HID FAQ's

What is HID Xenon?
High Intensity Discharge (HID) Xenon headlights are the new generation headlights that are fitted to most luxury cars and most new cars can have them fitted as an (expensive) option. They produce 300% more light than standard halogens and yet use less power. The HID Xenon (not Zenon) lighting technology is significantly different to the conventional halogen bulbs that use a heated tungsten filament. Unlike Halogen lamps, HID lamps don't have a filament but create light as a result of an arc between two electrodes.

The heat from the arc vaporises the metal halide which produces light as the temperature and pressure increases. The light produced by an HID Xenon lighting system is greater than a standard halogen bulb and with less power consumption. On the road, HID Xenon lighting systems appear as a bright white beam which resembles natural daylight. The bright white beam offers greater visibility and road safety.

In an HID Xenon lighting system, the voltage between the two electrodes rises firstly from 12V to 23000V and keeps stable at 85V by using the Xenon HID ballasts system.

What are the advantages of Xenon Light?
Three Times Brighter
The clear white light produced by the Xenon bulb is similar to daylight. Research has shown that this enables drivers to concentrate better. Furthermore, this particular light colour reflects the road markings and signs better than conventional lighting once you have driven with HID Xenon you will never want to go back to Halogen.

Extremely Long Life
The xenon bulb will last up to 10 times longer than a standard halogen bulb and even longer compared to the new whiter halogen bulbs. An average life is 2000 hours.

Can HID be fitted to any car or bike?
We offer a full range of aftermarket plug and play HID conversion kits that allow you to convert your standard Halogen headlights into high performance HID Xenon. All you need is one of our HID Conversion kits. The kit comes complete with fitting instructions (written by us) and all the parts you need to convert your headlights, including bulb(s), ballast(s), wiring and fixing kit.

What is the difference between HID Xenon Conversion Kits and HID Xenon bulbs?
An HID kit will convert your halogen bulbs into real HID Xenon lighting. To do this you need power boxes (ballasts) to convert from 12 volts to 85-23000 volts. Many people sell upgraded halogen headlight bulbs as HID Xenon, but these are simply halogen bulbs that have a tiny bit of extra Xenon gas inside them.

The light output of such bulbs is normally less than a good quality standard halogen bulb. If you do not want to go the full step and convert to HID then we recommend the Philips Xtreme and Osram Night Breaker bulbs, and we recommend you avoid the other non branded bulbs


Is HID xenon Legal?
Unfortunately no aftermarket HID kit is strictly road legal as you are changing the lighting system (from halogen to gas discharge) in your car and for this reason the bulbs can't be E marked which is a legal requirement. You also won't have the self leveling and washer systems installed which is also a legal requirement for HID and without these installed the kit would be an MOT failure. HID kits are plug and play so they are easy to remove and replace with standard bulbs come MOT time.


What is Lumen (lm)?
The international unit (SI) of luminous flux (quantity of lights). For example, a dinner candle produces about 12 lumens and a standard 60-watt incandescent bulb produces 830 lumens. The higher the number is, the brighter the light is.

What is Kelvin (K) and whats the difference between 4300, 6000 and 8000K?
The K (Kelvin) Temperature range is a basic unit of thermodynamic temperature (colour temperature) used to measure the whiteness of the light output. The higher the number is, the whiter the light is. When over 5000K the light begins to turn to blue as daylight.

There are only really 4 colours of HID available, despite the claim of sellers and manufacturers to the contrary. These are Standard factory 4300K (yellowish white), 5000K crystal white with no blue tint, 6000 crisp white light with delicate to moderate blue tint, and 8000K strong blue light. The highest light output is 4300K and the lowest 8000K.

We have been driving with HID Xenons now for many years and as you may have guessed, have tested every combination of Kit, bulb and colour. The following is a summary of our findings (objective as we bought light meters to measure the actual light outputs) and recommendations (both objective and subjective), which most customers agree with:

OEM is 4300K and without a question gives the most amount of light. I have tested dozens of bulbs and compared them all to a Philips D2S bulb as a reference point. The difference between colours and manufacturers is really quite shocking. The best 6000K bulb produced 15% less light than the Philips 4300K - while the worst 6000K bulb was a dreadful 70% less.

That said, our bulbs being the best ones with 15% less light in measurable terms, actually produce a very white light with a slight blue tint when you look at them. For every day driving this really is a more pleasant light than the yellower 4300K. as its whiter light is more pleasant and in most driving conditions appears brighter. The reflection from signs and white lines is far better with the 6000K.

If your after the coolest looking Xenons with amazing performance then 6000K is my recommendation.

If you are after the most amount of light on the road then I recommend the 5000K - which is a little whiter than the 4300K whilst having NO blue and very similar light output to the 4300K with our ballasts. For the purists we do have some 4300K bulbs also.

If you are wanting the look of the OEM factory fit Xenons then please remember that the blue is not produced by the bulb, but by the reflector/projector lense. Refraction spilts the colour of the light like a Prism if you remember that experiment from Physics. When you get up close the bulb is actually 4300K with a yellow tinge.

8000K bulbs or higher are not the answer - they produce very little light – up to 70% less than the 4300K and the Police do not like them. Also the blue light is tiring on your eyes and will turn rear number plates Green! We generally recommend these for show purposes or for those that really want to stand out from the crowd.

One last thing as proved in our testing, not all manufacturers colour ratings are the same, so please dont try to compare! Some claim 12000K is sky blue!! Wrong - should be purple!!

Can I install HID on my main beam and fog lights?
Yes HIDS4U kits can be fitted on main beam as they fire instantly and they do not draw excessive current so they will not damage the original factory wiring. Fog lights can also be fitted with HID kits as can auxiliary lights and driving lights.

Can I fit HID Conversion kit to my truck that has 24 volts
Yes HIDS4U Pro Plus kits can be fitted to any car or truck with a voltage of 12 to 24 as our ballasts are designed to work with the entire voltage range.

Can HID be retrofitted to non-projector style headlights?
Yes they can. The beam patterns created with our quality HID kits are identical to the halogen bulbs. Some poor quality kits have poor beam patterns and can cause a lot of glare. We are always working to improve the HID kits and we were the first to offer the H7R bulb that was designed for the non projector applications. Our H4 Bixenon bulbs are also the best in the world and produce the best beam patterns with no glare.

How do I choose the correct kit?
At HIDS4U we develop our own kits and have spent a lot of time and money on research and development to bring you the latest tried and tested technology. Here is a brief summary of the different kits:

ProPlus
This is the latest generation of our own Brand HIDS4U Pro range of HID conversion kits. This kit uses the latest technology with Digital ballasts and high quality HID bulbs and this kit represents great value for money. These kits cannot be compared to the other HIDS kits on the market as all our own branded kits, which have been developed and designed by our in-house engineers working closely with the manufacturers. We recommend this kit for the majority of cars other than a few which we list on the Ultimate HID kit page.

Pro Max
This kit is designed for the most demanding of drivers. This kit can be fitted to most cars (other than those listed on the Ultimate page) and it produces the maximum amount of light possible. Despite the 55 watt power the start up is still soft and the ballasts draws less than most other companies 35 watt ballasts.

Ultimate
This is the top end of HID Conversion kits. It was specifically designed for newer and problem cars but we also recommend this kit for people who simply want the best HID kit on the market and are prepared to pay a little more.