Most everything you wanted to know about headlight bulbs...

[Sublimewind]

Hi all,I am linking over to me Subaru site NASIOC.com for this information. It covers the pluses and minuses of various lighting technoligy. I thought it would be interesting enough to share it over here. http://forums.nasioc.com/forum...54736There is a lot of info reguarding Silvania Silverstars and even the HIR bulbs that are becoming popular. I would like to thank Drew Brashler for putting this together. So, i hope you enjoy the read as much as i have in the past..Cheers,Aaron

[CountryVibe]

wow lots of good info

[Whelan]

HIRs FTW

[kevera]

That was some interesting info.Stay away from silverstars.I'm interested in the HIR's now.That's what you used,Whelan.

[Sublimewind]

I'd like to do a HID retrofit, I'll have to try and find some S2000 or X5 headlights for sale somewhere. Many on NASIOC have done proper retrofits into subaru housings....

[Whelan]

Very good write up, NASIOC does have some pretty informative stuff, I find myself floating there every now and then.He did a comparison of Silverstar high beams vs. HIR high beams. I have the HIR low 9012 and I can say I never NEVER use my high beams anymore. I wish I could show you all in person how much of a difference they make, maybe I can get some better comparison pics but it's truly amazing. Silverstars do have a huge defect like he said and I will never buy another pair again. But the pattern of an HIR is so much wider and throws light where it should go and thats a FACT.As for the LED turn signals, he was only using a straight ahead LED style bulb. They do make ones now that have LEDs facing towards the rear of the bulb itself so that light is reflected off your...well...reflectors in the turn signal housing. Not sure how much better those are so I cannot comment. And LED bulbs are also coming nowadays with the resistors built into the bulb so you save yourself some $$$ with buying and installing them.

[Sublimewind]

I am glad you liked it. I'm all about teaching not telling.. If i can get even one person to learn something, i've done my job..

[BlueCrush]

Excellent info! I'll have to look into the HIR once one my Silverstars die. Thanks, Sublimewind!

[Sublimewind]

Glad to be of service..!

[Whelan]

One of the biggest mistakes people make is relating Kelvin i.e. color temperature with bulb brightness. All of those aftermarket companies label them as being a certain K temp in color to promote how bright they are without labeling the fact that a lot of colored bulbs are 80W, 100W, heck I've even seen 150W! All to make the bulb function with the colored glass.HID's are labeled in Kelvin 90+% of the time but when you talk HID, you are in another realm of lighting.

[Sublimewind]

Bumpage.... keepin it fresh...

[Whelan]

FYI to all Vibers:HIRs are not available in the 9003 low/high bulb. The only place you can put them in your cars is in the foglamps which are 9006. HIR comes in a 9012 and 9011 bulb type. They are identicaly to 9005/9006 high and low beams except for one of the holding tabs is slightly longer, hence the distinct bulb code.9011=9005 high beam9012=9006 low beamAs of now there are no plans for an HIR to be made into other bulb types. I know Polarg was diving around using the GE design, not the Toshiba one for a little bit for other sized bulbs, but I think they got out of the market cause the GE ones had some defects that Toshiba cleaned up when they bought the patent rights to HIR technology. As of now Toshiba is the sole manufacturer of these bulbs.The only way you can get an HIR to fit on a Vibe 9003 is one of the following:1) Cut your 9003 wire harness and wire in a 9006 harness. You will also have to modify the bulb housing slightly to hold the bulb in place.2) Put headlights that use a 9006 bulb, i.e. a Matrix lamp, but this again requires modifications.3) If your skilled with the right tools you could pull the bulb from the 9006 housing and set it in a 9003 housing. This would require some good precision. I've done it before with 9006 bulbs when I put strobes in where the glass was. I ruined two soldering irons because I basically melted all the plastic around the metal below the bulb to access it.

[Sublimewind]

Good addition to the thread man... Thanks..!!

[Mr. Joe]

The biggest problem with the silverstars is the limited life. According to sylvania they are only good for about 300 hours where the stock bulbs are closer to 1000 hours. But I guess I'm just lucky. In 4 years, I have only had to replace one set of bulbs and I do a lot of night driving. I see on the site that they linked to that they actually put out less light, yet they have provided brighter light with a longer beam distance than any other bulb I have tried to date. So I'll just keep using them until I can waste the money on HID or a projector system. Attached is a really good method for adjusting your headlamps. Dosen't matter what car you use it with, your headlights will always be exactly right without blinding anyone.

Attached files HID-VISUAL-HEADLIGHT-AIMING-PROCEDURE.pdf (32.7 KB) 

[Whelan]

Quote, originally posted by Mr. Joe »I see on the site that they linked to that they actually put out less light, yet they have provided brighter light with a longer beam distance than any other bulb I have tried to date. Why does that just sound backwards. Less light with a brighter light and longer beam distance than any other bulb? Is that your own personal opinion or what they actually state on the site? I'm not flaming, just inquiring.I can tell you for a fact (again not being a jerk) but from lots of reading on the lighting topic that any tint or coloring to any bulb is going to be dimmer. The Silverstars very fine blue coating gives the light a natural white appearance which I think is about 4300K according to them. But again this is color temperature, not Lumens. An HIR is rated at about 4000K if you go by light coloring, but produces 1700 Lumens as opposed to the Silverstars 700-900. A stock OEM bulb produces 1000 Lumens of light. Just for comparison purposes your stock high beams put out about 1500-1700 Lumens depending on the make/model. So the HIR is essentially putting out the same light as your high beams but with no extra power usage (watts), no extra heat, and no light scatter.Light scatter occurs when you drive in the rain or snow with a colored/tinted bulb. The light is refracted really bad on wet pavement and the drops making the road itself difficult to see. All headlights produce some sort of glaring on wet pavement, so I put on yellow fog overlays to do a few things. 1) They act as a buffer zone, keeping the regular headlight beam from refracting off the ground right in front of the vehicle allowing you to see the road. 2) They allow you to see under the fog and off to the sides of the road better at night and in weather so you know where you are. Essentially if you turn your fog lamps off the light directly in front of your car is lit by the low beams. With properly adjusted and aimed foglamps the light right in front is now being thrown by the fogs. Now if you have clear fogs you are essentially doubling the light you are putting right in front of the car, so you are not helping with trying to cut down on light refraction. But with a yellow fog you are cutting back as yellow light does not scatter light white light does. Below is a picture of my fogs, you can see they take care of the light right in front of the vehicle. The life of an HIR is identical to an OEM bulb so you get close to 1000 hours of use. Silverstars are rated at 300 hours and that is very dependent on the climate you drive in where a cooler more temperate zone is preferred, how large your headlamp housing is due to the heat produced by the bulb, and how well the bulb is held in place because vibration can and will take away life.OK I think I've talked to much about this for now, lol.

[Mr. Joe]

Yeah.. I see what you're saying about the light color and actual lumens. and I guess that even though they put out less light than stock, it's more visible because it's whiter. Similar situation with flourescent bulbs. I can replace a standard 40W flourescent, with a slightly blue tinted 34W bulb and the 34W bulb looks almost twice as bright, with a bright white light instead of the yellowey light that you get with the 40W bulbs. Used them in showrooms a lot. those energy saving halogens that you can replace standard light bulbs with work in a similar fashion. And no... I didn't take you as being a jerk.. I know the numbers, and it dosen't make sense. But it's all about the color of the light emitted. In my Vue I did the hack where you convert a 9005 high beam bulb to go into a 9006 socket and that was almost as good as HID's. Gotta watch the power draw with that though.

[Mr. Joe]

And was just out at the Sylvania site... now they have Silverstar Ultras. oh dear.

[Whelan]

The Ultras are actually the European version of the original Silverstar I believe. Osram makes the Silverstar bulb in Europe that is essentially the Ultra. Our silverstar was not comparable so they came out with this unit instead. Slightly longer life and a little better light output than stock but not near the HIR lifespan or output. A lot of people were getting their hands on the Osram style so Sylvania made the Ultra for US.

[Mr. Joe]

The 9003SU Silverstar Ultra bulbs won't be available until August/September according to Sylvania.

[Mavrik]

NASIOC FTW yup, some good info there.

[Whelan]

Quote, originally posted by Mr. Joe »The 9003SU Silverstar Ultra bulbs won't be available until August/September according to Sylvania.I have them at my local Autozone right now in CT. They have been there since I got my HIRs about two months ago.

[Mr. Joe]

Quote, originally posted by Whelan »I have them at my local Autozone right now in CT. They have been there since I got my HIRs about two months ago.I tried to find the Ultra 9003's everywhere here and couldn't. Looked online and all I could find was 9005, 6, and 7's. I e-mailed Sylvania and they said that the 9003su wasn't available yet.

[Whelan]

strange. I was postive I saw them, unless it was another type with the same 3 prong fitment.

[Mr. Joe]

I was thinking that the 9007's looked a lot like the 9003's but I can't remember now.

[Whelan]

Maybe it was the 9007, they looke very similar except the 9007 base is all plastic.

[Sublimewind]

Bump to keep it current....