HontoKuro

Has anyone upgraded their stock HID bulbs on the GS? Search thread resulted in several of the older GS models but not much info on the Gen4 GS's. What is the current bulb output on their stock bulbs 4000k? For those that have upgraded what would you recommend a 6K output? Any brands or certain HID's your prefer?

jtrue28

Stock output is 4300K. In my 2013 I installed the Philips Ultinon D4S 6K bulbs. Those had a much bluer output, and looked very nice. Personally, anything about 6K, you're losing too much light output. Blue lights don't work well in rain/snow.

$200 for a box of 2. Get the ones from Germany, not China.

https://www.hidconcept.com/products/...ulbs-pack-of-2

praetor

I wouldn't call it an "upgrade" if you are referring only to the color color temperature. Going from 4300K to 6K is often a downgrade as you get less lumens in trade-off for the blueish purple look.

AlexNY

been using ultinon's on one of my previous rides. very very very expensive compared to the plethora of cheap hID bulbs out there (sometimes 10 x the cost vs chinese ones).

but boy are they sooooo worth it. 6k ultinons give a hint of blue, but very good visibility.

gotta watch out tho, way too many fake phillip ultinon's out there, and some of the fakes look damn near authentic.

drgrant

Upgrade? I dunno the HIDs on my 2015 are pretty damned good as is. A small part of the reason of getting a car with HIDs is I'd never have to touch that stuff. The 2005 ES I have still has the original factory HID bulbs in it.

-Mike

HontoKuro

They are good but the when I am driving at night and come to a stop and see Hyundai, Kia, Honda hell even older Toyota's pull up next to me, I notice their HID light output is so much brighter and reaches further out than our stock GS HID headlights.

AJLex19

You may just need to adjust the bulbs: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...ment-help.html

AlexNY

a couple of reasons for this:

1) most of them installed an aftermarket HID kit on a halogen reflector housing. These housings are meant to be used with halogen lights, so they reflect around the bulb to intensify the light. HIDs usually are housed in PROJECTORS, these appear less brighter than HIDs on reflector type of housing. But fear not, HIDs on projectors have much better luminance over distances. Those reflectors only make it bright right in front of the car (and thus blind every other driver), but if you take a look at the light over a distance it's much less thna a projector.

2) they might have done a higher temp color. most oem HID bulbs are in the 4300k temp, which is yellowish. A lot of people opt for 6000k or 8000k. 6k has a hint of blue, 8k is blue as blue gets. Note that past 6k, you actually get less light output.

drgrant

Most of those donkeys are running illegal HID kits on their cars, and some of it might also be a matter of how high your bulbs are aimed, as well. If your headlights aren't aligned well and pointing too close to the car on the ground, the projection of light can appear much shorter
than it's supposed to be.

-Mike

HontoKuro

Ok this will be a NFG question if in fact they are set lower from the factory, I thought the entire point of the "self leveling" headlights are to correct and adjust this? Or does the self leveling feature serve a whole different purpose?

praetor

Self leveling adjusts based on ride height. If you are hauling around 4 adults, the car rides slightly lower and the headlights will adjust to keep the beam at the preset level

HontoKuro

Ah. Learned something new today, thanks.

bclexus

The self-leveling feature adjusts the headlights to a point out in the distance - and that aim point is believed by many owners to be factory set too low. You can change the aiming point so it will be higher.

donkiboy

A bit off topic, but regarding the self-leveling. Does this happen every engine start-up or only when it detects front or rear of car is not aligned?

bclexus

I think if the headlights are turned On (either automatically by the light sensor or manually by turning them On) when the car is started the headlights will go through the self-leveling procedure. I think there are two ride height sensors (one for the front and one for the rear) to determine if the headlights need to be adjusted due to extra weight being in the car's seats or trunk.