[colbydog]

Hi Everyone!

New to the board after I found it from Roadfly. Been lurking for a few weeks now (much better board) and am planning to order sometime in August/September after the bonus checks start rolling in.

Owned a 97 M3. God I miss that car. Red/black manual. Traded for a 1999 GS 400 because my fraternity brother worked at Lexus. Traded the Lexus for my wife's MDX (she didn't want the X5.) Now I drive a 2003 Maxima because I know the owner and got $300 over invoice.

Long story short -- I've been wanting to get back to a Bimmer for a while but since I'm in sales, I can't do a coupe -- especially with a kid. I drove the new 330 last Saturday and it pretty much sealed the deal after thinking of the Audi A6 and GS 430.

I searched (maybe not very well) about the color of the Xenon's. Can anyone compare the 330's, to the Maxima's to the new GS? I'm curios as to the color differences. Not that I care -- I'm just curious as to what's out there on the market. Throw in Audi too if anyone knows.

Thanks guys!

[ogrady]

Welcome aboard! The e90 xenon bulbs are 4200K D1S bulbs. Pictures of xenons are deceiving anyways, so the best way to compare is probably the light output of the bulb. Do you know what # the Maxima's, Audi's or the GS's bulbs are? If you do then you will be able to tell which one is whiter/bluer/etc...

[llaroo]

the colour is generally driven by the Kelvins [temperature] of the lamp. The higher the Kelvins the brighter the light, the whiter the light. I understand the lamps are brighter than the previous car so you'll probably see less of a blue hue but you'll see even more of the road - all that really matters.

[zero619]

Originally Posted by llaroo

the colour is generally driven by the Kelvins [temperature] of the lamp. The higher the Kelvins the brighter the light, the whiter the light. I understand the lamps are brighter than the previous car so you'll probably see less of a blue hue but you'll see even more of the road - all that really matters.

Though the higher the Kelvins does mean the light is brighter, it doesnt mean there is better visability. Most factory xenons are around 4100K to 4300K, the optimum temperature for white light => best visability. Once you go higher than say 5000K the lights are purely for looks because visability will be craptastic. It never ceases to amaze me when I see huge escalades with purple xenons (10000K).

[Jason]

Visit this awesome link, read the entire page, and you will know more about xenons / lighting than 99% of the other people who are on car forums Talks about halogens, HID's, xenons, etc..

http://www.umnitza.com/tutorials.php



Also, regarding your question on color, here's a comparison photo of different xenon bulbs from that link (E90's stock xenon bulb is 4200k, so it looks like the one in the upper right corner):

As light color increases, output decreases

3K, 3K, 4K, 4K,
5K, 5K, 6K, 6K,
8K, 8K, 10K, 10K,
12K, 12K, 3K, 3K,

[coco]

very helpful link jwocky thanks.

[355_Spider]

If the bulb is 4200K how come on the Bmw.ca website the pic below shows a blue colour?

[bzzbenz]

xenon bulbs are all really blue when first turned on.... After the are on for awhile they will turn more white/yellowish.....

[Jason]

Originally Posted by 355_Spider

If the bulb is 4200K how come on the Bmw.ca website the pic below shows a blue colour?

Like bzzbenz said that could have been taken the second they were turned on, or even touched up digitally. Here's a pic of what the xenons look like in real life (don't compare it to mark's e46 on the right, I think he had just turned on his lights right before the picture was taken).