GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

It finally happened. A headlight bulb burned out.

Now, I am trying to figure out what to replace it with. OEM will just be as good as it was before, which wasn't much. I do a lot of night driving and also there's the DRLs. This makes the higher brands, like the silverstar and silverstar ultra, worthless as they only last a couple months at best, not worth $50. If you even bother looking at the Sylvania packaging, on the back it will say around 150 hours for the silverstars and 1000 hours for the OEM. Xtravision also says 150 hours or so for life.

My friend says get the zxe from Sylvania. No life is listed but I can assume it will be probably around 150-200 or so. Plus, the glass is blue tinted...ech. I can also assume that the bulbs from Philips, Wagner, and others that have higher output probably don't last very long either.

So, I am at a difficult decision.

Regular halogen. Replace all bulbs at the same time. They will be brighter than the old aged bulbs you have now. As you said, anything else is just gimmicky and a waste of money.

If you really want extra light, get some Morimoto LED projectors to replace the entire fog light assembly.

I have tried the Xtravisions in two different Vibes, got less than spectacular life out of both. I did like the light output though.

I log the hours per tank from my ScanGauge at each fill, and last time i tried them it ended up being ~130 hours until one blew. I went back to standard Sylvania bulbs and haven't had any trouble since.

I can only say don't bother with the silverstar ultra. They are not so bright compared to these crazy led lights (I am now in a place where it seems every old truck is modified with these blinding leds). But they have awful life. Probably even worse than these cheap leds. I heard Philips headlights are not bad.

Make sure you get the most light out by polishing the lens with something like Plast-X or if bad then check this and other threads about the headlights on this board.

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=32513

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=41643

Every little bit helps.

Philips X-treme Vision 100% are the best halogen bulbs currently available. Feel free to browse the Candle Power Forum to read more.

Regular Sylvania halogens.

I ran the Xtravisions for a while but they died so consistently every 6 months you could set your watch to it. Went back to standards and could barely tell the difference in output.