so for the past 2 weeks i've been thinking of swapping my oem bulbs for something that's more blue-ish... like Audi/BMW HID blue... read the thread below....

https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....2464793&page=5

i knew that if i switched from the oem bulb 4300k to aftermarket 6000k bulb, i would lose light output (lumens).... so i was hesitant at first... but after the install, i dont think i can turn back... and i love it....

 

You just sacrificed ~25% of your light output for some cool color, not really a good idea IMO. Did you at least use the phillips ultinon 6000ks?

 

No, mine have a nice white/blue and are stock. I love them.

 

3000k "Ion" yellow..............................3200 lumens
4300k Pure white...............................3400 lumens
5000k White with a tiny hint of blue......3300 lumens
6000k White with a violet hue..............3200 lumens
8000k Sky blue..................................3100 lumens

i lost about 200 lumens... hard to notice the difference anyways.... no i got the mTEC ones... Ultinons are too expensive...

 

Unless MTEC has some way of making a bulb superior to the Philips, its more around 2400lm. For reference
OEM Philips D2S is 3200lm bright (+/-450lm) and 4100K colortemp (0.380x 0.390y). (For comparison)
Philips Ultinon D2S is 2400lm bright (+/-250lm) and 5800K colortemp (0.327X 0.312Y).
Philips 5000K D2S is 3100lm bright (+/-???lm) and 5000K colortemp
I bet those numbers by mtec are just made up because its widely known that philips and osram are the only decent bulb makers as they supply almost all OEM headlights. If you really want the BMW look, let me take apart your headlights and do a tsx lense swap, and you'll end up with something like this




This was only at a distance of ~12ft using the stock 4200k 85122+ bulbs that haven't colorshifted yet, and shot onto an creme colored background. The rainbow pattern makes for some really colorful flicker patterns, and the camera doesn't capture the dark purple of the cutoff too well, the cutoff is a good 2-3" in width @ 12ft. Heres a video of the flicker from the projector
[/QUOTE]

 

damn, that cutoff is sweet looking..... yeah i heard a lot of ppl are swapping out their 03-05 projectors/reflector hybrid for the TSX true projectors... i'm not sure if i want to do that with my 06 lenses, since they too are true projector lens... but for some reason they're not as good as other makes, even among our own.... ie Maximas/Muranos

i looked into the TSX projectors as well, but they cost too much... $340 (proj/bulbs/ballast) w/out housing... so i have to go with what i have for now

 

I still use your stock housings etc, just swap the lenses so you retain the bixenon and everything. This is done on a g35 projector, but its assumed the projectors are similar, so there won't be any hacking of the headlamp etc. A set of tsx projectors can be had for ~$180, so thats pretty much all of the materials costs involved, you reuse your stock ballast and bulbs

Maximas and muranos have a different flicker because they use clear lenses in their projectors, and the maxima uses an e55 style projector

 

I never thought the stock HIDs were yellowish, either on the 03-05 lamps I had before, or on the 06-07 ones I have now.

 

Yeah Triple8Sol, when you showed me your 06 lights bi-xenon on the G35 I was like "holy crap" they look very blue and bright to me.

 

On this set, I'm running Philips 5K bulbs. So, I lost a tiny tiny bit of lumens, but got quite a bit more color. Definitely wouldn't go any higher than these though.

 

06 BiXenon Projectors with oem D2S (left) and mTEC 6000k D2C(right)

 

I have a brand new set of 10k bulbs if anyone wants to try them out? I am curious to see how blue they are... might look ghetto

 

Where did you find the philips CM bulbs from?

 

Wait...I thought 4300K are the 85122 and 5000K are 85122+ or am I getting them reversed?

 

Neither is 5000k, its a common mistake that the 85122+ are 5000k, when in fact they 4100-4200k. Search mine and IvoryGT's posts on g35driver, we had this discussion a while back and got it all straightened out

 

Here are the exact bulbs you have in a Z:





My 8000K

 

Searched around a bit, and sure enough...you're right. So I've been misinformed, and have been spreading misinformation around...great!


Ok, so quick rundown then. The 85122+ version is "colorshifted" so if one of your 85122's go out, you can match it. What does the colorshifting process entail? Does it mean the bulb has a shorter life? I saw you mention something about how it will be more steady, I guess since it's already taken a more blue tint than the stock bulbs when brand new?

 

The 85122+ isn't colorshifted, its the newer version of the 85122 which resists colorshifting so it stays whiter for most of its life rather than shifting to a slightly bluer color, but that also means it has more output throughout its life. The 85122CM is the 5000k bulb, and the CM stands for color match, which is what I thought you had. Its hard to find though, but its supposed to match the color of a colorshifted bulb. 85122+ shouldn't really be blue at all, and more white, and should stay that way

 

Ah...I doubt I'll overcome the laziness, but maybe one of these days I'll pull a bulb to see what model # it is exactly. Threw away the boxes long ago.

Ok, so my question then is for the 85122CM bulb...would it see less life than the 85122, since it's already colorshifted?

 

The question about the CM bulbs is hard to answer as they are very hard to come by, and not many people have experience with them. The answer depends on your definition of bulb life. As they colorshift and reach their endlife, they'll become bluer and lose lumen output. They may reach a point where they still put out more lumens than a stock bulb at the end of its life, but they may have colorshifted to a color that isn't to your liking and too blue, and thus need to be replaced.