Contemplating Tom's 5500K??
 

Is 5500K worth it to see a difference..?

I've read all the threads and yes I know that stock is brightest and not to upgrade above 6000K and that somewhere I read that 5000K is no difference compared with 4300K, so would anyone think that 5500K would have any change - I just want the light to be more white with a hint of blue but overall I like stock.. just want to see more blue hue..

What do you guys think?

http://www.tomsracing.co.jp/e/arcive/2005_08_18.html

i had 5k in my car and switched back to 4300k. i don't have any 5500k but i do have 6k and well just about ANY color temp you can shake a key at and i use 4300k all the time.

are you coming out of the closet? (not in the homosexual way) hahah

may I ask why you stick with 4300k?

^^ As you go higher in color temp you lose light intensity, lumens for instance a Phillips 4300k D2S bulb model# 85122+ is rated at 3400 Lumens where as the Phillips 6000k Ultinon D2S model# 85122WX is rated at 2400 lumens. Thats a loss of 1000 Lumens right there and just to put in perspective how much that is, your standard halogen bulb is rated at anywhere from 1200 lumens to 1400 lumens. Also higher temp bulbs = poor/horrible bad weather visibility.

wow, what a difference..I think I'll stay with stock HIDs!!

Thanks.

^^ Quick, i see that you have a 99 GS. Also know that HID bulbs loose their intensity as they get old. Your bulbs, if still stock, are more than 8 years old. This means that they have around 2500 lumens on them as we speak. I suggest you replace them with new ones, dont go to the dealer either since they will ask for an arm and a leg for a pair. My suggestion would be trying ebay, search for Phillips D2Rs model number 85126+, these are rated at 3400 lumens, the brightest 35watt D2R bulb that you can get on the market. Word of caution, these will be yellower than your current OEM ones since the current ones have tons of hours on them and have color shifted but the good thing is that these will be tons brighter than the current ones as well. Also note that the 85126+s wont loose intensity over time since they are not suppose to colorshift.

What about the 55watt bulbs that came out?? Has anyone tried them yet?

^^ Which ones? The only higher wattage Phillips HID D2R or D2S bulbs i know of are the DL50s and they wont run on our Factory GS ballast. I believe you are confusing the D2R bulbs with 55 watt Halogen ones that come out of the Halogen GS headlights.

You don't need to run DL50's unless your ballasts are modded.

True say, I was talking about bulbs that come with wattage stamped on them :) even though the regular D2S comes as a 35 watt standard bulb but it can be cranked upto 70 watts and will function at that wattage. Bulb life would be reduced drastically though, even at 50 watts the D2Rs wouldnt have the 2000hrs quoted life. The DL50s come stamped as 50 watts, they are usually packaged with the 50 watt Phillips ballasts, very rare.

4300k is legit

Thanks for the advice - I'll that in mind when my car gets older in mileage.. My car only has 46K miles which I spent maybe 1/3 of those miles at night.
My HIDs are still really strong, just wanted to see a lil more blue. I remember when I first drove the '98 GS (Brand new) the headlights had a blue tint too it and I love that. By, the time I came to ordering my car it was close to '99 and ofcourse I got one of the first 99's and the HIDs were really white and you can barely see the blue hue.. I wonder if the '98 and '99 had different bulbs?

I just kept the 4300k since it shows up really well in wet weather driving. I don't really like sacrificing light output for color.

come on Cliff don't u want to just stick in some green or some off the wall color just to do it?