GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Choose which one's you're using.

Just got my new HIR bulbs from suvlights.com!! I'll elaborate in another thread.

Still running the Phillips X-tremes. So far so good, since around turkey day.

I know they're hated on around here, but I have had Silver Stars in the low and high beams and fog lights on both mine and my mom's '09 GTs for a year now with no burn outs or anything. I was going to order some HIDs from DDM Tuning but I don't want to be that person blinding everyone on the road so I decided to stick with the Silver Stars. I couldn't be any happier with them and will continue to use them.

Ones that work.

El-cheapo 80w bulbs, stock ones in the glovebox for when they die!

I have the Phillips X-treme too and they are 10x better than Silversucks.

Projector HIDs with halos, also a very cheap HID kit for my foglights

I just bought NAPA brand. I'll let you know if they're any good.

Quote, originally posted by lovemyraffe »I have the Phillips X-treme too and they are 10x better than Silversucks.Ok, so educate me, what is wrong with "Silversucks"?? What makes the Phillips better bulbs, don't just give opinions, back it up with facts if you would. I really am interested. I just put Silver Stars in during the winter months and have no complaints, just wondering what makes the others so much better?Dave

I liked mine for the three or months they worked. One has burned out already. For 45 bucks, I would expect them to last longer.

Philip's X-Tremes here too... purchased based on the opinions expressed on this forum by many of its members. They have been in for 3 months now and so far so good. Since we both start work so early, the wife uses them every day.I'm currently running Sliver Star Ultras as high beams in my Mazda as an upgrade to help match the DDM Tuning (Apexcone) HIDs in the lows and fogs of that car. They've been in since late Dec and so far no problems w/them either.

Quote, originally posted by djkeev »Ok, so educate me, what is wrong with "Silversucks"?? What makes the Phillips better bulbs, don't just give opinions, back it up with facts if you would. I really am interested. I just put Silver Stars in during the winter months and have no complaints, just wondering what makes the others so much better?DaveFrom what I understand (not from experience but just from what I've read here) the main problem most people have with Silverstars is that they burn out much quicker than they should for the price. I know there are a couple of people on here that have had good experiences with them, but most of the stuff I have read is complaints about quick burnouts. Other bulbs are rated to last much longer.

Anyone know where I can find some nice headlight projectors for my vibe gt 03'?

Quote, originally posted by djkeev »Ok, so educate me, what is wrong with "Silversucks"?? What makes the Phillips better bulbs, don't just give opinions, back it up with facts if you would. I really am interested. I just put Silver Stars in during the winter months and have no complaints, just wondering what makes the others so much better?Personally I have had Silver Stars in my fog lights, low beams and high beams for almost a year now and they have yet to burn out. My mom's '09 Vibe GT also has had Silver Stars in the fog lights, low beams and high beams for close to a year without any issues. I purchased all of ours on eBay for much cheaper than what you would pay at Auto Zone, Walamrt, etc. I love them and won't be using anything else anytime soon. Also, I don't know if this makes a difference or not, but when installing them I wear rubber gloves as to not get any fingerprints or anything on the bulbs.

Quote, originally posted by victorhasheart »Anyone know where I can find some nice headlight projectors for my vibe gt 03'?Isn't that a Keithvibe thing?

Quote, originally posted by K-NINE »Isn't that a Keithvibe thing?indeed... and i've been chatting with the poster in question.my ears start ringing when someone mentions HID or projectors. LOL

http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=38452 http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=31075I'll just leave those there. Pics may be gone in some posts but the basice jist is this:-Silverstars are rated for 300 hours of life. Your typical OEM halogen is rated for 1000 hours.-Silverstar Ultras are rated for about 450-500 hours, slightly better but still less than standard halogen.-Silverstars as with most other aftermarket novelty bulbs are rated in Kelvin. Kelvin is a scale used to determine temperature by color. An HID bulb for a factory car is typically in the 4100-4300 scale of Kelvin which is considered "daylight". Anything lower is more yellow (3000-3500K) for fog lamps in some applications, and anything higher 4000, 6000, 8000+ gets more blue and then purple and if your nuts, 13000K for pink. Aftermarket companies rate the HID kits as Kelvin temps to appeal to buyers looking for color. All HID's that are standard equip. on a car only appear to have color differences because the projector lens is coated and shaped to throw different light output in different areas.-Lumens is the TRUE scale for measuring "light output". I'm not sure if I cover the Lumen output in those posts above but it breaks down to if you coat the bulb with any kind of color filament, you are losing light output. Even Silverstars have a slight bluish coating to produce a more "white" light that "appears brighter". But in actuality it is decreasing the light output of a good brand halogen. -There is a difference between $2 Walmart bulbs and a name brand like GE, Phillips, etc.-The HIR bulb is Halogen Infra-red, it has a reflective coating (not colored) that reflects IR light back onto the filament causing it to glow/burn hotter and produce more light without using more power. Think of bulbs that advertise for 80W, 120W, 150W. Your car is designed to operate with 50-65W resepctively when it comes to halogen lamps. Anything over this may potentially be hazardous and can cause premature bulb loss, frying of the cars headlamp wiring, and other electrical issues.-The HIR bulb was designed by GE by request of John Deere to produce a bulb with 80% of the output of an HID without the added cost. Back then HID's cost close to $1,000 for an aftermarket kit. Again we are talking farm equipment with sealed beam HID's, not Ebay kits for your car. GE sold the tech to Toshiba who then created a plug in HIR bulb with a bulbous shape instead of a capsule. It was sold through JD parts dealers for approx. $9 a bulb. Keep in mind the HIR bulb first appeared on the first generation Dodge Viper at a cost of $150 a bulb. Word got out in the aftermarket community of this bulb from JD and soon JD got smart and prices went up from $9 to $12 and now $20+ a bulb. The advantage being you get more light output than a standard halogen, less cost than an HID, and long life. The tradeoff is the bulb was only available in 9012 and 9011 sizes. These relate to 9006 and 9005 (slight modification to the holding tabs of plastic required to fit), but it left many others with 9003 styles and others out of the picture.-Toshiba's patent ran out on the HIR technology and now Phillips has created a bulb known as the X-Treme which is even better than an HIR bulb as it is more reliable and requires no modification of the bulb housing to fit. And it comes in many sizes for everyone to enjoy. To date it is the best halogen light bulb on the market.-Unless you retrofit your lamp for HID projectors or buy old Acura headlights for HID bulbs then you are not going to achieve much brighter results. It is more appearance as you lose a lot to glare than to actual light output. Retrofitting a projector lens allows proper light output but is expensive. HID bulbs are offered in two different types, D2S and D2R (projector and reflective styles). One for a projector lens and the other for non. But you will see pretty much all new cars with HID's utilize projectors.OK I have put in enough for now, happy reading!

Awesome post Whelan!this should definitely be stickied in the do it yourself forum IMO

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