Guys,

A long while ago there was a post about the QUALITY of the OEM headlight on the pre 99(or some such) SC's. A point was made that the "new generation" had a sharp cut-off in the beam and the old ones didn't. I posted that mine had a sharp line across the garage door and I was hapy with their performance. Somebody told me I was goofy and that I didn't have all that great a headlight. Soooooooo I let that slide and wondered a little.

I had a great cutoff and it was sharply defined. A couple months later I sprung for those spendy Sylvania BLUE STAR or somthing $40/pair low beams. They were OUTSTANDING!!!! No doubt. The brightest pure white light I have ever had but I never had HID....anyway, they were good. Problem is I live in Eugene, Or. and with the rain, a white light is gobbled up and you can't see much in the pitch dark. I never could so it wasn't a problem....just reality. Recently I was told about some headlights that had a bright yellow content like the fogs but less so. Seems a yellow headlight is not legal.....crap. Before I installed those new lights I noticed that my headlights were way off in adjustment.....like WAY OFF. I set all four levels and went off to other things. Later that night I went to my favorite "white wall" headlight aiming place. Despite being level the left low beam was lots too high and woukld need further adjustment. Curriously, the right low beam was blurred and had a poor line or no clear line. The left was a sharply focused as I remembered it. I installed the new light in the right and guess what? Yellow...ish lite and a SHARP FOCUS. Back to what I remember. The only moral I can see here is that "SOME" replacement bulbs filiments are miss placed to get good focus.

It must be good news that if your lights aren't performing you might try replacing the stupid bulbs before sinking heavy bucks into a new light.


HTH, I still owe this board a fortune in help, though.

John

 

I think you had silverstars. And you should try HID. Anyone would love them instantly (with a good beam pattern). And yea some bulbs grow old and get dim.

 

I'm in Beaverton, so I Know about the rain as well, which made me go for HID's in the headlights (4300k) and Foglights with new lenses (3000k). A world of difference, however my car has sat in the garage, so I'm going to see about adjusting the levels as I've never messed with them at all and see if I can take some of your advice and refine things even more so.

xenondepot.com has kits with the correct relay/grounding setup. I strongly suggest you consider them

 

Have you ever heard of these guys? They sell a single filamant kit for our hi beams for $155. Thats a lot less than the competition but they say their is "LIKE" the Phillips design. China?

I don't understand the color temp thing. They offer 4300 and 6000 and 8000 and 12000. What is the diff and what works. I know you said you had 4300 for headlights and 3000 for your fogs. Are your fogs "white" or yellow?

Thanks,

John

 

Read the link in my sig...and you're welcome!

 

From what I understand there are three considerations:

1) Color Temperature measured in Kelvin. The consensus is that 4300k - 6000k is best for usable lighting. Anything above that, especially in the rain, is pretty worthless as the light becomes more and more blue/purple in the 7000-12000k range. I want to say Audi’s Bmw's tend to be more within the 6000k range, (slightly blue/white) while Lexus and Nissan tends to be around 4300k (more white). A good compromise is the 5000k kit sold by xenon depot which I put on my Wrx which has projectors. Also the more blue the light, the more you cannot see in the rain; and also the more cops are going to target you.

2) Lumens. This is the measure of actual light output. For instance, 4300k has substantially more light output than 8000k or higher. Lumens are measured in "Candela," which is rarely shown in advertisements but is really the bottom line when shopping around.

3) Lens design. Nothing is going to look as good as a true retrofit with the proper beam pattern so that's why many swap out the stock projectors for Audi tt / Bmw style projectors. These simply will focus the light in the right areas without causing as much glare issues as our halogen projectors have. Although the stock projectors are not bad, they are not perfect either and if you’re like me, you’ll reach a point to where this is the next logical step.

I chose the 4300k as it rains a lot here, and 3000k for the fogs (yellow) as it's more functional, as well as I wanted that Lexus IS signature sort of look. To each their own though, you may wish to experiment with different combinations.

 

Mark,

Thank you very much. Very informative. You are where I am going.

I bought some replacement lamps for my low beams and they have a yellowish tint. The stock lights are performing really well now. I will augment them with a proper YELLOW fog light and that will take care of city. I think I will try the XENON 6000 for my hi-beams as i won't be using them in the rain.

Thanks again,

John

 

EMO,

Those are fantastic links and answer every question imaginable. A must read for everybody. Very generious of you.

Many thanks,

John

 

Intellexual.net is the place to read.