OK Guys, I have tryed 6000k and immideately removed. No improvment in lumens and too much purple. MY 98 bulbs don't produce enogh light compare to new cars on the road. Question to unfortenate owners who had to change one HID bulb. did you see any difference? Will newer 02 stock bulbs peform better than 98 ones? Just need more light, I hope that newer bulbs have more output. Thanks for help

 

ok i am confused, your 98 gs HAS hid already right? well the design of the housing might have changed a bit but the illumination should be pretty much teh same. on my 98 gs4 it didn't have hid and now i got hid and it's big improvement to me (of course i guess)

and no, i dont' think getting the 02 bulbs will help that much? coz' they are jsut teh same, if anything it's the housing? i know the bulbs all have the same output

 

I had the 98 HID's on my car. I prefered the look of the 02 lenses mainly with a slight green/blue tint to the lense itself and a bit more chrome. I thought this would go really nice with my spectra blue car. I decided to replace both of my 98 HID's with the 02 HID lense, new bulb and ballast entire new assembly. I can say for sure that the new 02 HID's from lexus are brighter. I think its because of 2 things. One, the lenses were brand new no haze or anything so the light projected looks cleaner and secondly, the reflection pieces inside the lense tend to reflect a bit more throwing down a little more light and making it look slightly stronger.

Another thing, I noticed is that the construction of the 01-02 headlights are identical to the 98-00 ones, except that the newer lights have a better and heavier seal to them. I think lexus reinforced the seals cause of the common moisture problem that was recurring in the older design. Also, the new 01-02 lights have 2 auto-leveling indicators vs. just one on the 98-00.
Its a good mod if your lenses are starting to haze or develop moisture in them. You can also just buy the new 01-02 shell for about $300/each and swap out the bulb, ballast. If you go this route, than you can also use a higher aftermarket HID kit 6000k or so. You will lose the autleveling feature. Or you can spend the $1200 bucks for each assembly and replace them. The entire assembly is only held in with 3 or 4 screws.