Carbon Legend

So i had a local guy wanted a restore and clear lens swap on his RL since he said his light output was dimming. Claimed he put in new bulbs a year ago. So i got the housings and took them apart.

Bulbs are a unknown brand Bulb is a D2C base (D2R and D2S Compatible)

Once i got his projectors apart i instantly knew why he has poor light output. His cheap Bulbs have overheated and Burned his bowl.

I understand people are on budgets and always go off internet advice and people who are not educated with a certain product. just let this be a warning.

Please buy a quality Oem bulb. Osram, Phillips, Hella, Kioto are all great brands. IF you are on a tighter budget you can use Morimoto bulbs. i have temperature results for all these bulbs

Phillips 85122+ 166* F
Osram 66040 162* F
Osram 66240 CBI 5000K 167* F
Osram 66240 SVS 4200K 163* F
Phillips DL50 160* F
Morimoto 4300K 170* F
Morimoto 5000K 172* F
Generic D2C bulb 238* F

Just off of that test that generic bulb is 60-70* F hotter than the other bulbs

Here is a nice clean oem projector bowl.


Now here is the projector bowl that i took out of his headlight


Luckily i have plenty of RL parts on hand to replace them for him.

037

plenty of legit sellers on ebay, cheaper to sell there vs in store. The world is moving online, you gotta expand your mind.

No two HID vendors are the same, and obviously their standards aren't as high as major brands. We all know this when we spend the money.

Carbon Legend

well as most car guys know there is a big difference between ebay parts and legit parts.

Ebay bulbs am referring to are the ones you see for $15 a pair and price too good to be true compared to OEM Bulbs prices.

I know alot of people on ebay are legit. but most consumers wont tear apart their headlights to see the condition of the internals. Most will buy new bulbs and replace them just like a ordinary bulb.

037

ebay parts and legit parts. I like that.

Almost as much as people buying legit parts on amazon and getting fakes.

HEAVY_RL

iTrader: (1)

I've moved away from ebay because I do not like to gamble.

BDoggPrelude

Buying on eBay if fine as long as you know exactly what you're looking for and go with a reputable/eBay recommended seller. There's a difference between buying genuine OEM HID bulbs on eBay from a wholesaler at a deeply discounted price and rolling the dice with the lowest cost HID bulbs that come up on a search. It has nothing to do with eBay. It has everything to do with what you are actually buying and being an educated buyer.

I buy tons of stuff on eBay because the prices are generally lower, you get much quicker shipping compared to buying from a website and you are covered by both eBay and PayPal's buyer protection. Like I said before, you just have to be smart about it and know what you're looking for.

rlerman

Which one of the bulbs in your list is closest to stock in terms of hue?

Carbon Legend

the Osram 66240 SVS, Phillips 85122+ Phillips DL50 (meant for 50W ballast) all are 4200-4500K after break in time and color shift as begun. Morimoto 4300K is good as well about 200 Lumens less than the OE bulbs above.

ichi d

so are these bulbs legit? oem?

M T L T L

Carbon, would you sell a pair of projector bowl with clear lens installed and shipped to Montreal, Canada ?

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

Good info in this thread, thank you.

Carbon Legend

MTLTL- i may start offering a trade in program in the near future and do a swap and deposit type thing. but give me a little time i have a nice little project i got going on right now and may be a great thing for us RL members. give me til end of april and ill have a better game plan then

M T L T L

^^
Looking forward to it

coopcoop30

I want to know what it is NOW!!!

Carbon Legend

well i will give you guys half of the project im working on. the other half is actually the projector its self.

HEAVY_RL

iTrader: (1)

cool

M T L T L

so its a full assembly swap... i guess
it will hurt the wallet and stall the car for atleast 2 weeks

Alltezza

Lol yeah I have the D2C bulbs for my head lights from Ebay and now that you told me this I might be buying some the retrofit source and buying some 6000K D2S, but I also bought the H11 HID kit from ebay as well

Carbon Legend

I really dont recommend going over 5000K. The blue Hue given off by 6000K can effect visibility in poor weather conditions. also you will loose 2-400 lumens of output compared to 5000K. The morimoto bulbs are great on a budget bulb.

M T L T L

+1

I don't recommend 6000K. I have 5000K morimotos, they are beautiful, pure cool white with slight tinges of blue

037

I have ran lights 3000k-12000k and I can say one thing...I am never swapping out oem lights again.

Blue/purple lights are cool, but the visibility is sh!t and if you kill the main purpose of the lights might as well keep em off.

Lesson learned.

oo7spy

Clear corners?!?

Carbon, as a reference, how hot do halogens get?

6000k is too blue and looks cheap.

Carbon Legend

Yes clear corners so u don't have to drop 1k+ for JDM headlights which still give incorrect beam pattern as it is rhd.

Halogen bulbs run hotter than hid bulbs. Most hid equipped cars come with headlamp washers to help clear snow/ice off headlamps since the his cannot produce enough heat to shed snow/ice. Halogens on the other hand produce enough heat to melt snow/ice off of headlamps. I do not have any halogens laying around to test

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

With that said, the reflectors are made to handle the heat that halogens give off, no?
Also, about the loss of light, I agree that when you go too pink, it gets silly...but c'mon, even with the highest loss of lumens from a higher kelvin bulb...it's STILL going to be a LOT more usable light than the 900 lumens we all grew up with.

I have 6K...and love it...anything "whiter" ends up a bit yellower than the look I was going for, which was why I swapped the oems to begin with.

EL19

iTrader: (4)

Sweet! You were able to make a mold. What kind of resin are you using? Every kind I used yellowed from the sun over time, even when I put a UV protective clear over them.

Carbon Legend

Yes i am using a vacuum molding process then i am using alumilite clear resin which is suppose to be UV resistant forget which model i am using. The resin is set in a pressure pot at 70psi to eliminate bubbles.

EL19

iTrader: (4)

Thats the perfect way to do it man. Glad to see you got it going

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

I'm impressed...

oo7spy

Not a dilemma for me anymore.

My underlying question regarding the halogens was that I was told moving to HID's from halogen can damage the setup because of heat. However, with this claim, that would be false.

ichi d

nice, i wish i could've waited a cpl months for this. lol

Carbon Legend

well it looks like part 2 of the plan is a lost. was hoping to convert the oem projector to bixenon (hi/low) but out of all of my solenoids and shields it wont fit work in any shape way or form.

M T L T L

^
That was a good surprise that wont realize but its okay. For some of us, clear corners and clear lens is still good enough...

oo7spy

Why would you want bi-xenon? I prefer single function bulbs.

Carbon Legend

Bixenon has nothing to do with the bulbs. It has a shield mounted on a small solenoid and when you hit the high beam it drops the shield and let's all the light out.

oo7spy

Got it. I knew of the solenoid, but was under the impression there were H4 styled HID bulbs.

Carbon Legend

Ohh no that's not my style. I tried full shield solenoids, 7 different designs but none work. I will be trying to get more out of the clear lens with some spacing and focusing the lens better. Clear corners have been sitting under 2 UVA and UVB lamps for the past 2 days non stop testing durability and if there will be any yellowing

Jakes_tl

What do you guys think about these or maybe someone tried them out before:

Phillips D2S 6000K 85122WX Ultinon. You can get them on ebay about 60-70 bucks, they look legit but for that price and beings this is ebay i have a hard time believing they genuine bulbs. The listing does say that they are made in Germany.

oo7spy

6000k is too blue.

Jakes_tl

my honda civic and minivan had regular halogen bulbs so for me 6000K hid's are great (i've had them before on a different car) although i know that they are not as bright as 4300K but i really like the bluer color. Maybe i should try 5000K.

Not sure if i should get the "Phillips bulbs" from ebay.

Carbon Legend

Theretrofitsource.com is my preferred shopping for HID equipment. Andrew and matt are both great guys and the best customer service hands down i have ever experienced.

And once again i will say 5000k is max what should go in a car it is white but still gives off that great blue/purple flicker color 6000k will strain your eyes in wet/foul weather conditions