Phillips x treme vision...
Brighter / Whiter Headlight Bulbs
- Thread starter Shel_B
- Start date
No modifications were needed for my LEDs, they were a direct swap. The only difference was the connector, which was on a cable, instead of being directly on the lamp. I had to zip tie the extra length to prevent it from flapping around and possibly rubbing on something.
Not something I want to do. Unacceptable. I do appreciate you taking a moment to explain it, though.
https://www.bulbfacts.com/halogen-bulbs/chart/
This site has tested and compared many different bulbs. Might find it useful
This site has tested and compared many different bulbs. Might find it useful
Perhaps another variable to consider: casting light farther down and to the sides of the road also depends on the color or wavelength of the light. While you might think a "brighter" meaning whiter light would be better, that might only apply to the immediate area in front of the car rather than farther away. And when you introduce weather variables such as rain and/or fog, you'd be surprised how much better your visibility is using a warmer color light (yellowish) rather than bluer or whiter.
So, in choosing bulbs, find the most powerful ones (in terms of watts) that won't melt your wiring or give you errors and the warmest color in Kelvins. For example, daylight is often listed as 4100 or 4300 Kelvin and that usually looks like soft white. The higher the Kelvin, the whiter and eventually bluer the light output; the lower the Kelvin, the yellower and eventually redder the light output.
As far as physics is concerned, yellow and then red light will reach farther than white or blue light. Therefore, a good light output color temp would be 2700-4300K. Don't be misled by gimmicky marketing on "blue white" bulbs; they're essentially too bright too close and not useful for any real extended night-time driving.
Just my 2 cents...
So, in choosing bulbs, find the most powerful ones (in terms of watts) that won't melt your wiring or give you errors and the warmest color in Kelvins. For example, daylight is often listed as 4100 or 4300 Kelvin and that usually looks like soft white. The higher the Kelvin, the whiter and eventually bluer the light output; the lower the Kelvin, the yellower and eventually redder the light output.
As far as physics is concerned, yellow and then red light will reach farther than white or blue light. Therefore, a good light output color temp would be 2700-4300K. Don't be misled by gimmicky marketing on "blue white" bulbs; they're essentially too bright too close and not useful for any real extended night-time driving.
Just my 2 cents...
Get Osram/Sylvania H9 for your lows and Toshiba 9011 for your highs. Very slight modifications needed. Thank me later.
Don’t do LED conversions.
Don’t do LED conversions.
H9 mod
Effective in cost and brightness
Won't blind everyone else
Effective in cost and brightness
Won't blind everyone else
I replaced H11 and H11b low beam halogens with H11 LED Katana bulbs and am very happy with outcome, went thru a few sets of Phillips Extreme vision bulbs too quickly before then, they lasted about 6 months on average. Left high beams as is halogen, I like slightly colored light in high beams, seem to work better than pure white in fog.
Audis of old (and thus I'm sure VW, too) didn't run a relay. All the current went up to the dash switch and back out the dash switch. It was very common to start getting that wonderful burning electrical smell in the cab as the switches failed with time.
Even so, OEMs tend to undersize wires so a relay kit can really help with voltage drop, even on newer (than 1980s and 1990s VWs) vehicles
