Hey all! Maybe someone here can give me some good advice. I'm looking to upgrade the lights on my 04 FX4. I've been looking at some 6000K bulbs that draw about 55W. I've read a couple places where people complained about the plug melting at higher watts, but the higher watts aren't explained. I have not been able to find out what the stock wattage is. So a long story to ask 2 simple questions. Anyone installed a good plasma white/blue (6000K)? And has anyone had problems with the plugs melting?

 

You mean HID lighting not plasma.

I would upgrade the stock housings before I considered putting the HID's in. B/C with the stock ones you get a god awful glare and will blind the **** out of oncomming traffic.

 

I'm actually trying to get by with some cheap replacement bulbs, not the $100+ HID's. I do appreciate the feedback.

 

The replacement bulbs will be worse than the stock bulbs. The blue light they produce will put a strain on your eyes and the light isn't usuable light. If you want the blue look to them get them, but make sure you keep the stock bulbs so you won't need to buy another set when you get tired of the blue. Also, don't buy the 100 watt ones the WILL fry your wires, get the 55W or whatever they are.

 

HID's are great. If you run the right bulb they will not cause the eye fatigue. The BLUE ones are mostly for looks. If you are interested I found a great article on them and I will post the link. http://www.intellexual.net/hid.html Its long but VERY informative.

 

There are some pros and cons to the entire situation. I have a 8000K HID kid, supplied with a relay (that is the proper way to install them to not melt your stock plugs). It pulls the power directly from the battery instead of the OEM wires. Now, I have the kit in the stock 05 housing, it's a 100% improvement from stock in performance. However, as said above, they are right. The stock housings will "scatter" the light a bit more than original because the HID bulbs have a single ignition point that is NOT the same as a halogen. Thus, when the light is reflected on the cone and out to the road it will not focus as well. That results in the blinding effect, people flash you (not the Mardi Gras way) quite often. A lot of people on here including myself compensate for this by aiming the headlight down a bit.

HID's are designed to be used in a Projector housing. Those are the headlights you see that have a glass dome in them, and the bulb is behind that. These focus the beam at a precise point at a distance of X (you adjust for X) from the origin. Making the beam very clean and they give it a very defined cut-off line (not blinding people by "scattering")

As far as wattage, HID's generally only come with two options, 35W or 55W. The 35W will give you more ability to fine tune the color output to your personal liking. 55W on the other hand have a very white dominance. With 55W you can get 6000K-12000K and not see whole lot of difference in color output (mainly white), however, with 35W you will see a very distinctive difference in color with every interval in temperature kelvin. The higher the temperature kelvin, the more color there is (4300-5000K is most light output, yellow-white in color. 6000-12000K is white w/ blue tint - very BLUE and very poor output) Hope this helps.

So, like I said, there are two ways to argue it. If you have the $$ to get the HID's and new housings, then that's the "proper" way to do it for optimal performance and quality. If you don't (I didn't) then you can buy a kit of H13's and use them until you do, or just use them as they are in the stock housing (DO NOT use stock plugs). Either way there is a GREAT improvement, and you will be VERY happy you made the switch.

Good luck man!