Hid Or Better Bulbs

[Sizzy]

Whats everyones opinion on hid or just replacing the bulbs with 'better' ones and if so what type? Thanks

[aiboart]

Philips Extreme (X-Treme)

• Staggeringly good filament bulb technology.
  
• High beam result looks amazing. Low beam result also excellent but not as dramatic.
  
• The extent of effect in both beams is not necessarily apparent when looking at the headlight itself or when projecting the beam onto a wall. Get out onto a long dark road and.... wow!
  
• Based on the results above, I have also bought these for my fog lights, but have yet to fit them.
  
• Completely Legal filament bulb with a plethora of new technology improvements leading to one great result.
  
• Direct Bolt In
  
• Conforms to Ford's wattage specifications, will not overheat the wires.
  
• High quality filter block UV not damage your lenses or reflectors.
  

Stay away from blue globes (even Philips)These:

• Are filter driven. The absorbed spectrum heats the globes resulting in short life (6-months)
  
• Remaining spectrum operates in a low sensitivity portion of the eye (green is highest). You are missing out on the most critical portion of light.
  
• Blue spectrum light is prone to scattering, which affects you and other traffic. In bad weather this gets worse.
  
• Deep blue portion of spectrum is difficult for the eye to focus (this is on top of the eye's relavtively poor response to blue light).
  
• If current is increased, globes heat up further and now wiring is also at risk.
  
• Large effective filament design means reflectors cannot focus beam properly, leading to more scattering and very poor light distribution. (A common perception is to interpret the hot spots as 'better and brighter', it isn't.)
  
• Cheap version have no UV filter, which damage headlight lenses.
  

Stay away from Xenon (Gas Discharge) After Market (Non-OEM)

• They are illegal in pretty much in every country for good reason, many of which are as per the blue globe noted above..
  
• The reflectors for these cars are not designed for gas discharge, they cannot focus properly producing poor distribution (see above) and scattering. An OEM gas discharge lamp is a complete system and has utterly different reflectors and supporting systems, most of which are not even part of a filament globe light.
  
• Cheap ones have no UV protection, they will wreck your lenses... these puppies can generate bulk UV.
  

Things to consider with After Market Gas Discharge and Blue Globes

OK it looks good, very dramatic. Acknowledged. Collecting data is boring and expensive. Perception sometimess interprets the dramatic (contrast, change) as being the most effective. This is often flatly wrong and misleading. One needs lots of very expensive equipment to collect data on:

• scattering back to the driver and to other traffic in different weather conditions
  
• light distribution
  
• emission spectrum
  
• physiological responses to the above
  
• durability effects
  

Regards,

aa

[dre]

Nice write up.

[Sizzy]

Thanks mate I went out to autobarn and got some phillips crystal vision bulbs that just swap straight in. Had to remove the battery and air filter. For anyone interested the low beams are H4 and the high beams are H7. Parkers are included in both boxes.

Edited 15/05/11 06:56 AM by Sizzy

[Wenier]

I have the Diamond vision in mine they are pretty good. About 4000 or 5000k rated. Cant remember which. During the day the blue bulbs reflect in the headlights during the day making them kinda match the blue of the car.

[bossmang]

hey sizzy, got any before and after pics?

[MexicanBatman]

be got ipf fat boys in mine they are better than any rip off phillips bulb I've ever used, but at $180pr they are not worth it, ill never fit hid's to my FG unless someone makes me a complete bolt in projector headlamp.

[X-WING]

I found Narva Plus 50 not bad

[dre]

You can buy projector kits. They seem ok but no one has them so think I might have to be the guinea pig, I've been looking but am undecided.. I think it was around 300ish but could be wrong. I'll see if I can find the link

These are the bits, you take the housing of your light apart and fit this in place of a globe

( I wouldn't have the blue rings but can have any colour)

Edited 16/05/11 01:11 PM by dre

[Bigkeels]

So the phillips xtremes are the one to go with if you don't really want the blue globe look? I have a foggy out so I'll get a full set of the xtremes and see how they go, just after a whiter, brighter light.

I need H7, H4 and what are the foggies? Car is a BFII