New HID bulbs for the Cadillac

[14Accent]

I finally did it. If there's one thing that kills me about the Cadillac, it's the poor lighting. It's factory equipped with projector headlamps for the low beams with D1S bulbs, which should provide plenty of light. Unfortunately, I get dim yellow output that barely lights up anything. My Volt with a Plug-n-play HID setup works loads better, and those are halogen projectors at that!

I considered just throwing some cheap bulbs in, since it is a 16 year old car, but at the end of the day I plan on keeping this car around for a while as a backup and I'd like to not have to worry about poor beam patterns, low quality, and inconsistent color output. I did a TON of research and settled on these bad boys:

https://www.hidconcept.com/products...ntense-20-6000k-66140cbi-bulbs-pack-of-2

Expensive? You bet. Top quality? They're hard to beat. There's only a couple OEM level HID manufacturers, Osram being one of them. The CBI line should give me ~5,000k output with incredible lux, much improved ove what's in there now. There's still a chance that my projector bowls are burnt after all this time, in which case a projector swap is in order. I'm slowly learning the in's and out's of that procedure, but it doesn't look terribly expensive or difficult.

Unfortunately, shipping was delayed and I got the bulbs the same day the car went out on loan to a friend in need, so I'm not sure when I'll be able to install them. I'll post before and after's as soon as I can.

 

[dblshock]

I won't even consider a GM product after witnessing generation after generation of grill light problems...really makes you wonder.

 

[clinebarger]

Originally Posted by dblshock
I won't even consider a GM product after witnessing generation after generation of grill light problems...really makes you wonder.


Your posts make me wonder.......

 

[oldhp]

When your done installing these, have someone drive your car towards you at night. Do they blind you? No good re-aim. Re-aimed them, do they still blind you? If yes do everybody a favor and take them out. Blinding other driver's is wrong. There are 5-6 trucks around here that blind you at night. All have front lift leveling kits on them and none has been re-aimed. Pitiful. Good thing I'm not a cop.........

 

[14Accent]

Originally Posted by oldhp
When your done installing these, have someone drive your car towards you at night. Do they blind you? No good re-aim. Re-aimed them, do they still blind you? If yes do everybody a favor and take them out. Blinding other driver's is wrong. There are 5-6 trucks around here that blind you at night. All have front lift leveling kits on them and none has been re-aimed. Pitiful. Good thing I'm not a cop.........


I don't think aiming is going to be an issue. I'm simply replacing the factory bulbs for whiter and brighter units. This won't change the cutoff, glare, or look of the oncoming light. Those cars and trucks that blind you have plug-in kits installed in factory halogen assemblies, that's why they have so much glare. My Cadillac has proper HID projectors and I'm using proper D1S bulbs. I have no ambition to blind other drivers, I'm just as annoyed at those kind of cars/trucks coming towards me as anyone else.

 

[14Accent]

Here's a couple photos for reference. The first is what a proper HID projector looks like, the second is the difference between putting a plug-in kit in a halogen projector vs. a real HID projector.

 

[Gasbuggy]

Originally Posted by clinebarger
Originally Posted by dblshock
I won't even consider a GM product after witnessing generation after generation of grill light problems...really makes you wonder.


Your posts make me wonder.......



Some brands have lighting issues, others have problems with rotting frames...

 

[JHZR2]

It's not clear to me how with the same reflector, the same projector, and the same bulb type, beam pattern or any of the things you're noting can change. You bought hot bulbs, +20%. You're sacrificing the bulb life and housing potentially, for some additional lumens. Unless the bulb hot spot has s changed in this model, the beam pattern won't change, just how many lumens are thrown at each spot.

So the claims made seem dubious, but I'm sure you're putting out more light.

How cloudy are the headlights?

 

[WobblyElvis]

About a year ago I put some cheap D1S HID bulbs in my son's 2008 Caddy CTS. I think they were about $27 a pair. Still working perfectly, no complaints. Brand name was "Rover".

 

[14Accent]

Originally Posted by JHZR2
It's not clear to me how with the same reflector, the same projector, and the same bulb type, beam pattern or any of the things you're noting can change. You bought hot bulbs, +20%. You're sacrificing the bulb life and housing potentially, for some additional lumens. Unless the bulb hot spot has s changed in this model, the beam pattern won't change, just how many lumens are thrown at each spot.

So the claims made seem dubious, but I'm sure you're putting out more light.

How cloudy are the headlights?


I'm saying the opposite of that. HID bulbs work completely different than halogen bulbs. There's no loss of lifespan with these bulbs, they don't burn "hotter". There's no change in beam pattern. I was simply showing the difference between having QUALITY bulbs in a QUALITY projector vs. a cheap HID kit thrown in a projector for a halogen bulb. The CBI's I bought produce a slightly different color light by using a barely tinted glass and different salts in the burner. I'm losing nothing by using these bulbs, and gaining a lot.

The headlights are as clear as they're going to be. I restored them using 500 grit, 800, 1000, 3000, rubbing compound, polish, and wax. They aren't brand new, but they're 80% there. The rest of the imperfections are on the inside of the housing.

 

[Y_K]

The bluer - the more eye fatigue, if you really drive a lot in dark. the French had it right when they tried to make all headlights amber. I drove a lot at night professionally in past, and 4300K is the tops of tolerable range.

 

[Skippy722]

Headlight Revolution recently made a video comparing various D3S bulbs using a 2018 Durango. D3S is the mercury free version of d1s. There will be some variation but not a whole lot. And while each and every headlight is different, this table I made from their video gives a good general idea of what to expect.

And don't forget, as HID bulbs age they tend to blue shift and get dimmer, before turning orangey pink or purple or failing completely. When I bought my Durango it had factory bulbs in it, which are around 4300k in color... mine looked closer to 8000k. The CBI's I put in were actually less blue!

 

[nthach]

Originally Posted by Gasbuggy
Originally Posted by clinebarger
Originally Posted by dblshock
I won't even consider a GM product after witnessing generation after generation of grill light problems...really makes you wonder.


Your posts make me wonder.......



Some brands have lighting issues, others have problems with rotting frames...

I think GM was famous back in the 1990s with specifying smaller sealed beam/composite headlamps on the F-Body/GMT400 of that era that didn't produce enough light to illuminate the road and the aftermarket took a while to make the smaller sealed beams.

 

[dblshock]

apologies...my earlier post was inappropriate to this thread...good luck with your replacement bulbs.