98 ES (low beam) headlight upgrade suggestions?

[jftsai]

Hi there!

I was wondering if anyone has experience upgrading the lowbeam headlamps on a 98 ES. The US spec lamps seem to be somewhat dim.

Standard bulbs are H7's. The standard fog lamps are no help either.

Anyone have any experience with upgrade bulbs such as philips visionplus or osram silverstar (eu spec)? Is there a significant difference?

Or is HID a better answer? Which kit(s) and how much?

Any comments would be most appreciated.

Thanks! :D

[jftsai]

Also, any experience with a higher wattage bulb, e.g. 80W (vs std 55W)

Would this overload the wiring or melt the harness/reflector?

Thanks.

[magnetic1]

I personally am putting a Catz HID kit in the ES300 tomorrow. Mine takes 9006, but they have H7 too.

http://www.liteswap.com

Just make sure when buying a kit, you dont go over 6000K and fine a maker that uses bulbs with a molded, not glued, base.

Catz kits have this and their components are OEM on Lexus.

[magnetic1]

ok... got it in, but I didnt get a chance to take pics because it was daylight out. I will get some later.

The pic on the left is the Catz 5500K and the pic on the right is our Acura Integra w/ Silvania Silverstar 65W bulbs.

[jftsai]

Thanks for the info Magnetic1.

Let me know how easy the install goes,

and if you would show pictures of where the ballasts were mounted

and wiring.

Thanks

[Matthew_McNally]

Hi

this topic has been previously discussed in this thread which you might find useful.

Although - magnetics pictures and experiences seem to point to the Catz kit as being a good choice.

B)

[zeta]

those are beatiful HID's magnetic.

how's the cutoff? it looks quite blue to me.

[magnetic1]

That was a 5500K kit... The 4500K would be my suggestion. The cutoff is still very nice because of the projectors... it isnt as defined as a OEM HID projector but it is enough so that it does not generate excessive glare.

I'll see if we can get a group buy going :) Would there be interest?

[magnetic1]

I mounted the ballast to the washer bottle and the battery tray...

Installation took less than 45 minutes... had to undo the bolts to the washer bottle to have access to the lights.

Here was the grounding point on the passenger side:

The driver side was grounded to a similar bolt, but on the front ....

[SKperformance]

i always thought the catz were plug and play like my phillips ones

less than 1 minute to install as it uses the original 9006 phillips harness plugs