Originally Posted by steevr

Here's a pic I posted when the '07's first came out.

Rob, whose kit did you go with?

Originally Posted by Desoter_Stang

HID has nothing to do with "blue" head lights, HID has to do with adding more usable light to the road. The color of the light produced is rated on the kelvin scale and is refered to as "color temp". For example a bright sunny day is aprox 4500k on the scale, an over cast but bright day is around 6000k, the clouds fliter out the red end of the spectrum. 6000k is considered to be "pure white" once you move above 6000k the light begins to shift to the blue end of the spectrum in say 8000k bulbs produce a slightly blue light. Some folks go as far as 12000k or 14000k which give you a purple light.

As far as the more light part of the HID bulb goes here is some more info. A standard halogen bulb is 55 watt low and 60 watt high, these bulbs produce 18 lumens per watt this includes high end bulbs as well assuming they are 55/60 watt bulbs. A HID bulb produces 72 lumens per watt and most HID bulbs are either 35 watt or 42 watt. Doing some quick math reveals that a halogen bulb produces 990 lumens a 35 watt HID 2520 lumens and a 42 watt HID 3024 lumens. Way more light for your money a 35 watt HID bulb produces 2.5 times the usable light that a halogen bulb does. It also produces less heat and tend to last 10 times longer as there is no filament to wear out.

The down side used to be that HID bulbs did not have a high/low beam built in so in car with 2 head light bulb setups like our beloved 05 and up stangs you gave up high beams. However there are new HID bulbs that move the bulb in the socket which adjusts the angle of reflection and gives you high beams.

I recently installed one of these HID high/low kits in my 05 and the night time driving difference is amazing. I had to adjust my lights down a bit due to glare, the install was a snap as the system is self contained and just needs signal from your factory harnes for on/off high/low.

I hope this helps clear up some of the myths about HID lights.

Originally Posted by kevinb120

Know all about it I've owned a couple and driven quite a few cars with them, its a waste of money. Lot of 'theoretical' light information as when you drive with them they do not see nearly as clearly into the woods along roads and sometimes distort the colors a bit, and on rainy nights with a lot of green foliage next to the road they are almost worthless. Most of the time if its wet out a wet sign post will be nearly impossible to see, the road signs just kinda 'float' there. If you ever drive a vehicle with HID mains(4600k factory style) and with halogen highbeams you will see what I mean. There is the 'neat looking straight cut off line for the light pattern that looks kinda blue' then pull the high-beam lever and its 'you can see where your going' settings.

They seem like they are fun to talk about, but driving with them for a while, they are just bling and annoy the crap out of oncoming drivers, especially motorcyclists. Pretty soon the number one reason for traffic deaths is going to be oncoming drivers blinded by hids while trying to work their nav systems and ipods.

Originally Posted by kevinb120

Pretty soon the number one reason for traffic deaths is going to be oncoming drivers blinded by hids while trying to work their nav systems and ipods.