sarah

My RX300 is about 5 years old. I've had it since day one, so the xenon(HID) bulbs in the headlights are just as old. 80% of the 90,000 miles were driven at night, due to my work
schedule.

I haven't really noticed any fading until the other night when I was parked next to another RX300.
Its lights were noticebley brighter than mine, when projected on the white wall next to the
parking lot.

Would my xenon headlight shine brighter if I put in new xenon bulbs? I saw some Philips
4200k OEM xenon bults on Ebay for $85 per pair from a respected seller who has 12000
positive feedbacks.(at 99%)

Should I get new bulbs or not?

Thanks!

rominl

iTrader: (4)

yup, eventually you will need to change the bulbs again, they will get bluer and bluer and eventually just die.

and you will need to change both bulbs together otherwise color would be way off

and yes, get the philips 4200k d2r bulbs, i think rx300 uses that

tiguy99

Yes sir! Here's the scientific explanaition.....

http://faqlight.carpassion.info/hl-hid-bulbs.htm

Click The Faq tab top left.....

scroll about 15% down and read the HID bulb colorshift section. Eventually the bulbs keep shifting color until they get pink and die. That's over 5 years time like what you mentioned. Good news is a brand new replacement set can be had on Ebay for like 75.00 a pair. Just look up D2R in the search tab on there and buy Philips or Osram 4300K or 4100K bulbs. Those are the factory ones Toyota/Lexus uses. Or you can contact my supplier for more info

tiguy99

What he said lol! Sorry I didn't read Henry's post

sarah

get pink??? Maybe I'll hold off changing them until they burn out by themselves....
I'd really love to see what pink headlights look like!!!

By the way, thanks for the link to that web page. It had really really great info on HID lights!

lexusk8

Sarah, in the meantime, you could try to improve the look of your HID lighting by cleaning and polishing your headlamps. They tend to get hazy to some extent after years of use. I recommend a bottle of Meguiar's Scratch-X, as it removes the yellowing and hazing from the headlamps. You can find this bottle at your local Wal-mart for about $6.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

haha i would suggest you get the replacement bulbs first so when it gets pink,, you can change them out right the way. basically by then, you can't really light up the road well at all

tiguy99

It'll look like 10K HIDs lol

tiguy99

Anytime Sarah...anytime!

sarah

When my xenon light bulbs turn pink, I"ll try to find that pink RX300 owner I saw a few weeks ago. It'll go great with his(yes, I said HIS) Hello Kitty pink Lexus RX300....

sarah

Since I have a long trip coming up, I decided to go ahead and replace my aging xenon
bulbs. Took the Lexus factory bulbs out and examined them. They are D2R type, made
by Philips.

I ordered a pair of Philips 4300k D2S bulbs from a Ebay seller with 1500+ positive feedbacks.
The final price was $89. That's pretty good, considering my local Lexus dealer wants
$239 for EACH!!!!

I received the order in the mail, only 2 days after I made payment via PayPal.
Next, I proceeded with my Dremel and cut out a little piece of the D2S base, so it
can fit in my D2R headlight.

I installed the driver's side first and turned the lights on... the new bulb was really yellow
compared to my old bulb, which was extremely blue/white.

It was little tricky getting the passenger-side bulb out, as it require the removal of the
washer fluid filler tube. Otherwise, it was a pretty easy 10-minute job to replace both bulbs.

I drove around the neighborhood and was amazed how bright the new bulbs were. (or more
like how dim my old xenon light were) By my rough calculation, my old xenon bulbs were
used for appx 1400 hours.

Oh, and the D2S did not cause any excess glare.(made my neighbor drive towards me several
times and they said they didn't notice any difference)