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G'day again everyone,

Today I purchased some Phillips Blue Vision globes because in the display unit they looked like they produced white light, but once in the headlight reflector they're only a little less yellow than the normal bulbs. So I'm disappointed because I was after a white light.

Can anybody suggest a brand or globe type that will produce a white colour?


Cheers

Matty

HID's?

What's the purpose of wanting white light? A bit of bling or improve vision?

You'll never get true white light from a filement type bulb. For manufacturers to get white looking light from normal bulbs, they need to filter it with a blue tint, which actually does not improve vision, it could even reduce it. But will serve your purpose if you just want bling.

On the other hand, HID with 4000k or 6000k (kelvin) will produce daylight (white) light and improve vision significantly. But fitting them on a car without self-leveling headlights and headlight washers, is illegal.

Looking at your signature, it seems you've got an NB8B. The low beam of the NB8B has a projector type light which is suited to fitting HIDs, but again it will be technically illegal to fit them.

Cheers, I had Hids in my 4WD, and I found that it costs a fortune to get a good set, I spent close to $600, my friends all had cheap ones and they just didn't look as good. the NB8B as you know has seperate globes for Hi and Low beam, which means i'd be buying two HID sets and that'd be like $1200 on lights, lol it'd be nice, but I want to buy a rollbar before christmas . I also found that in my 4WD, if I was behind anyone they would always be changing their mirror position because my light were so bright even though I had them aimed down almost all the way.

So I don't really want to spend the money on HID's because my moneys tied up elsewhere, and also don't want to annoy other drivers with them

I am looking for bling I guess, but I don't want a drop in lighting performance

Cheers

Matty

i got 2 HID sets for my nb8b, low beam and high beam.. for under $400

I agree with Hammer. I have projector lights in my car as standard ( with standard bulbs and find them really excellent. HID's are really only a proposition when they are OE fitment and then the optics work properly. The cheap non legal products will not be anywhere near as good as an OE lamp. The claims made about filament lamps re colour and extra light are somewhat overcooked and say 50% extra light may only be right for specific measured points. The Philips blue vision is a high quality lamp and should give a slight visual difference ( bluish) but do not expect a chalk and cheese result- this is exactly what you have experienced. Osram produce the same" fashionable" bulbs you they will perform like Philips. These 2 manufacturers are the leaders in bulb technology and their products are manufactured ( at least in Eu) to the highest quality monitored production.

As most people know putting HID's in reflector lamps is a big mistake - you will just blind the oncoming traffic and deserve to get abused for it. Projector lamps are better suited but ONLY if the filament position within the projector is identical or within a millimetre or so, if not then your beam is going to be "out of focus" so to speak and the light dispersal will be innacurate which can cause undue glare to oncoming motorists, additionally most projectors have an angled cutoff which rises to the left on right hand drive cars and if the angle is high then your beam will be blinding the vehicles in the left lane (or people on the footpath) you will need to adjust your forward beam lower to compensate resulting in poor forward vision for you, the driver.
I have Morrette headlamps with Valeo Projectors, these were suited for HID Globes as the Arc (Filament) positions were identical which provided a perfect focus, the cutoff angle was too high to the left for my liking as I wanted more forward beam without my lamps shining into the side mirrors of cars travelling to the left of me, the solution was to pull apart the projector unit and modify the cutoff which results in a perfect but long reaching flat beam - the lumen output is fantastic and I have never been flashed by oncoming traffic, furthermore, I rarely ever use my high beam (seperate spotlights).
Some newer cars with standard HID lamps have very high cutoff points and I wonder how they pass australian design rules, you may notice some newer Honda and Chrysler vehicles on the road with these high cutoff HID's, they really P%#S me off when I drive in front of them ...

The photo shows the HID Globe on the left and standard filament globe on the right.