2007 Camry HID - Not technical, opinions requested

[XLEV6]

I am going to buy a HID conversion kit for my 2007 Camry, and know about the adjustments I will need to make to avoid blinding other drivers, technical specs, and etc.

Is xenonempire.com a good company for HID? If not who is?

My car is silver, I know I do not want 4300K (yellow) or 12000K (purple), I heard 6000K is almost pure white and provides the greatest lighting potential. Is this true?

Cosmetically, which looks best for a silver car? I was leaning towards 8000K, which I heard looks closest to factory, and that when you get into the deeper colors (10000K and above) you lose lighting performance. But I kinda feel that 10000K might look cool on a silver car.

Is 8000K the best mix of performance/cosmetic appeal/most popular?

Thanks!

[tengiday]

Is xenonempire.com a good company for HID? If not who is?
It depends on what part and how much money you want. For best quality ballast, buy OEM at TRS. For harness and bulbs, you may get from DDM although it is a hit-and-miss quality, but it's cheap. I never heard about xenonempire, but you can also try HID from VVW.

My car is silver, I know I do not want 4300K (yellow) or 12000K (purple), I heard 6000K is almost pure white and provides the greatest lighting potential. Is this true?
Greatest lighting potential is around 4300K (most OEM choose this range). If you want pure white, I recommend you to go 5000K or 5500K. You need to wait for the bulbs to break-in though. You can do retrofit and use the new Osram CBI 5000K with 3,400 lm.

Cosmetically, which looks best for a silver car? I was leaning towards 8000K, which I heard looks closest to factory, and that when you get into the deeper colors (10000K and above) you lose lighting performance. But I kinda feel that 10000K might look cool on a silver car.
"8000K... closest to factory" -> NO. Around 4,300K-5000K is closest to factory. Actually, when you get above 6000K, you lose lighting performance. The color temperature may not be affected by your car color much since people don't see your car color CLEARLY at night

Is 8000K the best mix of performance/cosmetic appeal/most popular?
It depends. Personally, I choose performance over anything else. If you choose HID to upgrade for headlights, why do you dig into something that has less performance than your halogen.

Regards.

[iovaykind]

^Great info there, couldn't agree more.

One more thing though, with HID's you need to cover up squirrel spotters, which requires more work than you'd like I'm assuming if you only want HID's. Covering up squirrel spotters closes off any light which will shine above the cutoff (they're usually there for halogens so that they can light up signs well, not really for squirrels lol) To do so, you'll have to open up your headlights and projectors to tape off the holes with electrical tape. Again, this may be more work but you did ask what you needed to do to run HID's safely without blinding other drivers.

I'd say run 5000k for white but not losing lumens. I use 6000k and I can see that they are not quite as bright as 4300k bulbs.

[Dave-o]

^^most gen 6 owners didn't open up their headlights to cover the spotters, although if it was already open it would be easier to cover it

[XLEV6]

Thanks for all the info... I have been reading and talking to friends, so wanted some direct answers from a greater wealth of knowledge.

I will be covering up the squirrel spotters... just forgot what they were called. I just want to jazz up my V6 Camry since I had to sell my sports car last year. Intake, tint, aggressive tires in place. Lights, lowering, and exhaust to come. I get crap for it, but I do love this car picked it up as a recovered theft in perfect condition with 15K miles on it for $15K fully loaded (previous owner actually forgot where it was parked and it was towed, not realized until insurance company had paid out already)

I do want increased light output, because it is pretty dark in the Boston suburbs at night. But I also wanted a bit of a blue hint to set it apart a bit more (and i know car color is not really visible at night).

I guess added benefit/custom color would be best at 6000K then? A bit of loss from pure white, and a bit of blue. As for that site, they say lifetime warranty and claim to be a German based company, so I have some respect for it. Looking at $100 for bulb, ballast, and harness/relay.

As for fog lights, do they need any modification per the "squirrel spotter," or are the dynamics of the reflectors good to use for a straight install?

Thank you very much!

[iovaykind]

Don't put HIDs in your fog lights. I stand corrected about squirrel spotters, I forgot about the method some here used to cover it up without opening up the headlights. It requires more patience to do it right, but its much quicker than opening up the headlights and projectors to cover the spotters up. Go 6000k if you really want the "look" of xenon. There's barely any blue in it, though compared to 5000k, 6000k will be "bluer"

[XLEV6]

What is the proper way; I read both high heat tape, and JB welding a piece of metal..

[iovaykind]

If you can get electrical tape to stick onto your.. say chopstick, you can stick the chopstick into the projector bulb hole and put the tape onto the squirrel spotter and after you make sure its secure that will keep any light from going through those slots.

[desentrix]

6000k is as high as I'd go for color. this will give a blue hue... although I'm a bigger fan of 5k.

As for the fog lights, you could opt for a 2500k, or the standard 4300k-- don't put HIDs in, our fogs are designed to spread light outwards.

You can do a ghetto jb weld mod w/ a multi-layer cutout from a coke can, or the fin from a stock cpu computer cooler. As for getting information from friends-- don't unless they actually know what they're talking about... Or else you might have ended up getting violet HIDs..

[molson.david]

If you can get electrical tape to stick onto your.. say chopstick

tape will melt and burn, for sure.
do JB weld.
or get yourself retrofitted headlights.
I tryed H11 HID, clear leanses, modified projectors and shields.
was not happy with effect completely anyway.
get retro, there is no other option.

[XLEV6]

Please explain the retrofit.

[tengiday]

Originally Posted by XLEV6

Please explain the retrofit.

Read these threads in this forum:
http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/foru...ative-Articles

Basically, retrofit means you put projector from other cars' headlights with HID design (Acura, Solara, Lexus,...) into our Camry's headlights. Doing this, you are able to achieve the same light output as those high-end cars.

[glenn14]

Originally Posted by XLEV6

Please explain the retrofit.

XLEV6,
Here is a link to my retrofit, I used Acura MDX projectors that were just about a direct swap. Mine looks OEM factory. Read up on this !!!
Glenn14's Update Thread

Glenn

[iovaykind]

Don't get into retrofitting unless you have a lot of time on your hands. It'll make you crazy trust me lol. And glenn14, don't make assumptions unless you have data to back it up. I've done countless retrofits and electrical tape works fine. Why wouldn't it, its made for high heat applications. Remember I said electrical tape not your regular old scotch tape.

[tengiday]

Originally Posted by XLEV6

OK I did some reading... people are using all different projectors, so which one is the best to use for the G6 Camry?

It depends on. Most people choose projectors based on their light output and ease of mounting. You can go ahead and read a thread to compare different light output projected on a wall in HIDP. MDX and Solara projectors are easier retrofit than other projectors (i.e, they're not required to have a complete custom bracket). Mine is S2K, which requires a lot work, but the result is among the best.