The G Man

Just installed the PIAA extreme white bulbs in my low beam and fog lights. The fog light looks good, pure white and nice lumens. The low beam ,H11, was disapointing, not even as bright as the stock. It is not as white as the fog lights or the 9006 PIAA extreme white I had on my last car. I am going to try Hoen h11 bulbs next, I will let you guys know how it turns out. I just want to warn anyone out there that are thinking about buying a PIAA extreme white H11 bulb, don't do it, they are garbage.

JWS3

Saved me from making the same mistake!

The G Man

If you look at the PIAA extreme white plus 9006 compare to the H11, the 9006 are much whiter, the H11 almost have no blue tint on the bulb at all. I think that PIAA try to rush to the market with the new H11 and couldn't get enough lumens out of their H11 bulb, so they reduce the blue tint to increase the light output, which explains the yellow light output.

The G Man

Just pop the Hoen titanium H11 in there to replace the PIAA. The Hoens are much whiter, to the point where the light is almost light blue. The Hoens doesn't seem as bright as the factory H11, but my PIAA was the same way at first then it got brighter after a week or so. I figure I give it a week or so to see if they get brighter, not sure if there is a burn in period with these bulbs. I also replace the parking light with PIAA LED, the color is white from the front but a hint of blue from the side view. It looks much better than the factory 194 bulbs which was way too yellow compare to the Hoens. I will let you guys know if the Hoens gets brighter next week.

batmobl

I would be interested in finding out how the Hoens turn out. Would you recommend the Hoens or going with the xenondepot kit?

The G Man

I will let you know how the Hoens turn out in a week or so. I would denfinitely not recommend the PIAA extreme white H11. If you can afford it and can somehow justify spending 450 bucks on a pair of headlights then the xenondepot kit is the way to go.

The G Man

After trying out the Hoen titanium for 2 weeks, I am not too happy with them. They are definitely white like HID, but the intensity was not as good as the factory bulb. They did get brighter after about a week of use but not bright enough as a low beam in my opinion. I just bought a pair of the Hoen Xenrange bulbs, which are rated at 3700 kelvin. They are much bridger but not as white. The Xenrange are much bridger than the factory bulb and they only have a slight tint to them. The lesson learned here is that if you were trying to much the high beam or fog lights to your HID, then the Hoen titanium will good a good job. If you want more light output out of your low beam and at the same time looking for a bulb that is less yellow, then the Hoen Xenrange is better suited for that application. The Hoen Xenrange along with my PIAA fog lights brighten up the road very nicely. The projector on the GX also focus the beam very well.

JWS3

The gist of the rather short article was that aftermarket bulbs often (usually??) give less light and are less effective. The best upgrade I've seen is the xenondepot one.

The G Man

There is no question that HID is good upgarde, but $450 for light bulbs are just too rich for me, perhaps when they come down to about $250, I might consider them. The point I was trying to make in the last post was that the Hoens Xenrange are actually much brighter than the OEM bulbs. It compensate for the light blue tint with an additional 15 watt of power.

JWS3

The last I knew the xenondepot lights were under $400. Besides--if you bought HID from the factory as an option its usally twice this. Or more. Well worth it.

The G Man

$400 is still too expensive for me, if you buy the HID as a factory option, it usually comes with the auto leveling and adaptive headlight assembly. I believe the DOT requires this on all new trucks with HID, at least the auto leveling part. I am going to try these Hoens out for a while and see how I like them, so far it is pretty good, good light output and good beam pattern. With LED headlights on the horizon, I might just wait for those to come out. It might be another 2 or 3 years but the LED have an advantage over HID, it doesnt reaquire a ballast.

steevr

My guess is that the factory HIDs on the Escalade does not have auto leveling. Looks like they just adapted a Xenon bulb to the factory halogen reflector housing.

Love the XenonDepot conversion on our GX. It is as good as the factory setup on my RX. Yes, it doesn't have autoleveling, but since the rear suspension autolevels, it isn't an issue.