Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Auto headlight question

Quick question for the auto buffs.

Most auto headlights have this slight yellow hue not unlike an incandescent bulbs. However many more pricey vehicles that i've seen on the roads for years have some kind of a headlight that is white-blue in hue and is far brighter than the former type.
A few years back i saw advertisements for Silverstar headlights which seemed to be the white-blue headlight to which i'm referring. I did a bit of googling at the time but did not turn up alot of info surprisingly. I bought a pair of these Silverstars for our CRV but alas, i didn't really find them any brighter than the stock headlight bulbs and they certainly were not the bright white-blue hues that i saw on other vehicles. Both burnt out within two years and i put the stock bulbs back in.
Then i rented a Chrysler 300 last fall for a trip to the mountains and it had the bright white bulbs. The extra visibility was pheneomenal. Granted, the lights do blind oncoming drivers alot more than the dimmer bulbs but the safety offset is huge.

Many years ago i knew of people who ordered these bulbs as custom parts but they were illegal in Ontario at the time if i recall, some bylaws. I don't think they are anymore.

Anyway, does anyone know exactly what these auto headlight bulbs are? Can you buy them for any auto brand?
Info about Canadian local stores, would be much appreciated.

They are xenon based High Intensity Discharge lamps. They are a system, not a bulb and as far as I know, you cannot replace your current headlights with them. You got tricked by the cheap blue tinted lights, I'm afraid--as did many others.

Here's some information on them.

I'll add that if incorrectly aimed, those lights can seriously screw with other drivers around you and could be quite dangerous. I mourn the loss of headlight aiming laws.

THANKS FOR THE INFO!! Finally i see the proverbial light.

I can say that the slight blue tint can help with illumination but not because they are brighter. It is simply a hue that reflects in a different way. Yellow hue off a deer coat vs. blue hue off a deer coat makes a difference in spotting them, but really it is the extra illumination that is far superior.

It seems that one could get after market installation of these systems. I guess i may have to ask around locally to see if having this done is possible.

Chess, you are right in thinking the after market should have a HID light kit for the CRV, I found just on Ebay. these Not too expensive either. The local Toyota dealership here wnats $300 for my Rav4 HID kit. It doesn't look much different except it still allows for High beams unlike these cheap versions.

Chess... I'll be the guy backing into those headlights at traffic lights... they have that "I can see and you can't, for I am the most important person on the road" quality to them.

Especially on Sport Futility Vehicles and trucks... you're beaming 16 billion candelas into my rear view (at least I can flip to night mirror) and side mirror, blowing out my night vision... the only possible recourse is to start carrying around a 10 million candlepower "jacklight" and getting a passenger to blind you back.

It's like driving around with your highbeams on, without the feeling of guilt 'cause "hey, I didn't put them there... what can I do?"

Bren R.

Silverstars are know for a limited life span .. I kept my bill and returned them within 1 year for an exchange when one of them blew out after 9 months.. My second set lasted almost 2 years and I left them in the truck when I sold it.. I have factory HID's in my current ride (07 Caddy)and people tell me all the time how bright they are... Hid's seem to be the way maufacturers are going and will probably filter down into lower end modles in the next few years.. Auto dimming mirrors will be a must when that happens..

I don't find HID's that bright as long as the headlights are aimed correctly.

That's the trick--an awful lot of the time, they aren't.

{sentence edited], but she went to the dealership for a maintenance overview of the CRV, and i told her to ask about the HID after market stuff and whether it would be applicable to our vehicle. I told her to specifically tell them she was interested in the bright white headlights like the type found on the Chrysler 300.
Guess what she let the mechanics sell to her?
http://www.autobarn.net/eurolite-fusion-bulbs.html

I hope they didn't charge you too much.

$30, and returnable

I just went outside, swapped out one of the bulbs for the stock bulb and looked.
The white 'looks' brighter but the wall colour likely has alot to do with that perception. It is an off bauge drywall so the stock bulb with the yellow hue doesn't show as bright as the white-blue hue bulb.

A friend suggested trying some GE Nighthawk bulbs. He's gone through a few iterations in getting better lights for his old mazda mx6 including adding fog lights. He really feels the Nighthawks added significant candlepower.

Found a good discussion on Nighthawks and those Silverstar bulbs.

I think i'll just go with the Nighthawks and leave it at that.

Aiming is the key. However, on a taller vehicle, its tough not to be in their face if you get close to them. I get angry flashes all the time when I'm in low beams and I'm not using HID bulbs and I check them regularly for aim.. I use basic Halogen Sealed beams cause I like to keep water away from my bulbs if I'm on a flooded logging road or something. (No I don't cross streams, I'm a fly fisher too.)

However, my fog lights have replaced with some mega bright off-road lights so if those people mistaken with my low beams try to blind me instead of a polite flash, they soon learn not to do it again.

The lights on my MX3 were not very good, partly because of bulb choice. For some reason, Mazda used the 9004 bulb which is a 45 watt low beam/65 watt high beam combination. The lower light output was compounded by the cloudy lenses on the headlight, making them even worse.

The first thing I did was to clean the lenses using a plastic polish which made a big difference. Next, I tried some new bulbs. The first pair I bought had one Philips XV (eXtra Vision) and a Philips LL (Long Life). About a year later, I bought a pair of Silverstars and it didn't take long before I realized it was not a good decision. I had the Philips XV and a Silverstar installed at the same time and found that the XV bulb was actually brighter, even though it was a year old. I was a bit surprised but really shouldn't have been. The coating on the Silverstars filters out a lot of the light to change its appearance.

I also added a set of fog lights with H1 bulbs. They had a low cut off so I could use them all the time. They were significantly brighter than the headlights on the MX3, low or high beam.

Since then, I ended up with a new car, a 2001 Saturn SL1. The lights are better than the MX3 since the reflectors are designed better and they use a 4 bulb system, the 9006 55 watt bulb for low beam and the 9005 65 watt for high beam. I replaced the stock low beams with some GE Nighthawks recently and they are noticeably brighter than the previous ones. To do a better comparison, I should have left one of the old bulbs in for a while.

Chess,

You can buy retro fit HID kits. I have them on my Sierra Denali. We have a problem with large critters on the roads in Alaska (moose). They mind their own business and stay off the roads till the snow gets deep, then they decide to take their wandering to the highways. So….we all put driving lights on our rigs to see the damn things before it’s too late. The HID kits are a very nice way to get “almost” as good as a set of off road driving lights but without the big bug eye looking things mounted on a bumper. They are not cheap though…. About $500 for a set and if you want them for both high and low beam, well that’s a grand.

When looking at replacement lights, you don’t want blue or yellow. You want white.

I don’t recall where I bought them, but it was online. Just Google it. Here’s one source….. http://hidsources.com/

Did you get a kit that was a bulb replacements only? Or did you replace the headlight as well?

My understanding is that putting an HID bulb into a headlight housing designed for halogens generally does not work well. The light source for each type of bulb has a different shape and location, resulting in a lot of "wasted" light.

bulb and ballist kit. It works great. I supose some lights are behond help....