Are these any good for a teg? im looking at the ultras or the premium ones that run for $50, any pros or cons for these? correct me if im wrong but the 9006 right?

 

I think your best bet for increased light output from a halogen bulb would be HIR 9012's, which fit directly into 9006 housings (slight trimming may be needed) and have about the same output as 9005 high beam bulbs, but the life span of regular 9006 bulbs.

 

brand? where to buy? pictures? and are these still 55w?

 

www.hirheadlights.com

yes same wattage as stock.

 

isnt having the filament get hotter a bad thing? and how would the quartz glass not get hotter with the filament? i dont want my housings to melt

 

Are you after performance or aesthetics? What I'll recommend depends on what you want.

 

"Although the filament gets hotter, the glass does not".

You will not be in any danger of melting anything.

 

dang. i was looking into the silverstars, but those look much better.

 

silverstars arent as great as people say they are
i had them h4 in my civic, yea there bright but thoses look better,

 

Back when I first got my Integra in 2001, and Silverstars were just coming out on the market, I tried the 9005 conversion in my stock projectors with Silverstars. $50 for a damn pair of bulbs. Less than 3 months later, they were blown. I switched back to my 9005 Cool Blues and they lasted 1.5 years before one finally burned out.

I think 9005 Silverstars have a rated life of only 100 hours or less.

Philips 4300K HID bulbs are rated at over 3000 hours, and those 9012 HIR bulbs are rated at 1000 hours. The 9012 55W low beam bulbs have the same light output as 9005 high beam bulbs, but with a MUCH longer life span.

 

I wasn't gonna bring it up 'cause it always starts a fight, but...

I run Silverstars in my Vic. They're great, but they only last (me) about a year. I actually burned out 2 of them in one night! Sooo... caveat emptor!

LoL!

Let's see how long it takes before someone says, "I've been running Silverstars for 3 years with no problem."

 

I just looked on Sylvania's website:

Standard 9006/9005 bulbs are rated at around 1000/350 hours respectively.

Long Life 9006/9005 are rated at 1500/700 hours.

Sylvania Cool Blue 9006/9005 are rated at only 400/70 hours! I guess I got lucky that my 9005 CB's lasted 1.5 years, because I know I put way more than 70 hours on them.

Sylvania Silverstar 9006/9005 bulbs are rated at an astonishingly low 200/60 hours! So you pay a premium price for bulbs that will barely last a few months even with normal use, just to achieve a certain "look". IMHO that makes them crap. I switched back to CB's from SS's because they were much cheaper and put out the same amount of light.

The longest-life Sylvania 65W 9005 high-beam bulb is rated at 700 hours, and puts out about 1700 lumens. 9012 HIR low-beam bulbs only draw 55W, put out the same 1700 lumens as the 9005 high beam bulb, and have a rated life of 1000 hours. Best of both worlds right there.

 

I'm wondering if light usage plays a part in bulb life. My friend and I both had 9003 Silverstars but he doesn't drive much at night...probably 10-30 minutes a night total, usually 10 minutes coming home from work, and the rest in 5 minute stints going to the store or running errands. His pair lasted 9 months.

I do more night driving...at least an hour a night and it's all in one stint. My last pair went almost two years I think.

I also wonder if there's a quality control issue. I started using Cool Blues in 1999 (Philips BlueVision was the first FMVSS108 bulb that came out, but they had no 9003 at the time) and through out the years I've seem bulbs that lasted a couple of years, to bulbs not lasting 6 months...both in my car or friends' cars.

So far the longest lasting bulbs for me was the original stock bulbs in the car when it was bought new. They lasted from May 13, 1994 (day the car was bought) until one bulb burned out July 25, 1999 (I remember the date because it's the last time I was at Sea World).

As for the original poster, I agree with Pat on the HIR bulbs. Besides, blue tinted bulbs don't really work well for me in the rain at night on dark asphalt.

 

About this long? I'm not really trying to defend silverstars I've heard plenty about them not lasting well and I believe it. However... A friend of mine bought sealed beam silverstars for her car back in 03. A little while later she crashed it, it was a front end colision that messed up the headlight area and everything but the lights themselves still worked. I ended up buying and fixing the car. They continued to work fine until I bought an H4 conversion a few years ago. Since they still worked I put them in my friends car where they still work to this day. Admittedly they probably only spent around 15k miles on the road the whole time they were on my car we'll see how much longer they last in my friend's.

I also have silverstar ultra H4 bulbs in my Previa which have been in it for over a year, it racks up over 25k miles a year, plenty of which is at night and on long trips etc. I'm not going to say that I'd be shocked if they suddenly burned out, but for me they've worked pretty good so far.

 

Thank you!

I've gone through 4-5 sets and they last (me) about a year - and this is on 2 different Vics - a '00 and my current '98, so it isn't an electrical problem!

I've only BOUGHT a couple of sets. What I do is keep the original packaging (it's a nice place to store my OEM bulbs) - throw it in the glove box - and when they burn out, I take them to a 24/7 Wal-Mart just before midnight and tell them I've only had them for a week and lost my receipt, sooo... That's the dirty truth of the matter! I remember having to buy a new set when they changed the packaging, a couple of years ago...

Please don't think poorly of me for doing this - I DO have a conscience - but NOT when it comes to Silverstars!

Anyway, like PatrickGSR94 said...

I had a pair of Cool Blues too, and they lasted about a year-and-a-half. That's why I bought the Silverstars originally - thought they would last longer!

And, I'm still running my OEM bulbs - on n' off between Silverstars - and they're still working fine...

I've thought about it, since my post last night - and I'm *guessing* they last me 250-300 hours, on average.

BTW, maybe this goes without saying, but I've never burned out a high beam, only the low beam(s) - so this probably factors into the equation. If you NEVER run your high beams, e.g. you're a metro driver, they will probably burn out faster than if you do rural driving with your high beams on part (or most) of the time, yada, yada, yada...

 

Hey man, you do know you can edit your posts right? You don't have to keep deleting them just to change something.

That last theory about using high beams doesn't really work. Some cars keep the low beams on when high beams are turned on, so the low beams are on the same amount of time anyway, whether you use high beams or not. Other cars turn off the low beams, but the more times you turn them on/off, the shorter their life. I'm sure cop cars burn out headlights all the time due to the headlights flashing when the strobes and light bars are on.

Also, the Cool Blues and Silverstars I had were 9005 high beams bulbs converted to fit in my 9006 low beam projectors. The high beam bulbs have a much shorter rated life, so that's why they burned out so quickly. Normally you don't use high beam bulbs that much, so they normally last longer.

My current halogen 9005 high beams have been in my car for over 5 years, longer than I've had my HID projectors/bulbs I think.

 

Yeah, I 'admin' 2 vB sites. That's just the way I prefer to do it (most of the time).

I know YOU can see them. Sorry if this bothers you, but if you notched up the edit time to 30 minutes, or whatever, I wouldn't have to play those games...

BTW, this helps SEO, if the bots are watching the threads closely - which they are on this site!

I've thought about wiring my Vic(s) to do this...

As it stands, you can 'cheat the system' by pulling back slightly on the 'dimmer switch' and holding it there.

OMG!!! Running both filaments at the same time lights up the roadway like daylight!

I suppose my larger point was - at least with Vics - when you pop your Silverstars in the middle of nowhere - you aren't stuck by the side of the road. The high beams will work just fine - albeit **** off oncoming traffic.

That's what happened on the night I blew both my Silverstars - ended up driving home (2 hours) with my high beams on - with ppl flashing me off the whole way.

And, that's why I carry my OEMs now... just in case that happens again!

 

I don't know how this happened but one of my dad's 9007 Silverstar bulbs just burned out on January 24, 2009. The pair was installed sometime in March 2005, a month after he bought his new truck. He also has a pair of Silverstars in his foglights (not sure what kind his truck uses) and they're still good, though I know he doesn't use his foglights that much (only in the fog and rain).