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Noticing my 2004 hid lights are much dimmer than 2018 Toyota Rav 4 headlights

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Old 03-15-2019, 10:34 AM
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Noticing my 2004 hid lights are much dimmer than 2018 Toyota Rav 4 headlights

When I drove a friend's 2018 Toyota Rav 4, it's lights are like 10x brighter and shoot much farther than mine. I am guessing it's led and I was like are u on high beam, it's that bright. Or my oem hids are getting dimmer. So I did some research and seems like the osram cbb have a very similar color and brighter than the stock bulb. What do u guys think?
Old 03-15-2019, 10:59 AM
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HID bulbs get dimmer with age. Several OEM bulb suppliers have high performance/more light output bulbs you can buy, at a higher price. Look into some Philips Xtreme Vision 2...they're pretty bright. Also make sure your headlights are not fogged up and the lenses are perfectly clear.
Old 03-15-2019, 11:27 AM
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As stated, bulb aging most likely. Also oem xenon bulbs aren't the best on the block. Brightest bulb are Philips 85415 XV2 XTREME Vision. They're not the whitest though with a bit if yellow injection. Brightest pure white bulbs will be Osram Xenarc CBI/CBH/CBB bulbs. We carry all of these if interested in upgrading.
Old 03-15-2019, 11:28 AM
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My wife's Cadillac XT5 has LED headlights. They give the impression that they are brighter, but in reality, they produce less light. On brights, they look cloudy, like using brights in the fog. LED light is very "directional" so they have to use a lot of lenses and reflectors to try to get it to scatter in all directions, but it never does as good a job as an HID or even an plain old incandescent bulb that shines uniform light in all directions and is easily focused into an appropriate pattern.
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Old 03-15-2019, 11:32 AM
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Originally Posted by Rudeney
My wife's Cadillac XT5 has LED headlights. They give the impression that they are brighter, but in reality, they produce less light. On brights, they look cloudy, like using brights in the fog. LED light is very "directional" so they have to use a lot of lenses and reflectors to try to get it to scatter in all directions, but it never does as good a job as an HID or even an plain old incandescent bulb that shines uniform light in all directions and is easily focused into an appropriate pattern.
Indeed. I am not impressed with LED lights either. The HIDs still light up the road best in my opinion. The LEDs as extremely bright, mostly for other drivers, but when it comes to actually producing usable light output on the road...they're just meh.
Old 03-15-2019, 01:23 PM
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They are old and should be replaced. HID bulbs with age start to dim. Replace in 2's
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