# Sticky  What are HID's



## MJGTOWISH (Jun 15, 2006)

I know many of you know what are HID's are but this a simple guide for the people who don't know what they are or afraid to ask or just don't know hoe it really works.

HID stands for High Intensity Discharge. It is a lighting technology that relies on an electrical charge to ignite xenon inert gases that is sealed in a glass jacket(bulb) to filter ultraviolet emissions. The technology of HID automotive lamps is similar to that of common vapor-filled street lamps or other non-halogen lighting found in many buildings today. HID lighting doesn't have a filament but instead creates light by igniting an arc between two electrodes based on the gas discharge principle. 

Halogen Filament	









HID Arc











Why use HID? 
Darkness on isolated highways is one of the reasons for why HID lighting is becoming popular and necessary. 
HID lighting promotes safety by providing a better overall view of the roadway and the ability to see upcoming objects quickly and more clearly. Road signs and objects on the road are easier to see when illuminated by HID headlights when compared to the standard halogen bulb. 

Light Output Performance 
HID lighting provides about three times or 150% more light output of standard halogen headlights while using less energy
HID lights are designed to last up to 2-3 times longer than standard halogen lamps. 
Hid lighting produces 82 lumen's per watt (2970 total lumen's) compared to 18 lumen's per watt for a halogen lighting source (1188 total lumen's). both were done at 4100K* about 5% less with every color jump 

The Colors of HID's 

OEM(GM,BMW,Dodge,Etc) car manufacturers equip their cars with 4100k to 4300k HID bulbs which produce the most daylight-like light output. Lower temperatures like 3000k will produce deep gold-yellow color, suitable for fog lights. Higher color temperatures will output light with a hint of blue/purple like the 5000k - 6000k bulbs, higher rated bulbs will be bluer and eventually purple in color as you go up the scale. There are also bulbs that come in red and green.









The use of HID's with aftermarket/factory headlights.

This is just a good idea using projectors with HID's provides you with the best output and a cutoff. One thing you might want to take into consideration is that some projectors may have a tint on the glass projector, this will affect your final color. For example BMW uses a Slightly blue tinted projector lens which gives the light an ever so slight blue hint while there using only 4300k.

Now cutoff shields (This is what creates a sharp cutoff when using projectors) may have a tint to them as well. For example Lamborghini uses a pink cutoff shield which if you see an oncoming lamborghini at just the right angle you see pink light.

Here are some light patters With Projector headlights and regular headlights.

Using projectors (Noticed how the left said is Dipped to avoid blinding oncoming drivers)








^^^^ My personal car the best cut-off I could get









Using Regular headlights


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## MorpheusRS (Mar 5, 2009)

great post! thanks.


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## MJGTOWISH (Jun 15, 2006)

Thanks, If you need some hid's, PM me and I can tell you a great place to get them


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## MorpheusRS (Mar 5, 2009)

thinking about it, but the budget thinks otherwise, so does the wife.. ;-) Maybe next month.. Thanks anyhow. :cheers


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## GM4life (Mar 18, 2007)

Ahh cool, thanks for the post I was going to get with you to post something like this. I made it a sticky.

Are stock HID's 35w or 55w?


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## MJGTOWISH (Jun 15, 2006)

Tricky question, Most HID KIT's will be 35 watts on avg from my findings 55 watt kits will be only 7-15% brighter.

Now, ALL FACTORY HID SYSTEMS are 55 watts.


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## canadianGTO (Aug 8, 2009)

What do we do with our day time running lamps? I am in Canada and require them to be on.
Is the temperature similar to the Halogens, I would be worried about melting the plastic.


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## MJGTOWISH (Jun 15, 2006)

canadianGTO said:


> What do we do with our day time running lamps? I am in Canada and require them to be on.
> Is the temperature similar to the Halogens, I would be worried about melting the plastic.


You can leave the DRL feature in place. Most people take them out beacuse of the annoyance factor or to increase the lifetime of the bulb. (Around 4000hours)

Tempature in the case of lighting can only be associated with color no matter the color there is no more or no less heat with each color.

As far as actual heat output HID's put out less heat then there Halogen counterparts.


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## GM4life (Mar 18, 2007)

Really? I though you had to remove the DRL because it runs the ballest at a lower voltage. Running the ballast at a lower voltage shortens the life of it from what I hear. I was debating on doing this because I just ordered a set for my wifes G8.


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## MJGTOWISH (Jun 15, 2006)

I guess I should explain this further........(I meant for our cars only)

When the DRL system is active it will give the low beam headlights 6-12 volts Normal voltage is between 12 and 14.4v. Now unless you have a ****ty kit or your car is running at 6v in DRL mode it will work. Now my kits work at 9v+ most GM's including GTO's run the DRL systm at 9v. So it would work the same even if the DRL system is Enabled or disabled.


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## GM4life (Mar 18, 2007)

It sounds like the HID kit has some tolerance to it. We will see, I may get rid of the DRLs anyway just to be on the safe side, been getting conflicting stories.


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## MJGTOWISH (Jun 15, 2006)

I would too, my daily has that auto light feature so if it's dusk it's on DRL's do help with people seeing you. but other than that DRL's are useless....

BTW, Here are the bulb specs for your G8
Low beam headlamp
H11 
High beam headlamp
H9
Fog light
5202


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## GM4life (Mar 18, 2007)

MJGTOWISH said:


> I would too, my daily has that auto light feature so if it's dusk it's on DRL's do help with people seeing you. but other than that DRL's are useless....
> 
> BTW, Here are the bulb specs for your G8
> Low beam headlamp
> ...


Thanks. I think DRLs are useless in Cali, I still have them enabled on the GTO and still have idots jump in front of me. Then when I confront them they have the look as if they didn't see me there.


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## MJGTOWISH (Jun 15, 2006)

No Problem, No offensive I've been to cali.... and lets just say it was not a pleasant experience...


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## Mr. Goat (Jun 25, 2009)

MJGTOWISH said:


> Thanks, If you need some hid's, PM me and I can tell you a great place to get them


Ive been meaning to grab a set of HID's for my car, could you tell me where the best place to get them is and which ones you think are the best ones to get? thx


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## MJGTOWISH (Jun 15, 2006)

Mr. Goat said:


> Ive been meaning to grab a set of HID's for my car, could you tell me where the best place to get them is and which ones you think are the best ones to get? thx


*PM Sent check your inbox*


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## LoJac963 (Oct 13, 2009)

FYI, I was the resident HID expert on G6performance.com and as mentioned if you buy the cheaper kits they absolutely will not run with anything less then straight 12v. Therefore Ebay kits and other kits which I have installed countless numbers of in various vehicles will strobe like a strobe light. That is the ballasts way of letting you know it is not receiving the proper voltage. Also as mentioned I have installed many many $49 dollar kits from various places and with the proper wiring relay harness and pulling the DRL fuse they work just as good as the higher priced kits. Just food for thought.:cheers


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## MJGTOWISH (Jun 15, 2006)

LoJac963 said:


> FYI, I was the resident HID expert on G6performance.com
> *I'm the on there too..... I can seem to find your name*
> and as mentioned if you buy the cheaper kits they absolutely will not run with anything less then straight 12v.
> *I know some that will..... *
> ...


*Read within the quote*


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## InfinityExperience (Oct 14, 2009)

*Installed HID kits in low beam and fog lights this weekend.*

Just installed HID lights in my low beams and fog lights in my 06 GTO this weekend using the kits sold by MJGTOWISH . These kits work extremely well, look great, and took about 2 hours to install. Most of these two hours was spent looking for a suitable place to mount the ballasts, especially for the fog lights. 

Installed 35w 4300k bulbs in both and WOW are these things bright. A world of difference from the stock bulbs. Didn't take any comparison shots due to daytime install but will upload photos of the HID lights and ballast locations tomorrow. For the price this kit is great but stick to the posted instructions by MJGTOWISH or figure it out yourself (if you can figure out how to cook Ramen Noodles you can figure this out), the box comes with extremely bad (so bad i laughed out loud and showed my friends) english translations. 

Kits came quickly, installed well, and the seller was quick to reply to any emails/PM sent. I would suggest this kit to anyone looking to make the switch to HIDs.


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## MJGTOWISH (Jun 15, 2006)




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## Bmesk (Feb 20, 2009)

whats the bulb size for the gto's fog?


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## MJGTOWISH (Jun 15, 2006)

Bmesk said:


> whats the bulb size for the gto's fog?


*
9040*


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## BRZN (Jan 31, 2011)

Bmesk said:


> whats the bulb size for the gto's fog?





MJGTOWISH said:


> *
> 9040*


I used 9005 HD bulbs for the fogs in the '06 GTO.


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## 5ft24 (Nov 8, 2016)

I know this thread is almost 6 years old, but I just put a set of H10 HID'S in my '06

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk


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