HID Xenon lights

[Hodnick]

How much of a difference is it at night with the xenon lights vs the ones from the Touring / Sport?

[hoesny]

On the grand touring HID lights wasn't as bright as the in the BMW but there are a lot of difference on the street. Especially on the dark street. Its just like having an amber light in your dining room compare with the white light bulb............Its beautiful

[chrisvong]

Hi all~!!! This is my 1st post. I just got a sport model and thinking to install the HID for my new "baby". I believe the color of the HID from a GT model isn't as bright as the one from some EUR cars. However, I read from some Mazda 6 forums saying that the Mazda HID needs time to "break in"...normally ~100 hrs to get the true white color. Hope this help.

[2kStang]

To me they don't look any dimmer than a Merc's or BMW's HIDs. On the way home from buying my wife's CX-7, her HID's were blinding me the whole way. I had to face my rearview somewhere else. I checked the vertical positioning setting and it was set in the middle.

[xavier]

I have a gt and Im loving the electronic light cutoff leveling mechanism. THat thing rocks...as far as color or brightness of hids over hals....there really is no comparison...hids are so much more pleasing to be looking over.

[Redshift]

A general number I saw is that HIDs are 70% brighter than halogens.

[dealsguy]

I've got a question -
how to tell without turning the headlights on - if the car is equipped with HIDs?

I believe that the halogens are like real lightbulbs - you can see the lightbulb and reflector inside the headlight. HID is covered with a lens which looks like a thick reading glass. Am i right?
Also - in terms of a lifespan - how reliable the HIDs are ?

[Redshift]

You are correct in how to tell the difference.

As far as lifespan goes, I drive with my lights on regardless of day or night, and the ones in my Murano are still going after 3.5 years / 85,000 miles.

[AwesomeCX-7]

Xenons are supposed to have a lifetime warranty with the vehicle, at least they did with my BMW...

[smileyswiss]

You're not completely right here. It's correct that all HID lights are projector lights with the thick lens in front. But also the other models have the projectors lenses with the halogens.
There's a huge difference in brightness and area covered by the HIDs compared to even ultrabright halogens I had in my old Mustang....

[Bdragon007]

Well , it's not completely true that All HID headlight are projector. My wife's RX300 and my old GS400 didn't have projector headlight but they are HIDs. The factory HID will only cover under wanrranty period, but they should last A LOT longer then conventional halagen bulb. The HID ballast only use about 25 watts and run about 50% cooler. Hope this can help clear thing up a bit.:)

[VIC7]

I'm wondering if there are plans from Mazda to offer HID lamps for DIY retrofit on the Sport & Touring models. I'm pretty handy with tech stuff, and would be willing to shell out a few hundred $$$ for the HID's, anyone have any idea if this is possible ???

[ottoblotto]

you can get hid upgrades through many aftermarket companies. just remember Caveat emptor. buyer beware, you get what you pay for. many hid companies offer low priced hid upgrades compatible with your car. when you receive it, its mainly plastic and can melt easily even with the lower wattage. ballast made of plastic melt after a few hours of continuous use. if youre like me and like to run your lights day/night, beware. you can find out through emailing the companies that offer the products what they are made of and they are generally really friendly about it. do some research and you can still save a dime or two and get xenon for your baby. good luck!

[Cookim6]

I have bought 3 kits from plasmagarage.com. One of the aftermarket kits I have seen.;)

[ottoblotto]

cookim, what do you think about the actual components? how long have you had them? are they "quality"? thanks!

[arisin]

To me they don't look any dimmer than a Merc's or BMW's HIDs. On the way home from buying my wife's CX-7, her HID's were blinding me the whole way. I had to face my rearview somewhere else. I checked the vertical positioning setting and it was set in the middle.
Lol...same here...:D

[otnielarencibia]

I'm wondering if there are plans from Mazda to offer HID lamps for DIY retrofit on the Sport & Touring models. I'm pretty handy with tech stuff, and would be willing to shell out a few hundred $$$ for the HID's, anyone have any idea if this is possible ???
Why not just buy them from the factory or from a crashed cx-7 with hid's from the factory?

[papaalex]

Question: Has anyone noticed on their GT's the HID starts as white then latter turns to yellow in a few minutes?

[lilcrzytimmy]

sorry kinda bored and looking throught your past topics. HID needs to warm up to have its true color, like if you have a bluish color hid, i believe its like 6000k, then when you turn it on, it goes from like dark blue and starts slowly becoming a whitish blue.

[AWmustang]

True they do have to warm up, but the warmup only takes a couple seconds. If you use the auto setting they will be warmed up by the time you shift into gear.

[JBCX7]

anybody upgrade stock hid's to a higher temp? any input, advice, words of wisdom, problems?

[CX7POS]

I got my H7 HID kit from Xenonexpert.com The Ballast and ignitor is built in to a single unit, and the dimension of it is about 3"x3.5"x.75". It's made of metal material (not sure what kind, wasn't about to test it either)

Pretty compact, and I was able to mount it under the light housing on each side. I got the 6000 Kelvin, which is the maximum you want to go without losing useable light. The Halogen projector on the CX-7 made the throw angle really tight, which I am not used to like on my Benz. So you lose alot of the peripheral angle. Otherwise I am really liking it. The blue is so so nice too :)

[CX7POS]

anybody upgrade stock hid's to a higher temp? any input, advice, words of wisdom, problems?

You just need to find out which bulb are in the stock HID. D2S or D2R. D2S are straight bulb without the reflector, used in projector HID systems. D2R bulbs (R=reflector) are for standard reflective type housing. Because the way the Bulb "shoots" out light, the D2R needs a reflector so that it doesn't have stray light hitting on to on-coming drivers and/or in to mirrors of the driver infront of you. However there are exception to this rule. If the reflective housing have a dome in front of the bulb (hid or halogen), the bulb might be a D2S, since this method it captures the stray light bounce it back to the back of the housing(reflector), and sends it back out.

Most Japanese cars that uses reflective housing has a dome are D2S. Most Pre 2000 BMW/Merc have a D2R. All projector HID has D2S.

I don't recommend 8000+ bulbs, because your luminens will be down to 2900. 10000k is about 2000-2100 which is worse than your standard halogens, ranging from around 2000. 8000+ are for show cars.

[JBCX7]

thanks, but you didnt have hid's to begin with right? i got the correct bulbs, i just want to find somebody who has changed the stock hid bulbs themselves.