Upgrading OEM HID Headlights, what are the options available??

[K-Dawg]

for those of you that had lightwerkz do your retrofits, how much did it run you, if you dont mind sharing?

an mled2.0 or g5brt conversion with halos for my single xenons sounds pretty tempting, since even after a bulb swap the output isnt great.

I haven't looked into this stuff in a while, but last I knew the LEDs still aren't on par with good HID when it comes to lux, and IMO the spectrum/color rendering sucks even on a lot of the modern OEM LED headlights.

[c watson]

The Night Breaker Lasers are warmer, and I think they are brighter but I doubt you would be able to tell. They are definitely going to be better in inclement weather.

The night breaker was the brightest bulbs available with the most Lux. Color wise they’re the equivalent of oem 4300k.

CBN being the next runner up

and CBB ( cool blue boost) being up to 7k but more like 5500/6000k in person.

Any one of these bulbs will benefit your lighting but the night breakers are the best performing.

keep in mind nothing will perform to its max with old projectors and foggy headlight covers.

[Gools]

At one point powerbulbs.com was the recommended source for night breakers but they are currently out of stock. Is there still authenticity concerns with Amazon? Seems there several vendors supplying Amazon for these bulbs right now.

[BlueBimmers]

Big fan of PowerBulbs. Good pricing and surprisingly quick delivery from UK. Usually better price too with drop in the pound vs. dollar. Twin pack for 80 pounds, good deal, no surprise they sold out of the NightBreakers. If they're out I think RetroFitSource has them.

[repoman89]

So are the spec sheets for these bulbs meaningless? I just bought regular Philips 85122 bulbs for my E39 M5 as a first step to fixing its light output because they were the cheapest (~$70 for two) and the luminance spec is 3200lm .. exactly the same as the Nightbreakers. What is the difference here?

[BlueBimmers]

So are the spec sheets for these bulbs meaningless? I just bought regular Philips 85122 bulbs for my E39 M5 as a first step to fixing its light output because they were the cheapest (~$70 for two) and the luminance spec is 3200lm .. exactly the same as the Nightbreakers. What is the difference here?

Suggest you check out the head-to-head videos RetroFit does for actual performance. I shared link earlier.

[Gools]

I'm also running a lightworks setup. There's no upgrade like good projectors, for light output.

I later did 55w and better bulbs, which was nice, but nothing like the improvement from the projector upgrade.

Are the Osram Night Breakers reusable for projector upgrade? Or does lightwerks suggest other bulbs for G5BRT?

[maw1124]

Are the Osram Night Breakers reusable for projector upgrade? Or does lightwerks suggest other bulbs for G5BRT?

And a follow on stupid question to save me some reading… for an ‘05 car can I just tell my service provider to “install Osram Night Breaker bulbs” and be done with it. I’m hoping the answer is Yes here, as I have 3 cars between ‘04 and ‘06 with factory xenon headlights.

Love this thread by the way. Thanks Gents. So far, for my next service visit, I’m up to: Osram Nightbreakers, Koni Yellow fronts, refinished center console from TexaM3, Imola leather armrest, SS brake lines (don’t know how that didn’t get done sooner, actually), CSL 255 tune, new tires (235/265) and maybe refurbished rims (if I can make a buy and swap make sense) — all learned and gained from this site.

Cheers, and cheers again!! 🍻

maw

[dukeofchen]

And a follow on stupid question to save me some reading… for an ‘05 car can I just tell my service provider to “install Osram Night Breaker bulbs” and be done with it. I’m hoping the answer is Yes here, as I have 3 cars between ‘04 and ‘06 with factory xenon headlights.

Love this thread by the way. Thanks Gents. So far, for my next service visit, I’m up to: Osram Nightbreakers, Koni Yellow fronts, refinished center console from TexaM3, Imola leather armrest, SS brake lines (don’t know how that didn’t get done sooner, actually), CSL 255 tune, new tires (235/265) and maybe refurbished rims (if I can make a buy and swap make sense) — all learned and gained from this site.

Cheers, and cheers again!! 🍻

maw

Only one model of Nightbreaker, but make sure you mention it's D2S bulb type if they need to order it in.

[BlueBimmers]

maw1124 - service provider? You don't want to DIY the bulb swap? Also the Philips XV2 beat the Nightbreaker by almost 100 lumens.

[maw1124]

maw1124 - service provider? You don't want to DIY the bulb swap? Also the Philips XV2 beat the Nightbreaker by almost 100 lumens.

This will all be done by the next time I see the car.

maw

[simonnim]

Do these work on the Bosch sets?

[jrgatfh]

I have a Lightwerkz retrofit on my car. I love it. Super sharp cutoff, very bright and focused. Compared to stock, it's night and day, literally.

What’s the approximate cost for something like that?

[toy4to]

Please contact Caesar at Lightwerkz. I had mine done over 10 years ago and I'm sure prices have changed since then. You won't be disappointed with the results, I'm sure of that.

What’s the approximate cost for something like that?

[bmw m3 s50]

Please contact Caesar at Lightwerkz. I had mine done over 10 years ago and I'm sure prices have changed since then. You won't be disappointed with the results, I'm sure of that.

I am guessing Caesar at Lightwerkz is the way to go to upgrade from all the comments in this thread.