Whats up guys, so i was wondering what everyone is using in their broncos for headlight bulbs ... I saw some commercial for some light bulb and they said that car bulbs dont just burn out, but they get dimmer over time.
i'm wanting to put something a little briter since NC will only let me burn 4 lights at a time

 

I'm using sylvania silver star bulbs and they are very bright. Huge difference over regular bulbs. I recommend these.

 

i agree. the silver star bulbs are in my opinion the best. very bright but not blinding to oncoming traffic

 

Silverstars are great if you want to spend more money for a lamp that isn't any better than a regular lamp. It "appears" brighter but actually emits LESS light than a standard headlamp of the same wattage and filament design.

The truth is that a halogen lamp will stay brighter longer than a typical incandescent lamp and when it does begin to age its far MORE likely that it will simply burn out. Older incandescent lamps (non-Halogen) will "yellow" with age because of filament degradation. Halogen process lamps are not nearly as susceptable to this by the very nature of their design. The Halogen process reduces filament degradation thereby keeping the lamp from "yellowing" as it ages.

If you want the "best" headlamp for your vehicle, go with a name brand you know and take care when installing not to scratch or touch the quartz that makes up the envelope of the lamp (bulb). No point in spending more money on a lamp that doesn't do anything more than the less expensive one next to it does.

 

I'd have to say there is a noticable difference between regular, or stock, halogen light bulbs and the Silverstars. I replaced the bulbs in my wifes 02 Odyssey...headlights and fog lights. The wattage is the same as stock for both sets of lights. What I did was, replace the passenger side headlight and fog light, then took the van for a drive around the neighborhood. I was surprised at the difference, it was definately more than I thought it would be. They are definately more toward the color of daylight than stock halogens. One of these days, when I remember, I plan on buying a pair for my Bronco.

Just my 2 cents!

Jason
87 XLT

 

They do APPEAR brighter because the color temperature has been shifted by the blue cast added to the quartz that makes up the envelope of the lamp (bulb). However if you look at a Silverstar and a standard headlamp you will see that the filament inside the buld is identical and the wattage is identical to that of a standard headlamp. These are the only factors that will change the ACTUAL output of the lamp.

Mired shift is a very old trick used to fool both the human eye and the camera. Its been done for ages to fool film and television cameras into believing that the color temperature of the light they are seeing is closer to that of daylight. The blue/violet end of the spectrum is actually worse on your eyes than the red end. This is why your mother and your opthamologist always told you never to stare at the sun! We've all heard of ultraviolet light being bad for us. Ultraviolet is at the blue/violet end of the spectrum. Blue mired shift reduces the amount of "red end" light being emitted from the lamp. The blue makes things appear cleaner, crisper, sharper because the ultraviolet refracting from that end of the spectrum is not combined in the rest of the spectrum when the color correction filter is applied to the light source.

Don't misunderstand me. I am not saying you shouldn't buy these lamps if you like what they do for your visability. Just keep in mind that you are actually getting LESS light for MORE money and the light that you ARE getting which APPEARS to be so much better is actually WORSE on your vision in the long run. I work in the industry that pioneered this technology. Its old hat to me and it frustrates me to no end that lamp manufacturers will push this technology on a public that does not have a full understanding of the technology and get them to spend more than they really need to for something that could be easily achieved by putting the same color filter over the front of a standard headlamp. Yep, its true...thats how we do it in TV, film, and the rest of the entertainment industry all the time...its not worth taking the time to color the quartz of the lamp. And if you really want that look to your headlamps you can buy 18x24" sheets of the filter for about $6-7. That will do your headlamps, your buddy's and every other car in the family for a lot less than the price of five or six pair of Silverstars.

Oh and if you think I'm kidding, take a tour of the local news station studio sometime and you will see exactly what I mean. We can change the color and color temperature of just about ANY light source to match just about any OTHER light source. We can filter fluorescent to look like incandescent, incandescent to look like daylight, daylight to look like incandescant. There are entire corporations that do nothing but make color and color correction filters for entertainment and studio lighting. The same filters will work on any other lamp.

 

My silverstars are not worse on my lighting. I'm not really worried what you say greystreak because I've driven down many roads with my older bulbs and then drove with my silverstars and the ground and surroundings are more visible, regardless if its a temperature shift or whatever you wanna call it. If its more visible and brighter than its more visible and brighter. I dunno, if its a "trick" then I like the trick lol.

 

I've worked the booths in little theatre productions enough to have a tremendous respect for those who do lighting well. I'm going to stay with stock bulbs based on greystreak's experience.

 

can't agree with Greystreak more. My bro work in a theatre installing lighting and rigging and filters are all you need to totally change the appearance of light. I have a photography studio and its quite common to use filters on static lights to match the color temperature of strobes or to remove a color cast given off from flourescent lighting etc.

Keeping the lens clean will have a far greater effect of the light output and it cost nothing for a rag and water.

 

Well even agreeing with what you guys have presented, the "lose of light" from switching to these bulbs is not enough that you would be able to notice the difference so it just comes down to these bulbs being twice as cleaner and brighter in appearance versus the regular bulbs. Now dont' tell me you wouldn't want your lights to have that appearance. Its a major appearance improvement of my truck to have these bulbs and I have absolutely no regrets.

 

I put HID lights in my late model bronco and it is the BEST investment I have ever made. I started with stock lights, but didnt care for the color too much, then I started with those blue/violet/silver type "super white/platinum" replacements, and I was changing them almost ever 4 months or so, color was nice but they didnt put out as much light as stock lamps, next step was high power halogens 80-120W each, required new relay, and higher current wiring, these were great, if they lasted more than 1 month each, and didnt run hot enough to nearly melt the damn thing. Next step was HID 35w, installed ballasts/ignitors on fender walls near headlights, I did this when aftermarket HID was in its infancy, and there were no "drop in replacements" like there are today, and all that was available were bmw type D2S 5600k color type lamps/sockets/electronics, and I had to make a aluminum ring to make this fit my stock 9004 housings. I did this back in like 1998 (kit cost me about $575 wholesale back then), I drive this vehicle 20-25k miles/year mostly at night (I have an on call job), These lights worked fine until about summer 2004, when one of them would intermittently start up slowly, and the color would shift from its normal white to almost like a purple color, and finally it went out. I ordered a new set of bulbs only ($85 by todays prices), now colors are available up to 12000k, I ordered 8000k for the truck put them in took 20 minutes, and works like a champ, I would like to see any halogens do that! Also before when I had halogens I had like like an extra 600W worth of auxiliary lighting PIAA 90 Pro's in the airdam, and PIAA h3 foglights on the brush bar, I disconnected them all about 3 years ago.