Replaced std. Main beams with Philips WhiteVison

Submariner1

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Philips say its an "Intense White xenon effect".
My arse ... or god came down and blessed my xenons ... and the other 4 previous SL500s!

OK this is just based on looking at them in the daylight! Compared to the bi- xenon low beams (D1S's)

Philips site says up to 4,300K ... the packet says up to 3,700K and +60%.
I wrote to them and they confirmed this is the latest product. And they can deliever up to 4,300K , but as this is dependant on the headlamp units design and efficiency ... but it can be only up to 3,700K hence the new package.

Well sorry, can I translate that utter bollocks, they probably are 3,700K and they got caught lying their arses off and had to change the package.

Whether they are whiter than the originals is to be seen, need darkness. But in daylight they look the same.

Hopefully as I understand bulbs do tail off through time, I hope they are a little brighter snd possible a tad whiter than the 8 year old originals.

But if you are looking for a bulb that kinda gets a little closer to a xenon look ... keep looking.
Unless of course your Mercedes has better designed headlamp units ;)

Yes I know they will never be anything like a xenon, but lets say just in daylight I was so underwhelmed by these , that I have canned the planned migration to Philips WhiteVision Gen2 D1S Xenons.

I wouldn't trust a word that company printed.

In contrast when I put Osram Nightbreaker Unlimited in the A Class, there was a significant whiter look and much more powerful.

Obviously if I am blown away in the dark I will let you know. But I think therre is more chance of the f**king tooth fairy, plonking a brand new S Class Coupe 63 AMG in the driveway tonight as a consolation pressy!

I have even put the new 6 month old genuine MB battery on charge, so that is as good as it gets. But as it was evaluated with the engine running at 14.6V ... low expectations of that changing anything.

And yes my lamp units are crystal clear ... and presumably reasonably designed as it is a CL500 C216.
 
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Craiglxviii

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Not this again...

3700K and 4300K are colour temperatures, going from warm white into neutral daylight white. Nothing to do with brightness in and of themselves.
 

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I tried white visions and whilst they were white I was underwhelmed by the brightness (but then they are only +60 compared to there lights at +130 - whatever that means).
A better choice would have been the +130 which are whiter than standard and brighter to boot or if not wanting Philips then NightBreaker Lasers
 
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Submariner1

Submariner1

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I tried white visions and whilst they were white I was underwhelmed by the brightness (but then they are only +60 compared to there lights at +130 - whatever that means).
A better choice would have been the +130 which are whiter than standard and brighter to boot or if not wanting Philips then NightBreaker Lasers

I agree in my experience the K rating is a pack of lies, and the more powerful they are the whiter they seem to look, plus you also get the additional reach.

Oh well an experience, as they were bright enough, had they gone white and given 60% more power then they would have been ideal.
Best hope is they are just a tad brighter .. probably only because they are newer.

Doing it again I would have put in Nightbreaker Unlimiteds at + 110% they make a difference.
 

Craiglxviii

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I agree in my experience the K rating is a pack of lies, and the more powerful they are the whiter they seem to look, plus you also get the additional reach.

Oh well an experience, as they were bright enough, had they gone white and given 60% more power then they would have been ideal.
Best hope is they are just a tad brighter .. probably only because they are newer.

Doing it again I would have put in Nightbreaker Unlimiteds at + 110% they make a difference.

The "K" rating is the colour temperature.

Light output in luminous flux density is measured in lumens. We have done this to death...
 
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Submariner1

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Maybe I owe Philips an apology.
Just done the night drive, in power terms they seemed about the same as before (lumens), maybe a "placebo effect" tad brighter.
But when I got out ... blow me down they are significantly whiter ( Kelvins)

So its a sort of positive result, but how they can look so yellow in day light verses the xenons; and yet at night seem a LOT closer to the xenons! In whiteness (K) is strange.

Oh well got a sort of cosmetic result, so put to bed.

Just wondered if they had to heat up to show the whiter light.
 
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Submariner1

Submariner1

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Here is but one thread. Do a search for "lumen" before posting more, we've covered this thoroughly.

http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/index.php?threads/dim-hids-w210.160215/page-6#post-1509018
I Totally understand the difference between K and Lumens, hence why I tried The WhiteVision.
My point being, their rated claim on paper in Lumens terms doesnt stack up to std. bulbs with a lower Lumen rate.

As opposed to Nightbreaker Unlimited, on paper they are better and in the real world they are better.

When you said we had done it to death, we had not discussed the Whitevisons as a cosmetic upgrade that was not lower powered.
Hence just stated my findings.
Note I wasnt trying for a more powerful ( more Lumens bulb) just a whiter one that was not weaker on the power side.

Bizarrely at night they do look whiter, whereas in the daytime they actually look the same or maybe even a bit worse in colour terms.
 

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why would ANYONE care what their lights looked like? theyre there to help you see where you are going and help others see you in fog etc NOTHING ELSE. as long as they do this job, I cant see what difference it makes whether they look whiter in the night but yellower in the daytime!
 
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Submariner1

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why would ANYONE care what their lights looked like? theyre there to help you see where you are going and help others see you in fog etc NOTHING ELSE. as long as they do this job, I cant see what difference it makes whether they look whiter in the night but yellower in the daytime!

Dont care what they look like in the day, they are off. Just the led running lights.
At night personally I just thought they would look nicer if they were roughly the same.
Only changing as they are just 8 years old and was informed they do degrade after about 7 year.
And these have 60%! More power.
So worth £20?
 
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