Need to order HID replacement lamps and looking for better fog lamps

You have to be careful with eBay and Amazon bulbs. The majority of them are fakes yet they still charge you $60+ for a $15 bulb. There are threads on HID planet.com about identifying a fake bulb but I'm too tired to look it up. A quick google search should help you.

I wouldn't even bother with the fog lights. They are useless even with HIDs in them. They are purely cosmetic.

 

http://priuschat.com/forums/knowled...n/101472-not-all-hid-bulbs-created-equal.html

 

first, trust Sylvania and Phillips, some parts on a car you can go cheap (summer tires, struts, air filters, etc) some parts you want to buy the good stuff (winter tires, brakes, lighting, fluids)

second, make sure you remove the old bulbs first, then put on a pair of latex gloves to install the new ones so no oils from your skin get onto the new bulbs, which would greatly diminish its life.

third, its been many years but I think the factory HID bulbs burn around 5600K which is a plenty beautiful color, because our bulbs aren't projectors going any bluer might make them look fake, the solution I did was go to an auto parts store and buy a very expensive pair of Sylvania bulbs (I can't remember off the top of my head but I think it was 5500K 9006) for my fog lamps, they were $49 and came in crimson packaging.

I can't describe how amazing my car looks now at night with the carpet matching the drapes. ramps make removal and install of fog lamp bulbs a breeze. another hint: keep the fogs off for removal so the bulbs don't get scalding hot, then turn the fog lamps on, that way once you plug the new bulb in it functions like a flashlight to help you guide the bulb back into place.

 

Phillips is the name to trust for HID lighting, but unfortunately it has been copied with cheap fakes still branded as Phillips. See my thread above for more info on that.

Also the factories are 4300K, that colour shift to 5000K after a few hundred hours of use. The blue colour has nothing to do with the bulbs, it is all about the optics of reflection. In projectors this is the projector bowl and cutoff shield. Since the Prius is a reflector you still get a cutoff band of colour, but the design is bland.

Also 12v high kelvin temperature bulbs (like your Sylvanias) sometimes do put out more light, but they always have a shorter life. And for fog lights, you want a very yellow colour to see well. If you go 3000K or so, you will see much better than anything else. Fog lights are to see in the fog, drizzle, whatever. If that is what you want, go 3000K. If you just want to look good and don't care about functionality, that's when you colour match.

 

Known Good Sources:

1) Official Toyota/Lexus/Mercedes/Audi Bulbs from dealerships
2) Order from Phillips directly, and I don't think they allow this anymore without a MOQ of thousands
3) Order from The Retrofit Source (TRS) who do #2

 

I have an '07 with HID so I needed the D4R bulbs. I bought some from a vendor THROUGH Amazon, and the bulbs were counterfeit. Amazon was really good about letting me return those (since they weren't as represented) and they even reimbursed me with both shipping charges (to me and my return shipping).

I bought the bulbs FROM Amazon, and those were the real deal. I think that since you're buying from Amazon, and they represent them as being genuine, you'll be getting the real deal.

I've been happy, and my bulbs have worked out really well.

Good Luck!

 

Personally, I consider the stock fogs useless for any purpose other than decoration and as improvised DRLs (I moded mine so I can use them as sort-of DRLs) I don't think that any bulb that fits in there will make them useful for seeing while you drive.

 

Sorry for bringing up an old post, but my dealer is replacing one of my 07 HIDs since I've been a real pain in their nice person, but they aren't replacing the passenger side. They will put a passenger lamp in at the same time though if I provide it, so I'm making sure that the D4R bulbs (Phillips) are still the stock OEM bulb. The service guy mentioned that the newer bulbs that they're putting in look different than the older HIDs...

Anyone have any idea? I was just planning to buy the D4R bulb from Amazon, but I'd like to make sure they match! I'm assuming the Phillips D4R is only the one color temp as well (I think 4300k).

 

Amazon sells from lots of people including those that knowingly and unknowingly sell counterfeit products. Take a look at the "identifying crap" subsection of the first post in this thread: Not all HID Bulbs are created equal | PriusChat

You do indeed want 4300K, but what colour is advertised that gets you to 4300K is a different story. One seller's 4300K is another's 6000K is another's 3000K. Most bulbs are counterfeit and produced with low QA. So even 2 bulbs from the same seller (unless from the same salt recipe batch) might even be different colours! And noticeable too!

You can use the methods shown in that thread to identify real bulbs, but the counterfeits are getting harder to tell apart by ink dotting alone nowadays. Also it is much easier to source DxS bulbs than DxR bulbs. So sometimes sellers will cut the extra notch in a DxS bulb to make it a DxR bulb but you loose the bulb shielding...

 

I've read that thread, and it's good info. Once I get the bulb from Amazon, I would imagine I should be able to tell. It's Amazon that's selling it, rather than a marketplace seller. So worst case, I send it back. Absolute worst, Toyota puts in my bulb, and I have to take it back out and get it replaced.

Sad there are so many counterfeits. It does look interesting that the stock OEM bulbs (from 2007) do not have the band around the bulb. Where the newer ones seem like they do.

My understanding is they start at 4300k but ramp up to 5000k+ after a few weeks/months. Thanks for the heads up. I'll post back when I get the bulb, and can say "yes it's real" or not. Phillips could probably stop a lot of this crap by just having serial numbers (or at least batch numbers (which, maybe they do have)).

 

Yes Amazon is really good about taking back counterfeits if you can prove it. Once you get the bulb look at the centre stalk, weld points, and lettering. Feel free to post images here (or in that thread) and we all might be able to come to a consensus on real vs. fake.

The band was more a suggestion before, now it is a requirement. The reflector housings were changed slightly. If you look at your cutoff pre-band and post-band, you will notice a slight difference in that less light is thrown upwards. But the stock Toyota reflectors are so crappy in their cutoff that it would take a good eye to notice without looking for it.

Depends. You can buy bulbs that start at 5000K and stay there. These are made to be replacement bulbs. For example, if you were just replacing one bulb, the new bulb would already look "burned in" and match. You wouldn't have one yellow-white and one blue-white one. You can also buy the "+" version which even when burned in will stay yellowy-white (4300K). And then in markets outside of the US you can buy some varying colour temperature bulbs that are genuine. But since they are all illegal here, the cheap (sub-$300/pair) bulbs are almost 100% counterfeit. The only imports are one offs and the market is so low the price is high.

 

Yeah, I tried the ones (cheap) from highperformancebulbs.com, and the generic ones they had were NOT good. From what they said, it had to do with the switch off mercury. It took the manufacturers a while to figure out a good replacement salt. They've probably gotten it by now, but who knows. I also had to widen the groove in the collar to get them to fit right. They still didn't sit flush though... they actually aimed high. Was a pain for other people. So I put the stock ones back, and have been living with the annoying cycle on/off whenever one goes out.

Anyway, I'm hoping Amazon will actually sell the real bulbs, and that they'll match the ones Toyota uses now. Good to know about the pre-burned in ones. I would imagine even if you bought the stock ones, after a couple months, they'd mostly match.

Anyway, once I get the bulb (Tuesday probably), I'll post pictures. But one thing I wonder about... shouldn't the box be obvious counterfeit, or are the counterfeiter's getting ahold of real Phillips boxes? I mean, all the counterfeit products I've ever seen are pretty obviously counterfeit just from the packaging.

 

All D4x bulbs (D4S and D4R) are mercury free. The first batches of these bulbs had life longevity issues. This is now formed a cult of people that say all HID bulbs are garbage, others that say the bulbs didn't reach the claimed 100K mile service life (pure B.S.) and so on. It even made a class action lawsuit against Toyota from idiotic consumers not understanding anything, and they still dont. Now when a bulb goes out, call Toyota, it's a defect...

The D4x bulbs of today have a much better recipe that is mercury free. However the lumens aren't quite comparable to the D2x replacements. Considering the life of the bulbs, I am inclined to stick D2x bulbs in my projectors. However D4 and D2 ballasts are not interchangable so you can't put D2R's in your D4R's slot and have them ignite the plasma properly.

Headlight optics is really tricky to get right.

Your ballast hates you for this... This severely reduces the life of the ballast. Luckily Denso makes great quality ballasts and you are taking life off of a very long life gadget.

I know for a fact Amazon (not Amazon marketplace) has sold counterfeit bulbs before. It's not their fault, they don't know.

They aren't actually pre burned in. The salts are changed slightly so that the colour shift they go through is minimal. They will still be slightly brighter though. In about 100 hours or so, they will even out normally. But on a show car, this is unacceptable.

True Phillips packaging is a white cardboard sleeve box. No label, no logo, no barcode, no serial number, nothing. Just a plain white box made of relatively thin cardboard. Sometimes there is a small lightly coloured "Phillips" logo on one of the more slender sides but this was a looooooong time ago. Pretty sure all new ones as of the past few years are all exclusively plain white boxes.

Plain white boxes are extremely easy to counterfeit.

 

Huh. Weird that they show the fancy Phillips box on the site then. Okay, so I won't be turned off by a white box when I get it. =P Have you heard of Amazon selling counterfeits recently?

Yeah, I saw that about the D2 and D4's. Doesn't really matter to me. My HIDs are plenty bright. And don't diss the class action thing... that is how I'm getting Toyota to replace one bulb for free, and install the other. I'm just glad I don't have to pull the bumper again... though I've gotten pretty good at it (yes, I know you can do it without, but I tried, and wasn't able to really get to them well enough. Damn seals on the back of the housings are just too damn tight).

One of my bulbs started to go at 30k miles. The other a bit later. So yeah, I guess Toyota just got several years of a bad batch, or Phillips figured out a better glass/anode/cathode/salt configuration to get them to last longer.

 

2k1Toaster,

Okay, my bulb pictures are here: Current OEM HID bulbs | PriusChat

It's a fair number of pictures. The picture on Amazon of the box appeared to be correct. From everything I can see, the bulb looks legit. But please, take a look at let me know.

 

I do notice on my bulb (in the pictures), the text is not as clear as your thread's pictures. But the spacing tools good, and the letters all seem well formed, uniform, rather than off kilter.

You mentioned the lettering/text was no longer a good way to tell... almost wonder if Phillips have stopped caring as much about it since the profit margin is lower.

As a note, the salts appear to be red/brown.

 

Yes just convert to real LEDs it's supposed to so old and back then this is where your choices now your LEDs are made to match a halogen bulb spacing so you can put in halogen bulb white assemblies put whatever key you want LEDs in there and they will be bright as all get out in today's world back when this post was written you were stuck with real or fake HIDs now LEDs have taken over the market pretty much HID is passé old whatever