[Rahul Rao]

Most Premium cars with HID come with 4300k lamps, some get 5000k low beam and 4300k high beam the blue hint starts 5600k and above and turns towards purple later. White LED or CFL's that we use at home are 5000k, while our stock halogen lamps are 3000k or even 2800k.

Rahul

[sgiitk]

Yes, rahul I agree with you. Incidentally, almost all my CFLs at home are 2700K, as are the LEDs (warm daylight, older ones 2700K). I use higher temperature CFLs only for things like porch, gate and staircase. I do not like bluish light in the home.

Stanjohn; I have 55W 3000K HIDs in my fogs. In hindsight I would have preferred 2700K and 35W should have been adequate. remember in a projector you have a more concentrated beam. Let me say, that 35W HID is brighter than 100W Halogen. As for a lower colour temperature, the 'warmer' the light the better is the fog/rain penetration. Just to recap all HID discharge is in the UV, so it is the phosphor in the bulb which decides he colour. Also,as swift_guy said some lamps may be blue-green. This is often due to the ballast being a bit lower rated that required. Make sure you have good AC ballasts (Hylux is probably the best Chinese one). Also, I am advised that almost 90% of failures are of the ballast and not bulbs.

[stanjohn123]

Originally Posted by swift_guy

35w is the most widely used and provide the best value for your money. 70w will be too much, go for 35w only.

Originally Posted by Rahul Rao

Most Premium cars with HID come with 4300k lamps, some get 5000k low beam and 4300k high beam the blue hint starts 5600k and above and turns towards purple later.
Rahul

Originally Posted by sgiitk

Stanjohn; remember in a projector you have a more concentrated beam. Let me say, that 35W HID is brighter than 100W Halogen. As for a lower colour temperature, the 'warmer' the light the better is the fog/rain penetration. Just to recap all HID discharge is in the UV, so it is the phosphor in the bulb which decides he colour. Also,as swift_guy said some lamps may be blue-green. This is often due to the ballast being a bit lower rated that required. Make sure you have good AC ballasts (Hylux is probably the best Chinese one). Also, I am advised that almost 90% of failures are of the ballast and not bulbs.

Thanks a lot guy's. I have decided to get the 35W 4300K HID itself. Is it ok if I buy 4 of the same HID's for both low beam and high beam or should I buy 2 HID's of 5000K 55W for low beam and 2 HID's of 35W 4300K for high beam ?

Also how many hours life does a 55W 5000K HID have compared to the 35W 4300K HID ? I actually chose 55W for 5000K HID because I read somewhere for the same level of brightness in higher temperature, higher watt HID is needed.

The dealer said he will be providing canbus system. I'm guessing this is the ballast brand. Is it good ? For HID's I have decided to go with Morimoto's itself.

[Ricci]

Originally Posted by stanjohn123

Thanks a lot guy's. I have decided to get the 35W 4300K HID itself. Is it ok if I buy 4 of the same HID's for both low beam and high beam or should I buy 2 HID's of 5000K 55W for low beam and 2 HID's of 35W 4300K for high beam ?

Depends on your headlight setup. Pick the type based on the bulb used ( H7 or H11 or H1 ) as that determines the filament/arc position w.r.t focal point.
I'd recommend 4300k for both.

Originally Posted by stanjohn123

Also how many hours life does a 55W 5000K HID have compared to the 35W 4300K HID ? I actually chose 55W for 5000K HID because I read somewhere for the same level of brightness in higher temperature, higher watt HID is needed.

Stated life for 35W is 2500-3000 hours, but that's from statistical samples.
55W will last ~2000-2500 hours. The level of brightness is not colot temperature dependent as with halogens, the color is dependent on the choice of salts and inert gases, which emit light in certain frequencies only.
Over time, the color temperature changes too, shifting to a higher color temperature, hence stick to lower like 4300k.

Originally Posted by stanjohn123

The dealer said he will be providing canbus system. I'm guessing this is the ballast brand. Is it good ? For HID's I have decided to go with Morimoto's itself.

CANBUS is an electronic device communication system that lets car electronics talk to each other. You only need a CANBUS compliant/specific unit if your car has a BCU that monitors headlamps.

[swift_guy]

Originally Posted by stanjohn123

Thanks a lot guy's. I have decided to get the 35W 4300K HID itself. Is it ok if I buy 4 of the same HID's for both low beam and high beam or should I buy 2 HID's of 5000K 55W for low beam and 2 HID's of 35W 4300K for high beam ?

Also how many hours life does a 55W 5000K HID have compared to the 35W 4300K HID ? I actually chose 55W for 5000K HID because I read somewhere for the same level of brightness in higher temperature, higher watt HID is needed.

The dealer said he will be providing canbus system. I'm guessing this is the ballast brand. Is it good ? For HID's I have decided to go with Morimoto's itself.

Four 35w bulbs would be fine. Bulbs will decide brightness and colour, performance depends on the projector. If you want better feel/look in city but visibility on highway, get 5000k 35w for low beam and 4300k 35w on high beam. I consider 55w a hype, waste of money. For those upgrading from halogen reflector setups, 35w HIDs make a day & night difference in output. You will be amazed the first time you drive with upgraded setup, and stock halogens (right?) will feel like candles in comparison. 55w makes sense for those who already have experience driving with HIDs and want to squeeze out that extra output. If in your place, I would have chosen all 4 similar HIDs and interchanged them when they age (and give lesser performance due to more use, say of low beam than high beam).

Don't worry much about life. They will last around the same as your car when used normally. 55w ones have shorter life in comparison (which I assume would be 5 or 10% short, nothing much) as their arc becomes longer, faster than 35w, due to more current passed. With 55w, you will have to consider additional load on electronics also, which is additional 40w for a pair of lights.

CANbus system will not show any error codes on your instrument cluster/MID due to the bulb change. Usually when one goes from 55w halogen to 35w HIDs, CANbus enabled cars detect this and cause problems like flickering of bulb, error codes, etc. as they assume that the 55w stock bulb is not working. This is in VAG and premium ones like yours. Confirm the brand from him and ensure you get an AC ballast (and not DC).

[stanjohn123]

Originally Posted by swift_guy

Four 35w bulbs would be fine. Bulbs will decide brightness and colour, performance depends on the projector. If you want better feel/look in city but visibility on highway, get 5000k 35w for low beam and 4300k 35w on high beam. I consider 55w a hype, waste of money. For those upgrading from halogen reflector setups, 35w HIDs make a day & night difference in output.

This is in VAG and premium ones like yours. Confirm the brand from him and ensure you get an AC ballast (and not DC).

Originally Posted by Ricci

Depends on your headlight setup. Pick the type based on the bulb used ( H7 or H11 or H1 ) as that determines the filament/arc position w.r.t focal point.
I'd recommend 4300k for both.

Thanks for the explanation again guy's. I will make sure to select the AC ballast. I can understand that there is a clear trade off between visibility and getting a pure white light. But what I also wanted to achieve was an HID which could match the Corona ring's white color closest possible.

I have 2 sources online for the projector headlights as below.

MXmotorsports - http://www.mxsmotosport.com/mxs-moto...ilter_name=bmw

Alibaba - http://www.aliexpress.com/item/For-B...354551144.html

Now I know for sure that the best color HID matching the Alibaba sourced corona rings is 5000K as per owners who purchased it.

I'm not sure about the MXmotorsports one though as I'm not even sure if it will be anywhere close to the stock BMW Corona rings. Anyone here purchased anything from these guy's ?

Does anyone know any other good online dealer in India who sells good projector headlights.

[swift_guy]

Originally Posted by stanjohn123

Thanks for the explanation again guy's. I will make sure to select the AC ballast. I can understand that there is a clear trade off between visibility and getting a pure white light. But what I also wanted to achieve was an HID which could match the Corona ring's white color closest possible.

If that is the case and if 5000K is available, you can try 5000K in low beams and 4300K in high. Inside city/slow speeds, you would be using low beams (which will match ring's colour) and out on the highway, you can use more yellowish 4300K without bothering about colour match, etc.. There are many people running with 8000K cheap eBay kits, but brag about the output. 6000K would feel good and soothing in normal conditions but you can achieve better visibility (and not looks) by a lower colour temperature. It is upto you to decide what you prefer. Show or go?

Does anyone know any other good online dealer in India who sells good projector headlights.

Why online? Check out stuff in aftermarket shops as quality of headlight assembly is important. There is always a degree of risk in online shipments. I have heard there are good tuners down South, why not check them out? Otherwise you can check with people/dealers on OLX (Spare parts section) who source projectors and stuff from Taiwan, and ship anywhere in India.

One of my friend had got projectors from MXS for ~25k, but he had got from an outlet in Delhi instead of online. He was pretty much satisfied with the product.

EDIT - Found this thread on Team BHP

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/delhi-...new-delhi.html

EDIT 1 - Just noticed you had replied there!

[stanjohn123]

Originally Posted by swift_guy

Why online? Check out stuff in aftermarket shops as quality of headlight assembly is important. There is always a degree of risk in online shipments. I have heard there are good tuners down South, why not check them out? Otherwise you can check with people/dealers on OLX (Spare parts section) who source projectors and stuff from Taiwan, and ship anywhere in India.

One of my friend had got projectors from MXS for ~25k, but he had got from an outlet in Delhi instead of online. He was pretty much satisfied with the product.

EDIT - Found this thread on Team BHP

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/delhi-...new-delhi.html

EDIT 1 - Just noticed you had replied there!

Lol Thanks. Already checked with MXS sports. They have a set for 65K but I'm not sure how it will look on my car. I requested them to send me more pics.

Anyways I think I need to do a lot more research if I'm going to buy from AliExpress as there are many variants , some with just 2 projectors and 2 dummy's and others with 4 projectors ( Which I prefer ).

As per Bimmer forums a big complication is coding to get the DRL's or Halo rings to work. I'm trying to find more info about it now.

I have almost decided on what sgiitk recommended i.e CN lights bulbs and Hyluxtek ballasts.

@sgiitk : How are morimoto's compared to CN lights and Hyluxtek ?

[Darth Sid]

Originally Posted by stanjohn123

How are morimoto's compared to CN lights and Hyluxtek ?

The raw output of an H1 Morimoto 3Five bulb (which is now discontinued) appeared similar to a CN Light HB3 bulb when I compared them. Both 4300K. On application, I was able to get more light output from the HB3 unit because that went into a projector twice the size of what I am using the Morimoto unit in.

PS: I powered both off the same Hyluxtek ballast.

[stanjohn123]

Originally Posted by Darth Sid

The raw output of an H1 Morimoto 3Five bulb (which is now discontinued) appeared similar to a CN Light HB3 bulb when I compared them. Both 4300K. On application, I was able to get more light output from the HB3 unit because that went into a projector twice the size of what I am using the Morimoto unit in.

PS: I powered both off the same Hyluxtek ballast.

Thanks for this info. So I guess CN is good enough if it is compared to the mighty Morimoto's.

Originally Posted by swift_guy

Why online? Check out stuff in aftermarket shops as quality of headlight assembly is important. There is always a degree of risk in online shipments. I have heard there are good tuners down South, why not check them out? Otherwise you can check with people/dealers on OLX (Spare parts section) who source projectors and stuff from Taiwan, and ship anywhere in India.

I prefer online because most dealers just try to push things on you and you have no idea on what is the actual price or quality of the item, which I hate.

Anyways, is it true that for high beam's in projectors , only Bi-xenon bulbs can be used ? If you use just single Xenon HID's the bulb may get spoiled soon ?

[swift_guy]

Originally Posted by stanjohn123

Anyways, is it true that for high beam's in projectors , only Bi-xenon bulbs can be used ? If you use just single Xenon HID's the bulb may get spoiled soon ?

For projectors, HIDs used are Xenon only. It is the sheild in the projector that controls the beam pattern (low/high) and the bulb output and position remain the same.

If you are using different projectors for low and high beam, the high beam one will not have the cutoff sheild. Bi-xenon HIDs are used for reflector setups.

[fuzail]

How are AES projectors ? Can anyone who has installed these share his experience.

[Sam.k]

I am considering upgrading to Projectors on my 2009 Jetta.I am planning to go online shopping and i have the following questions

1)I know th car is CANBUS equipped.Would it be an issue if i go for a 35W HID in the 55W OEM setup?

2)How would i know if the projector light pattern are for RHD or LHD cars if bought online?

3)Would the regular size projectors fit in the light assembly or should i opt for the mini and what are the recommended brands.

4)Would i retain the headlight leveling function post conversion?

5)Are shroud sized common in case if am opting for one from a third party?


Thanks
Sam

[graaja]

Originally Posted by Sam.k

I am considering upgrading to Projectors on my 2009 Jetta.I am planning to go online shopping and i have the following questions...

1)I know th car is CANBUS equipped.Would it be an issue if i go for a 35W HID in the 55W OEM setup?
Not sure about this. Will let other experienced people comment.

2)How would i know if the projector light pattern are for RHD or LHD cars if bought online?
You have to make sure of this with the vendor. If you are getting it from AliExpress, you will have to mention that you need RHD version. Sometimes Chinese vendors may have only LHD.

3)Would the regular size projectors fit in the light assembly or should i opt for the mini and what are the recommended brands.
Depends on the size of reflectors. If the reflectors are big, then you can go for FX-R. Otherwise Mini H1 or Mini D2s are safe bet. I think Morimoto is a very well known brand. I have seen many users go with these. You can get Morimotos in India from AVS tuning. Also retrofitters will have their own projector source. For projectors, I would recommend to stay away from AliExpress as any warranty claims would be very difficult. Go for local source so that if there is any issue you can get support.

4)Would i retain the headlight leveling function post conversion?
If the retrofit does not affect the headlight leveling motors, then yes, you will retain the leveling function post retrofit.

5)Are shroud sized common in case if am opting for one from a third party?
Not sure about this. Will let other experienced users comment.

[captain.torque]

Experts PLEASE HELP!!!

I will soon be buying the Brezza Zdi+ and as you all know the car has separate housing for the low and high beam.

Question 1 -- Is it okay if I install 5K lights in the OEM projector housing?

Question 2 -- Should I get HIDs in for the high beam as well? If yes, will I ahve to get projectors for them too?

Question 3 -- Will the 5K HIDs produce pure white light like the Audis and Mercs?

Thanks.