This past fall I replaced my whole HID set up with oem ballasts, igniters, and bulbs. The bulbs I bought were oem replacement Phillips HIDs. I noticed the color of these bulbs were kind of yellowish. Before replacing the ballasts and what not I noticed the bulbs were the same color with the old set up. Is this normal for these kind of bulbs? I was thinking of more of a white/blue color for my HIDs and was wondering what bulb would be suited for that. Or is something else leading these ones to have a yellowish look. Would appreciate whatever opinions you guys had on this.

I think Phillips 85122+ is the type of bulb if I remember correctly. Saw it mentioned here in a thread before.

 

Correct. Philips bulbs are high quality bulbs that give great lumen output. The drawback is the slightly yellowish color. I don't think it's bad though, you get used to it. Most aftermarket 6000k and higher bulbs sacrifice so much output. If you really want a good bulb that's whiter, look into the osram CBIs, I have them and love them

 

Yeah those bulbs are kinda yellow appearing, I believe they're rated at 4200K, but they're one of the best performing bulbs. I also have Osram CBI's which are 5000K so they look pure white and perform the same. If you have $180 to blow swap to CBI's but otherwise be happy that you have one of the best performing bulbs, whiter light is harsher on the eyes, in the long run you're better off with what you have if you don't care about the color.

 

^what these two fine gentlemen said.

 

Thanks for all the advice guys. If the Phillips bulbs are proper I guess I'll keep them a little longer. When I bought the car they had some sort of OSRAM bulbs in them. Maybe the previous owner felt the same way about the color.