4300K is OEM, the higher you go from there light output starts to diminish as the bulb colour heads towards the blue colour. 6K would probably be ok and have a slight blue hugh.

 

My old Audi had its original HID bulbs in, they were 13 years old, lit the road fine but took 30 seconds to reach the correct colour temperature. My 10 year old HIDs in the current Audi are noticeably quicker to get to temperature.

 

Dont forget to get the correct bulbs, there are two flavours. D2R and D2S, one is designed for projectors and the other reflector headlights. Get the wrong ones and the beam pattern could be wrong.  D2S is for projector and D2R reflector, D2R has a shield on part of the bulb to help avoid glare and will give a different beam as a result.

I've no idea what the kelvin rating on the bulbs are that's in. They are a little blue I think though.

Thanks Mannyo that may well be the case at the mo!

Probably 6 k then. 5 k gives a great output and looks good, but 4300k will give the best light output

Confused here because I though all xenons/hid had to be self levelling to not blind other road users? But the normal halogen could be adjusted?

If there's a self levelling sensor for xenon on the rear axle wouldn't that make the manual levelling redundant?

I haven't got the height adjustment switch in mine it's the first thing I looked for, you had me thinking it was somewhere else lol.

Your's is exactly the same as mine as you have headlamp washers too. Mine are auto leveling I don't have an adjustment switch.

 

When you get the headlight pattern checked some headlight aligner's have a lux meter that will tell you how many lumens they are producing. Not all headlight aligner's have them though

Edited 22 December, 201411 yr by theezenutz

You can adjust xenon level at the headlight unit itself but needs to reprogrammed via vcds if you do it this way

Your bulbs are 8 years old. Change the bulbs (will be pricey for decent ones) but you'll notice the difference

You can adjust xenon level at the headlight unit itself but needs to reprogrammed via vcds if you do it this way

Your bulbs are 8 years old. Change the bulbs (will be pricey for decent ones) but you'll notice the difference

Cheers pal is this something you can do on the lite version?

Priced up some philips bulbs £90 a piece! Saw the same ones on ebay £127 a pair

These are the correct bulbs for your car.

 

Buy 2 and get 20% off so £59 for a pair.

 

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

Thanks pal... better than paying over double that for the Philips!

Brightest Xenon D2S bulbs currently available are the Osram Nightbreaker Unlimited.

 

They sell for about £80-110 for a pair online.

 

I got mine in June from Amazon,  paid £90 I think.     The bulbs I replaced were Phillips Ultinon D2S (5000k) bulbs which were about 3years old.

 

The osrams where significantly brighter.      Brighter I guess because old bulbs loose effectiveness,  new bulbs are always better technology,  and also the old bulbs were 5000k (or something),  whereas the brightest light is at 4300k,  which is what the Osrams start out as..

 

 

For D2S bulbs,  always buy Osram/Phillips,   don't buy cheap ebay crap.  I've done it before, and they aren't as bright, don't last long,  and just done because u can get 5/6/7000k or whatever chavvy colour u like

put your front foglights on like me

 

Before you fork out on new bulbs, I would still (if you can) try to see if the projector bowls are burnt out. Because if so you may be wasting your money.

 

Here's an example of what I mean:


 

Full thread of where this pic is from is here. (The OP in this case had a similar issue to what you're experiencing): http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?2034906-Replacement-xenon-bulbs

 

Easiest way of checking I think would be to use one of those small telescopic mirrors through the D2S bulb holder.

 

Osram CBI (cool blue intense) are meant to be a very good white looking bulb but with good output, not too pricey either

Please don't put your fog lights on you look like a complete pratt driving with them on. I'd go with what everyone's said and change the bulbs.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

+1

JRJG

Lots of people with badly fitted xenons fit into that category too though, I wouldn't drive with fogs except in poor vis but they are less distracting that xenons

I don't think it's your bulbs.

 

As others have mentioned check alignment and condition of the headlight reflector. 

Before you fork out on new bulbs, I would still (if you can) try to see if the projector bowls are burnt out. Because if so you may be wasting your money.

Here's an example of what I mean:

Full thread of where this pic is from is here. (The OP in this case had a similar issue to what you're experiencing): http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?2034906-Replacement-xenon-bulbs

Easiest way of checking I think would be to use one of those small telescopic mirrors through the D2S bulb holder.

Cheers pal... If mine are past it does anyone know where I can buy new bowls or would it be a complete new headlight?

Head over to hidplanet.com they should be able to give you more information about all of this

You're correct Jonowlliams for the reflectors and lenses.

If they're burned or worn, by fitting new bulbs may not see quite difference. .

Firstly the whole headlight unit should be clear and ok, then bulbs come.

Maybe that's my opinion.

If you can confirm that the projector bowls are knackered, unfortunately, the simplest and least time consuming way is to buy new headlight assemblies.

 

I reckon the existing ones could be broken down and you could possibly get the bowls re-chromed or re-plated somewhere. That's going to be a time consuming PITA though and you'd have the issue of owning a car without working headlights for a while.

 

Partsbase doesn't show a breakdown of the headlight body. i.e. it doesn't show part numbers for headlight body components. e.g. the projector.

 

 

J.