This morning my driver side HID just gave out on my '04 TL. Because this car had many previous owners, I have to do the BULB or BALLAST test to figure out which to buy and change out. Luckily, I know how to do this fix from these forums .

If it is the bulb:
I would have to buy a new one that matches the same color as the working one. The problem is, I have no idea what color my working bulb is. Maybe a previous owner changed them out? I know the stock Acura color is 4300k, but idk if that's what I got.

Any ideas how to check?
I posted some images below. Can anyone definitely tell what color this is?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

 

it's best to buy bulbs in pairs, so that you do have uniform color


to check the color of the bulb, you would need to identify a part number on the bulb itself. if it's OEM, there's only one color for it.


or buy a light measuring tool. I have no clue what this light measuring tool is called. it measures light, obviously.


basically, DONT worry what color it is, as you'll have to replace the bulb in pairs

 

Emphasis on what justnspace just wrote. Buy a pair. One burnt out, the other one is the same age.
Even if the other one doesn't burn out soon, they're never going to have the same intensity and thus even if it's exactly the same model bulb, you're going to have a color discrepancy.

 

THANKS!! That makes sense. I'll buy a pair of bulbs and swap both.

Is there a good color guide out there that would help me ID my color temp? I don't want to go down in color temperature so knowing what I have now will act as a reference point and help me buy the new ones.

 

yes, the color temperature is measured in KELVINS!

so 4300 Kelvin is close to day light.

as you go up on the Kelvin scale, it becomes more blue with the end of the Kelvin scale being purple


google Kelvin Scale!



The higher you go on the kelvin scale, the less light out put you get.

so you get cool colors but poor visibility.
this is why OEM's use 4300k to 5000k because its as close as sunlight as possible.

 

you can buy some OEM hid's from theretrofitsource and use an acurazine coupon to get 10-15% off.