Got HID? -- I do now -- 56K beware!!!

[98ex]

I have finally broken down and shelled out the money for HID's. One set for Headlights, one for fogs. 9006 6000K HID's On all pics click for full hi res image.First I went ahead and did my fog light modification so I can now turn fogs on with my parking lights and still have full control of the switch. This was faily easy, but with matrixowners.com down, it was trial and error to get it to work.I also disabled my Autolight feature so that the daytime running lamps and autolight feature don't activate. This was easy - clip one wire tape off and done. out of all three mods this was the easiest.THe lights currently are my Sylvania Silverstars (before pic)And fogs will stay on with High beams. Now onto the install of the of the HID's. To do this, I had to remove the front bumper which was fairly easy.Sorry for the blurry picThis is where I mounted the drivers side. There was an existing hole that fit the HID mounting bolt. Mounted the second ballast to something I have no idea what it is.Passanger side ballast mounting. Had to mount one behind the bumper and the other in the engine bay using the power steering bracket bolt locatation.Now after putting everything back together and 1 freaking hour of troubleshooting (wires aren't marked so my stock plug was in backwards) here is a pic of HID fogs inside. Note to anyone who buys a 9006 kit, if they donot come on, just reverse the plug, saves you an hour of a headacheFogs and Headlights insideHad to wait until it got darkFogsFogs and headlights(little blurry)Fogs (trust me, the camera adds a crapload more glare than there really is)Headlights and fogsTo all I will get some better night pics once I go back to my moms - probably labor day - it is a long drive out there.

[WaveAction]

looks awesome..i was looking at the 5000K kit earlier..but dont know a good company to go with..any suggestions?

[ArcsVibe]

Looks great! Welcome to the club Mine are H4 @ 4300Ks What a difference, eh?

[98ex]

I got mine from a local friend who works at a performance shop and gave me a hookup. He basically gave them to me at cost and at his shipping charge, so no retail mark up. Normally these he sells for 135 - 175 (haha even though all cost the same, most people don't know that)Paid for my lights on the 8th and they were here on the 10th. They do ship from China, but even US sellers get their stuff from there anyways pretty much. My friend told me he gets his stuff from this guy HIDWORLD http://stores.ebay.com/HIDWORL...QtZkmDude sells the kits for $88 normally but right now they are on sale in his store for $74.80 (apparantly he runs sales all the time.) Brand is pretty good. I do not think he has Bi-xenons though for the Vibes. He does carrie the HID H4-2's which will have the Xenon and a second regular bulb for the High beams as you can see from this picA person who does is holding a groupbuy on http://www.matrixowners.com , his name is John and he has a different brand that is Japanese and carries the Bi-Xenon which will give you the ability to have HID on both your lows and highsHere is his post here at GenVibehttp://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=29348My fogs produce more light by themselves than my heads and fogs did before.THe color is unbelievable. I thought about 8000K but I think I am much happier with these.I am so glad that I bought these and to be honest was worried about glare, but I drove from my moms home where I did the install which is out in the country and did not get high beamed once. Same thing once I got into the city. Of course this is only my first night with them so we will see.

[keithvibe]

Well done write up. Welcome to the lighter side of life.... as the saying goes... once you go HID you will never go back. My wife's cavalier doesn't have HID's and I HATE driving her car at night. It's like driving with a flashlight taped to the handle bars of your old bike. HAHAHA.I love my HID's My signature has HID lowbeam and HID fogs.

[98ex]

Oh I do not know how I got by before. I thought that my Sylvania's were bright and boy was I ever wrong. I was passing people on the road last night and lighting up their lane. THe amount of light some cars produce was severly underdone. Hell I passed a new 07 Cadillac(4 doro car not sure which model) and it had regular lights and I could barely see what was in front of him until I got next to him.I will NEVER go back to regular lights. I seriously do not know why the US does not mandate HID's on all cars.

[Toasted7]

Amazing difference... even just in the pics!

[98ex]

Difference is even greater when driving. ALthough I did notice that the right headlight is not as bright as the left. It is probably due to the housing cause it is dirty and scratched due to a few years of driving. I gotta get that lense repair stuff Toyota sells to clean both heads and fogs up.

[manicdan]

the left one is aimed down more so it dosnt point at oncoming traffic, resulting and a brighter look cause its covering less area. that could be it

[98ex]

When you say the left one ar you saying the passanger or drivers side? When I say left, I mean passanger side.

[DanStafford]

Nobody has brought this up, but there are a alot of different color temperatures for the HIDs. I put 8000k on my Vibe and I'm very pleased with it. It has the exotic blue-purple look to it but still puts out wonderful light.Beware if you are tempted to go to 10000k or higher. There's more color but less light.

[98ex]

Quote, originally posted by DanStafford »Nobody has brought this up, but there are a alot of different color temperatures for the HIDs. I put 8000k on my Vibe and I'm very pleased with it. It has the exotic blue-purple look to it but still puts out wonderful light.Beware if you are tempted to go to 10000k or higher. There's more color but less light.Yep, the common misconception with HID's is that the higher the Kelvin temp the birghter when in fact it is opposite.4300K is the brightest HID you can get, it produces roughly 3300Lumens, 5000K has about 3200 lumens, 6000K is 2800 lumens, 8000K is about 2550 lumens and 10000K is about 2200 lumens. Stock headlight bulbs are about 1000 lumens. IF you do not want to pay for HID but want a brighter light, do the (for the Matrix) 9006 - 9005 light mod. The 9006 bulb has about 1000 lumens and the 9005 bulb is about 1700.