Throwing the idea of going HID. I know there are quite a few kits on the market, but I want a reliable alternative kit rather than buying the $900 Ford or Saleen ones.

I'm looking for both the headlights and the fog lights.

What have you guys gone with? Are you satisfied? Any problems? How much you pay for them?

Anyone have the stangmods HIDs?

 

I went with the vvme's about a year ago before they came with the colplete plug n play harness and had no problems with them.This time i just going to go with the stangmods one because they are stateside and they have a warrenty i can trust. vvme's are 100$ now shipped and the stangmods i think are around 250$

 

I've got the stangmods HIDs and they've been great so far. Easy install and no issues to this point. I do not have the fogs however.

 

I bought Touring's kit from him (VVME) and the only problem I ran into was a ballast died. I noticed it had a really loud whine compared to the other one when I got the kit. I bought a replacement on bidtopia.com for $8 and have had zero issues since. I'm actually ordering a kit for my wife's car too. I couldn't believe the difference in the light between the two vehicles. I highly recommend them.

 

I, too, vote for Stangmods' HID kit! I have their 10,000K kit (headlights only; I removed my fog lights when I installed my billet grille) and absolutely love them. No issues thus far. Well, unless you count blinding oncoming traffic...

 

I have both fogs and headlights converted to HID. I bought an E-bay kit for about 200bux witch included a wiring harnes for the bixenon headlights and single beam fogs. I went with 5000k, 4300 would be the brightes color btw.

I have had them for about 1 year now, at least close to a year.

Things to know. I would recomend a bixenon kit so you can still flash oncoming drivers and or trucks if necesary. Secondy look online to find the headlight alingment instructions as per ford as the xenon will point slightly higher than factory. Align them properly and you wont blind oncoming trafic and wont have issues with lawenforcement.

Now the fogs, they are great driving lamps as they tghrow the light mutch further and wider than the headlights. However the fogs will blind oncoming trafic due to the pattern they have in the reflector.

Also another recomandation is to use bulb grease for every connector in the kit. This includes relay.

Issues for me have been only one. I thought my relay for the headlights was bad as one evening my headlight did not come on. I replaced the relay and onli found out that the connector was loose a bit. I tightened the connector and put bulb grease in the fittings. No issues since.

FYI: I have compared the reflector pattern from the ford HID headlights and the non HID headlight. Guess what? The pattern is the same. It seems ford is cheating a bit. Although they use quality balasts and bulbs with their equipment and thus the price seems steep. If I had the cash, I would buy the ford units.

FYI, the vvme kit is pretty good quality as well. My buddy has the vvme kit he bought on e-bay for over a year. No issues.

 

There's a vendor on S197 forums called "Mr HID" that sells some for a good price. He seems to have alot of good reviews from the guys on that forum.

 

Sorry to hear they died on you, i would have sent you the money to replace them.

 

I have the 35W, 6000K bixenon kit from Retro-Solutions and I am thrilled with it. I believe it to be the highest quality kit available. I think it runs somewhere around $160.
I have been running it for almost a year with zero problems. The install was "plug & play". One of the selling points for me is the lifetime warranty. They also offer a 55W kit if you want the maximum amount of light, but I am totally happy with the 35W kit.

 

My wife works at a local auto parts store here where I live and she recently informed me that PIAA now carries the H13's for our S197's. Up here in Canada, they run about $130 but my wife can get them for me for $90. I think I'll take the plunge and purchase a set.

 

No worries - it was only $8 to replace the one ballast so I didn't consider it a big deal or a fault on your part. I bought a H13 connector so it was plug and play and I've had zero issues since.

 

I never had any interest in HID's until this thread... lol

 

I recommend them highly. Especially if you do nighttime driving.

 

I just dropped my aim a little and we're good. Super Effin' bright. I got the vvme 6000k for the headlights and fogs, super nice, not ricer blue, pics looks more blue than in person, looks more white in person. I got them over a year ago, less than $120 to my door, no instructions in English though, lol, and had to flip the fog connectors, other than that, easy breezy. Absolutely love them, whenever Im in anyone else's car, I ask them if their lights are on, lol. Kinda make the car in front of me cast a shadow in his own headlights. When next to other Stangs, my lights are considerably farther shot out and brighter.

 

i really want HID's now... lol. Christmas mod.

I want 5000k. Pure white, no hint of any blue.

 

Not quite, the 5000k's will have a very light blue hint until they warm up. Not noticeable from the drivers seat but you look into the reflectors and you will see it for about 2min. After that its pure white.

I have 5000k's and just installed a 5000k set on my buddy's g8 just today. They look awesome on his projectors.

 

What's recommended for pure white at all times?

I mean I don't mind if its a light light shade of blue for a short while. I just don't want blue in the light color.

 

OEM color is 4000-4300k

As for white, nothing comes close to 5000k's. They lose the shade of blue after a few seconds of warming up.

 

I did an OEM swap on our car, will be posting the method shortly to a new section of our website. Find the OE's on fleabay and then 1.49 in parts to finish the swap

 

spend the money for the ford ones, they will just work better.