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Purple HID


Stang2Cadi

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I just purchased a 99 STS and want to replace the factory headlight bulbs with puple HID bulbs, but I am not sure what I should be looking for. There are a lot of different products out there that claim to have a dramatic difference from the factory bulbs. any help with this would be great

thanks

S2C

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A couple of years ago I looked into doing this with my 1997 ETC. I decided not to do it, and bought Sylvania Silver Star bulbs instead. The reasons:

  • The kits are not inexpensive, and installation is far from trivial.
  • The daytime driving lights feature of most recent GM cars runs the high beam at 75% power. To use HID high beams, you must either disable this feature completely or modify it to allow 100% power to the high beams. Running HID high beams all the time in daylight struck me as not a good idea, and the HID bulbs would have much shorter life. Also, daytime running lamps have been shown to reduce the frequency of accidents by 75% so I didn't want to disable that feature.
  • Exact fit kits for the Eldorado weren't available at that time. General purpose kits have very involved installation procedures, and are best implemented as additional driving lights. Replacing the small driving lights below the grille of the Eldorado with HID lamps is an option, but they are lower than the recommended installation height needed for the full advantage of down-the-road coverage of HID high beams.
  • I live in South Jersey, so the extra coverage and visibility on the open road in light traffic is less important that it would be if I lived in, say South Dakota, Arizona, or Utah.
If HID is an important safety issue for you, then, solve the problems. If not, then understand that Sylvania Silver Star bulbs in your existing system are 50 State legal, require no modifications, use the same or slightly less power than the OEM bulbs, and, with precise headlight adjustment, give you most of the visibility of HID headlights.

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Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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Welcome aboard.

If your car was factory equiped with HID lamps, I would use the OEM bulb number.

If your car is equiped with aftermarket HID lamps, you probably have as much "light" as you are going to get.

But, if you are trying to replace OEM tungsten filament incandescent bulbs with HID lighting, you will need to find more than just a bulb. Part of the problem in the aftermarket lighting world is marketing hype; companies are using "HID" when they really mean "HID Like".

Sure enough HID bulbs are arc tubes that require a transformer, or ballast as they are called, to achieve the voltage required to ionize the gap and produce an arc. Sure enough HID lamp systems tend to be expensive.

HID Like incandescent bulbs produce a little more light by operating the 12 volt tungsten filament at a higher temperature than the OEM part. Higher temperature = shorter life.

Jim

Drive your car.

Use your cell phone.

CHOOSE ONE !

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JimD addressed something that I didn't -- faux HID. I picked Sylvania Silver Star because they give the most light with acceptable bulb life. Watch for the bulb "temperature." 4400 K is about as high as you want to go if you want decent bulb life and maximum light. Higher "temperature" means that the bulb is filtered from a 400 K bulb, which means that the more green or blue color comes at the expense of less light, and probably the filtering keeps more heat in the bulb == still shorter bulb life. That's the trade for tungsten bulbs. If you want the color, accept the lower light levels and the shorter bulb life. I'm safety and performance oriented, so I went with the most light I could get with my car under conditions I was willing to accept. Your intentions and taste may differ from mine, and that's perfectly fine, and I will help within the limits of my knowledge and experience.

HID bulbs are similar to sodium and mercury bulbs used in street lights. The ballast and starter are similar conceptually to those used in fluorescent lighting, which work with a similar principle. HID, sodium, and mercury lamps work with arcs in a vapor that may be a mixture of Xenon, sodium vapor, mercury vapor, and other gases. Flurescent lighting works with mercury vapor to produce ultraviolet light that causes the white lining of the tube to fluoresce.

HID bulbs use an arc in high pressure xenon vapor, which results in that brilliant blue-white that makes such a good headlight.

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Silvania SilverStar bulbs are coated blue and, while the appearance of a whiter light may initially be attractive, the actual light output is less if anything.

The GE Night Hawk bulbs are the only halogens that produce more light than a standard bulb and will work with the stock wiring. They are not a coated bulb, so they do not experience the shorter life span that a Sylvania SilverStar or Sylvania Cool Blue bulb will.

The design of the headlight lense and reflector play a much greater part in night visibility than do the bulbs themselves.

Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond)

"When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?"

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Thanks a lot guys,

That was extremely helpful!

S2C

If you want actualt HID bulbs, you will find that you wont get the light output with the HID that you might expect, the problem is that the halogen projector housing when used with aftermarket HID bulbs (DS2 with adapter) will not focus the light correctly, it will disperse everywhere, causing glare.

The BEST way to CORECTLY do it is to buy the factory HID housings and change the bulb to the color temperature you want. (but this is drastically more money).

You can also keep the halogen low beams and add HIDs to the fog lamps, it produces glare, but it isnt as bad as if they were in the low beams.

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Silvania SilverStar bulbs are coated blue and, while the appearance of a whiter light may initially be attractive, the actual light output is less if anything.

The GE Night Hawk bulbs are the only halogens that produce more light than a standard bulb and will work with the stock wiring. They are not a coated bulb, so they do not experience the shorter life span that a Sylvania SilverStar or Sylvania Cool Blue bulb will.

The design of the headlight lense and reflector play a much greater part in night visibility than do the bulbs themselves.

The Sylvania Silver Star bulbs do produce a lot more light than the standard bulbs. A couple of years ago when I looked at this, the GE bulbs weren't out. If you do get a halogen bulb, be sure and check the lumens output of the bulb; if it isn't listed, don't buy it. But at least two manufacturers sell brighter bulbs, with the trade being somewhat shorter life: GE and Sylvania.

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Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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It is proven and demonstratable that the Sylvania Silver Star bulbs produce LESS light than normal halogens. As with any lighting issue, Daniel Stern's website is a great resource. Here's a page talking specifically about halogen "white" bulbs:

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bu.../good/good.html

One point of confusion MAY be, as he points out in his last paragraph, is that Osram, who makes a "Silver Star", does so with a clear glass and doesn't suffer the shorter life. Osram bought Silvania some time ago, but Silvania still makes a "Silver Star" bulb that we buy in the store...and it is this bulb (that we have here) that is blue-coated and overdriven to produce a usable amount of light.

The street light analogy is a GREAT one. Look at one through the clear part of your windshield. Looks kind of yellow (usually). Now pull forward and look at it through the blue sunscreen portion at the top. Looks much whiter. But dimmer. This is EXACTLY what happens with Silvania Sliver Star bulbs. Blue coating = whiter light. But the bulb is overdriven to compensate for the greatly reduced light levels, and you still end up with less light and a much shorter life.

In short, the GE Night Hawk bulbs are the ONLY bulbs available in the United States that will truly give you increased light without a reduction in life. If you can find the OSRAM Silver Star bulb, that would be a good one. But the SYLVANIA Silver Star is a blue bulb, and WILL reduce your night vision.

Mr. Stern's final quote is a good one:

"To get the best possible seeing performance at night, don't choose extra-white bulbs."

Also, go to your library and look up the January 2006 issue of Consumer Reports. They tried three aftermarket "white" bulbs, including both the GE Night Hawk and Silvania Silver Star, and did instrumented illumination testing at various distances (like 100, 200, 300 feet) at night. None of the three bulbs consistently improved vision, and the Silver Star consistently REMOVED some of your vision, despite the whiter light. Again, blue coating = less light. It's all in the charts...it's actually a pretty good article, and the only one I've seen that actually tries to objectively measure the performance differences of different light bulbs.

Here's an article teaser:

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summa...86-14403821_ITM

Actually, here's a good summary of the article, interestingly, on my local news station's website:

http://www.wral.com/money/8829691/detail.html

This topic is really non-debatable. The data is out there.

Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond)

"When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?"

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Actually, I take back my statement that the GE Night Hawk bulbs are the ONLY bulbs that will increase your light.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bu...bulb_types.html

The 9011/HIR and 9012/HIR bulbs are great choices with the potential of almost 2400 lumens. I believe there are some slight modifications to the bulbs required to fit the stock retainers. A similar procedure can be done to fit the high beam bulbs (which do not have the opaque-coated tip) into the low beam socks (low beams typically do have an opaque-coated tip).

I haven't done any of the above yet, though I do plan to try GE Night Hawk bulbs if any of my current bulbs ever expires. I have tried the Silvania Cool Blue bulbs before, but when one blew after only a year, I put real bulbs back in.

Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond)

"When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?"

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You would think with the disire for more light, GM or a side line would come out with new lenses or capsules and reflector designs to supply the after market with the new bulbs available. As mentioned above, some of the new bulbs only provide the light advertised if the lens of reflector is designed for it. Surely there is enough interest to spark R&D to provide us with the options. I for one, am not overly impressed with the light provided from my HID lights. I am sure some manufacture is working on this. If not, maybe a opportunity for someone with a few extra bucks. I would be very interested in a high end, top of the line system that provided me with the most light possible within the leagal limits with in reasonable cost. Any other comments?

2001 STS Mettalic Otter Grey, Black Leather, 213,000 kilometers - miles - ? Still running strong!

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Look at the lumens.

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Another good thing to do (for the halogen guys) is to wire your lights directly to the battery, through a relay. Mr. Stern's website also gives generic instructions on that. The maze of stock wiring through which the current must travel is often draining to the system. Wiring the lights direct can really help out in some cases.

Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond)

"When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?"

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I looked on Silvania's website for lumen information. Their site is rather ambiguous.

Bottom line up front: they claim the same 1000 +/- 15% for all of their bulbs, standard halogen, XtraVision, Cool Blue, and Silver Star. This really contradicts their marketing on their website. You can find phrases such as:

(Silver Star) "What if you had more light when you needed it most, like while driving at night."

(XtraVision) "XtraVision capsules leverage the technology of a specifically engineered filament and a proprietary gas mixture to create up to 30% more illumination than standard halogens."

(XtraVision) "SYLVANIA XtraVision® bulbs provide more illumination than standard halogen and increase down road visibility."

They're clearly marketing their more expensive bulbs to the notion that they produce MORE light. Their specs clearly indicate otherwise.

And even looking at lumens isn't a good measure of true performance. Just like looking at a car's horsepower figure doesn't really give you the true picture of what's really going on.

Here's a great link on the topic of "nominal" lumens (which is what Silvania is marketing on their website) vs. actual light output:

http://www.automotivehelper.com/topic511427.htm

It actually includes some words of wisdom from Daniel Stern himself, and he specifically addresses the notion of "claimed lumens" like what you see on websites.

Here is what he specifies is the ACTUAL output of some of these bulbs:

Osram or Sylvania H1 (regular normal):

1550 lumens, 650 hours

Osram or Sylvania H1 long life:

1460 lumens, 1200 hours

Osram H1 Super (if Sylvania Xtravision line included H1, this'd be it):

1700 lumens, 350 hours

Osram H1 Silverstar (NOT Sylvania Silverstar!):

1750 lumens, 350 hours

Osram H1 CoolBlue or Sylvania H1 Silver Star:

1380 lumens, 250 hours

Note that what you buy as as Cool Blue or Silver Star produces about 1380 lumens, vs. 1550 for a standard halogen bulb.

Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond)

"When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?"

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I think you may be looking at the SilverStar like it is the "Cool Blue" line, which is exactly what you say -- lower light for a blue look. You didn't have lumen outputs for the regular SilverStar or the SilverStar Premium. The Sylvania product comparison page is

http://www.sylvania.com/ConsumerProducts/A...son/default.htm

Isn't the H1 specs a high-vibration type, for motorcycles, trucks, and other heavy duty applications? If so, it isn't necessary for most passenger cars.

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Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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The regular Sylvania Silver Star ARE INDEED just like the Cool Blue. Both are blue-coated bulbs, both have a reduced light output (regardless of Sylvania's marketing), and both have reduced life. Don't get me wrong -- they (Silver Star) are more expensive, so they may have better materials or may be more "overdriven", but the bulb mechanics are the same. Pushing more light through a blue filter to achieve an acceptable level of "white" light.

The Sylvania Sliver Star PREMIUM may indeed be the same as the OSRAM Silver Star, in which case it would be a non-coated bulb, it would not suffer the side effects of such a coating, and would be a genuine improvement, like the GE Night Hawk. If that is the case, it's extremely important to differentiate between the Sylvania Silver Star and the Sylvania Silver Star Premium, because they may be two different bulbs.

But to be clear (ha, no pun intended), the standard Sylvania Silver Star bulb IS a coated bulb, and will not objectively improve night vision, as stated in numerous links. They're not bad lights, they're not illegal, they're not dangerous. There just also not an objective improvement, even if the subjective color is what the end user desires.

The Sylvania Silver Star Premium must be a brand new product, yes? I've never seen it on the store shelves, and Sylvania's automotive lighting webpage makes no mention of it:

http://www.sylvania.com/ConsumerProducts/A...oducts/Halogen/

According to Daniel Stern, which is the only objective source I can find, these are the lumen outputs for the OSRAM Silver Star (and PERHAPS the Sylvania SS Premium) and the Sylvania SS standard and Cool Blue bulbs:

Osram H1 Silverstar (NOT Sylvania Silverstar!):

1750 lumens, 350 hours

Osram H1 CoolBlue or Sylvania H1 Silver Star:

1380 lumens, 250 hours

I think the "H1" is just a technical size spec, like 9005 or 9006. Sylvania doesn't list the ACTUAL lumens on its website (go figure!), just the nominal lumen outputs for the size spec, which for the H1 size is 1410 +/- 210 lm. So anywhere from 1200 to 1620 would be "valid" for that size. The OSRAM Silver Star may actually be a little too high.

I'm going to email Mr. Stern and ask him about these Silver Star Premium lights, and also about the Sylvania Xtravision lights (which is actually what I have in the Cadillac now). According to some of his specs (posted on Page 1 of this thread), the Sylvania Xtravision lights would be loosely equivalent to the OSRAM Silver Star and GE Night Hawk, in terms of lumens, if the Xtravision came in the H1 size spec. I'm 100% satisfied with the Xtravisions, and they are a dramatic improvement over the old Cool Blues. But it doesn't appear that the GE Night Hawk or even the OSRAM Silver Star bulbs would necessarily be an improvement vs. the Xtravisions. Hopefully he'll have some advice. Thanks for the link showing the Premium SS bulbs -- that's the first time I've ever seen those. Sylvania's own website doesn't even list them on all their pages.

Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond)

"When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?"

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Well here is something rather intersting regarding Silverstar bulbs that I've noticed on 4 different vehicles, all are Fords (yea, I know, everyone has a cross to bear, some are just heavier than others).

Bronco; These things have helped my vision at night over the stock bulb. They are defiently "whiter" than the "stock" bulb. i just replaced them after 4 years of service. No DRL's, use headlights as needed. They very bright and properly aimed (as some drivers let me know when I go around tham).

SHO: Same as the Bronco. Sold car and put bulbs in sons Tempo

Sons Tempo: Same as Bronco, and still going strong.

Windstar (2002): No differnce from the stock bulb. Very short life span because the vehicle is driven consistently with the headlights on.

Not sure what all of this means but the Bronco, Taurus and Tempo all share the same size bulb. The Windstar uses a different bulb size so is it possible the results/pointed out applies to all bulbs? The shelf life is short if they're on all the time.

I've never used a cool blue (or something along those lines) bulb

My 2001 STS has factory HIDs.

Jim

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The Sylvania SilverStar IS just like the Cool Blue -- same thing, just slightly more powerful. I've had one set of Cool Blue bulbs before. They were fine. Definitely a whiter light. But the XtraVisions I have now surely outshine them. And the lumens do prove that. None of the blue-tinted bulbs like the Sylvania SilverStar/CoolBlue even produce STOCK levels of light, let alone more.

I'm going out tonight to Auto Zone because they apparently have the SilverStar Ultra there, and I want to get a good look at it. I think the SS Ultra would truly give an improvement in lumens, because I believe it's an uncoated bulb.

Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond)

"When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?"

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Auto Zone had both the Sylvania SilverStar and the "new" Sylvania SilverStar Ultra. Both are blue-coated bulbs. The Ultra bulbs are packed in even fancier packaging than the standard SilverStars, but unfortunately, they are still coated. :(

I also went by Wal-Mart and checked out the GE NightHawk. Also fancy packaging, but no blue tint on the glass. The price there for the pair of NightHawks was about $26. The Sylvania XtraVision bulbs, which are probably the highest lumen bulb that Sylvania makes, were $20 for the pair at Auto Zone (didn't notice the price at Wal-Mart, though I'm sure it's just as low).

My other stop, sometime soon I hope, will be to Napa to check out the Wagner BriteLite. I'm sure it's another Sylvania XtraVision/GE Night Hawk competitor. Wagner also sells blue-coated bulbs, but the BriteLite isn't one of them. It's also about $20 for the pair as I understand from reading various sources on the Internet.

Already having the Sylvania XtraVision bulbs in the Cadillac, I think I'm going to try either the Wagner BriteLite or the GE NightHawk in the van. Although its headlights are already very very good (probably the best halogen-based headlight I've driven behind), more light is usually better, especially when placed in an already good reflector/housing.

Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond)

"When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?"

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Light from Sylvania SilverStar bulbs is white, not blue. There is a faint blue tint to the envelope of the SilverStar bulbs yes, but the light they put out is 4000 K, which is white relative to ordinary headlights, but far from blue. The tint is to provide a light that gives better color rendition and thus visibility, and is chosen to do just that but not to bring down the lumen output.

The degree of filtering on light bulbs improves visibility more than it decreases lumens up to a point. This is at about a color temperature of 4400 K. Past that point, increased tint brings down color temperature.

I've been doing photography for many years with film cameras, and one thing that is very important is to provide the correct color temperature for the film used (similar issues arise in digital cameras but the user isn't notified in most cameras). Basically, color shift filtering is measured in decamireds, and the light loss in f/stops is equal to the number of decamireds divided by six.

Decamireds is another way of defining color temperature. The decamired value of a color temperature is 100,000 divided by the color temperature. The decamired values different colors are, for reference:

3200 K -> 31.25 decamireds (ordinary household light bulbs)

3400 K -> 29.41 decamireds (photofloods, old headlights)

3800 K -> 26.32 decamireds (white photofloods, halogen lights, newer headlights)

4000 K -> 25.00 decamireds (SilverStar temperature)

4400 K -> 22.73 decamireds (some other high-performance headlight bulbs)

5500 K -> 18.18 decamireds (standard daylight color temperature, some HID headlights)

Decamireds are used in color photography filters because they cause a color temperature shift in decamireds, and come in shifts of 1.5, 3, 6, and 12 decamireds.

The decamired shift from 3800 K to 4000 K is 1.32 decamireds, which is a pale blue tint that has a light loss of 0.22 f/stops. Since about 1/3 f/stop is the smallest light difference that is just discernable to most people, this is measurable but not significant. Sylvania says that they do this to improve visibility by giving better color rendition. "Useful" lumens, as defined by useful light as determined by testing with people, would be unaffected or even improved by this slight tint. I would expect that just about all high-performance headlight bulbs will do this.

You can see that continuing to push the color temperature through filtering, even to 4400 K, will cause significant light loss. The decamired shift from 3800 K to 4400 K is 3.6 decamired for a light loss of 0.6 f/stops, which is more than noticeable; some think that the whiter light improves visibility over 4000 K light to the extent that this trade-off is better, but not Sylvania.

Something like a Cool Blue will have a distinctly blue bulb that will have a decamired shift of 8 decamireds or more, if they are true color shift filters and not just blue filters. An 8 decamired filter which will cause 1 1/3 f/stops light loss -- a significant amount, but not enough to make a 3800 K halogen headlight bulb illegal.

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Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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Yes, both the CoolBlue and SilverStar bulbs have a blue tint. And yes, the CoolBlue bulb has a heavier tint. It appears to be simply a standard bulb with a heavy blue coating to help shift the light more towards the blue spectrum. I've had these bulbs before and even these don't throw a blue light. It's a very white light...just less of it. I believe Sylvania marketed them as about 3600-3800K in color. They market the SilverStars as 4000K as you state, and I'm sure the light is even whiter.

Most standard halogen bulbs are in the 3200K range (at least according to Sylvania). As you state, the SilverStars are in the 4000K range. That's a decamired shift (I don't even know how to pronounce that!) of 6.25 decamireds. So what's that divided by six...a little over 1 f/stop? I don't know how that translates into lumens, but if 1/3 of an f/stop is discernable, I'd say over 1 f/stop would be a non-trivial decrease in light. Of course Sylvania knows this, and "overdrives" the lights so as to not experience a big decrease. And this is what causes the short lifespan.

All high performance bulbs do not have this tint. All the "high style" bulbs do. The real performers, or I should say the lights that give an increase in lumens, are the high efficiency uncoated bulbs. Examples include the Sylvania Xtravision (which is very similar to the Osram SilverStar in Europe), the GE Nighthawk (also formerlly the GE High Output), and the Wagner BriteLite (also sold as the Napa/Cooper BriteLite). These high performance bulbs ALSO have a decreased life...due to the bulbs being overdriven. I think the Sylvania SilverStar is rated at 150 hours, and the Xtravision at 250 hours. The distinction here is that since the bulb isn't coated, the light isn't as white, but there is simply more of it.

What's interesting to point out is that the Sylvania SilverStar that we buy here is marketed as the Osram CoolBlue in Europe. Osram/Sylvania have a funny way of marketing their products.

But Mr. Stern's website has a lot of information about how the eye perceives light, and how a "whiter" light is not always better. You can see this in the development of HID lights. They have actually come DOWN in K temperature since their inception. They used to be in the 4500-5500K range, but most OE HIDs are now in the low 4000K range.

In the end, I think lighting has the same placebo effect as a K&N filter. The visual difference in the COLOR of the light supports the perception that there really is more light. There are obviously differing opinions on whether or not the COLOR of the light improves visibility, especially at night. Mr. Stern quotes a study by a Michigan university that shows the white bulbs reduce visibility at night. And the fact that the HID lights' K temperature continues to fall seems to support that.

I've seen on the Internet that the GE Nighthawk bulbs are supposed to be in the 3600K range. But I've seen that the Wagner BriteLites are supposed to be close to 4000K. I don't know if that was erroneous, and if it's not, how would Wagner do that without coating the bulb. I plan to check those out in person to see what the deal is. I suspect that was a mis-quote. Wagner DOES market "LazrBlue" bulbs or something like that, which would probably perform a lot like a Sylvania CoolBlue or SilverStar, and those bulbs would fill that market niche. I'm 95% certain that the BriteLites compete with the Sylvania Xtravision and the GE Nighthawk, which would mean that they should be uncoated, but I want to verify in person.

I truly enjoyed this thread because I learned a lot, but I guess we'll have to agree to disagree at this point.

Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond)

"When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?"

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I think that the hottest halogen bulbs run at 3800 K. That's the whole point of high-pressure halogen, to allow a filament temperature hgiher than 3400 K, which is the heat of vaporization of tungsten without higher pressures. Given that, there are three things left that can differ between them and still be legal, and put out lots of light:

  1. The amount of wattage.
  2. The efficiency, or lumens per watt.
  3. A small decamired shift for whiter light.
Increasing wattage decreases bulb life and everything runs hotter including the headlight lens and housing. Higher light efficiency is hard to get, as it depends on exposed surface of the filament that allows the light out of the bulb in a useful direction, and even standard bulbs have done as much as possible in that direction for years. Decamired shift must be limited because the light it absorbs isn't available for visibility, and absorbing the light power makes the bulb run yet a little hotter and decreases life.

My experience in switching from standard bulbs to the SilverStar is that they put out a LOT more light, and I adjusted my headlights to take advantage of that. The dealer adjustment, standard for the LA area, is to aim the lights low because most driving is done on lighted freeways and streets; if you drive on the high desert, you have your headlights adjusted at a truck stop. I adjusted mine in the driveway using the garage door; it took a large Torx socket to do it.

It's been well over a year, so I might look at what's available now. I'll look at the GE offerings too.

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-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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I slightly "tweaked" the adjustment of my headlights also. I found they were aimed awfully low. And especially since the car has an automatic height adjusting suspension, I didn't feel bad aiming them just a touch higher, using my garage door.

I have no doubt that the SilverStars are about as white as a halogen bulb gets. But at the same time, I bet you will see a difference with some of the uncoated offerings. I don't know about the Sylvania Xtravisions, but the GE Nighthawk and Wagner BriteLite both claim to use xenon gas in the capsule instead of tungsten gas. That may be how they can achieve an increased output, I don't know. I've visually looked at the GE Nighthawks at Wal-Mart, and intend to check out the Wagners at either Pep Boys or Napa soon. For the price and for the better performance, I think they're a great buy.

Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond)

"When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?"

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A lot of the "is it brighter?" question has to do with personal preference and our age. I have some ion crystal (yellow) fog lights w/100 watt bulbs that, in my eyes, dont put out as much light as the same fogs w/clear lenses and 85 watt bulbs. The Silverstars(4000k) with their whiter light do seem to have more "reflectivity" than the OEM(3200K) bulbs and much more than the yellow (2800K) fog bulbs. I think this is what makes them seem brighter.

As our eyes get older & having been subjected to more UV they dont pick up the blue spectrums of light as well as a younger persons.

I do know, from experience that you dont want to use high wattage bulbs in the projector lenses as they will burn/discolor the reflector and you will have even less light. A wiring harness w/relays is just a marginal gain although it is noticiable.

If you have projectors, HID is about the only way to go to really see and even then you still have a lot of dark area compared to a reflector housing. HID kits in halogen projectors are OK but not as good as the housings made for HID.

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