OEM HID Bulb longevity

[G0to60]

My allroad is my first car that came with HID bulbs stock and I'm pretty sure that mine are original. Now, they work fine and seem bright enough but I was wondering what the normal life time of these bulbs are? How much intensity do they loose over the years versus new?

What are some good brands for replacement bulbs? Do the ballasts need to be changed when changing bulbs?

I know these are pretty basic questions but I'm a noob at these so bear with me. Thanks.

[rollerton]

Unless your bulbs are pretty new, new bulbs are always a little better. OEM bulbs can last a LONG time. They might be a little more 'crisp' or turn on sooner..but most of the loss of the light output comes from the yellowed lenses on the housings I think. If you think they're okay then I wouldn't spend the money until you actually need one. And then..usually replace both. Sometimes the color/ hue on a new bulb can be different due to manufacturing or age or whatever. And keep the old bulbs for a spare if you have any that are good.

[mr_dave]

They're supposed to last about 2000 hrs, but I have no idea how you're supposed to determine how many hours yours have. If they're original, it's definitely not going to hurt to replace them. I don't believe ballasts need to be replaced unless they fail. Good brands include Osram or Philips but I've been happy with the Morimoto XB bulbs I've been running for about 1/2 to 1/3 the price: http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/show...-D2S-Bulb-Test

[toms73novass]

I replaced mine with stock like bulbs and it was like WOOH! After 13 years they really did loose alot of their lumens.

[Racin2redline]

I replaced mine with osram night breakers and TSX-R projectors

the difference is unbelievable. the night breakers are like daylight. I really dislike anything close to 5500-6k because the blue washes out colors and contrast. the osrams are 4300 close to the factory color but a little less yellow and MUCH brighter

the tsx-r makes the cutoff super sharp like all of the new cars and really extends the light output

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[V1nny]

Unless your bulbs are pretty new, new bulbs are always a little better. OEM bulbs can last a LONG time. They might be a little more 'crisp' or turn on sooner..but most of the loss of the light output comes from the yellowed lenses on the housings I think. If you think they're okay then I wouldn't spend the money until you actually need one. And then..usually replace both. Sometimes the color/ hue on a new bulb can be different due to manufacturing or age or whatever. And keep the old bulbs for a spare if you have any that are good.

only minor correction - not sometimes, HID always slowly change color with age, becoming more bluish, so if you really frugal, and want to replace only one bulb, use used one of similar age, to keep color similar.
As for replacement on a budget, Morimoto XB35 worked pretty good for me.

[estomax]

yeah going from original HID bulbs that were discolored/grayed to clear XB35 bulbs was a good difference in light, I posted a thread about it even. http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...ter-brightness

if you can afford the cbi bulbs go with them, but bang for the buck the morimotos are hard to beat. still happy with them 4 months later.

[PaperToast]

if it helps im still running the oem factory bulbs/ballasts in mine, 208k miles and jan/01 MY

[Racin2redline]

if it helps im still running the oem factory bulbs/ballasts in mine, 208k miles and jan/01 MY

replace those suckers! it's completely different with new bulbs

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[G0to60]

if it helps im still running the oem factory bulbs/ballasts in mine, 208k miles and jan/01 MY

Yeah, that's why I'm asking because with winter here and much more night driving I got to thinking about the headlights. I'm running the OEM factory bulbs at 210k miles on my 02.

I'll be looking at a few of these suggests. Thanks for the posts.