Okay, I know there have been a lot of HID questions here and I promise I spent a fair amount of time searching and reading old threads...

First off, the story - I hit a small piece of plywood the flew up in front of mefrom another vehicle yesterday morningand it knocked out one of the plastic fog light filler things. So I went to my local dealership and bought the fog light kit. I figured it was the easiest thing to do since they wanted $145 for it andthe cheapestI could find on ebay was just the lamps (no relay orbutton) for $90. Plus, they had it in stock!! Already installed it last night, and wow, the instructions were spot-on!!

Okay, so here come the questions:

While in the shop, I plan to have them install software for the door locks to lock when I put the car in drive as well- can anyone think of a reason not to do this? I read that the doors will unlock in the event of a crash.

Is there any other cool software/options I should do at this same time to take advantage of the $120 of labor they'll charge me to hook up to the computer?

SinceI don'thave it programmed,I don't know how it will function. I have read here that the fog lights will be turned off when I activate my high beams. Will I be able to turn the fog lamps on without the headlights? i.e.- just the marker lights and fog lights? If that is the case, I plan to install some yellow H1 bulbs strictly for fog, not to "illuminate areas normally hidden by shadows".



HID kits?

I've seen SharpHID recommended on here in several places, so I plan to do my business with them. What do all of you recommend as far as the HID kits? I'd like to get the maximum light possible, so I plan to purchase the 50w kit for my H7s. Is/would it be worth it to install an HID kit on the high beams or the fog lights? Also, I'm thinking 6000K for the temperature with a hint of blue


I will anxiously await all responses. Thanks again to all of you for such an awesome forum!



Oh, it's an 02 S60 2.4T if that matters...

 

Not sure what country you're in, but with my DRL setup (2003 2.4t), my low beams are ALWAYS ON. So I don't know of any way, with my current software config, to run the fogs w/o the head lamps. Maybe that's a software option as well.

And as for the auto locking door locks-- i was surprised that this isn't standard on mine! I see no reason not to do it. It's pretty common now anyway.

As for the HIDs... the blue tint you see on most are not because they're running at 6k, it's a slight polarization on the lenses. Most HIDs from the factory, IIRC, are running in the 4k range. Past that in either direction and you're losing the amount of lumens. And I really wouldn't concern yourself wiith HIDs for the fogs or hi's. Some people have reported that the fogs look too yellow compared to the HIDs but for my money, there's a lot of things I'd rather buy first.

 

[align=center]Bulb Temperature[/align]
[align=center]35 watt lumens[/align]
[align=center]50 watt lumens[/align]
[align=center]Colour[/align]

[align=center]3000K[/align]
[align=center]2950[/align]
[align=center]3700[/align]
[align=center]Yellow[/align]

[align=center]4300K[/align]
[align=center]3200[/align]
[align=center]4100[/align]
[align=center]White with slight yellow[/align]

[align=center]5000K[/align]
[align=center]3150[/align]
[align=center]4050[/align]
[align=center]White[/align]

[align=center]6000K[/align]
[align=center]3140[/align]
[align=center]4030[/align]
[align=center]White starting to look blue[/align]

[align=center]8000K[/align]
[align=center]3100[/align]
[align=center]3600[/align]
[align=center]Blue with a hint of purple[/align]

[align=center]10,000K[/align]
[align=center]2950[/align]
[align=center]3300[/align]
[align=center]Blue to Purple[/align]

[align=center]12,000K[/align]
[align=center]2920[/align]
[align=center]3300[/align]
[align=center]Purple[/align]



That's from SharpHID's website. You think I would be better off with 4300K or do you think 70 lumens will really make that much difference?

Also, thank you for all the other info, very valuable.

 

Well, that post's formatting didn't work very well...

Let's try http://sharphid.com/hidinfo.htm