OEM HID's - What colour temperature

stoofa · 30 Jul 2009 at 12:58

A friend of mine is fitting after-market HIDs to his car.
At the end of the day it is his choice - I have my own reservations and the DOT guidelines etc.
Anyway, that is not the discussion.

As it happens he too drives an Octy vRS.
He has Projector lights so if anyone is going to fit after-market HID's at least they aren't on a car with Reflectors.

Now, he has three main choices when it comes to colour temperature.

4300k - 5000k - This seems to be the pure white option
6000k - Slight blue
8000k - Silly amount of blue

Now obviously the 4300k - 5000k is going to give him the most light.
However he does like the look of 6000k for the slight blue look.
So although he would lose some light going for 6000k over say 4300k, they would still be brighter than his current bulbs.

Out of interest, what colour temperature do OEM's usually use?
Merc lights always look a little blue to me, so I'm assuming 6000k.
Generally speaking - if you've got factory fitted HID's what temperature are they likely to be?

Dogbreath · 30 Jul 2009 at 13:01

The lower the number the more light you get, and the less silly they look.

Gaijin · 30 Jul 2009 at 13:03

OEM's are usually 4300K I believe. Personally i'd get 6000K.

Or get some 12000K ones which are purple

saitrix · 30 Jul 2009 at 13:05

I'd get 4300k, will give you correct colouring of things when lit up by them, plus they are the brightest.

Janesy B · 30 Jul 2009 at 13:06

4300K all the way, the whole idea of going HID is for better lighting. The blue ones really annoy me.

Confused · 30 Jul 2009 at 13:06

The only proper, OEM HID bulbs are 4300K.

saitrix · 30 Jul 2009 at 13:09

3000k - 2800 lumens
4300K - 3200 lumens
6000K - 2600 lumens
8000K - 2200 lumens

Thats off VWvortex forums.

More lumens the better, my good 2xAA torch only makes 180 lumens to put it into context.

A small AA maglite makes ~17 lumens...

MikeHunt79 · 30 Jul 2009 at 13:14

saitrix said:
3000k - 2800 lumens
4300K - 3200 lumens
6000K - 2600 lumens
8000K - 2200 lumens

Thats off VWvortex forums. More lumens the better, my good 2xAA torch only makes 180 lumens to put it into context. A small AA maglite makes ~17 lumens...

Can you get 5000k bulbs? Even 4300k bulbs will look blue compared to halogens...

I've got a torch somewhere that does 4000 lumens, only for around 30 seconds tho as it gets a little hot.

More lumens is better really, colour temp doesn't matter as much as your eyes do "auto white balance" which means they'll adjust to non white light.

Daylight tends to be around 6000k tho.

Matt82 · 30 Jul 2009 at 13:20

i have 4300k on mine, thankfully they do no look chav. you cant tell much difference between those and OEM ones

saitrix · 30 Jul 2009 at 13:21

Yeah you can get 5000k bulbs, using a linear relationship between the 4300k and the 6000k with the lumen output then 5000k should be 2900-3000 lumens which would be good.

Firestar_3x · 30 Jul 2009 at 13:23

I've got 5000k in mine, i prefer the very slight ultra bright white tint vs the very slight yellow of the lower kelvin ratings.

loki101 · 30 Jul 2009 at 13:29

ive got 6000 in mine and they have only a slight blue/white tint I didnt have the option of 5000 when i got mine 2/3 years ago would prob get 5000 now tho, 4300 have a hint of yellow in them i think.

NathanE · 30 Jul 2009 at 13:29

I have 6000K but, personally, I will be getting 4300 or 5000K when they blow (not happened yet, almost had them a year now!)

The 6000K produce awesome light and road signs are brightly illuminated. However there is definately a noticable blue tinge to the light that you can see inside the headlight enclosure and I don't like it. It looks a little too 'ricer' for me.

I would have got 4300 or 5000 to begin with except that the "kit" for my car was only available with 6000K bulbs at the time :/

MikeHunt79 · 30 Jul 2009 at 13:37

saitrix said:
Yeah you can get 5000k bulbs, using a linear relationship between the 4300k and the 6000k with the lumen output then 5000k should be 2900-3000 lumens which would be good.

Cheers, I've seen seen a few OEM bulbs that claim to be around 3000 lumen, so this would be more than bright enough, especially when you consider halogens will struggle to reach to output 2000 lumens even tho they use more power (55w instead of 35w)... I'd go for 4300k if I was going for HID tho, it's all about the lumens!

I have reflector headlights however, so I'm stuck with halogens, but I quite like 'em personally.

Matt82 · 30 Jul 2009 at 13:38

Firestar_3x said:
I've got 5000k in mine, i prefer the very slight ultra bright white tint vs the very slight yellow of the lower kelvin ratings.

a friend of mine in essex had the most rediculess bright blue hids in a rado (total total mess of glare..) he said those were 6000k. i despirately didnt want to make my car look chav. i got 4300k but then found out his were actually 8000k. 6000k are nice, a hint of blue, not OTT. 4300k looks OE

Fr0dders · 30 Jul 2009 at 13:40

4300k light looks almost yellow on the road

but is most definately appears pure white to oncomming traffic.

Luke · 30 Jul 2009 at 13:41

4300k gives out approx 20% more light than 6000k. I don't care how pretty a blue light 6000k I'd not trade it for 20% output!

MikeHunt79 · 30 Jul 2009 at 13:49

Metal halide = big high power HID's used for filming, so that explains why they are a similar colour temp...

MrLOL said:
4300k light looks almost yellow on the road

My halogens which are 3000k look white to me, once my eyes have adjusted to them.

Sin_Chase · 30 Jul 2009 at 14:11

My S2000 stock HIDs are whiter than bog standard halogens but do not appear to be that much whiter than high quality bulbs.

The colour is almost identical to main beam which are not HID.

Rilot · 30 Jul 2009 at 14:17

I've got 55W 6000K HIDs in both my car and bike. Can't say I've noticed them being blue when compared to the OEM HIDs I had in my 540i, RX8, A8 and GS430 before.