headlight bulbs
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11-25-2012, 09:23 AM
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11-25-2012, 01:50 PM
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jaglee, first things first, we need to figure out if you have HID bulbs or halogen bulbs. You are talking 2 completely different things when you are going between these two systems. I liken it to a classic VW Bug and your X-Type today. They are both vehicles, but how they do their jobs is completely different and there isn't much that is really swappable between the two.
First off, open up the driver's door. Look down in the door jam next to the door hinge. There may be a silver/white sticker there that says something to the effect of "This vehicle is equipped with High Intensity Discharge headlights, ......" If you have this sticker, you have HID headlights. If you don't have this sticker, then the next check is to park the car facing a wall when it is dark. Now, with the engine running, turn on your headlights. Do the headlights snap on at full brightness or do you notice them to get bright, dim down, then over the course of 3-5 seconds come up to full brightness? If they snap on, then you have halogen bulbs. If they mess around in brightness (ie, going bright, dim, back to full brightness), you have HID headlights. Base the brightness on the center of the beam, not on a specific point on the wall.
The final check if you are not sure at this point is to access the back of the headlight housing. Remove the cover off of the outer half of the headlight housing inside the engine bay. Do you see a silver ring with 2 wires attached to it or do you see a black box in the way of the bulb? Silver ring, you have halogen bulbs. Black box, you have HIDs.
When it comes to HID bulbs, you have a few decisions you need to think about. First off, HID bulbs for our car are D2S style bulbs. Inside of this, you will find 35W and 50W bulbs. You are after 35W bulbs. The 50W bulbs will not work with your car and if you install them, you can damage other components. So, only get 35W bulbs. With that being said, you will now be faced with figuring out what color bulb you want. This is measured using a number followed by the letter K. So, you will typically see 3000K, 4300K, 5000K, and 6000K (granted, the numbers do go higher). 3000K bulbs are very yellow. These are normally reserved for fog lights and only those lights used in foggy conditions (the yellow cuts through the fog better and doesn't reflect as much as a white light does). You have 4300K bulbs which are mostly white, but will have a yellow halo to them (believe these to be stock on your year car). You have 5000K bulbs which will have an almost snow white appearance from all angles. Finally you have the 6000K bulbs which will be snow white with a slight blue halo to the light when viewed at certain angles. 4300K bulbs emit the most light and as you get further away from this temperature, the less and less light the bulbs are going to emit. Kinda like I eluded to earlier, you have bulb temps that are above 6000K (8000K, 10000K, 150000K, etc), but these start getting very blue, if not turning into purple. The legality of these bulbs is questionable and you need to look at your local laws as to whether you can use them. Granted, I don't see much need for them as the blue light that they emit makes it hard to see at night.
As for halogens, you have the same situation. Your car uses H1 bulbs. You will find a variety of power, but you are after 55W bulbs. Some people have upgraded to 65W and in some cases 80W and 100W bulbs. The higher wattage bulbs do emit more light, but as you may find, when you go to remove the clip on the back of the bulb, the plastic clip housing the wires will be brittle. The higher wattage bulb, the more likely you are to have this problem and even possibly melt the clip off of the wires due to the heat. When the clip fails, you tend to loose the power to the headlight, causing it not to work. As for whether Brand A is better than Brand Z, that is a judgement call. Most of the "super bright" bulbs obtain this by going to a higher wattage. As you can see, this is not necessarily the best idea. Buy one that you are comfortable with and call it good.
If you have more questions about headlight bulbs and whatnot, let me know. As you can see, there is tons of information I can talk about on this subject.
First off, open up the driver's door. Look down in the door jam next to the door hinge. There may be a silver/white sticker there that says something to the effect of "This vehicle is equipped with High Intensity Discharge headlights, ......" If you have this sticker, you have HID headlights. If you don't have this sticker, then the next check is to park the car facing a wall when it is dark. Now, with the engine running, turn on your headlights. Do the headlights snap on at full brightness or do you notice them to get bright, dim down, then over the course of 3-5 seconds come up to full brightness? If they snap on, then you have halogen bulbs. If they mess around in brightness (ie, going bright, dim, back to full brightness), you have HID headlights. Base the brightness on the center of the beam, not on a specific point on the wall.
The final check if you are not sure at this point is to access the back of the headlight housing. Remove the cover off of the outer half of the headlight housing inside the engine bay. Do you see a silver ring with 2 wires attached to it or do you see a black box in the way of the bulb? Silver ring, you have halogen bulbs. Black box, you have HIDs.
When it comes to HID bulbs, you have a few decisions you need to think about. First off, HID bulbs for our car are D2S style bulbs. Inside of this, you will find 35W and 50W bulbs. You are after 35W bulbs. The 50W bulbs will not work with your car and if you install them, you can damage other components. So, only get 35W bulbs. With that being said, you will now be faced with figuring out what color bulb you want. This is measured using a number followed by the letter K. So, you will typically see 3000K, 4300K, 5000K, and 6000K (granted, the numbers do go higher). 3000K bulbs are very yellow. These are normally reserved for fog lights and only those lights used in foggy conditions (the yellow cuts through the fog better and doesn't reflect as much as a white light does). You have 4300K bulbs which are mostly white, but will have a yellow halo to them (believe these to be stock on your year car). You have 5000K bulbs which will have an almost snow white appearance from all angles. Finally you have the 6000K bulbs which will be snow white with a slight blue halo to the light when viewed at certain angles. 4300K bulbs emit the most light and as you get further away from this temperature, the less and less light the bulbs are going to emit. Kinda like I eluded to earlier, you have bulb temps that are above 6000K (8000K, 10000K, 150000K, etc), but these start getting very blue, if not turning into purple. The legality of these bulbs is questionable and you need to look at your local laws as to whether you can use them. Granted, I don't see much need for them as the blue light that they emit makes it hard to see at night.
As for halogens, you have the same situation. Your car uses H1 bulbs. You will find a variety of power, but you are after 55W bulbs. Some people have upgraded to 65W and in some cases 80W and 100W bulbs. The higher wattage bulbs do emit more light, but as you may find, when you go to remove the clip on the back of the bulb, the plastic clip housing the wires will be brittle. The higher wattage bulb, the more likely you are to have this problem and even possibly melt the clip off of the wires due to the heat. When the clip fails, you tend to loose the power to the headlight, causing it not to work. As for whether Brand A is better than Brand Z, that is a judgement call. Most of the "super bright" bulbs obtain this by going to a higher wattage. As you can see, this is not necessarily the best idea. Buy one that you are comfortable with and call it good.
If you have more questions about headlight bulbs and whatnot, let me know. As you can see, there is tons of information I can talk about on this subject.
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