I've replaced my HID bulbs with Osram Night Breaker Unlimited. I have liked these bulbs in the past when replacing halogens in other vehicles but they are not impressive in HID for the TL. They do not seem bright at all. The high beams are a joke. I keep hearing g how great these projectorsites are in the TL but I just don't see this in my car. Any thoughts on how to improve?

 

Are your headlights oxidized and hazy? Maybe you need a headlight restoration. Post pictures of your headlight assemblies

 

no. Headlights ,are crystal clear.

 

You need to check couple things here.

1. Headlight outer lens condition (your crystal clear might not be crystal clear at all) unless you had them refinished.
2. Is your head light aim properly? there couple case here in the past OP complain about dim headlight only later on found out theirs wasn't properly aimed.
3. Note that HID will require at least 40+ hours of operation to achieve full brightness.
4. TL projector is design for HID so the usable light should be below the cut off line, Unlike kid with HID in their civic which blind oncoming traffic.

 

thanks for your advice. My lenses are definitely crystal clear. No issues with them at all. The symptoms that I have is when I sit on a dark road with my low beams on pointing straight down the road, I then turn on my high beams and I can see no further down the road between high beams and low beams. I can obviously see the projector opening up an Illuminating street signs but I get no further distance out of it. It's just not what I would consider to be a high beam. I see other newer cars on the road with HID light's and the quantity of light that they throw down on the road is enormously brighter than what I have. With Acura TL's has supposedly having these amazing headlight assemblies and I've spent the money on high-quality bulbs, I certainly would expect a better quantity of light on the road as an end result. Instead, I'm getting what looks like very average light pattern and nothing I would consider to be bright like an HID.

 

Something seems off here. Can you park 10-20 feet from a wall at night and take pictures of how your low-beam pattern looks and do the same with high-beam engaged for us?

 

UPDATE: I went to take photos as you requested and now the headlights sporadically won't come on. I can get one or the other on from turning the headlight switch off and on. But can't get both on at the same time.

 

authentic bulbs?

 

Oe, headlights? Legit bulbs? Bad ballast? 3rd TL have very goof headlights.

 

well for certain we can not make any assumption until pics arrived.

 

Headlights are Stanley OEM. Osram Bulbs are legit I checked. Ballasts could be bad. I just dont know yet.

 

So where are the pix?

 

You likely installed the bulbs incorrectly /they're misaligned or they're counterfeit bulbs

 

My vote is that the bulbs aren't properly seated...

 

Sorry for the delay. Here are the photos of my headlights. First photos are to show the lenses are clear.

 

The next 2 photos are of the low beams on and high beams on. 20 feet from the wall. What do you think?

Low beams
high beams

 

Passenger side is not seated correctly. It’s point towards the driver side

 

you got two problems.

1. the headlight aim a tad low.
2. Passenger headlight is aim toward the driver side it should look like this.

___________ ______________
_______/ _____________/



and sorry those headlight lenses isn't crystal clear.

Here is what "crystal" should looks like.





BTW this is OEM bulb.

 

+2 on headlight bulb not seated properly in the headlamp. Fix that FIRST, and then you can fix alignment of the entire lamps

 

Yes, I will fix the alignment but as you see these headlights are not bright.What could be causing this issue? As compared to the photo by "truonghthe" it looks like night and day. These are new OSRAM bulbs about 2 months old. My headlights are clear, I just dont have a good camera. The headlight on the drivers side is brand new as of about 6 months ago.

 

Positioning of the bulb is crucial in the amount of light coming out. If it's not seated properly, it throws off all the optics in the projector = crappy output.

 

OP where you got the Osram bulb?

 

Ebay seller. I checked them out and they look legit.

 

mind if you provide us with link? I tent to steer clear of Ebay/Amazon website when come to genuine product, I only buy from website that actually an authorize dealer via manufactured listed as "authorize dealer" within their home page.

my pictures above is with stock original HID bulb, I had two pairs of legit Orsam CBI in my RL and the TL-S and yes I can tell the difference in light output when driving at night.

 

here is the link to the bulbs I purchased.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-x-D2S-OSR...wAAOSws0lZ7b7J

 

I hate to break this to you but if you go to google search bar and type in "autolamp.com" as ebay user name it will pull up as some Taiwan lamp company and IF its true I don't think Osram came from Taiwan/ China.

I bought mine from Powerbulbs.com and yes they are authorize retailer by Osram.

https://www.powerbulbs.com/us/store/...ting/d2s-85122

http://www.nightbreakerunlimited.co.uk/find-a-retailer



I think you bought the counterfeit bulb which cost like $10 which explain for the horrible light output.

 

Picute above taken with fog light off.











Borh car with legit CBI

 

Verify your product | OSRAM

 

Thank you nfnsquared. My bulbs have been verified authentic. Some people just don't know what they are talking about. So what could it be that makes them so dim? I still need to correct the alignment.

 

YW.

It's already been said 3 or 4 times. The bulbs aren't seated properly.

 

yes I know know. It's like 20 degrees here. When it warms up a bit I will correct the way the bulbs are seated. Thanks.

 

Can't believe no one has mentioned the simplest solution: that the bulbs likely aren't seated properly?


https://www.theretrofitsource.com/hi...htbreaker.html

Also 125 . I can't see how ebay seller can drop that much off and question its authenticity as well but let's reserve judgement until the seating of the bulbs is addressed

 

I bought my NightBreakers from PowerBulbs for $113 shipped from Europe, so the Ebay pricing is not suspect IMO. And again, the bulbs were authenticated by OSRAM, so pretty sure they are the real deal.

 

Power bulb is an authorize dealer for Osram even Osram website said its their online retailer. Any monkey can slap a real serial number on a fake bulbs, I guess you never shopping in NYC china town where Coach, LV etc.... you can find the serial number authentication and if you put the serial into manufacture website its said "genuine" product, I guess that why they sell for $50 for a LV purse bag instead of $6000.


Like Thoiboi said, once the bulb properly seated and headlight properly adjusted then we can judge.

 

Maybe I'm just cynical about Chinese companies and their legitimacy. 113 is still 20 bucks more than what that eBay seller has it for.

Ehh, it's all speculation now anyway

 

Where are you getting info that autoamp_com is Chinese? Looks like they are based in the UK. "Based in United Kingdom, autolamp_com has been an eBay member since Jan 18, 2013". They have 100% positive feedback and their bulbs passed the Osram Trust verification. Really hard for me to believe the bulbs are counterfeit.

And FYI, TheRetroFitSource is not an Osram approved partner, yet they sell Osram bulbs. So not being an approved partner doesn't mean that the bulbs are counterfeit.

And FYI, PowerBulbs is selling the NightBreakers for $101.17 right now, only $6 more than autolamp_com. So again, their pricing is not really suspect.