headlight bulbs diminished

[WinterRunner]

Almost to the point of being hard to see. Does a new pair greatly increase brightness/visibility? IF so what are some close to OEM as possible options? TIA mates!

[seishuku]

Probably not the bulbs, more likely the projector's reflector

[FWP!]

Yea the bulbs either work, or they don't, could be the bulb is dirty (sometimes they develop a "film" on the glass on the outside), or the projector is dirty/cloudy, or the main front lens is pitted/cloudy/dirty.

[ECS Tuning-Audi]

Could also be a ballast. If the ballast is beginning to show it's age it could effect light out put. Might be worth swapping them around and seeing if you can get some improvement out of the dimmer of the two bulbs. Sometimes the ol "musical chairs" approach can help narrow down possible culprits.

Jason

[WinterRunner]

Really? I thought they tend to diminish output over time? My headlights are newish ecodes with a laminx film to protect them. I'll look into ballasts, but at 87K miles, is that common?

[AussieDan]

Good bulbs will make a huge difference. The output on our '08 Q7 was terrible with the oem bulbs, swapped them out for Osram CBIs (from http://lightwerkz.net) and the improvement was staggering.

[Articus]

Really? I thought they tend to diminish output over time? My headlights are newish ecodes with a laminx film to protect them. I'll look into ballasts, but at 87K miles, is that common?

Most likely just the HID bulbs which lose a lot of the output lumens over time.

When is the last time you changed bulbs? If its been a few years, just replace your bulbs.

Good bulbs will make a huge difference. The output on our '08 Q7 was terrible with the oem bulbs, swapped them out for Osram CBIs (from http://lightwerkz.net) and the improvement was staggering.

Yeah the Osram CBI's are legendary for good reason.

Can get a pair for ~$140 from the retrofit source. If not from their, just make sure you are buying genuine. A genuine pair of the OSRAMS will be no less than about $140 from the different vendors. Anything cheaper and probably fakes.

[WinterRunner]

Are they OEM light color? Thanks fellas!

[CoreyRS]

Are they OEM light color? Thanks fellas!

Not quite OEM...will be slightly blue because they are 5500K (although, supposedly they look closer to 5000K than 5500K)

The reviews of the CBI's make it seem like they will melt a hole through the Earth. I think im sold on them...sold enough to return my osram fakes from Amazon at least.

[AussieDan]

The CBIs are definitely more "white" than the OEM bulbs (which iirc are ~4300k), but they're not blue. I'd have no hesitation about buying them again.

[FaisalJ]

Morimoto 6000k + clear projector lens =


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CoreyRS]

Morimoto 6000k + clear projector lens =


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nice. Are these morimoto bulbs only, or did you do a projector swap?

[FaisalJ]

Hey Corey. The OEM projector lenses were swapped out for clear ones, as well as the bulbs being changed.

I only had the lens swap done as I was splitting the headlights to get some of the internals painted black. Wasn't expecting much, but it made a noticeable difference to light output.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[WinterRunner]

Nice, I have ecodes, so I'll just being swapping bulbs. I think I'm going to go 5K bulbs, thanks fellas.