Searched this forum, audizine, and vwvortex and found lots of discussion about converting halogen to HID. I am happy with my HID lowbeams and just had the bulbs replaced since one was changing color. I have read a lot of advertisements and web boasts about Sylvana (various Silverstar lines), Osram Rallye High Output H7, and Phillips Crystalvision bulbs. Most of them tout higher percentage of brightness, distance, and spread. The Osrams are 65w vs the stock 55w.

I appreciate opinions, but has anyone seen or done any empirical testing? Brighter is nice, but I don't want to lose distance or spread. I'm not really worried about blinding anyone since I do a lot of late night highway driving and know how to dim my brights. But I am concerned about screwing up the electrical system, the computer sensor for bulb failure, or melting or otherwise damaging my headlight lens. Do all H7 bulbs fit the A6? I also don't care if it matches the Xenon color or not. This is not about looks -- it's about function.

 

What is wrong with the stock 55W? If you ask me, my stock high beams are the brightest high beams that I owned so far.

I would stay away from Sylvania Silverstar lines. They are just a gimmick. Their Xtravision worked fine though... Osrams Rally stuff is good, but I am not really sure how 65W draw will impact 55W wiring. For sporadic use, I guess it would be okay.

 

Yep any web forum search will reveal that Silverstar bulbs have a color temp close to that of HID (with the output intensity of halogens) but a lifespan of 5-6 months at most. For $40/pair, that's ridiculous. In addition to the post above, check out various PIAA bulbs. I've always seen good quality from them.

 

Thanks. Devil. I think I saw some posts from you on the other sites. I have seen the comment about lifespan on the Sylvanias quite a bit, which is why I posted this. Still curious if anyone has used higher wattage (65w) bulbs and if it had any impact on wiring, error icons, etc??

Nothing wrong with my current halogen highbeams but they are getting old and I am preparing for replacement, especially if I can boost brightness and distance by 25-40%. My old eyes need all the help I can get since I like to drive fast at night (allegedly).

 

My current lighting set-up:

6000k D2s HID low beams(aftermarket bulbs in OE headlamps)
"Hyper Yellow" 55w H11 high beams
Hella Optilux XP 55w H3 fogs (slight purple tint)
Sylyania 'Bluechrome' front turnsignals
"Chome-amber" sidemarkers
"Hyper Blue" rear turnsignals (illuminates subtle purple color through the red lense)
PIAA Xtreme White rear brake/park/reverse lamps(even more subtle purple color through red lense w/higher intensity)

I have no problems seeing or being seen.

UberTeile

 

I'm surprised your car doesn't have bi-xenon headlights, I just assumed Audi had them in later models..weird. Do 04's have bi-xenon? My 00 is like yours with halogen high and xenon lows. Our 3 series has bi-xenon and it's high beams are insanely bright. We also wired the halogen flash to pass bulbs to turn on with the bi-xenon high beams and I thinks it's brighter than daylight.

I used to run 65w bulbs in my old 9000 and never had an issue. I ran 100w fog lights in 9000 as well but that melted part of the housing so that wasn't such a great idea.

If 04's have bi-xenon fixtures, it might be worth the price to pick up a pair of headlight fixtures if you do a lot of night driving.


FWIW: This is a bi-xenon fixture, people sometimes are confused what bi-xenon is. They sometimes think its having 2 separate bulbs, 1 low and 1 high is bi-xenon. Bi-xenon uses the same 1 low beam bulb and uses a mechanical flap/mirror to change where the light is dispersed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvxUWYKA3_Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0Y8sX62BaA

 

It's definitely Xenon low's and halogen high - two different bulbs. HIDs are not used for stand-alone high beams because the constant on-off will kill them quickly. Bi-Xenon never turns off the bulb, it just moves the shield. I have no interest in paying a small fortune for bi-Xenon. My halogens are very bright, but as the car ages I prepare to replace parts and figure the oem halogens will fail some day, and want to be prepared. Still researching and looking for anyone who has direct experience. I am staying away from the Sylvanias.

I also looked into Hoen bulbs and this is what they advertised and answered. These are supposed to be very bright and a close match in color to the HID.

No issues, no dash lights Jerry, once you go over 80w you can run into issues in enclosed lamps with plastic and not glass lenses.
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> The oem high beams are 55w. Will the below operate and/or cause any
> issues with computer (e.g., burned out bulb warning) because of
> difference in wattage?
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> Using only 70w of power the Höen Titanium bulbs provide up to a 12%
> increase in lumens over your factory bulbs all while generating a
> clean, sharp 4,300k bright white light output. Absolutely no competing
> halogen bulb comes close to matching its performance and luminosity.