i am not a z owner(though i wish i was), but i am looking in to an H.I.D. kit for my car, i love the blue/teel color of the Z's lights and was wondering what color tempurature they are. also are they made by nissan or an out side company? thanks

 

they are in the 4100 to 4300K range. Actually they emit a very white light, the blue that you see is due to the reflection off of the projector lens in front of the light. Unfortunately this look cannot be duplicated in a housing that doesn't have a projector lens.

Phillips makes very good bulbs and ballasts, I wouldn't get bulbs over 6000K, as they lose too much of their brightness.

 

hm...i always had the feeling that the Z's HID's had very nice blue tint right when the lights are turned on (and bulbs are warming up) but when it's all warmed up, it's almost completely white...no more blue tint. i kinda like the more bluish tint on audis and bmws...

 

the HID's on my G35 are the same way. They start off with a very nice white/blue look. Then after a minute or two when they are warmed up, they become white. I'm swapping out my fog lights for 4300k H4 bulbs. Hopefully, that will blend in and give me a nice elegant slight blue look. I want to avoid the nasty ricer blue.

 

Well the trick to get a nicer Blue / Purple tint like BMW's, Lexus etc... is to upgrade to Philips 6000K Bulbs, OEM Z HID Bulbs are 4300K in temperature. For the color changing when warming up it is normal The older the Bulbs get the more Blue you will get for example next year you should see a difference.

 

just a thought: the higher kelvin rating the more blueish or purple-ish color. however the downside to the more blue or purple tint is the reduction of visability and overall brightness onto the road.
if you are going to get an aftermarket hid kit, i would recommend hella, phillips, or catz.

 

Contrary to popular belief, all OE-made HID capsules are the same color. The only time these higher kelvin kit colors come into play are for aftermarket kits i.e. K2, misterjung, who advertise 6000 and 8000k, and in some cases, 12000k lights. Apparently many people think higher kelvin = brighter. If anything, these aftermarket kits have POOR reliability, lots of DOA kits, poorly aligned beam pattern, and most of the time have poorer lighting than regular halogens. I hear people claim they want the "audi" look or the s2k "purple", these are all just figments of your imagination. The only way you can get that look is to get a properly designed projector lamp kit. They're all using the same type of german capsule on an osram ballast. The "purple" you see is just the light reflecting off the reflector itself. Proof? There are Cadillacs that have headlights that look "purple" too... even though they aren't HID, just regular plain jane halogen bulbs!

 

check out more infos at http://www.motionr.com

 

so if i get a set of catz 4500K HIDS for my base, it will never look and perform as good as the OEM higher model hids?

 

vq35des: correct. the reflector should heopfully be a different design between the halogen and hid models (im sure someone can confirm this). retrofitting a hid bulb into the halogen housing will result in an improper beam pattern. it probably isnt too bad but it will never be as good as the models that came with oem hid. just look for someone parting out a touring model and buy their lights.

 

anyone know how much worse they will be>? would of it been smarter of me to buy the enthusiast for ~1000 more?

 

Is the 350Z HID bulb D2R or D2S?

 

D2R

 

It will be just as good as oem. The headlight housings are the same on all models of the Z. You may get even more light output because the Z HID bulbs have a black strip of metal around them - D2R. Most aftermarket kits don't have this.

 

Thanks! Now where can I get a replacement bulb that is around 6000k? will it make a difference when compare with stock 4300k?

anyone changed their's yet?

 

OEM HID is obviously better than aftermarket, thats for sure.

Putting a D2S bulb instead of a D2R is not a wise choise, that paint (not metal strip) is there to block off certain part of the bulb's light output which creates unwanted light in that type of headlight assembly. Removing that does nothing more than mess with your beam pattern/cutoff.

- Mike / ClearCorners.Com

 

So if I buy an aftermarket D2R, lets say 6000-8000K HID bulb, will it be plug and play from the OEM ballast?? Having a car with factory HID's is cool (coming from a Corolla that I have installed) but I miss the blue color, whether practical or not. Plus it will match the Daytona Blue car color well!!