Halogen Upgrades
 

Anyone know of bulbs good as an upgrade to my oem halogen headlights? I just got a 04CS but it doesn't have xenons. I'm trying to avoid the cheap looking ones and stick to white instead of cheap looking blue

You can buy a universal H7 HID kit and install it into your existing housing. Just make sure to either buy a color temp of 4300K or 5000K to stay white without the blue hue.

Yup. Much greater than 5k gets into the Blue...7.5k gets into purple...then, the rest of the rainbow.

Halogens are Yellow; ie Much less then 5k.

I have no problem with the blueish looks of real xenons. Because I was expecting replies about bulbs, I suggested ones that don’t look blue because typically they look fake (as opposed to blueish xenon which look legit). Anyone has any info on what bulbs to go with for an better than OEM/halogens that look good?Do you have a link to these HID kits you mentioned?

What about these? scroll down to US SPEC you'll see Platnium White/Super White

No halogen bulb will ever duplicate the light output of a true, 4000-5000k HID kit.

I second the recommendation of buying a generic plug and play kit.

The super white bulbs typically use cheap coatings to achieve a white light or worse, run higher wattage which risks melting your wires which are very costly to replace.

The OEM HID lights are 4,300K. Halogens are roughly 3,200K. I'd stick with 4,300 and it should look great. Does the CS already have projector beam headlights? If so, I assume the beam pattern will be fine. However - this is something I'd investigate before buying. HID lights throw a different beam pattern than halogens, and sometimes the conversions don't come out quite right. This is especially true when you put HID bulbs in reflector housings.

Here is the link to the guy I have bought over 40 HID kits from. I sell them up at work for some extra cash.

35 Watt Version: (Good all around kit for the money)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/XENON...Q5fAccessories

55 Watt Version (Brightest and I recommend them):
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...K%3AMEWNX%3AIT

They are reflector housings. However it doesnt always look bad when you put an HID in a reflector housing. I run them in my WRX and they look AWESOEME and light up a whole lot. Though you may argue that I probably blind a lot of people too. Oh well, as long as I can see stuff, I dont care. ;)

check your state laws......alot of aftermarket halogen lights and factory must be self leveling.

For my Halogens, I just run with Silverstar H7's, bright white and also any bulbs in cayennes seem to burn out fast......40 bucks a pair and I keep an extra set in the car.

They will never compare to a true xenon/HID kit. I used to run bulbs like this with coatings and while they look nice, they are for sure not as bright as HID. You will see roughly a 300% increase in light output with HID.

Guys, I appreciate all the help. I have a bunch of mechanical experience but almost none for headlights. My other vehicles have also had xenons so I never had to bother with this stuff.These $50 ebay kits fit right into my cayenne's halogen housing? I'm not necessarily looking for them to be blindingly bright...I think my CS's halogens are bright enough I just don't like the lookI'm in CA

HID vs. Halogen there might indeed be 3x the lumens but once installed in the reflector housing your lucky to get 2x the light actually working for you. The bulb does not line up correctly in the housing to take advantage of the lumens.

It would be wise to get an H7 that has a D2R capsule and not D2S capsule, this will reduce glare and get the light as close as possible to the sweet spot in the reflector housing. it wont be perfect but much better than a D2S capsule modded to the H7 which is going to blind oncoming traffic and get you pulled over in Kalifornia in short notice.

Anything over the standard 4100-4300k will look cheap and obviously fake in a reflector housing plus its anyones guess what color your getting once you go beyond the standard bulb.

Like these? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/D2S-D...em5d290816bbIs there write-ups on the installation? I'm sure its more than just plugging into oem harness, etc