After reading post after post that said that PIAA Super Plasma H3 bulbs are the closest match to the stock Phillips HID's, I decided to get some. Well, they have been in for.. 2-3 weeks now or so, and they are still a purplish tinge. What gives? Bad bulbs? I remember a thread where some people claimed that the Super Plasmas were absolutely the closest match, and they have them. Others said the opposite, and that they have them as well. I seem to be in the "no match" crowd...

Have any pics at night?

I'll take some.. maybe even tonight, even though it's raining. But believe me, they do not match. I'm not really upset or anything, as I think they are 1000 times better than the stock, weak sauce fogs, but still it would be nice if they were a better match.

Yeah the Xtreme white were said to be a better match from some people.

Just get some HIDs. You already have sick looking headlights. Personally Im going to retrofit Valeo 4300K projectors in the OEM fog location in a future project. Right now Im STILL working on my audio setup Im not even going to give it a finish date this time.

Haha.. thanks for the compliment. I will have HID's in there at some point - I actually really want to do that, but I'm not going to do it before my birthday in March.

You're still getting audio set up? What's the delay?

no bulbs would match HIDs....unless you have real HIDs in fogs...i gave up trying to get exact match...i'll buy a real HID kit when i get a chance

Im just afraid to bust the headlights open otherwise id have those angle eyes in as well.

http://hidtech.com/ thats pretty much the only place your going to fine a good set of projectors that uses quality components. For now just cruise with the PIAA's they arnt bad. I have HID's in my fogs now, its just that they are only 21w and dont put out as much light as I want. They look but still I want more
Take your time man, Im thinking of doing the fog swap sometime after the next summer.

As for my audio setup, lets just say...im a little TOO picky. I had a slight case of infomation overload combined with a busy installer so combined...its just didnt work. Right now im looking to have the car worked on, on the 10th & 11th.
Looks like im going to run 3.2cu.ft AFTER sub & port placment & Tune it to 30hz.
I think this should be about it...I hope anyway.


Phil: Argeed, 100%

Did you try both Xtreme White and Super Plasma?


~limsandy

I don't think that the Xtreme Whites and the Super Plasmas are all that different. I haven't seen the plasmas in person but they look good in pictures. I'm happy with my X-whites and thats that. Hell, Lithiumax, if you don't like 'em and you like the X-whites, I'll trade ya.

yup good choice since we have sick headlights why not get HID for it. I'm happy with them.

HitMan, I see.. HID's in the fogs look so sick, damn. As for the audio, good shiit, take your time - in the end, you will have a ridiculously sweet system that will outpound most people in your area and then some. Patience will pay off like nothing else.

We should compare them, as well as the other shiit we were planning on comparing. When ya wanna meet up, looslip? By the way.. "Shift_MoneyPit".. hahaha.. so true. Whenever anyone asks me what I modded, I tell them, and quickly follow up with a headshaking and "damn.. what a money pit.."

i got the extreme whites in mine... not completely identicle to hid, but from a distance they match good... and also give a nice whitish output... just my experience...

I'm going to pick up my DDE kit from Matt on the 1st. I might be going to Tahoe on the 2nd so maybe the 1st or the 2nd. Still not sure. Hit me up on IM.

Lith - I'm thinking you must have a bad set because mine match perfect. Just installed yesterday and posted results. Here's a shot:



I'd look into exchanging yours, or maybe just buying another set if you have to. Many .orgers have had a lot of luck w/ these. Even Igor911, who now has HID's, admits the plasma's match perfect. I'm no doubt now a believer now. And hey, trying another set of plasma's is much cheaper than a HID conversion! Check out opauto.com and get the plasma's cheap.

That's so damn strange.. this is exactly what I wanted, and did not get. Hmm.. I got mine from Ebay, from a dealer who was well rated and all. Maybe if I take a pic of them, they will look different. Or maybe they need even more time to burn through the purple and get white? I dunno.. I will not buy another pair, that is $50 that I can use to get H3 HID's later down the line.

Understood. Though something else just hit me - likely a dumb question: Are you running your angel eyes with your headlights? Also, I question whether Max factory HIDs have just a bit of variance in color from the factory due to slight manufacturing differences within tolerances. Some may be a bit bluer, others a bit whiter/purple. This would no doubt explain why there are many loyal followers of different fog/clearance bulbs.

I'd meet up with another 2k2-2k3 owner (particularly one who is happy with their plasma's if possible) and see if your HID's are the exact same color! Just a thought.

My Angel Eyes are spliced into the taillights, which come on as soon as I have just the running lights on. Interesting point on the HID variance.. not sure if it would be enough of a variance to warrant such a big color difference in the fogs, though..

Hrmm, sounds to me like the angel eyes could be the culprit then. To clarify, do the angel eyes stay on w/ your HIDs or are they only on with your running lights? If they're on w/ your HIDs, then I'd unhook 'em (is there a separate fuse for the tailights to make this easy?) and see if you suddenly have a nice match.

Thanks for the link to optauto.com! I have 2 questions....(1) when I order the PIAA Plasma H3's, do I order the 55w-85w lights for the fogs? (2) What can I do to match the parking lights since they too are also yellowish?

The 1 piece is $26.00....the 2 piece H3's are $46.00. Which is it?

Yes, you want the 2 piece Super Plasma 55w H3's for $46. I hope you're as happy with 'em as I am!

Oh, and as far as clearance, I just posted a thread on this. I went with Polarg M-4 which look a little purple compared to HIDs. You can also do PIAA extreme white which are just a bit too blue or Raybrig R130's which are a bit too yellow. That's the jist of the thread. No perfect match is offered in the clearance bulb department. It seems the M-4 is a pretty popular choice for closest match though. I have my M-4's in the pic above.

How about this match?

How about this match with the polargs? I think the polargs match fine.

The polargs seem to match but not the fogs.

Actually, the polargs seem to match the fogs, your HIDs are off

Its true though, they really match the fogs perfecty

Thanks for the reply's! I'll try to get them thrown in ASAP

You got pics yet of your superplasmas?

Super Plasmas look a better match with pics (maybe how the digi cams adjust the pics) cause when I try to take pics of my extreme whites they tend to look yellowish- but in person at night they
look very good