So after trolling around the forums for quite the while, I think I've come to a few conclusions and questions about the headlight housing. Please correct me when I'm wrong.

I have an IS250 with factory HIDs.

Now, my questions are primarily about the DRL.

Also, it's not the headlight, but for fog lights, I've been thinking of swapping to HIDs. Then looking at either the v-leds or the ijdmtoys website, they also mentioned LED! Same question of how well the spread is.

Thanks in advance to anyone and everyone's input :]

 

My own general rule for 2IS's

DRL - Swap for LED w/o the module. The flickering is very mesmerizing from a distance. I remember when i first spoted them i knew i had to have them.

HID blub - Stock 4300k is pathetic. Should be swapped out for a 6000k, any higher would be tacky.

Fog Lights - I am a big fan of yellow. So i replaced mine with yellow bulbs. HID's in fog lights are very very tacky and ruin the flow of the IS.

 

LED in your DRL would make the DRL look "better" but make the light output utterly useless as a highbeam. Swapping the DRL/highbeam for HIDs would have the problem that you can't run an HID at "partial power" for the DRL function, and your flash-to-pass usage would be bad for the HID as well since turning HIDs on/off quickly is bad for em.

I addressed this by simply having my DRLs turned off and keeping the normal high beams.



The stock low beam HIDs are 4300k. Which produces the most useful light output possible. Anything higher might look "better" in some folks views but will produce less useful light to see by.

 

^^^ I thought HIDs without a projecter were illegal . The DRL/High beam portion of our cars are only reflective (no projector) right? So HIDs would not be an option at all even if we could address the partial power for DRLs.

To the OP, Welcome! I agree that 5000k or 6000k is a much better temperature color for HID low beams. And as far as fogs, I like them yellow. I don't really have a preference for how this color is achieved (either yellow halogen bulb or a 3000k HID).

Any pics of the car to share with the rest of us?

 

If HID's without a projector housings were illegal there would be many older luxury cars driving on the road that were illegal to drive which is obviously not the case.

 

Can anyone explain why so many IS owners replace the yellow DRL light with a White/Blue LED and the white fog with a yellow bulb?

 

Well, I meant to have an aftermarket HID kit in a reflective halogen housing. So it's legal to do this? I thought that without a way to focus the beam, it scatters light everywhere and could potentially blind other drivers .

I could definitely be wrong, I am by no means an expert in this area, it's just what I thought.

 

You could also change your turn signal bulbs out if you like, but this is rare. Someone did a mod in the past where the turn signal would alternate between amber and white. For most people, and IMO, it's not worth the trouble.

In your car, with OEM HIDs, yes and yes. You could also swap out for PIAA Xtreme White or Silverstar Ultra bulbs for brighter high beams, but they won't improve the DRL color much. See this thread: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...ng-lights.html

Yes. See this thread: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...ive-guide.html

Yes. You can also have your DRLs and parking lights on (the first click of your headlamp stalk). You can also mod your fog to come on independently. See this thread: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...ification.html

Yes, DRLs and high beams have the same color/brightness with an LED DRL kit when a module is installed. With the new LED DRL kit from V-LED, the module fits behind the moisture shield so there's no drilling, it's 100% plug and play. So, it's arguably just as easy to change to that kit as it would be for an aftermarket 9006 (DRL/high beam) halogen bulb.

See Kurtz' post. In addition, since you have the stock AFS HIDs in your car, you would still have some high beam functionality from your bi-xenon low beams (a shield moves allowing the low beams to shoot up higher when the high beams are engaged). However, it's not as brighter obviously since you don't have a second set of dedicated high beam bulbs.

If you have a lot of money to throw around, you could theoretically retro some bi-xenon projectors into the high beams area and have them come on as quad low beams, then wire up some separate DRL or have LEDs behind the projectors to make them glow. This would be a BIG, expensive project and I don't think anyone has done it on the 2IS. Aside from that, it's not worth doing for the reasons Kurtz outlined.

 

This is not true. The OEM (Philips) D4S HID bulbs are 4100K in color. Proof: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/att...d4s20sheet.pdf The confusion comes from aftermarket "OEM Replacement" bulbs that are usually 4300K in color.

I'm sure most states have some kind of law saying that you can't have excessive glare/blinding light, no matter what the type of housing the HIDs (or halogens for that matter) are in. The fogs are also in reflective housings and 99% of people that add HIDs to them don't retro in projectors, but of course they're lower to the ground so are less of an issue.

Looks. A lot of people want their DRLs to match the color of their low beams, others make them even more yellow than stock. Yellow fogs are a "JDM" thing. It's also a feature commonly associated with Lexuses since some of the older models came stock with yellow fogs (e.g. the IS300).

 

what's a good yellow drl to go with?

and as far as the fogs go, do u need yellow bulbs and the yellow film for the best look....or would just the film be adequate?

 

^ Here's a yellow DRL example: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...llow-drls.html

Personally, I think yellow HID fogs with a clear, OEM lens look best. Not a fan of yellow film, although it does work. Just depends what you like.

 

i would not use LEDs for fogs unless you don't care about the functionality and only using the fogs for looks. These aftermarket LEDs are mainly for looks. The amount of light they project forward is very limited, and this would effectively make your fogs useless. Stick with either halogen or get an HID kit instead.

 

Thanks guys, especially Kurtz and brociouz. That was all the info I wanted and more. I've decided that for myself, I'd rather keep things practical and go with halogen DRLs.

My car is your average 07 SGM IS250. Only thing I've done so far is tint and interior lights. As the TX season warms up, I'll give the car a proper wash and then post up pics

Yellow DRLs are actually quite tempting from that link too.... perhaps 6000k low, luminics yellow halogens for high, and 3000k hid kit for the fogs, and a good 600k LED for the parking light.