What’s everyone using for the best xenon replacement bulb?
 

As the title suggest, I’m looking to replace my 2 original 2004 xenon bulbs. I can’t believe they still work but they are definitely well past their prime on the brightness meter. 2004 3.0i Thanks!

Just replaced my 2004 X5 3.0i 5MT bulbs. I used Wagner (Helolite) bulbs. Easy to do, replace both at the same time. Noticeable difference in brightness over the old bulbs.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I recently replaced mine OEM xenons with a pair of Morimoto bulbs from ecs tuning. No issues at all. My OEM were dim...when I pulled them out they were white instead of clear!

New ones are nice and bright.

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-morimoto...500k/b650~mor/

Everyone seems to rave about Osram Nightbreakers, from Powerbulbs in the UK: -

https://www.powerbulbs.com/product/o...mited-d2s-twin

As my D2S lamps are low beam only I stuck with the original lamps: -

https://www.powerbulbs.com/product/xenarc-d2s-single

I have the nightbreakers in mine. They seem brighter than normal xenons but color may not be to some people's liking.

My headlights need replacing as the bowls just don't reflect as much as they should. So the bulbs while brighter didn't solve my problems.

Coding the separate high beams to come on with the xenons solved my problems for now along with headlight bulbs in the driving light housings :)

Still factory stock D2S on mine. I have a spare Phillips for test purposes but again still stock. I have heard great things about Morimoto and Nightbreakers too.

+1 on the Osram Nightbreakers. Love them. Need to pick up another set for the wife's E70.

Thanks everyone! I drove in the rain last night & I felt like I couldn’t see a thing. I’m leaning towards the nightbreakers. I will report my findings after replacement.

Please do! I want to upgrade mine at some stage

Ohsoslow, as I mentioned earlier, I'm not sure the Nightbreakers are worth the extra cost in our case. In some markets the Xenon lights are bi-Xenon with the shield on a servo that lifts up and away when selecting high beam. In this case the extra light from the Nightbreakers is usable. In the cars we get here in NZ, the Xenons are permanently shielded as low-beam only (no bi-Xenon actuator) so half the light is chopped off.

You're probably better off putting some 100plus H1 lamps in high beam fittings... BUT I haven't tried it, so who knows, maybe Nightbreakers in the low-beam Xenons do produce a brighter low beam that is useful in some way... :dunno:

The lack of rain visibility is one thing that set me off on the quest to increased light output on mine.

To solve my issue I coded the high beam headlights to work with the xenons. That coupled with putting headlight type led bulbs in my driving lights solved it all for me.

This covers what I did :

Coding High Beam lights with xenons | Crowz Nest

Hey Wayne, merry Xmas!!!

I just double checked mine, and my xenons definitely flick onto full when I hit high beam, along with the normal halogen high beam.. maybe I got lucky with mine, it is nz new. (Or previous owner maybe coded it on)

A brighter halogen is definitely on the cards, researching that now.

Most of my googling seems to point to a philips Xtreme bulb being the brightest d2s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EbYw9hPTrY

This test them all at once in split video. Night breakers rule.

One thing I wanted to point out the lifespan on the night breaker bulbs is not as long as most bulbs. So while they are brighter they don't last quite as long from what I was able to research on them before I bought mine.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jO2O-2PavSs

Hey crowz, this is the vid I saw, where Philips had the most lux. But I see now it’s comparing them to a osram cbi, not nightbreaker.

I think either one is looking like a good upgrade!

The regular cbi isn't that bright but the nightbreaker and nightbreaker laser is a good bit brighter.

Merry Christmas, Ohsoslow...! :-)

So - I stand corrected. Since you indicated you have (in effect) bi-Xenons on your '04, I thought I would check mine again and bugger me - they DO have the shield that pops up!! :D

My VIN decode doesn't indicate the option for bi-Xenon and when I checked them when I got the car, I couldn't see any movement. I was testing it in daylight though and with car running. Just checked now with motor off and in the dark and I can hear the actuator move the shield and I can see the cut-off on the Xenons move higher.

Woohoo! :thumbup::thumbup:

Might have the get me some brighter D2S lamps. :D

best plac to buy nightbreakers for my 4.8IS model? do not catch on amazon website.

I think I got my nightbreakers from amazon but let me check.

Yep I bought them from amazon here :

http://amzn.to/2zyhHww

I did purchase mine on amazon, but the seller I purchased mine through seems to have sold out. Personally I’d wait 2-3 weeks if you can & recheck. I did find these for sale https://www.amazon.com/Osram-66240NB.../dp/B00FQ8AVHS but mine were only $99.00 for the pair. You can also search the internet for Osram Nightbreaker D2S & see what comes up. I hope that helps.

I got my Nightbreaker bulbs in. I couldn’t see any visual difference between the new bulbs & my old bulbs when they were both in my hands. The quality seemed on par with the stock OEM Phillips bulbs. Having used them twice now they are as advertised. I can’t tell if they project that much further than the stock bulbs, but certainly further then my worn out bulbs. The area directly in front of the vehicle & up until the end of the projected field is greatly improved. This area alone is worth the price of the bulbs. Then there’s the high beams, OMG if these retain that kind of brightness I’ll be super pleased! They definitely go further than before, with the continuation of the full filled in area from the low beams. I didn’t notice a color difference so to each there own there. It took me about 45 mins to switch both bulbs.

Did you pull your bumper or work around the gap with the headlights pulled forward to the headlight washers? I replaced my right side and it was a PITA without pulling the bumper but got it done.

I did not pull the bumper. I did remove the 4 bolts for each headlight & slide them forward. The lower outside most screw is the hardest & a PITA! I seriously contemplated leaving it out, but didn’t. On the drivers side I removed the air box & on the passenger side I unbolted the secondary air injection breather & mass air flow just to gain better access to the bastard bolt!

On the night breakers be careful of counterfeit bulbs. There is a hologram label on the real bulbs. I read that somewhere when I got mine. If I can find the article I will post a link.

The fake bulbs use tint to like the cheap hid bulbs to set the kelvin color of the bulb. The real bulbs use special salts to set the color. The real method doesn't change color as it ages and puts out more light but cost more to make.

+1. I paid a few $ more than the going rate on some sites and ordered them from Power Bulbs, they guarantee them to be authentic. Probably one of the most counterfeited bulbs around.

They are currently offering 25% off everything, sale ends tonight I think. The Nighbreaker Unlimited D2S are about $102/pr shipped.

Geez. I paid $99 so hope they’re legit

Easy to check; when you get them, use the code on the package and this website:

https://www.powerbulbs.com/blog/2016...-trust-program

Hmm well I’ve already installed mine & I'm quite happy with their performance so I doubt I’m going to pull them back out to check. I might check that the hologram kicks back a code at least

I bought some discounted xenon from Amazon when I first bought my X5 (with 128k miles). The PO replaced ONE bulb the other was 20% brightness and completely blue.

I paid under $50 for the set figuring they will get me though a season and I can test drive the color temp. Well 2.5 years later the brightness and color temp are the same as the day I bought them. I'm actually a little bummed that they lasted so long because I went a little high on K. I picked 5000 or 5500 to match sunlight forgetting that when you go over about 4300k you slowly lose all depth perception so it's not awesome. Fortunately my high beams are OEM and perfect color temp for 3d visibility in the country and the 5000k are nice in the city. I will match stock of 4300? In the future.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Aim your headlights! Studies show that not one in 20 cars have their headlights Aimed properly.

Aim them at exactly zero degrees: all the tech manuals will say to aim into the dirt because the manuals were written for bulbs that have conical output: just as bright up and down. Projector bulbs are 90% dimmer below the cut off so take advantage of it! What also happens is that you get full brightness up and to the right that will light up road signs like you've never seen before!

(My car puts more light on the road signs than the next five cars because the other cars are lighting up the road 50' in front of the car only).

I never once have had a problem with blinding oncoming cars but perhaps a very short sports car may have a problem.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Could you please provide more details on the above or some link on a DIY? Thanks!

I aim my headlights by parking the car about 50' (15m) from a white wall at night.

Measure the height to the center of brightness of the cone of light exiting the bulb then go mark that same height with some wide tape on the white wall.

Adjust one lamp at a time blocking the other with your body or some other means and set it so the transition from bright to dark on the LEFT side of the beam will be at the exact same height as measured at the car.

The auto leveling lights aren't actually "level" so you don't have to be on level ground when you do this just constant angle.

At 50' the right side should be perhaps 5-7" higher than the left side. This works fantastically well to put the beam up in the air to light up road signs.

When I'm driving around my car is doing virtually all the illumination of all road signs on the right side of the road. Virtually all cars have their headlights aimed into the dirt and useless for sign illumination.

For left and right adjustment, get the car lined up perpendicular to the wall and measure from a reference line (such as a expansion crack in the driveway)

The center of the output should be straight out eg. If the right light is 1' and left is 5' from the seam in the driveway or should be the same on the wall.

Is this what I should be aiming for? Found it in an E39 M5 forum.

That is the way I aimed my xenons on my E46. I have also read you can aim the right a couple inches higher on the right side at 20 feet to illuminate the road signs on the right side of the road but I just set them level just as your image shows. The X represents the center of the headlight as it was measured from the front of the car directly against the wall. I have no issues seeing the road signs hundreds of feet ahead. :thumbup:

I use a small car. Most of the time I use my 323i.

I pull up behind it to the distance I would be if I was behind it at a drivethru.

I aim the lowbeams to cut off at the top of the seat. Not the headrest but the shoulder area. If no light hits the headrest then its impossible to blind them. I never get flashed and I can see fine. Works for me. Especially handy aiming some of my lifted trucks.

On a side note to the above. When aiming lower vehicles such as cars I aim for right below the top of the trunk lid of the 323i. Trucks and higher things I use the seat back.

I described what is shown except that method is following the 50 yr old method of aim into the dirt to avoid blinding oncoming traffic.

0.5° down puts ALL the light in the street at 300'.

There is virtually no brightness above the centerline and no reason to throw away 50-75% of the light by following 70 year old rule. If you look at the photo above you will see that even when aimed down 0.5 degrees (2.1"@20'; I'm not sure the distance in this example)

Watch as you drive next to a white oncoming car in the city you will see the side of the car illuminated and not the hood even a little. This means that the oncoming car will only see a dim Flow of light.

I drove my wife's car the other day and hers are not quite at zero they might be 1/4 to 1/3 degree down and in the country I get HALF the light as in I can see 1000' with my high beams and 500' with hers.

I've compared with brother's van and my LOW beams illuminated more than his high beams without putting any light into oncoming eyes.

I'm hoping the Reflectors or bulbs are made opposite for right hand drive cars and then of course you would line up the RIGHT side to center.

I was concerned about shorter cars since the X5 does have higher centerline but I've checked many times with short sports cars and I think I've only seen one or two exotics that were short enough even for light to get past the hood but it still won't be as high as the driver's eye.

You may feel like the lights got dim once you adopt the zero bubble alignment because you won't be brightly lighting up the street directly in front of you. What you should notice is you can't really see where the lights are aimed at all; that you can't really tell the light is coming from you but that for about 120° you have nearly perfect illumination edge to edge.

You will also notice especially on the freeway that you are responsible for 80% of the light hitting the road signs you will even see "cookie cutter" silhouettes as cars pass in front to the right of you on the signs.

I started using zero bubble with my Z28 which didn't have projector bulbs so I obit did the high beams zero and minus 1/4 on the low (the lights were only about a foot off the ground). I could see illumination from at least 3/4 of a mile with those headlights. If aimed into the dirt like normal they reach 1/10 of a mile at best.

When driving next to a long fence you can clearly see the bright line and the left should be horizontal and go farther then you can clearly see the right side should climb at a degree or two I've never measured I just know it's 20' tall by 400' away or so because I rarely see the bright line until I'm almost passing a road sign.

If you are behind and left of a car they will get illuminated but it will be off axis and they have night mode on their mirror. I've done testing and didn't notice any problem when my wife is following me.

I've been using zero bubble since 1996 definitely not going back to literally driving blind.

Thanks for your analysis, Andrewwynn. I'm finding it a bit hard to understand your technique from your descriptions so far. A picture or diagram will speak a thousand words. Do you think you can modify the above picture to portray the modern technique of adjusting headlights you speak of, or kindly post one if you already have it? Thanks!

That picture posted actually is just about perfect. Once you start doing an adjustment you'll see it becomes very obvious. I can maybe post a picture showing which is the horizontal and which is the vertical trim.

You will see once you do yours the picture shows two overlapping images. When you adjust one light will they heard from the other one and then you'll go adjust the other one and tell it matches the same height.

The main thing in the difference from the photo is that in my case the brightness change will be exactly the same height not 2 in below. I would not worry too much about the left and right mostly just the up-and-down is what matters unless your car actually had some front-end damage and bent something.

I like to do my adjusting from 40 or 50 feet away but the bright-line gets pretty fuzzy.

Alsa very important: if you are right hand drive then of course the right side of the lower and that's the side you line up.

You should be able to do a decent adjustment from 20 or 30 feet.

I'll see if I can find a nice white wall and take a couple pictures

Pics or it didn't happen. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...f8ab4ea17a.jpg

Left (driver) side. Notice how the bright zone doesn't dive. It's perfectly horizontal.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...16291c9e2d.jpg

This is the right side or passenger side in the USA. Notice that it climbs at a pretty good clip by 7 degrees or something.

If that is with the low beams on its kind of high up but at the same time its pretty dim so it may not bother anyone.

I had that problem with my X5 when I got it but I solved the low beam light output by upgrading the driving lights and using them too.

The high beam output I solved by adding the inner lights to the xenons aka all 4 lights on at once for high beams.

Of course low beam. The high beam output also straight out vs down in the dirt so I can't see the spot but I get twice the distance of "well aimed" headlights and 4-5x the distance of average. My lows stay on with high but the fog turn off. The low lights from the factory are specific fog lights with projector beams to limit the throw to just a few yards specifically to light the fog line on the edge of the road not send any light out front. Changing to anything else defeats the purpose of Fox lights which greatly improves safety when driving in the fog.

The low beams aren't dim but above the cut off they are. Since only the right side goes over center it will never dazzle oncoming cars (I can't wait for the day somebody hi blinks me because they think my high beams are on)

I always test drive after setting up a car at zero bubble by having a friend drive toward me to get feedback of dazzle. Never been a problem I've set up about a dozen cars this way and in 150-200,000 miles maybe 1 or 2 times somebody bright blinked me but that was before projector lights.

Since the high beams also aim straight out but have a full cone output not just the bottom half, they are very much blinding to oncoming traffic.

Xenon replacement bulbs have been found effective for most of the vehicles and they also function well enough. But if you are looking for their alternatives, I would suggest you to go for Wagner or Morimoto bulbs which offer lots of advantages.
But I would even suggest you to look for the options in the user manual of your vehicle. This would help you get the best results. And if you do not possess the user manual, get a copy of it securely on manuals.co- the online website that offers all kinds of user manuals absolutely free of costs.

I've just fitted Osram Nightbreakers to my 4.6is and its wonderfull to see again at night. I'm quite sure my bulbs were original (15yo then) and the light was dim and yellow/brownish... Now its white and bright.

just a heads up for anyone needing to buy lights (HID or other kinds). I have ordered a few times form this website. Love the quality of products they sell and shipping (time and cost) is not too bad even with it being in the UK.

i bought a set of 5000k for about $40 for the pair, they have lasted 4 years but are starting to show their age (getting dim), i was very happy with the purchase and will likely use the same brand but maybe lower kelvin as you lose 3D over 4000k

3D?

Depth perception...

I just put 6000k on mine. They work great and I can see better with them than the stock lights. I think stock is 4250k. The whiter the light, the better I see. Not to mention the Osrams I just installed have a higher lumen output. That helps too. ;)

The more light is why can see better but the higher K is an illusion. You are seeing more flash back of cement etc. At 5k and more greens and browns of nature tree, grass, etc become two dimensional. I used to make high end lighting and many experiments showed that arc light with high K temp made it very hard to see things in the real world.

I like the 5k in the city but it's not very good in the country at all. Fortunately my high beams are like 4300 and make everything turn 3d the second they are engaged.

Just as when you aim your headlights up away from the ground it will "seem dimmer" because you aren't making a bright spot right in front of the car, the higher Temp K will give you more flash back that gets more light to your eyes but from nearer objects. Lower K has a farther reach so you can see things farther away.

Interesting.

High kelvin bulb ratings are a meme and unrealistic. Why anyone would willingly spend hard-earned money on making their eyes strain more than necessary is beyond reason. Sure, the colors blue and purple are pretty neat I suppose, but to buy lights to emit at those spectrums is retarded and completely useless. Personally I think 4300K (slight yellow spectral radiance) to 6000K (very light blue spectral radiance) is ideal for reduced night driving eye strain, depth perception and more accustomed to the human eye needs.



Sunshine w/o clouds at zenith produces a light about 5500K - corrected for light absorption through earths atmosphere. The surface of the sun is 5750K and appears white. Because the surface of the sun emits all wavelengths equally and is "full spectrum", we ideally want a bulb that does the same thing. But this is tricky. Even though there are many bulbs out there that are "full spectrum", some wavelengths in the spectrum are more present than others. Without rambling about physics too much, Kelvin and the visible spectrum are not proportionate but we need a comparison. We don't see in Kelvin, we see in nano-meters of the electromagnetic spectrum.


Using Wien's Displacement Law, we find that a bulb that is color corrected for 6000K will emit visible light to my eyes at 500nm which is an absolute sweet spot in the visible spectrum IMO. The 4300K bulb emits around 660nm which is too predominately red and leaning toward the outer limit of the human eye. Mind you, the 4300K bulb is "full spectrum" and works just fine, but know that this CCT is heavier on the red light emission. Bonus: an HID bulb with a 10,000K CCT emits at about 290nm! :rofl: The bulk light emission and peak wavelength is completely useless because the human eye cannot even see it. But the box says full-spectrum HID bulbs, bro! I can drive my Honda Civic just fine!



BTW, I put the 6000K version in today: https://weisslicht.com/collections/d...22512023666769

Good choice. That's what I installed together with their halo leds. Perfect and absolutely love them.

Makes me feel better about the 6000k bulbs I recently installed.

I'm narrowing in on replacement bulbs...
 

I cannot figure out the difference between Philips Xenon X-tremeVision gen2 Xenon car headlight bulb compared here:

https://www.philips.co.uk/etc/philip...2S1,85122XV2C1

Any help, please?

Higher K lights work ok in concrete jungle settings but will remove almost all depth perception in the country. I’ve been working in lighting development including building LED landing lights for planes since 2003 so I have a little bit of experience in the subject. I have a portable xenon search light that is 5500k and can send a spot over half a mile but when you beam it onto a tree even at close range the spot looks almost purely two dimensional.

The factory knows what they are doing you should never go higher than 4300 for high beams but I like 5000 for city driving it pairs better with concrete and I’m a religious user of high beams in the country and the mix of 4300 and 5000 works great. (Depth perception at distance with the 4300 and close up lighting of roadway at 5000)

It’s literally dangerous to use higher K for high beams as you will lose a great deal of depth perception any higher than 4300k. Something clearly important to avoid hazards as well as simply aim for the apex of curves while driving.

Asphalt, stone, shrub, trees, leaves; they are all “tuned” to lower K light. The further you stray from 4000, the less well you can see any of those things.

That’s a nice solution. Reminds me of when I had a motorcycle, the high/low been switch was either:or but the switch for safety sake was “make before break” so if you held it in the middle you got both and holy shit that was a lot of light. I may have used that too much as I did blow out my stator (MC equivalence of alternator) but it was very helpful. I may look into that driving light v. fog light however fogs aimed into the ground to light up the fog line on the road is very helpful and I have my headlights aimed at 0.0° which helps more than brighter to see farther.