Kizashi Club

I am thinking about going with an HID headlight conversion and would like to know what are the brands to buy. I know the German brands are the best but which ones? Any help would be appreciated.

JONO

Sorry for late reply. I was on vacation.

The best brand seems to be Philips. They are an OEM producer of HID systems (bulbs, ballasts, and igniters).
If you want the very best, get an authentic Philips aftermarket kit with all Philips components. They should be made in Germany.

Other reputable kits are McCullough and some Japanese ones. I have found that JDM kits are actually hard to find as the majority of HID kits sold online are cheap Chinese-made ones. I used to have a Made in Japan kit called Xetronic in my former Mazda. It was rather good, but I experienced ballast failure within two years. However, the internet retailer covered it under warranty and sent me a new ballast. All was good again. I was going to put these in my Kizashi, but when I learned my Kizashi already had HIDs, I left them in the Mazda.

My Kizashi came with HIDs (6000K low beam and 2500K fog lights), but I examined them and can tell they are cheap Chinese-made ones. They work fine, but the color and beam patterns differ between the two fog lights. I am sure it's the bulbs and not the Kizashi's fog lights. However, the brands seem to differ between my low beams and fogs. The low beam HIDs are good.

Overall, here's the breakdown from my experience and research:

BEST: German-made Philips. Best quality and reliability. Downside is price. These are way more expensive than the average HID kit sold online. There are also said to be fakes branded as Philips so you need to be careful.
I have also seen high quality HID kits in person at auto parts stores in Japan, but have never seen them sold online. I am sure these JDM kits would rival Philips in quality and reliability as they are made by reputable Japanese brands and come at a high price. One Japanese kit even had variable wattage for different uses. I have never seen that before.

BETTER: Kits that have good reputations in various forums. I have heard good things about DDM Tuning HID kits although they are cheap. I don't think these are as good as German-made Philips, but many owners seem satisfied. They were quite popular in Mazda3 forums.
I would also put the Xetronic kits in this category. They were pricey, but offered great color accuracy (between the two bulbs) and brightness. The retailer also backed up their product when the ballast failed.

GOOD/AVERAGE: Your typical HID kit sold on Ebay. These are mostly made in China and are a fraction of the cost of Japanese or German kits. Reliability and longevity are hit and miss. Some are rather good and rival expensive kits. Others cause flickering problems and junk out in months.
Like I said before, I can tell the previous owner of my Kizashi had these cheap HID kits installed. However, the low beams work just fine and have so since I owned the car (about a year now). The fog lights' color and patterns don't match each other, but they work so I can't be bothered to spend money and time to fix them any time soon.

DDM kits are only $30 and they have a lifetime warranty. I'd get 4500K to 5000K for the brightest and whitest light output

Thanks for the replies. I was thinking of 55w 6000k pure whites for optimum brightness without blinding oncoming drivers.

Pure white is 4300-5000k and not 6000

The 55W 6000K will look the brightest, but actually will not be on the road.
Two reasons for this:

1) 6000K looks to be a more pure white than 4300K, but it's usage light on the road is darker. The human eye sees more at lower kelvin temperature light therefore 4300K actually casts the best light without looking yellow like a halogen bulb. 6000K will get blue (darker) around the edges of the beam meanwhile 4300K is more yellow at the edges (brighter).
OEM HIDs are around 4300K for this reason. It's actually the color temp for optimal road illumination.
Having had both 4300K and 6000K 35W aftermarket HIDs, I can say from personal observation that 6000K looks brighter while 4300K actually puts down more usable light.

2) 55W HIDs experience color wash out. HIDs were intended to be 35W, not 55W. 55W system, especially found in cheap kits, will wash out the intended color so the beam will look closer to the next temp up. Therefore, if you want the max useable light output from a 55W, then get 4300K because they will work like a 6000K 35W in terms of color.

While 55W are undeniably brighter than 35W kits, they don't last as long. HIDs were designed to be 35W and lower power draw over 55W halogen bulbs was supposed to be an advantage overall to the car. A 55W will blind oncoming traffic more than a 35W as well. This is especially true of headlights designed for halogens regardless whether they are projectors or not. In fact, OEM HIDs use a different kind of projector headlight than halogen projectors like those found on our North American Kizashis. The Kizashis with factory HIDs (higher spec Euro, Aussie, Indian models) actually have a different projector design made for HIDs. This is why the beam cut off on an OEM HID is much better than an aftermarket kit in a halogen projector.

There is also the issue of 55W running too hot and damaging the wires and headlight housing. I would avoid even the risk of that at all costs. I've been running 35W for years in different cars with no problems from heat.

DDM Tuning kits are cheap enough to experiment around to see what works for you in terms of wattage and color temp., but I really don't think they are of OEM caliber in terms of durability and longevity. 55W kit have me worried regardless of maker.

There is a reason why OEMs run on 35W at around 4300K. It's the overall optimal set up in terms of performance and reliability.

Get 35W 5000K or 4300K. if you want

I personally have 55W 6000K kit from DDM tuning. I have had the kit for over 2 years now and the only problem is that I sometimes need to turn the headlight on and off 2 or 3 times for the HID to turn on. Otherwise, no issues at all.

If i can choose again, i'd prob go with 35W 5000K. Even though there's nothing wrong with the kit right now (knock on wood), people are saying 55W kits are more prone to failsure. I have 35W 5000K HID kit from xenon depot on my '12 camry, there's no issue with that kit whatsoever. But i have only had that kid for less than 6 months so it's hard to say lol

Wow, theres a lot of" in the know" I have got from this thread so I will look at the 35w 4300-5000 HID's but the good ones only. thanks all.

i have 5000k and it makes a nice blue sparkle at the top of the cutoff of like a vw projector

I have gone through 4 sets of HID's on my car. I started cheap (ebay sets) and then got a (fake) set of Phillips (learned an expensive lesson there). I then did some research across several different forums and purchased a set of Morimoto HIDs. I spent around 170.00 for my 4300k 35 watt kit. They are higher quality than anything else I have purchased. The kit comes with a heavy duty harness and relay which hooks up to the battery. You also ground each headlight to the car. The kit has a plug for the existing wiring harness to tell the headlights when to come on. So there is no need to install a separate switch. The install was pretty straight forward and I am very happy with my choice. I purchased them from http://www.theretrofitsource.com. They are based out of Atlanta. All of their lighting is covered for 5 years.