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I actually spent some money on my car today lol. Last year I was on a roll with buying stuff for the IS but this year I've pulled back and put that money into family trips and what not. Almost sold it twice but I just dont want another car payment.
This morning I noticed my passenger bulb was very dim. Over the last month it's been going out so I knew it was only a matter of time. With it getting darker earlier now I needed to just stop being cheap and get a set of new bulbs.
Originally I swore by the Philips ultinons... but after comparing them with the Osram xenarc 66440 CBI it was clear for me. Higher lumens at a lower temp = sold. Thanks Danny at XenonDepot for answering my PMs super fast. I think this is like my 6th order from the same vendor if anyone has doubts about their products and service.
I will get pics up and try to do side by sides with 2 other sets of bulbs that I have laying around for backups. Don't bother asking for the backup sets they each have one failed bulb per set so they are literally backups.
Osram CBI $160 shipped from XenonDepot - review pending
Last edited by MikeFoxx; Nov 10, 2015 at 09:26 AM.
Reason: spelling
I switched out the original stock bulbs on mine for CBI's last week. Of course when you're comparing 6-7 year old bulbs to brand new ones, there's an obvious difference. The IS doesn't have great projectors, but it's at almost as good as the MDX retrofit I had on my old Camry.
CBI's take a while to get to full brightness/color, they'll appear a bit yellow at first, you'll need 100 hours on them or so. The color and the output is definately worth it over other bulbs. Even better if you do a clear lens swap.
Yeah I read 80 to 100 hours operating and you will notice an ever better performance. I'd love to retrofit something better but since priorities changed I'm just updating as needed. Just got shipping confirmation should be here monday.
I don't have any comparisons between old and new bulbs. I pitched the old ones seeing as there was no reason to keep the original bulbs. I'll get some wall shots later, or you guys can wait for OP to post some. Anyways, I've probably got about 10 hours on them so far. Phone didn't want to cooperate and lower exposure/iso on that last pic.
Nice man, I LOVE my CBIs. Only difference is I ended up buying a new set of headlights and had them retrofitted with s2000 projectors and Denso ballasts so I could run D2s bulbs and actually have output fitting of the osrams. I can see forever at night now! a ton of of money.. but worth every penny
****The bulb are 5k, so the blue and purple are just the color flicker from the s2k projectors
I switched out the original stock bulbs on mine for CBI's last week. Of course when you're comparing 6-7 year old bulbs to brand new ones, there's an obvious difference. The IS doesn't have great projectors, but it's at almost as good as the MDX retrofit I had on my old Camry.
CBI's take a while to get to full brightness/color, they'll appear a bit yellow at first, you'll need 100 hours on them or so. The color and the output is definately worth it over other bulbs. Even better if you do a clear lens swap.
damn, 100+ hours? I noticed they looked a LITTLE yellow looking at them next to my LED city lights, but on the road they are almost pure white as far a i notice. I hear a lot of people say anywhere from 20 hours to 50, not 100 yet. I haven't been logging the time on mine or anything so I have no idea how long its been. Is the color change pretty noticable?
Yeah I read 80 to 100 hours operating and you will notice an ever better performance. I'd love to retrofit something better but since priorities changed I'm just updating as needed. Just got shipping confirmation should be here monday.
I still have my old headlights if you wanted to dabble in retrofitting. they need some TLC, but I would let them go for cheap
damn, 100+ hours? I noticed they looked a LITTLE yellow looking at them next to my LED city lights, but on the road they are almost pure white as far a i notice. I hear a lot of people say anywhere from 20 hours to 50, not 100 yet. I haven't been logging the time on mine or anything so I have no idea how long its been. Is the color change pretty noticable?
100 is the average iirc, at least according to TRS/Hidplanet. At least it took the d2s CBIs in my old retrofit that long to get to their best color. My new ones are still yellow compared to the old ones.
Out of curiosity, were you able to keep AFS with the s2ks and how hard was doing the s2ks (if you did it yourself)? I'm not yet ready to do a retrofit on the IS, but I'd like to eventually.
Still no output shots, raining here again. Still waiting on OP.
100 is the average iirc, at least according to TRS/Hidplanet. At least it took the d2s CBIs in my old retrofit that long to get to their best color. My new ones are still yellow compared to the old ones.
Out of curiosity, were you able to keep AFS with the s2ks and how hard was doing the s2ks (if you did it yourself)? I'm not yet ready to do a retrofit on the IS, but I'd like to eventually.
Still no output shots, raining here again. Still waiting on OP.
I had halogens, so no AFS. HIDIllusionz did it for me. He did an amazing job and they are way cheaper than other shops. I shipped the headlights to their shop in NYC, and the owner kept in touch with me the whole time. Solid company. I am still able to adjust the height of the beams everything operates jus like stock. I'm sure keeping AFS is possible, I have seen it done on other retrofits using RX330 bowls hybridized with the front half of the OEM AFS. add a clear lens and then it looked good to go. i think it was JVXdriver thad did it
Osram CBI bulbs
