Anyone replace their Stock HID D3S Bulbs?

[RayoVac]

I am curious if anyone who has stock HIDs has replaced their bulbs with 5000K or higher and what your thoughts were after the change.

 

I would not mind going a bit whiter on the color, just don't really want to go to 6000K because I think it will start to be blue-ish.

 

Thanks,

 

Rayo

[candurin]

I have tried quite a few different bulbs. My preference is to go with 4300/4500K if you are going with 35W bulbs and 5000K if you are going with 50/55W.

 

Either will give you a perfect cool white light with zero blue (and not a warm white color). The 55W is brighter (not tremendously) and washes out the blue hint of the 5000K color, which is why I say the 35W/4300K and 55W/5000K give the same color.

[RayoVac]

I have tried quite a few different bulbs. My preference is to go with 4300/4500K if you are going with 35W bulbs and 5000K if you are going with 50/55W.

 

Either will give you a perfect cool white light with zero blue (and not a warm white color). The 55W is brighter (not tremendously) and washes out the blue hint of the 5000K color, which is why I say the 35W/4300K and 55W/5000K give the same color.

 

Thanks for the info. Do you know what the stock color is? Is it 3700K? So I assume you replaced ballast when you went 55W? How hard was that? Was it plug and play?

 

Rayo

[candurin]

I should have read more into your post. I went from a halogen setup to hid, you already have hid (which I didn't realize).

 

I think you can just swap bulbs as long as you get one with an AMP connection.

[PrinzII]

Thanks for the info. Do you know what the stock color is? Is it 3700K? So I assume you replaced ballast when you went 55W? How hard was that? Was it plug and play?

 

Rayo

 

4150k, 4300k, or 4500k which is standard for any OEM HID.

[SyN]

Candurin: Did you change your bulbs due to lack of visibility or for color? We have spent alot of time so far in the wifes 2012 following the daughters basketball play... and we quickly noticed the brights are horrible. Not much more visibility then low beams... As many deer as we have close to the highways here in Oklahoma I feel she needs far better more lighting at night. Her 04 Lincoln Navi would light up the whole country side. I was just curious.

[candurin]

It was actually both. I didnt feel the halogens were bright enough (we have lots of back roads out here in Jersey as well) and the whiter color is easier on the eyes (for me).

 

The 4300k offers the most usable light (the bluer the color, the more output you lose) and the brights are SIGNIFICANTLY brighter than stock.

[HyPer]

We always go by this scale, 5000k is 80% white with 20% yellow, 6000k is 90% white with 10% blue.

 

You gotta make sure you get good quality bulbs, as alot of companies don't make them to spec with tight enough tolerances, like ddm for instance can be up to 15% outta spec. Sun Lighting can be up to 25%. We've noticed alot of ddm 6000k kits are bordering 8000k, we took comparison pics of their 6000k versus actual 6000 Kelvin degree bulbs.

[PrinzII]

Been researching this topic because I am considering a conversion (Changing the assembly to the stock HID assembly and adding a D3S Kit). The challenge is finding the D3S bulbs. The bulbs are not going to be cheap and I personally do not recommend going with Ebay or Amazon specials. Known brands (e.g. Phillips, Denso or Sylvania (Osram)) only.

[PrinzII]

You may also shop for Audi D3S bulbs as they will fit the stock Edge D3S housing.