my low beams are getting dimmer and dimmer, so i was thinking of replacing them with newer and brighter ones (i want to go with white). anyone have any recommendations of good, reliable aftermarket headlight bulbs? i want to stay with the 9006 and not go HID. i read somewhere, this one guy burnt the plastic cover of his headlights and stuff like that. scary stuff.

 

sylvania silverstar ultra bulbs, much whiter than stock but not as nice looking as HIDs

 

Yeah the silverstar ultras are bright I get flashed by oncoming ppl all the time. Not quite the hid blue look though.

 

both my low beam bulbs just burnt out. Wondering is this coincidence? and would also appreciate some good replacement suggestions as well.

 

do the silverstar ultra's have pretty long life? i would like to see a comparison of the silverstar ultra's with 9006 HID's. i cant decide if i want to go HID cause they are kinda expensive and i dont know what the risks are if there are any? any help?

 

silverstars arent very good. i'd go with some PIAA's.

 

HID bulb won't burn the plastic. Due to majority of the HID on the market are 35W and 55W is the stock halogen bulb. Even the stock halogen will melt the plastic in the headlights.
There is only one reason I know for a fact that it melt the plastic. The HID bulb must be touching some part of the headlights. Or is too close to some parts inside of the headlight.
Rule of thumb, always have 0.5" clearance from the tip of the HID bulb to the front of the headlight lens.
Our HID bulbs are made to the same spec (length) as the stock halogen bulb.
My other thread. https://honda-tech.com/forums/lighting-107/hid-special-%2460-shipped-honda-tech-members-2557655/

 

Which would be well and good if you didn't run the risk of overpowering your stock wiring harness and having horrible light distribution by putting an illegal (Non SAE/DOT approved) HID kit in a housing meant for halogen light. I had an Accord with an HID kit and it was a nightmare.

OP have you looked at HiR bulbs? I did a comparo a while back using HiR bulbs and they provided the best halogen lighting I could find. 9012 HiR would be a direct replacement for 9006, but I used a 9011 with the 9005-9006 mod.

 

isnt that why you have a ballast that comes with the conversion kit??? so that you dont run the risk of overpowering the stock wiring harness??? and i've seen cars with halogen housing that converted to hid and they dont seem to be that bad. you just have to aim the lights. and what are hir bulbs? where can i get them? can you post some pix with the lights on?

i seriously need to change my bulbs cause i cant see a fvcking thing at night... only like 10-15 ft away from the front of my car.

 

A ballast only does so much. HID ignition draws a LOT of power and I remember at least on older cars that some stock wiring harnesses would fry under the higher load.

And I only go car by car on the HID in halogen argument. There are VERY few cars that don't put out horrible light distribution with HIDs. It isn't just how far the new light goes, but any ghosting (whisps of life above and to the sides of the OEM cutoff point), hotspots (patches of very bright light, a sign that it is overly focused in one area), and patchiness (not evenly distributed.



You can see all 3 problems in this one picture. My Accord was insane with the amount of ghosting. When you put, say, twice the amount of lumens through a housing designed to focus a certain amount of light, it is going to go downhill pretty quickly. That's why stock HID reflector setups (like Maxima and TL) have a little 'cutoff' at the bottom of the housing like this:



I remember that the chrome on the bottom of the housing scattered light like a damned shotgun and it was all over hte place and messy.

Now I swear by HiR but there are plenty of other options I've gone through, like GE Nighthawks, that improve performance at a lot less expensive price. I've gone from stock to Sylvania cool blue's to Sylvania silverstars to an HID kit to HiR bulbs to GE Nighthawks to some bulb I can't remember that had 3 different colors (yellow, blue, and white) based on where hte light was focused on the ground, to finally OEM HID projectors in my new Cooper.

hidplanet.com has some good forums as well to learn about things, but I ended up like this:

OEM HID> HIR> Nighthawks> Funky bulbs> Silverstars> OEM> HID kit> Cool Blue as the ranking.

 

The HID installed in this car is not the proper HID. I say that because the beam pattern was never adjusted. Most of the HID kits on the market eliminated this process due to cost.

This picture shows when HID bulb with the proper beam pattern.

Take a look at the upper left corner. No light was projected in that area, that's because our HID has gone through the beam pattern tests.

 

silverstars are pretty good...but alot of people don't like them
they usually only go bad if you touch the bulb with your hands

 

i don't like silverstar so much, i have had one, but didn't work after a short period.

 

That's normal for halogen bulbs. That's why Silverstar offers lifetime warranty on their products.

 

just get a set of PIAA's

 

1) That was a lot of gibberish that didn't really make sense or say anything important.

2) This is the classic HID seller scheme- post two pictures that aren't comparable (wall shot from close range vs. open parking lot shot at long range) and argue that the bulbs are better when you can't draw a real comparison.

I know everyone has to make a living but these aren't legal and they aren't up to OEM standards.

 

Care to explain why these are no good....

 

i just installed silverstars (not ultras) in my 09 4 door, i love how white they look. Major improvement over stock.

I've had silverstars in all my previous cars, only time they ever burnt out were when i bought H1's for a prelude i had... But i had the 9004's in my civic for a year with no issues

 

you want the most light that is the proper fitment for your vehicle?

modified 9012 Toshiba HIR bulb

/thread

will outperform any filament halogen bulb or xenon/halogen hybrid bulb. it also will have proper filament position, which means it will focus all of the light where it should be, and not in the eyes of oncoming traffice like that which happens when you use a freakin' HID kit in a reflector that was NOT meant for HID.

BTW, we have a lighting subforum on this forum!

 

no halogen will compare to the output of HID's, HID's are the best, dats a fact

silvania silverstars are much bettter than stock bulbs, and look much whiter, the output is greater too, but any bulbs other than the stock ones will be better

if you have money but not enough for HID's, get PIAA's

halogen bulbs can only LOOK like HID temperatures, but will NEVER give out the output and illumination of HID's, ONLY the color and look

 

Because they're expensive and blow out constantly?

Silverstars are rated for a ridiculously short burn time.

 

I have not have any issues with Silverstar's buring out quickly... My Mustang has Silverstar's for 3+ years now. My wife's minivan is running Silverstar's for 6 months with no issues at all. In fact I still have people flash me in the stang because they think my hi-beams are on (and yes, they are pointed correctly, so please don't ask...).

 

Yea but as referenced above, you don't want to throw a kit in a halogen reflector. 99% of cars, I swear, will still have horrible light output no matter how they are 'aimed down so no one is blinded', especially compared to an OEM HID solution.