Best Halogen Headlight Bulb?

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Mar 16, 2009
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Southeast Michigan
I'm looking for feedback on what folks consider the best halogen headlight bulb these days. I'm looking to replace the ones currently in my fleet's 2011 Ford Fiesta. It's headlamps had really deteriorated and gotten very, very cloudy. I spend hours yesterday restoring them with a Sylvania kit which produced nice results. I'd now like to update the old bulbs to something that will provide the best night visibility achievable. Sylvania SilverStar or SilverStar Ultra? I'm looking for a plug-and-play replacement and am not considering a HID retrofit or anything like that. Thank you in advance for your input!
 
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I have had great luck with the Wagner TruView bulbs in my Tacoma. We had terrible luck in our '04 and '14 Accords with the Sylvania's...didn't matter what line. My recommendation is to steer clear of the Sylvania's if your alternator/electrical system is ECM managed or pulsed; that was the outcome of system checks, forum checking, dealer data. The Wagners never gave us any trouble in the Accord's once we started using those.
 
I would try Philips, Hella or Narva.

The Legend uses crap 9004 bulbs for both low and high beams. In order to get more light onto the road, I used to run Sylvania Silverstars. It was a slight improvement but bulb life was poor. I was never able to source/try Osram Silverstars, which supposedly are better than Sylvania branded bulbs (skeptical).

I just use plain halogen bulbs. When I need more light I just turn on the Hella clear fogs.
 
I'm looking for feedback on what folks consider the best halogen headlight bulb these days. I'm looking to replace the ones currently in my fleet's 2011 Ford Fiesta. It's headlamps had really deteriorated and gotten very, very cloudy. I spend hours yesterday restoring them with a Sylvania kit which produced nice results. I'd now like to update the old bulbs to something that will provide the best night visibility achievable. Sylvania SilverStar or SilverStar Ultra? I'm looking for a plug-and-play replacement and am not considering a HID retrofit or anything like that. Thank you in advance for your input!
Sylvania XtraVision is a little better than Long Life, without the penalties of Silverstar and Silverstar Ultra.

Silverstar and Silverstar Ultra are expensive gimmicks with a short lifespan, making them even more expensive.

The blue coating reduces output, so they need to pump up the output to stay on the upper end of the lumens legality, at the expense of life.

The European Osram Silverstar don't have any blue coating on it.
 
The SYLVANIA Xtravision or the PHILIPS VisionPlus . Both have no tint / color of the glass for a white , bright light . SYLVANIA Xtravision are less than $21 for the pair at Walmart . Have longer life as stated above . Years ago I bought the PHILIPS VisionPlus at PEPBOYS .
 
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Phillips or Osram. Have Osram Xenon bulbs in my Saab and they lasted 12 years. Have had good service from Phillips halogen bulbs. Agree with the above, stay away from Sylvania Silverstar. They have a short lifespan. I think they even admit that in the packaging. My Suzuki requires removing the front bumper and lower valence to replace bulbs, that's insane.
 
I've been sourcing Osram Night breakers for a number of years now, with no real complaints...
yes, the higher output bulbs have a trade off of shorter life.
 
If you are looking for headlight bulbs that put out more than standard bulbs, Do not waste your money on Sylvania. If you read up here on BITOG and other sources, there are more negative reviews of Sylvania headlight bulbs than there are positive. You will find a lot of comments about very short bulb life, lots of glare, etc.

I strongly recommend Philips. If you want the brightest without going to the trendy white look, then X-tremeVision. If you like the white look, consider CrystalVision Platinum or CrystalVision Ultra. Philips has just introduced NightGuide Platinum, which is supposed to replace the X-tremeVision. But there is overlap right now.

Osram is another great choice. Although I have no personal experience with them, I've seen a lot of great reviews of Piaa. Hella also makes good bulbs. I've had Hella for fog lights and was very pleased.

But don't waste your money on Sylvania.
 
H11B for the low beam
You can upgrade those to H9’s, they won’t last as long but you’ll go from ~1,350 lumens to ~2,100. You can also upgrade the high beam 9005’s (at least that’s what they are according to rock auto) to 9011’s.
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If your goal is to blind oncoming drivers with glare due to poor beam shape, you bet!

But if you want to see the road yourself, well, skip the LEDs…
I've replaced halogen bulbs with LEDs in several cars, including my daughter's Hyundai and my wife's Accord. All LEDs were high quality, with small fans to cool the 12VDC to 5VDC converter. None blind oncoming drivers.
 
I've replaced halogen bulbs with LEDs in several cars, including my daughter's Hyundai and my wife's Accord. All LEDs were high quality, with small fans to cool the 12VDC to 5VDC converter. None blind oncoming drivers.
Projectors definitely help out for that. The giant reflectors are what people hate.
 
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