So do you not recommend getting the ones from HID Extra either? I was thinking about purchasing these soon.

 

I had no electrical issues with my HID Extra kit. The 9006 style bulb base though was not great. My factory Sylvania bulbs twist and lock in and twist out with one hand. No excess effort at all. The HID Extra bulbs needed pliers to get them to lock in place and pliers to remove them. But that was just to get them to lock in. Once they locked in place, they actually had play in them. That is how i got moisture in one of the housing and the blown bulb as a result.

So for light output and reliability (for the few months i had them), the HID Extra kit was fine. But for the quality of the bulb design, i was not impressed.

 

I ordered a kit from HIDeXtra today. I had a tight fit on my pass side bulb when I changed to xenons from Recon. I actually broke it this past weekend trying to take it out and install again to see if I cross threaded it. So I figured I had to buy something so why not try a hid kit in my fogs. I will comment once they're installed.

 

Well I guess I'll try and find a different place to get some HID's. Right now I have some 80W halogen bulbs and they have a similar look but not near as bright

 

I was never convinced that HID light bulbs in stock housings were brighter. Even with my HID Extra kit that was brighter then the latest HID kit i bought, it was still not as bright as the stock Halogen bulbs.

The main difference was the HID Extra kit threw light everywhere. It was like having flood lights in front of the truck. But they had very poor distance. The light just did not travel far. Halogen bulbs throw light farther, but have less light up close. So i guess it comes down to what you want more.

My whole thing with HID's is since they have exploded everywhere on the market and for so little money, EVERYBODY is putting them in their cars. Thier is NOTHING special or unique about having HID's any more. It used to be something that you could only get on high end luxury cars. When you saw a car with HID's, it meant it was a very expensive car or the person who owned it had a lot of money. Now you see them on POS imports with primer paint and horrendous add ons. I am constantly blinded on the highway and side streets by idiots who install them in stock headlights and have them aimed too high.

I was just at an Auto Parts store an hour ago. A pair of replacement bulbs for my stock driving lights cost $14.00 more then a complete HID kit.

Because of the fact that now everybody has HID's on their cars and their is nothing special about it, the only justification i can see for buying them is if they truly offered an improvement over Halogen. And i have found that the improvement if any is minimal. And the risks are no longer worth it. If one of these kits fries your electrical system you will have no recourse. You will be stuck with the repair bill. GE, Sylvania, Phillps, Hella and other reputable name brand automotive lighting companies who stand behind products because their reputation is at stake do not offer low priced HID kits. Because they know that you cannot offer a high end product for $30.00 retail. They are aware that if a system damaged a cars electrical system, they would be liable and would get bad press. So despite the fact HID kits are ultra Popular they are steering clear of cheap kits. What does that tell you?

GE charges $63.00 for ONE HID bulb. JUST THE BULB.

Phillips does sell an HID kit for the fog lights: http://www.philipsxenon.com/dodge-c-...ips-hid-p-1247 For over $250.00!. I would feel very confident buying a kit from Phillips. Because they are a reputable billion dollar company who vaules it's reputation.

You have to wonder how a company can sell a pair of these lights for $32.00 with free shipping. Shipping and packaging is at least $5-8. And then they have to make a profit. And the manufacturer is making a profit on every kit they sell to a dealer. So when all is said done, you are getting a pair of lights and ballasts that cost less then lunch at McDonalds to make.

It's one thing to install a cheap import Halgogen bulb that uses factory wiring. Worst case scenario, the bulb blows or you blow a fuse. But HID kits use a high voltage ballast. If that voltage were to some how feed back into your electrical system, it would fry a lot of stuff. Look at my issue? Thankfully their appears to be no long term damage, but i had power going on and off and digital display inverted.

 

Aftermarket HIDs are NOT meant for reflector housings. They work best in projector housings and even then there are varying degrees of success. Slapping some into the stock lights is not the recipe for better lighting. It just gives you bling to impress your friends (which is sad). Apparently your street cred goes up even more if you pick a color in the blue or purple range -- nevermind that it also means you can't see 5 feet in front of you! I'll never understand why something that has been on the road for the past 17 years is a status symbol today. (Yes, you could get HIDs stock on a 1995 Lincoln Mark VIII)

More expensive doesn't mean better. If you buy into that, fine, but it's your money. I have a $30 DDM Tuning set of HIDs in my car and they work fine. The projectors in my 20 year old car aren't ideal for HID but it's a vast improvement over halogen. I would never install a kit in my Ram. One day it'll get a real HID retrofit with real bi-xenon projectors installed into the stock housings.

 

I am well aware of this. Which is why i never considered installed them in my headlight housings. But because something was not meant to be used in an application does not mean it cannot work. When i had HID's in my fog lights, it did throw a lot of light in front of my truck. Better then Halogen. It simply did not throw it far enough. If you want more lighting up close, then it is in fact an improvement over stock.

I agree with that as well. More expensive does not ALWAYS mean better. But in far more then half the cases, it does. And in the case of HID's, it most certainly does. You are never going to convince me that all these Chinese HID kits are just as good as the stuff BMW and MB uses on thier cars. As i mentioned, the bulbs do not even fit properly. So their is a problem with the quality before you even turn them on.

OK, now you lost me. In your first paragraph, you said: "Aftermarket HIDs are NOT meant for reflector housings. They work best in projector housings and even then there are varying degrees of success. Slapping some into the stock lights is not the recipe for better lighting. It just gives you bling to impress your friends (which is sad)"

And now you say that you yourself bought a set of HID's for your car that never had them (although you say it does have projector housings). So did you do it to impress your friends?. Because according to you, that is the reason people buy them?

 

You quoted what I said but did you read it?

I promise I'm not trying to impress anybody with the SC400 I bought for $800. However, I can see the road quite well at night which is exactly what I was after.

Your HID kit didn't project light as far as the stock halogens because the bulb's focal point isn't the same as halogen and thus your reflectors weren't able to do their job. It has nothing to do with the manufacturer of your ballasts or bulbs.

This part is important:
The "real" HID companies do not make HID replacement kits. Only the cheap companies re-base HID bulbs onto halogen bases. If you find a brand-name HID bulb with a halogen-type base, it's a counterfeit. The website you linked to has nothing to do with Philip's Lighting but belongs to a guy with a hotmail email address and a condo unit as his mailing address. The same guy owns dozens of HID-related domain names. He might sell you a real Philips bulb for an OEM HID car but the rest of his kits are not Philips.

You really need to stop assuming all my posts are directed at you specifically. You jump so far to conclusions that you need a parachute to land safely.

 

Wow.. NV290 had a great point and it almost cost him a 1000$ worth of electronics and he is only Veteran of the site. John M has a great point also, but has had good effects, but may seem to contradict himself, yet holds Captain status.

Who will win, we'll see. Just purchase the next Dodge forum faceoff on youtube for 400$. Please follow the link below to suscribe.

www.pleasegivememoneyforfree.com and forward all monies to my paypal. All proceeds benefit me modding my truck

Good luck on your votes and only I will win. Yay corporate america.