and the lowbeam wire. A lot of HID kits are plug and play for single beam, connect to the headlamp harness and you're set. Personally, I recommend ONLY using a relay system with any HID system because your transformers will recieve the best and most constant power. If you look at my signature, my picture has plug and play HIDs (because I had halo projector headlights with separate high and low beam lighting) and I constantly burned through transformers. So I went back to stock to save money. But for reliability, take the time to do a relay system if you're doing a single-beam (like with fog lights). Getting bi-xenons will always be on a relay system.

 

buy projectors here, http://store.theretrofitsource.com/index.php , one day and a dremel, and you won't complain about lighting issues or bad ballast or melted harnesses again.

 

You'll need a lot more than a day and a Dremel doing a retrofit. Also it's super expensive to do and a lot of people either can't do it or can't afford it. The majority of people are better off getting an aftermarket headlamp housing that had a projector built in, just get a single 9006 HID kit and you're practically done.

Also, the problem with melting wires/harnesses, bad ballasts, and bad lighting (from the bulb) has nothing to do with the housing that it's in. It's all electrical components and your electrical system. The problem with melting harnesses is using a harness when the current drawn exceeds the temperature the harness can handle. The problem with things like flickering lights is using too small of wiring that won't allow enough current to be drawn during ignition, so the ballast doesn't ignite properly and slowly degrades to failure, which also leads to having a bad ballast.

 

There are now several good options for our H13 bulbs.


Vision X VX-HH13 H13 80/100 Watt Hi or Low Beam Superwhite Bulb Set


Hella H83135362 H13 9008 12V 60/55W High Performance Xenon Blue Halogen Bulb Set


PIAA 19618 Xtreme White Plus Bulb

 

^^^^


You forgot Philips Xtreme bulbs which in my opinion are the best available.

 

I've seen 80/100W bulbs fry wiring. For anyone considering bulbs stronger than 55W, use a harness and a relay since stock wiring really isn't recommended for 2x the power of stock bulbs.