6000K, 8000K, 12,000K HID Difference

NoLimit95

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This is a pic of 6000K HID's in new halogen housings. The pics below will show the difference in the light output with three different bulb temps.

The 6000K have not been aimed right yet but you'll get the idea.

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Lights004.jpg


Next pic is of the 8000K bulbs on the same street.

HeadlightsAimed008.jpg


HeadlightsAimed009.jpg


Next pic is of the 12,000K bulbs, on the same street. Huge difference!

Lights001.jpg


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I have some 10,000K bulbs but didn't mess with them tonight but as you can see, 12,000K is no good for seeing very good. I now have two sets of 6000K HID's in. One kit in the low and one in the high. Tomorrow night I'll get them aimed like they should be.
 
6k for a daily driver is good. Really, contrary to what has become popular, the more yellow the light the better one will see. Whiter light has a tendency to reflect more. Just ask yourself what color fog lights are.
 
I'm definitely sticking with the 6000K kit. They seem to be pretty good but need to be aimed better than what they are right now. If I hit the brights right now and all four 6000K's kick in, it is extremely bright. I didn't even get a pic of that but will later after aiming.
 
you cant drive down the road will yellow lights though you'll be pulled over in a heart beat. they call fog lights, fog lights for a reason, to use in fog only!
 
you cant drive down the road will yellow lights though you'll be pulled over in a heart beat. they call fog lights, fog lights for a reason, to use in fog only!

lol, I live in Alabama and I never see fog around here anyway. I was scared that purple chit was gonna get me pulled over and yes, yellow would have me pulled over inna second here where I live.
 
6k for a daily driver is good. Really, contrary to what has become popular, the more yellow the light the better one will see. Whiter light has a tendency to reflect more. Just ask yourself what color fog lights are.

To a point... Once you hit 4000k-4500k you're at the peak and less than that will reduce visibility.

I run 6000k with 55w bulbs, supposedly the extra wattage washes out some of the color so they're like 5000k. Personally I have excellent eyesight day or night, and I can't tell much if any difference.
 
Yellow and white lights are allowed up here on the front.
Those 8k look more like 6500K I've seen, but then again most places label them differently. Is there a blue halo or anything on the 8k's?...
 
Yellow and white lights are allowed up here on the front.
Those 8k look more like 6500K I've seen, but then again most places label them differently. Is there a blue halo or anything on the 8k's?...

In the pics, the 8000K do seem to look brighter and before I sold them, I remember them being bright but they didn't have enough blue to them and then I got some 10,000K and 12,000K bulbs. I put the 12,000K in and that went too far with color. I ordered some 6000K to match what I had in the brights and put those in last night.

As for the blue in the 8000K, I have some pics that are looking directly at them. Now I wished I hadn't sold them off. Really wouldn't mind having two sets of 8000K's.

The pic below is 8000K in the low and 6000Kin the high. Keep in mind that the diffuser knocks a lot of light out of your eyes. This will give you an idea of how blue they look.

HeadlightsAimed001.jpg


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This one is when I was pulled up in front of a glass front empty building. 8000K low beams on only.

HeadlightsAimed007.jpg
 
Ok, that looks better, the first pics made them seem quite white :)

I figured giving you a head on pic would answer your question better than I could. I'm going to test out the 10,000K bulbs tonight and see how they look. That's what I had in the 94 and I loved them. Not too blue and still good visible light at night for HWY driving. I have a head on pic and a behind the wheel pic to show what they looked like.

All of my kits are Xentec with 2 year warranty and so far, I have never had any issue. The bulbs alone can be bought for $16.00 with free shipping for the pair.

This was in the 94 down in the lower deck parking lot where I work. It's where I do my aiming at. After closing, I turn off the tunnel lights and use the concrete walls on both sides and it's completely level down there.

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This what I should see tonight except now with a white hood. :D I miss my baby.
 
10k is to blue for my taste. 8k is max for me, different strokes for different folks, eh ;) lol... I like the pics though, I use a garage here as well to check mine, but it's a pain to find anything level around here :)
 
10k is to blue for my taste. 8k is max for me, different strokes for different folks, eh ;) lol... I like the pics though, I use a garage here as well to check mine, but it's a pain to find anything level around here :)

I too like the 8K that I sold. I could always just buy another set of bulbs and then I would have almost all K's covered. I love the tunnel for aiming. If I wanted to, I could turn off that additional strip of lights that go past the tunnel or hell, I can turn off the entire lower deck but customers and employees might get pissed. It's pitch black down there with no light. Anyway, the 8K has good light output but also has a slight blue tint but not like the 10K and surely nothing like the 12K. If anyone ever went higher than 12K, they would be driving blind.
 
To a point... Once you hit 4000k-4500k you're at the peak and less than that will reduce visibility.

I run 6000k with 55w bulbs, supposedly the extra wattage washes out some of the color so they're like 5000k. Personally I have excellent eyesight day or night, and I can't tell much if any difference.

Would you say that the 55w 6000k produces more light then a 35w 4300K? I have 4300K in the Town Car and they are as bright as the new high end cars when I compare them on the road. Are yours brighter then others you see on the road. 6000K with 55w was what i was think I should do with my Mark IF it produces more light then the Town car.
 
I like the 5K ... thats what I have on my 93 and my 94.

+1 I had 5000 on just my lows and got a set of ebay for highs, but the seller sent me 6000k's (said he didn't have 5000k)-so I bought 5000k bulbs from another seller, and have the highs set up to work off a wireless relay w/remote, so I can use my highs as daytime 'driving' lights. If I have them all on at night, you could land a plane with the light.
 
Would you say that the 55w 6000k produces more light then a 35w 4300K? I have 4300K in the Town Car and they are as bright as the new high end cars when I compare them on the road. Are yours brighter then others you see on the road. 6000K with 55w was what i was think I should do with my Mark IF it produces more light then the Town car.

The light output decreases by about 10-15% between 6000k and 4300k, but the wattage increases by 57%. So I would think it's pretty safe to say the 55w 6000k would be brighter.

When I was deciding on color temp, this chart came in pretty handy:

hid_lum_003.jpg


The output drop between peak and 6000k isn't too much, but once you hit 8000k to 10000k it's a different story.

Personally the only reason I went with 6000k instead of 5000k is because my car is a 93 and, being a little tiny bit of a ricer at heart, I do want people to know they're HIDs. :)
 
These cheap aftermarket bulbs are not regulated in any sort of way so different manufactures will have different colors for the same K lights, there really is not much use comparing them without some reservations...
 
I put the 10K bulbs in last night and got them aimed very good and they seem to have the same exact light output as the 8K but I have them connected to a different ballast that has a little more power output than the Xentec ballast. The added power knocked off the additional 2K of blue, which makes them look like the 8K I have pictured way up above and they don't look as blue as the 10K I had in the 94.

I do have a question though. Do relays "UP" the power to the ballasts? If so, I'm going to buy some and can anyone show a pic of one of these relays and how they wire up?
 
No they won't 'up' the power, but will make it more stable and take a load off the crappy oem siwtch design...
 
These cheap aftermarket bulbs are not regulated in any sort of way so different manufactures will have different colors for the same K lights, there really is not much use comparing them without some reservations...

So instead of pissing on everything that's not OEM, do you have any better information for those who are contemplating what HIDs to go with?
 
No, I never said they were bad or anything like that, now did I... just the reason you can get such variance in color from different places...
 

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