There are two places where I DO recommend purchasing from. XenonExperts sells a product almost as bad or worse, and won't even respond to warranty replacement requests. VVME provides extremely low quality products, and with shipping costs, the warranty is essentially worthless. When you are purchasing HID kits, I very strongly recommend against purchasing from VVME or XenonExperts. This is largely because of the way the 9012 is designed. Though the light color was closer to HID, they were not as bright as the 9012's that are stock. (I used the 9005 because it doesn't have the tip blacked out.) So I popped one in the Dart and compared. I have some Silverstar Ultra 9005's that I modified to work in a 9006 slot and they happened to fit in the dart. I did some tinkering around last weekend. With how the stock bulbs are, they're already brighter that most of the 'Extreme-White' aftermarket bulbs as far as lumens go, they just have the yellow-ish color because of the bulb type. You have to be careful though, because if the light isn't focused properly, a 55W setup can actually decrease your night vision. It tends to bring the color down a bit as well, which is why the slightly-blue 6k bulb on 35W comes out a perfect white in 55W. With a properly focused projector beam, the 55W will light up a greater distance than the 35W.

I should also note that using a 55W ballast on a 35W HID bulb will result in about half the lifespan of the bulb. In my personal opinion, the 55W AC-ballast HID is the best overall option if you're looking to significantly increase light output and want something that's going to last a decent amount of time. (With the exception of the SilverStars)ģ5W 3000k is what you would get for fogs if you lived in an areas with fog.Īnything over 6000k will impair your night vision, not improve it. All numbers presented here are averages compared across a few different manufacturers. Side-Note: A 35W 6000k HID is about 2900 lumens. (Some Osram bulbs are brighter, but I don't have specs on those atm.) **** SU = SilverStar Ultra - One of the brightest/whitest street-legal bulbs for standard housings. LED longevity is an extremely rough estimate based on a limited amount of available data It will vary by manufacturer, application, and quality of current. *** Bulb life is measured in hours, and is a rough average. Changing the color on bulbs with the same wattage/type will affect the lumen output of the bulb. ** Lumens is a measure of the visible light. Pure white is considered to be about 4800k on a 35W HID. It is basically a coating that reflects the energy back into the bulb and increases the heat of the filament without using more wattage. You can replace it with other 9006 bulbs (though you may need to trim the tabs in some cases), but because the stock bulbs are HIR, they have a higher output than the standard 9006 at the same wattage. I'm combining the data I've collected and posted in several threads for easier reference.įirst off, the stock bulbs are 9012. This is intended to be helpful information for those looking to change/upgrade headlamp bulbs.

35w hid vs halogen