Headlight

[Krazors001]

Another vote for the Silverstars. They are a way brighter than stock and match the color of my Hella 500's on top of it.

 

[lawsoncl]

From the Slyvania FAQ http://www.sylvania.com/LearnLighting/LearnAutoLighting/FAQs/

Q) What’s the difference between European and North American SilverStar?
A) The Sylvania North American SilverStar bulbs have a high tech amethyst blue coating to help give the whiter light appearance. The European SilverStar does not have a coating for the whiter light, making it more like the SYLVANIA (US) XtraVision product line. Both bulbs offer greater luminance (increased brightness).

Mine are the Euro version and came in a silver colored package and are not blue at all. I once read that that OSRAM is the Euro manufacturer and Slyvania just licensed the brand name.

The reason SAE/DOT specify wattage is that no-one seems to agree on how to test the lumens, which means that comparing lumens between manufacturers is pointless. Kind like the fad bulbs that claim to be 2x as bright, but only because they have a pencil beam and they're measuring at the beam center . Just what is an "overdriven" filament anyway?

 

[lawsoncl]

From Daniel Sterns web site (btw, notice some of the bulbs he sells are blue?):

Wait a Minute, Earlier You Said Silver Star Bulbs Have Blue Glass!

It's a name game: Osram, the well-established German lampmaker, sells a line of automotive bulbs they call "Silver Star". These are Osram's top-of-the-range headlamp bulbs, equivalent to Narva RangePower+50, GE Night Hawk, Philips VisionPlus, and Tungsram Megalight Premium. They produce the maximum legal amount of light while staying within legal power consumption limits. They have colorless clear glass.

Osram bought the well-established American lampmaker Sylvania in the early 1990s, so Osram is now Sylvania's parent company. Sylvania also sells a line of automotive bulbs they call "Silver Star", but it's not the same product. The Sylvania Silver Stars have blue glass. Light output is of legal levels, but as with all blue-filtered bulbs, you do not get more light from them. The Sylvania SilverStar bulbs have a very short lifetime, because the filament is overdriven to get a legal amount of light despite the blue glass.

 

[casm]

Geee, thats look like a BLUE bulb to me. Then again, I could never see any clothes on the emporer either.

I agree with you that that specific bulb looks blue. Its glass also doesn't look like any of the ones I've fitted to my vehicles - and that's three sets of sealed-beams and one set of halogens. Another poster to this thread has had similar experiences.

The Silverstars may claim they have 80% more light, thats because the filament is overdriven to make up for the majority of the light that is filtered out by the blue filter glass. The light coming out of the glass is less than a clear bulb, even if the over driven filament inside the glass bulb is 80% brighter, most of that light is filtered out before leaving the bulb.

I understand the science behind it, and did read what he had to say about them. But it still doesn't match my experience with the bulbs. I'm wondering if Sylvania didn't change the specs on them at some point.

 

[sbxj]

I love my HID light
there's no going back to Halogen

 

[cyberbackpacker]

5-90 I checked out the link for the Hella's... what size do we need-- 150mm, 165mm, 200mm? Thanks.


-Kevin
cyberbackpacker

 

[5-90]

I believe they're the 200m/m units - just check for "two-headlamp" system. Let me grab my Hella catalogue...

Yeah - 200m/m conversion headlamp - Vision Plus P/N 72207, E-Code P/N should be 72206, or 72200 (Canada Only - I'm not sure why.) Both use 9003/H4 bulbs, so get whichever ones you like.

The other sizes are for "four-headlamp" systems - like on the Waggy XJ.

5-90

 

[cyberbackpacker]

Perfect. I appreciate it.

-Kevin
cyberbackpacker

 

[philip_g]

I believe they're the 200m/m units - just check for "two-headlamp" system. Let me grab my Hella catalogue...

Yeah - 200m/m conversion headlamp - Vision Plus P/N 72207, E-Code P/N should be 72206, or 72200 (Canada Only - I'm not sure why.) Both use 9003/H4 bulbs, so get whichever ones you like.

The other sizes are for "four-headlamp" systems - like on the Waggy XJ.

5-90

The 72206 comes up as a single lamp kit, not sure that's correct?

 

[CW]

Silverstars do not put out blue light at all. They are white (not yellow), they are one of the brightest street legal bulbs out there, and I have never had a complaint about them and I've sold hundreds. I have the siverstars on my dd and I think they are great. That being said they don't even compare to the H4 conversion I did on my wheeler. But the bulbs I am using are not street legal. I did the h4's on the cheap and I am really happy with the setup.
Here is a writeup on them. http://www.naxja.org/html/techarticles/headlights/headlight.html

 

[XgeekstarX]

i've got silverstars and they are about twice as bright as a regular 6054

 

[lawsoncl]

Silverstars do not put out blue light at all. They are white (not yellow), they are one of the brightest street legal bulbs out there, and I have never had a complaint about them and I've sold hundreds. I have the siverstars on my dd and I think they are great. That being said they don't even compare to the H4 conversion I did on my wheeler. But the bulbs I am using are not street legal. I did the h4's on the cheap and I am really happy with the setup.
Here is a writeup on them. http://www.naxja.org/html/techarticles/headlights/headlight.html

There are apparently two versions of the Silverstars, the original European OSRAM (I think) and the US Sylvania version. Checkout the second entry from the bottom on the Sylvania FAQ http://www.sylvania.com/LearnLighting/LearnAutoLighting/FAQs/. I have a pair of the clear versions from eBay for $20.

 

[fizassist]

A lot of folks seem to run the Sylvania Silverstars. I got them off a recommendation here and I like 'em. MUCH better than the stockers.

Ditto!

 

[acrid]

only problem with them is they burn out rather quickly, and no it's not an electrical issue, they just burn out faster than stockers. great light, but at the rate i'm burning through them, i'm converting to h3's. i'm no hippy, but i'm getting sick of throwing away lights that are 6 mnths old just because the driving light burnt out, huge waste of resources.

 

[philip_g]

BTW quadratech has a good price on the hella cases, I think they're about 36 bucks each.

 

[Atl XJ]

Another vote for the silverstars. They're much brighter than stock and definitely not blue, its a really bright white light.

They must be pretty tough too, one of my headlights got nailed by a rock a year or so ago, it has a huge chip in it and it leaks, and its still going strong.

 

[Atl XJ]

only problem with them is they burn out rather quickly, and no it's not an electrical issue, they just burn out faster than stockers. great light, but at the rate i'm burning through them, i'm converting to h3's. i'm no hippy, but i'm getting sick of throwing away lights that are 6 mnths old just because the driving light burnt out, huge waste of resources.

Ive had mine for almost three years now with no issues. One even leaks because it got nailed by a rock on the interstate and has a big chip in it.

 

[Reindeer]

A lot of folks seem to run the Sylvania Silverstars. I got them off a recommendation here and I like 'em. MUCH better than the stockers.

Yet another vote for the SilverStars.
They are easy to install, bright as hell and reasonably cheap.
Also, I don't get flashed the high beams with these with folks falsely thinking that I am using high beams.
The low beams are super bright, and throw far enough so that I don't ever really have to use high beams, so it saves me a huge hassle.

I had to fiddle for an evening to aim them, but it was worth it.