Upgrade headlight bulbs?
 

I have a set of ap2 headlights from a low mileage s2k that I will be installing in my ap1. Should I change out any of the bulbs in the ap2 headlights before I install them? What are the options?

I wouldnt really see it as an upgrade if they are just another set of OEM bulbs. I swapped my oem bulbs for a set of 5k bulbs just to get a more pure white tone. But for aesthetic reasons.

You could replace some bulbs with LED versions and never have the need to change them again, easily done before install. :tipwink:

Most options result in less light. I swapped mine for Osram Cool Blue Intense headlights. Total satisfaction.

​​​​​Do you think the new Osram Cool Blue Hyper are better?

I'd say no doubt light is brighter and color is whiter.

the D2S bulb you may wanna replace if the original is like 10 years old. Osram makes great bulbs. morimoto is what i have installed now, they are great for the money but have a shorter shelf life.

wouldn't bother with LED in the high beam position. turn signal and marker lights are much easier to replace when the whole assembly is out of the car.

LEDs rarely position the "filament" in the correct position for the reflectors in the housing and produce some strange beam patterns.

-- Chuck

Osram CBI.

Thanks for all the input. I'm leaning toward leaving the HID low beams and the turn signal bulbs, OEM. But, I am considering changing the high beam bulbs, and the parking light bulbs.

For the high beams - any recommendations for brighter, maybe a bit whiter, halogen bulbs that will last? (NOT BLUE) I'm driving mostly on rural country roads and its nice to be able to throw on some really bright high beams. Or are the brighter halogens always short life?

For the parking light bulbs - what is the correct LED replacement? I'm confused by all the options. I assume this bulb should be white, not amber, correct?

I bought 6000K HID, Parking LEDs, Turn signal LEDs and Sidemarker LEDs from JS2K.com!. I also have the Dome and Trunk LEDs too. I haven't installed any of them yet though.

Whatever you decide change the bulbs while the units are on your bench if you can as you otherwise need to find a small child to change them as normal adult hands can't get in there without KY jelly. :)

I like the HID low beams very much. Distinct cutoff and lots of light. I put the brightest Sylvania zXe H1 halogens from the local autoparts store in my high beams. There is a thin blue coating on the bulb said to produce a 4200K color light, a bit whiter than OEM and is very close to natural sunlight. These only have a rated life of 125 hours but have been on the car for 3 seasons. (Ultra Vision are rated at 150 hours.)

LEDs rarely have the diode positioned at the same place as the halogen filament and lack the 360° light production of the filament a well.

-- Chuck

I swapped mine out for the Morimoto XB35 5500k bulbs

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/s2000-mo...eview-1113765/

I've been reading that HID's apparently dim a bit with age. True? Is it age, or hours of use?

Osram CBI, felt like an upgrade over my old stockies. Also, considered they are less expensive now. They were $200 for a long time. I bought mines for less than $100 shipped from Germany

I would think it would be possible for any bulb to dim over time. Guess I have not driven my 09 enough at night to notice any dimming. The HID low beams are terrific for urban driving but I also live in a rural setting and the high beams throw out a ton of light. I can easily spot maniacal deer and other satanic critters long before they are a problem. Not so on low beams especially with variations in elevation.

Pretty happy with OEM but then, that is all I know.

Except for the OEM HID low beams, all the OEM bulbs in the ap2 headlights are inexpensive. I'm going to stay with OEM except for the parking bulbs - I'll put LED in the parking lights. Otherwise, I'll pick up new oem bulbs to swap in while I have these headlights out of the car.

This. Bar none.
Have it, will never go back to any other.
I've run Morimotos, J2k, etc etc..

CBIs are a world of a difference.

Anyone have a source for genuine made-in-Germany Osram halogens (not US made Silvania Osrams)?

-- Chuck

Surprised no one has mentioned the Osram Night Blockers as an option.

I bet even replacing the 10+ year old Philips bulbs with the same ones, would make a difference (color shift, brightness).

Yep, true. HIDs dim with hours of use.

I'll going to start carrying a 6000K Philips D2S bulb that should be brighter and add a bit of color.
Of course, I'll also still carry the budget 6000K D2S bulb for people that want the color, while sacrificing a bit of the brightness.

Looks like OSRAM came out with a new performance bulb called CBB! Despite being labeled as 7000k, the color doesn't look anymore blue than their CBI bulb, but lux is measured at 460 at 25ft. Check out TRS's latest video:

The thing I am concerned with, and that they never address, is the impact of these extra bright bulbs on oncoming traffic.

I want to get these ap2 headlights ready to install in my ap1 when the time comes this spring. I want to get new bulbs installed in the headlights while I have them out of the car. After more reading I decided to buy some Osram CBI low beam bulbs. I'm considering what to do with the high beams. One supplier recommends these Profile Peak LEDs: https://www.theretrofitsource.com/le...ght-bulbs.html. Does anyone have any experience with these for high beams in the S? How do they compare to oem? They are not cheap. I notice that.

I'm going the same direction; CBI HID for low and Profile LEDs for the highs.

The only gripe I have against TRS is they don't indicate if the parts are in stock. I'd email them first for that info.

Other than that, they're great!

My impression is that you cannot assume LED will be better than halogen, or even good at all, when you are installing them in a reflector type set up designed for halogen, which is what I think we are dealing with in our s2ks. So, absent some assurance about this Profile LED in the S high beam location, I am hesitant to drop the big bucks. But, if they work well and give me a superior high beam I will do it.

Manystyles, maybe you could be our guinea pig? When do you expect to have them installed?

:iagree:

LEDs need specific reflectors to match where those little chips that light up are positioned. Many of us have tried... :)

-- Chuck

Maybe I'm optimistic:
Scrub to 6:30 mark (for the LED comparison)

Again this is for high beams. Not your primary low beam. In the video, the hot spot is much brighter than a halogen bulb (light to see in the distance). You would not use the highs with on coming traffic anyway; halogen or LED. The cut isn't as sharp as the halogen, but it's respectable. The glare lux numbers are a tad more for the LED than halogen as well, but not significant.

The comparison was done with a reflector type bowl/housing as well.

If in doubt, I'd ask TRS about their return policy.

On a related note, here is the same test in a halogen based projector:
The reason I shared this video is because at the start he mentions the design of Profiles LED chip to try and mimic the physical design of the halogen filaments.

FYI, was planning to do a retrofit to my Integra (DC2), but after seeing how well the HID PNP kit worked in a projector, that plan changed.

I don't want to futz around with returns. I want to get them in the car with a high degree of confidence and leave them there.
Any sense when you will have them installed in your S?

I haven't bought them yet, but going LED is my plan for the high beams on my S.

Did you watch the first video? That's what convinced me.

Yes, and I agree it looks promising. Still, I worry that the results may be impacted by the particular reflector used. I don't want to have to remove these headlights once I get them mounted and the bumper back on.

There are two threads going on at the same time on this topic. See https://www.s2ki.com/forums/s2000-el.../#post24415971.

You people must do an awful lot of driving in the dark to want to change from OEM
Levi

We're just one big bat colony. :)

Honda made it very close to perfect, don't fuss with the little things. :drive:

My 04' is 12 years old now, the low beam bulbs have probably color shifted and possibly are not as intense when new. I'll only buy bulbs for the critical lights; low beam, brake, that are OEM quality (OSRAM, Phillips). Everything else I'll consider bulbs from quality manufacturers that are not OEM; Morimoto, Profile, etc.

Main goal is modernize the S a little bit; replace most incandescent bulbs, without sacrificing usability, reliability and fit.

I agree. Also, sometimes I feel a little vulnerable out there in the S, and it can't hurt to make yourself a tad more visible. Nothing crazy, but, a bit more brightness can't be a bad thing. Lighting technology has come a long way since our cars were built and I see no reason not to take advantage of it.

I just put in an order for a set of Profile Peak H1's for the HB and some nice OSRAM CBB's for the LB.

I just received a pair of Osram CBBs for LB and I decided to try the new version of HB LEDs that JS2k.com just got in. https://www.s2ki.com/forums/s2000-el.../#post24421599. The video on that page looks pretty good.

It will be a while before these bulbs are in my car, (4-8 weeks), because there are still piles of snow outside and my S is in storage.

Nice!
In addition looking to compound/polish head light covers and seal them up with Xpel. Yes, I'm OCD! I'm jealous of all these new cars with crystal clear head lights!

:heart: Thanks for the support!

I'm also thinking about getting these osram cbbs, how are you liking them? Any pictures of the output?

We just got another 18" of snow.
It will be another month or so. :(

Just ordered the new Osram Cool Blue Boost and once installed I will take pics of the output. Can't wait.

no one ever posted pics! lol

Just ordered some myself. CBBs from retrofit source. hopefully it gets here by the weekend. if so it'll be in this weekend.

I've been too lazy to remove the headlight housing to install the CBB low beams and fix a loose connection with my other LEDs bulbs.

After many years out of the S2K game I picked up a 2005 a couple weeks ago. Driving around at night I felt the headlights could definitely use a refresh since they were still the original bulbs from 2005. I was trying to decide which OSRAM bulbs to get and was leaning towards the newest CBB at first but since their intensity is so high I have a feeling they won't last as long as some of the other model bulbs. I wound up just going with the CBIs instead since they offer a bit more output and color than stock but nothing too crazy. I snapped a quick picture to see the different between the CBI bulb and the 14 year old original bulb in case anyone wants to see the difference (sorry the picture isn't against a flat wall). CBI installed on driver's side in this picture and bulbs were warmed up for about 60 seconds.

Attachment 149239

Ha it’s 2024 and I’VE finally going to install the CBB LB HID bulbs and the Profile LED HB.

Years ago when my bumper was and the housing was off, for the life of me I could not figure how to install the LED H1 bulbs. Profile didn’t have ANY instructions to remove that adapter ring.

Years later Profile no longer sells a H1 bulbs and I’ve realized the wire adapter is a pigtail adapter. I might need to use some shrink wrap to cover up that connection or find another adapter. So annoying.

I've been thinking about just replacing the low beam bulbs. How did the CBBs work out? Worth it to upgrade the HBs? Thanks!

The LED highbeams that came with my S2000 worked badly. I don't think LED bulbs work well in reflector housings.

For the low beams, the Nightbreaker are probably the brightest I've had. The CBB looks pretty rad though, so I'll probably get those to replace my ancient low beams (original bulbs on my MY00)

Can confirm; I have either CBBs or CBIs and they're tits.

I just replaced my AP1 headlights with new units (yes, you can still get OEM NOS AP1 headlights). As part of the "refresh", I purchased 2 Morimoto D2S bulbs in 5000K (from theretrofitsource.com) and the Sylvania blue tipped H1 high beam bulbs (from AutoZone). (A quick note about the high beams: Make sure you do not throw away the plastic piece that holds the bulb tangs. I had to order new ones to replace the one I threw away!) The amount of light my car is putting out is very impressive!

Regional or generational expression meaning what? :)

-- Chuck

It means they are good.

Where did you guys buy your bulbs (osram cbi, non counterfeit)?