I was meeting some friends at the park and i noticed a bright white with a tint of blue flashing around in a pitch black night... it was HID beams off of a IS300. I also test drove my friend's Acura CL-P and his HID beams are quite bright as well. My car, '03 g35c, does not seem to produce enough intensity compared to the IS and the CL. What's the deal here...? I am pretty sure the IS and CL both use reflector headlamps, opposed to projector lens.

... is it just me, or is everyone having faint HID issues? Any way to remedy this problem?

 

use your fog lights too!

 

no problems here... what's a cl-p? i had a cl-s and i find the lights are probably the same... would have liked it better as projector though.

 

Using the fogs just doesn't look right, I agree with you Panda. I had an EVO before the G, and the HID lights were much brighter. The high beams were atleast twice as bright as the G's.

 

I just got the car, its been 4 days.
And somehow i feel its not as bright as my Audi's HIDs, and my audi is almost 3 yrs old.
The fog doesn't make that much of a difference. I wish they were brighter.

 

I've noticed and wondered the same thing. The Acura RL, Lexus IS and LS seems to have some of the brightest stock HIDs.

I think it may have something to do with the ballast they used (along with the projectors).

I also noticed the 04-05 Maximas emit the "bmw" purple haze, but notice that it's not as bright as the RL and IS.

If it is the ballast, wonder if we could just plug and play?

 

Ballasts doesn't make a difference. They all run at 35w. Some reflector designs are just better than others. Projectors are a step above that. I wish Infiniti would put projectors into the G35. Such a nice car really deserves a better lighting system.

 

German cars are very well known for their HID lights. Lighting for lets say Germany is taken much more seriously than here. I used to work for Hella Lighting, and we built lamps for Daimler Chrysler along with the rest of the Big 3 here in the US. The company was German based and they knew their stuff about lighting. I would just say that the Japanese knew better about reflector based Halogen lighting.

 

I've noticed a huge difference too. The lights in my G are not nearly as bright as the ones I have in my Cadillac EXT. I was considering an 8000k HID upgrade, anyone done this before?

 

Funny, a couple nights ago on my way home after work I was driving on the street and I couldn't tell whether my lights were on or not. So I turned the light **** (whatever it's called); sure enough my lights were on.

My gf's BMW 330 seems brighter.

But you know what, I'm not complaining. I LOVE MY 2 week old 05 6MT.

 

Owning an IS and a G, ill agree that the IS HID's were a great lighting system. When I added Philips 6000k bulbs to the lexus it looked beautiful from a far. I actually had a buddy film me drivin down the road from a far and driving toward the camera. Im off going to look for the video.

 

I, too, have wondered why the IS300's headlights put out better light
than the G35's. Both cars use a reflector design.

IS300's stock HID's also appear more purplish than the G35's.

Switching your stock HID's to higher color temperature HID's will not
yield more light output on the road. It will in fact DECREASE light
output. You can see for yourself on www.autolamps-online.com

Look at the white papers (technical specifications) and compare
the lumens output between the regular HID's and the 6000K HID's.

Since the stock HID's are already dim compared to other cars,
switching to 6000K or 8000K HID bulbs is shooting yourself
in the foot. You will only have even worse light output, for
the sake of looking "cool".

 

The fog lights are H4's.....I changed them to HID's as well. Just an idea if you really want a very good vision at night.

 

The other cars have different kind of setups. Whether if its reflector type or projector type. Projectors are a little bit better because it only focuses in one straight direction as opposed to reflective, when they focus on a bigger/wider light band. Also, the kind of HID it is... whether if its 4000k, 5000k, 6000k, 8000k or 10,000k. The "K" relates to "Kelvin"... The color is dependent on the temperature the bulb heats up. Our bulbs, i believe is around 4500K... If you want the really nice purple haze... thats like 10,000k... and you be paying an arm and a leg for that... plus, make sure its legal in your state. (brief info)

 

As far as I'm aware, all car manufacturers stick with the standard 4300K color
temp HID bulbs from the factory.

A bulb that produces 10,000K color temperature would be so dim, it's like
having two small flashlights for your headlights. Again, the higher color temp
HID bulbs you get, the less actual light output on the ground.