twolipentwo

Hi guys,

I have searched on the whole internet and in the car's manual but I still can't find out what the damn colour temperature of the headlight bulbs are on the 2019 Audi A4 2.0 TFSI 35 S-Line.

Long story short, the Audi is my friend's car (I own a VW Golf R 7) and when we went for a drive the other night, I noticed his low and high beams are pure white, whereas in my car they are white but with a slight yellow tint, which annoys me. The only thing I know is his bulbs are HID and original from factory, but I cannot find out exactly what colour temperature they are. I'm trying to figure it out as I'd like to install the same bulbs in my own car.

I'm guessing the bulbs on the Audi must be 5000k, maaaybe 6000k, but not entirely sure, if anyone has this information I'd be very grateful.

Thanks!

twolipentwo

Quick edit: Irish car, in case we use different bulb types

SMac770

I imagine you wanted the B9 A4 forum instead of the B8 A4 allroad forum.
All factory HID is 4300K. 5000K would be as "hot" as I'd go for something you're using at night. 6000K would be a whole lot of blue. 5000K is "sunlight". 6500K is "daylight", ie, much bluer from all the scattered blue spectrum of sun light during the day. That same tendency to scatter is why overly blue lights is a foolish idea if you ever drive in rain/fog. The most important line on the road is yellow, not blue. You can look up blue filters for computer monitors to read up on excess blue effects.
His HIDs are either not factory, or are simply older. HID will shift to hotter as it ages.

twolipentwo

Apologies for posting on the wrong forum.

Damn it’s driving me insane how I can’t figure out what colour his HIDs are as I just want the same colour on mine. The ones in my car, which have a little bit of yellow to them, are definitely the factory ones, and as you said, must be 4300k, but they are 8 years old now, whereas my friend’s are only 4 years old.

I get what you’re saying about too much blue not being good for nighttime, but being honest, his lights were pretty bright on the motorway at night, and a very pretty white colour with no yellow whatsoever.

From these pictures, it looks like 5000k would have no yellow whatsoever, which is what I’d like on my headlights, while also being efficient for nighttime of course. 6000k also looks good and not too much blue I guess.




Weird thing is I could’ve sworn his HIDs are factory ones as car is fairly new and he never switched them, nor the dealership said so.

SMac770

Are you sure he has HID and not LED? I don't know what color temp factory LED headlamps tend to be, but they certainly seem more 5K or 6K than 4K when blinding me on the roads here.

All B9.0 A4/A5 HID use bulb 8W0941235, now replaced by bulb 8W0941235A. This is a D5S 12V 25W bulb. It seems to be documented as 4200K also, but I do see a Philips 4500K bulb as well.

MY15 Golf with 8IP headlamps uses bulb N10721805, now replaced by bulb N10721806. This is the same D3S 42V 35W bulb as used in the B8 A4/A5 HID, and is definitely ~4200K.

There could also be issues like hazing on the inside of the cover and such. If you want less yellow, you're not going to break the world swapping out your stock for 5K bulbs. So toss them in and see what you think. I'd stick to quality brands like Philips or Osram.

twolipentwo

Hmm, interesting...
Yeah I definitely agree on the factory LEDs more than likely being 5K or 6K, as they are definitely whiter than my factory HIDs.

As far as I'm aware, his car came with factory HID, as it said so on the description of the car on the dealership's website, but they could've been mistaken too because there is no way his color temp is the same as mine.

I guess I'll try both 5K and 6K HIDs, if available at the car mod shop. I know they offered me before swapping out the HIDs for 6K LEDs, I don't suppose there would be a problem swapping out HIDs for LEDs?

twolipentwo

I just called my friend who owns the Audi and he was able to contact the dealership and they confirmed the factory HIDs were swapped by previous owner, they said "Diamond White was fitted", but they are unsure of the brand. So I guess 6000K HID is what I'm looking for

Didn't seem too blue for me, but rather a pure white, beautiful

Probably better fitting HIDs than LEDs I assume, as my car comes with HIDs from factory.

SMac770

There's no confusing HID for LED from a factory perspective. Audi LED headlamps are not cheap LED bulbs stuck in HID lamps. They are full on completely properly different assemblies. HID or LED, there's no criss-cross there. B8 A4 had halogen and HID options. B9.0 A4 had HID and LED options. B9.5 A4 is now only LED. But again, this is none of that cheap retrofit LED insert bulb junk.

As noted, remember his is a D5S 12V 25W bulb. Yours is a D3S 42V 35W bulb. https://www.hidconcept.com/collections/d3s Variety of D3S bulbs in 4K, 5K, and 6K. Note, the lumen output for 6K is less than 5K is less than 4K.

I have no personal support for D3S form factor retrofit LED "bulbs". Not until ones are made tier one suppliers like Philips or Osram.

edit - ok, so not Audi factory, at least now you know. Yeah, marketing terms like "diamond white" are meaningless. Legit numbers for lumens, color temp, etc, is the only truth.

twolipentwo

Appreciate all the info you shared with me, I will go with HID instead of LED then since my car has HID from factory. Just trying to decide on either 5000k or 6000k, leaning towards the 6000k as it's classier and no yellow at all imo.

Thanks