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Thanks for all of the good input! I don't mind spending the money for replacement units but if I do they would need to be LED. For me I don't see a reason to buy new HID units. I guess I'll try new high & low bulbs and see what improvements that makes. I've yet to see a LED converter kit and I don't know if I'd go that route - would need to see what the kit entails.
I would *not* replace the bulb with anything in a cooler color temperature such as 5000K or 6000K. Stick with the stock 4300K. The other options look more blue-ish but they're not any brighter and the resulting illumination will have a poorer Color Rendering Index (CRI), making overall visibility less.
I would also *not* attempt an LED retrofit. This would be way more work than it's worth and LEDs aren't any brighter. They also have thermal dissipation issues - most of the LED bulbs have large heat sinks and/or cooling fans mounted on the back of them so they probably won't fit inside the stock headlight assembly anyway. The only time you see people with these bulbs is when they're running them in a stock reflector housing on a lifted Silverado or Tundra and they blind the crap out of oncoming drivers.
BTW, in reference to the Sylvania Headlight Restoration Kit I linked to above, here's how well it worked on my other car (2004 Toyota 4Runner). It didn't make them perfect but it got really close. The plastic gets yellow and cloudy like this because the factory clear coat wears off and exposes it to UV from the sun. The Sylvania kit comes with a new clear coat that you paint on to keep it protected.
Yup, that's what has been done to the lights currently in my car. I'm running them with PHILIPS 6700K FlashStar Ultinon D2S HID XENON BULBS and although they're rated at 6700K color, they actually look whiter, more like a 6000K when compared to other HID bulbs. These are some of the highest performing HID bulbs available, but be careful of cheap imitation versions. The imitations come in a plain white box instead of a Philips one and they lack the UV blocking agent on the glass of the HID. Without this, they will damage the insides of your headlights.
Then in order to protect the plastic lens of these upgraded lights from yellowing, general debris and dust pitting the surface, or from a rock thrown from the road, I installed a clear Lamin-X headlight protection kit that I bought from Suncoast - comes with the pre-cut material to do both the large oval headlights and the for lights, which are LED versions on my car. I don't have a close-up of just the headlight, but here's one that shows the overall clarity of the front lights with the lamin-x on them.
I went with the D1S - PHILIPS X-TREME VISION 4800K 85415XVC1 HID +50% BULBS. They are supposed to change into the 5000k+ range after x amount of usage and they put out much more light than the OEM bulbs. Good call to stay away from the generic stuff; the price differential is dramatic. Ordered from hidconcept.com in Morton Grove, IL and they were very helpful.
Last edited by user 72902; 09-16-2016 at 06:17 PM.
I went with the D1S - PHILIPS X-TREME VISION 4800K 85415XVC1 HID +50% BULBS. They are supposed to change into the 5000k+ range after x amount of usage and they put out much more light than the OEM bulbs. Good call to stay away from the generic stuff; the price differential is dramatic. Ordered from hidconcept.com in Austin and they were very helpful.
Glad you were able to resolve your lighting issue without having to change the look of the car and happy to help out with personal recommendations of what I've tried and is working for me. Bet you want to go drive around at night now
Glad you were able to resolve your lighting issue without having to change the look of the car and happy to help out with personal recommendations of what I've tried and is working for me. Bet you want to go drive around at night now
Well I have the new bulbs but I won't have my car back until Thanksgiving.
I went with the D1S - PHILIPS X-TREME VISION 4800K 85415XVC1 HID +50% BULBS. They are supposed to change into the 5000k+ range after x amount of usage and they put out much more light than the OEM bulbs. Good call to stay away from the generic stuff; the price differential is dramatic. Ordered from hidconcept.com in Morton Grove, IL and they were very helpful.
Maybe I need to re-read all the posts but I thought you were looking for a replacement bulb for your stock headlamps. If that's the case, you ordered the wrong bulb - should be D2S not a D1S - entirely different bulbs! D2S is the first picture and the the you need. Second picture is a D1S.
One thing to consider is that HID bulbs change as they age. The color temperature changes and the intensity drops. It's a gradual change, but you should be able to tell the difference between a new bulb and a 10-year old bulb. Changing the HID bulbs might be a good, inexpensive first step.
Secondly, it's important not to confuse color temperature and intensity. A bulb in the white or blue part of the spectrum might look very nice and bright compared to a stock HID bulb, but the lighting performance might be worse. The human eye doesn't do well with blue light.
Zombie thread warning!
Very glad I saw this. I had no idea that Xenon bulbs changed as they age but in fact I took my 997.2 for its first night ride last night and the light output looks almost halogen-like. It's bright and useful but looks pretty yellow. From the front of the car they do look like Xenon bulbs but not the light output. Pelican Parts has Bosch bulbs which look decent but I can't see a temp rating on them. Anyone have a good reco for replacement? I might be inclined to go slightly cooler but not all the way to bluish 6000K -- yuck.
Also curious about the lower half of the fixture - it contains a little incandescent "flasher" bulb. Anyone tried something like a silver star replacement there?
09-12-2016, 05:41 PM
