Xenon bulb upgrade

M

Marf83

Member
 Derby
So I don't seem to be able to get a straight answer!

I have an 04 Z4 3.0i with Xenon', I believe they are 4.5k as standard (correct me if I'm wrong). Can I just order some 6000 - 12000k bulbs & pop them in, or do I need to buy a complete ballast kit.

Also can I put xenon bulbs in everything ie main/full beam & fog lights?

Thanks for your advice in advance.

Marf
 
Have a read of 123BillyB's post here which should answer some of your questions:

http://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=42879&p=613617

Good luck
 
I have just ordered some 5000k D2S Bulbs off ebay, the OEM 4300k after 8 years and a lot of night time driving will have degraded a fair bit i believe (changed 1 aftermarket xenon 9006 on an old E36 and ended up having to replace both as there is a noticeable difference in brightness) the arc area goes black/green over time along with Xenon naturally gets dimmer very slowly even before end of life anyway like in LCD projectors and pro light entertainment units that use the same technology arcstream lamps ... , I thought about 6k but everywhere I have read people say the light is less useable and it looks very aftermarket and chavved up. People also say 4.3k contains too much yellow so for me 5000k I think is where it is at!

I wonder though why some OEM lights on cars look more blue, my guess is its the projector design that causes that not the actual color temp of the bulb?

I will do a A/B comparison if anyone is interested... against a garage and taking pic head on one side OEM 4.3k original bulb the other the new 5000k D2S ebay specials they should arrive thursday.
 
yg54sg said:
I have just ordered some 5000k D2S Bulbs off ebay, the OEM 4300k after 8 years and a lot of night time driving will have degraded a fair bit i believe (changed 1 aftermarket xenon 9006 on an old E36 and ended up having to replace both as there is a noticeable difference in brightness) the arc area goes black/green over time along with Xenon naturally gets dimmer very slowly even before end of life anyway like in LCD projectors and pro light entertainment units that use the same technology arcstream lamps ... , I thought about 6k but everywhere I have read people say the light is less useable and it looks very aftermarket and chavved up. People also say 4.3k contains too much yellow so for me 5000k I think is where it is at!

I wonder though why some OEM lights on cars look more blue, my guess is its the projector design that causes that not the actual color temp of the bulb?

I will do a A/B comparison if anyone is interested... against a garage and taking pic head on one side OEM 4.3k original bulb the other the new 5000k D2S ebay specials they should arrive thursday.
Click to expand...

I have recently changed my xenon D2S bulbs too, from the OEM 4300k to 6000k as i like the very slight blue tint and will hopefully match my LED angels (when they turn up), 8000k is where they get chavy looking imho, i would know i had them in my old Seat Ibiza Cupra :D but then again at 230bhp and 240 torques it was far from chavy :evil:

Also from your post you seem like a bit of an AV man (LCD projectors and xenon lamp references) is that what you do for a living?
 
haha hey BPM, I bet that went quick!! you will have to post some pics of the 6000k when everything is done, I just didn't want any less light output as I am sure those LED rings are blocking the light a little as it is but will do some tests. I am open to change so if 6k is not too blue and a nice pure white with a tint of blue I'll go for those, these 5k ebay ones were very cheap 15 GBP for the pair so I am wondering if they will hold up over time anyway :-)

Im a musician at weekends and did the sound & light for various bands so always have a host of pro lighting stuff knocking around over the years. The moving head/scanners use arc bulbs too ... had a few projectors too in the front room over the years but ended up with a large LCD these days due too 200 quid bulb changes and not watching much TV due to working too much haha LCD Projectors made sense when 50" LCD were $$$$ back then.
 
It was fairly quick yea, just felt like bits were falling off under acceleration, and wouldn't of lasted too long with boost spiking at 21psi

Yea sure will post some pics up soon, mine were £15 from eBay too, from HIDs direct. Have used them many times over the years. They have sent me a mismatching pair at first so I will take a pic of the one 6000k and the one OEM 4300k. All other kits I have used have held up ok. And at £15 ill be happy with a year out of them.

You will have to let me know how you get on testing the led ring blocking light.

Ahh a see, I work for an audio visual hire company in the midlands. Some of or new lamps cost us 2k, but when the projector was 50k to buy then that's not too bad




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Mar83,

Why would you want to change from 43k bulbs to a higher rating as you will get less of a bright light. The only difference apart from less light will be the higher you go, the bluer the tint gets which is just asking for more scrutiny from the old bill or MOT testers?

Billy
 
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