Admin - possible sticky post on HIDs here?
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Admin - possible sticky post on HIDs here?
Maybe I'm the only one, but jeez, is it getting tiring yet for anyone else out there to log in each day and every single day there's yet ANOTHER five posts about "I want HIDs - where should I order and what color temp should I get?" It's spelled out in various areas on the site that we have that handy Search feature, and that it really, truly does work. It's not just decoration. Nonetheless, here's an attempt to put the relevant information into one thread. If we get the proper feedback, additional information (such as from the B6 and B7 people), etc, hopefully a moderator or Admin will put this up as a sticky so we don't have to keep wading through the almost-identical HID posts we seem to get here every day.
Admin or Moderators, any chance of making a sticky post about HIDs? I'd venture the following info to kick it off:
Concensus of the forum seems to be to order your HID kit from VVME (http://www.vvme.com). If you have a B5, you will likely need H7 bulbs (B6/B7 guys can clarify for those ranges). Their prices are very good, and most people have had good experiences with the company, both from ordering and performance of the product.
As for color temperature, what seems to be the best combination of light output and quality/clarity, and style (based both on majority opinion here and also in my own experience of having kits of several different ratings) is something from 4300k to 6000k. 4300k is the closest to natural daylight and is the color used by the OEMs. The HID color seems different when you compare Audi to BMW to Saab to GM, but they're all 4300k, and the difference in apparent color is likely due to projector and lens design differences, causing the light to refract at different angles relative to your eyes and thus appear different. Look below to see what different color temperatures will give you in terms of light color, and realize that the higher you go in temp range, the less functional output you're going to have.
Going lower than 4300k will give you a beam pattern that is yellowish. Going higher in the range, the beam and appearance becomes progressively more blue, and then purple as you reach and exceed 10,000k. There is a corresponding dropoff in useable, visible light emitted as you go higher. Going beyond 8000k (and honestly, in my opinion, even going above 6000k) starts to give style the edge at the expense of safety and visibility. The upper temperature kits look cool, but you won't be able to see much better than you would with halogens, and in some cases, probably worse. The light will be more intense (higher lumens) but the blue/purple beam is awful for actually giving you illumination that your eyes can use for depth perception and detail clarity.
If you have opposable thumbs, a spare 20 minutes, and a $2 toolkit from a gas station, you can install the kit yourself (although a dremel tool is desirable, since you'll need to make a hole in each of the back dust covers of your headlights, to pass the wiring through). It is made to be plug and play, and will not modify any of your car's electrical system (on a B5 anyhow - some later cars apparently need a resistor mod, which is also detailed elsewhere on the forum, and can be found using the Search feature - search for something like "HID resistor mod" and I bet it'll show up). Nonetheless, it'll only take around 20 minutes to install the kit without cutting corners, although some people have decided to take a longer period of time and remove their headlights to use the space on the bottom to mount their ballasts. If you choose to mount them more conveniently in the engine bay, you won't need much time to do the job.
You can also replace your high beams with HIDs if you would like to. Ditto that for the fogs. Just remove a bulb from the light that you want to update with xenon, see what type that is, and order a kit with that type of bulbs, and install it. Done. There's no black magic to it.
Hopefully this will become a sticky post, and hopefully then the newer guys will read this and any replies that anyone adds for clarification regarding different generations of the A4. Anyone with further useful info to add (not stuff like "well, I got 10,000k HIDs and I love them, so **** you and your claims of them not being bright"), stuff that will actually answer likely questions before they are asked, please chime in, and hopefully we can cut down on some of the awfully high repetition of the same HID questions every day.
[IMG]local://upfiles/21057/FF603A47FD9A48508A20C791BAD971B5.jpg[/IMG]
Admin or Moderators, any chance of making a sticky post about HIDs? I'd venture the following info to kick it off:
Concensus of the forum seems to be to order your HID kit from VVME (http://www.vvme.com). If you have a B5, you will likely need H7 bulbs (B6/B7 guys can clarify for those ranges). Their prices are very good, and most people have had good experiences with the company, both from ordering and performance of the product.
As for color temperature, what seems to be the best combination of light output and quality/clarity, and style (based both on majority opinion here and also in my own experience of having kits of several different ratings) is something from 4300k to 6000k. 4300k is the closest to natural daylight and is the color used by the OEMs. The HID color seems different when you compare Audi to BMW to Saab to GM, but they're all 4300k, and the difference in apparent color is likely due to projector and lens design differences, causing the light to refract at different angles relative to your eyes and thus appear different. Look below to see what different color temperatures will give you in terms of light color, and realize that the higher you go in temp range, the less functional output you're going to have.
Going lower than 4300k will give you a beam pattern that is yellowish. Going higher in the range, the beam and appearance becomes progressively more blue, and then purple as you reach and exceed 10,000k. There is a corresponding dropoff in useable, visible light emitted as you go higher. Going beyond 8000k (and honestly, in my opinion, even going above 6000k) starts to give style the edge at the expense of safety and visibility. The upper temperature kits look cool, but you won't be able to see much better than you would with halogens, and in some cases, probably worse. The light will be more intense (higher lumens) but the blue/purple beam is awful for actually giving you illumination that your eyes can use for depth perception and detail clarity.
If you have opposable thumbs, a spare 20 minutes, and a $2 toolkit from a gas station, you can install the kit yourself (although a dremel tool is desirable, since you'll need to make a hole in each of the back dust covers of your headlights, to pass the wiring through). It is made to be plug and play, and will not modify any of your car's electrical system (on a B5 anyhow - some later cars apparently need a resistor mod, which is also detailed elsewhere on the forum, and can be found using the Search feature - search for something like "HID resistor mod" and I bet it'll show up). Nonetheless, it'll only take around 20 minutes to install the kit without cutting corners, although some people have decided to take a longer period of time and remove their headlights to use the space on the bottom to mount their ballasts. If you choose to mount them more conveniently in the engine bay, you won't need much time to do the job.
You can also replace your high beams with HIDs if you would like to. Ditto that for the fogs. Just remove a bulb from the light that you want to update with xenon, see what type that is, and order a kit with that type of bulbs, and install it. Done. There's no black magic to it.
Hopefully this will become a sticky post, and hopefully then the newer guys will read this and any replies that anyone adds for clarification regarding different generations of the A4. Anyone with further useful info to add (not stuff like "well, I got 10,000k HIDs and I love them, so **** you and your claims of them not being bright"), stuff that will actually answer likely questions before they are asked, please chime in, and hopefully we can cut down on some of the awfully high repetition of the same HID questions every day.
[IMG]local://upfiles/21057/FF603A47FD9A48508A20C791BAD971B5.jpg[/IMG]
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QU4TTRO
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Feb 23, 2007 02:55 AM
