hi' can anyone recomend a good mainbeam bulb .have been looking at philips blue visions.£23 from autobulbs direct.i have 6k hids fitted to the dip beam which are great.just need a bit more light for the main.cheers everyone.

for that price I'd get one of the sets of HID's for £35 inc postage from China on E-Bay.....
(well that's what I did anyway )

If you don't fancy that, Osram Silverstar are very good @ about the same price as the Philips bulbs.

thanks for the reply wozza.do you get much of a delay when lighting up the main beam.when i turn my hids on it takes a few seconds to reach full brightness.

I was always told never to use HID's as Main Beams, becuase they take too long to start up,
so not ideally suited for the purpose, plus I also read in the HID's instructions that they are
not suited to being switched on and off rapidly, as it will damage the longevity of the bulbs.

I was quite happy going along with this, until one day I was fitting a set to another members car, whilst it was
parked closely behind another car on the street. When fitted and testing them, for some reason we switched on
the main beam for comparison, (when the dipped beams were on) and it was then I discovered that when you
switch on main beam on the IS200, the dipped beam also activates at the same time.

This meant no matter how often the main beam was switched on, the dipped was being flashed too.
This is not ideally suited to the HID's as per the instruction manual. So I then came to the conclusion that it
would do the main beam no more damage than it was doing to the dipped already !! Also I noticed when you
fire up the HID's (I have already fitted), they actually flash quite brightly before dimming, and then slowy
increasing up to full brightness.

I bought a cheap kit from china for £35 and fitted them, and I am quite happy with them. In fact more
than happy when driving through the lanes at night

They must work well enough for other drivers as when I flash them, they seem to know I am letting them out.


Up to you if you want to try this, if not the Osram Silverstars are the best 'normal' Halogen bulbs I have ever used.

Sorry don't understand this, is the dipped beam flashing with the main beam when both were originally off?

But yeah for £35 it doesn't really matter, but I do find for a quick flash HIDs don't really come on quick enough so you'd have to get into the habit of holding the stalk a bit longer..............

I've got PIAA bulbs (can't remember which ones) but they're not quite the right colour for my 8K HIDs, but should be a decent match for the 6K HIDs - plus the bulb is blue so has quite a cool reflection in the headlight when off

flick your Main Beams on with the car facing a glass window or get someone to do it for you.....
with dipped beams off, they come on when you flash the main beam.

With the dipped lights on or off?

sorry edited above as you posted. I explained all in the big post above

It's something to do with the road traffic act on aftermarket HID's. When the main beam is flashed, regardless of whether lights are on or off, the dipped beam will also come on for the same duration as the headlamp flash. I've no idea why but if you fit aftermarket HID's then the dipped will also flash. When I put the HIDs on my IS I thought I'd wired them up wrong but it's just the way they are. I've no idea why it's the way it is, but c'est la vie.

I agree with Wozza that HIDs are not a great idea for main beam due to the time they take to heat up, BUT as he says, if the dipped HIDs are coming on anyway regardless of what bulbs you have in main, why not have them as main? I can't see a good reason not to.

Surely they not do it anyways with standard Halogen Bulbs Wylie ?

lol.ive got brain freeze.i think without looking.when you use the flash all 4 lights come on.when you turn the dip beam on and then use flash only the main beam will flash because the dip beam is already on.i recon the dip beam bulb is a single filliment so in theory it cant flash if it is already on.maybe possibly might do.

Think your right there matey, i'v got HID as dipped lights and gonna get a set for full beam.
Weather they take a few secs to warm up to their full brightness, the dipped beam is still pleanty to drive by till this happends.

just a thought.for the main beam hids what about having the bixeon bulbs.they come on with the dip beam and to make them dip there is a magnet of some sort which pushes and retracts the bulb which alters the beam level (high or low).dont know if you will blind people but maybe worth looking into.cheers

Yes mate they do. They did on mine anyway.

If you have HIDs as dipped beam and halogen as main beam, when you flash, all four lights will come on for the duration of the flash.
The same is true if you have HIDs as main beam and dipped beam.

If you do not fit HIDs, then the dipped beam will not come on with a headlamp flash.

No idea why

ps.if it could be done you would have all 4 lit up on dip beam.

If you tried to fit dual filament HID's, the wiring wouldn't be there to trigger the bulbs correctly

Are you sure ? Can anyone with standard headlamp bulbs please confirm this ?
Can't see the car knowing you have changed to HID's as the cars original wiring
is used as a trigger for the HID Ballasts anyway.

Just checked this and they do come on together, and nothing to do with the HIDs as my car's on standard halogens at the mo. Can't believe I've never noticed it before

Also noticed how white the PIAA bulbs are compared to the halogens so they would be a good match for 6K HIDs if you decide to go the non HID route.........

Very interesting. I thought main beam HIDs were a bit of a waste of time for the original reasons Wozza posted (though I knew he had them fitted), but given that the dips flash at the same time, hmm ...

exactly, that's why I thought oh well what the heck

After you fit HID to the dips, your never happy with halogen main beams... i tried a few uprated sets but none impressed, so i put in a 50w hid in the main beams and i'm "lov'in it"

as been said already don't worry about about heat up times as the dips provide plently of light already

my thoughts to..the standard bulb against the hid looks like one of those birthday cake candles glowing in the dark

When mine was on Halogens they operated seperately, only when I changed to HIDs did they come on together. There is a paragraph about this in the DfT guidelines on aftermarket HIDs.

I'm thinking along the same route, since fitting 6k Xenons the main beam is dull! I'm gonna give it a go and for £35 you can't really go wrong! Do you have a link Wozza to the ones from China?

Has anyone done their fogs??

plenty on E-Bay, just look for the correct bulb HB3/9005, then order your search under lowest price inc P+P

(or try Item number: 300269417510)


Sorry Keith I think you are in error mate, I stand by them operating together before or after HID fitment.
I can see no reason why the main beam Halogens being flashed would make the dipped HID's come on,
or vice/versa.

What year was your car ?

2005.
If I am mistaken, and I don't think I am (but I'm open to the concept I may be), that's a really strange configuration. I've never seen any other car ever where the dipped beam come on with the main beam. That's really odd if it is the case on the Lexus - I can't see why either???

Anyone with a 2005 IS200 with standard Halogen bulbs ?
Get someone to flash your main beam and take a look if all come on please

You sure like going to some lengths to prove me wrong...

I'm with Wozza on this, it makes no sense as to how the car would know it suddenly had HIDs in there.

My 2002 definitely flashes both together, even with halogens but I guess it's possible they changed the wiring for 2005.

Nah, if it was that important I'd post a thread ........... (Wylie goes off to check new threads/posts)

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I still maintain it's the first car I've ever seen that flashes dipped and main together. Why would it need to? Ah well.

Have to agree, never seen it before and don't actually like the fact it does it..........

I'm thinking of getting some HIDs for my main beams now too after being educated on this !

I used to have an ST with factory Xenons and it was the same, flash the lights and the dipped used to also come on.

I'm sure its not only the Lex which has this set up. Remember one of the reason you have the function is to warn others of your presence so the brighter the better. (Also for the rallying through the country lanes!)