Read up/YouTube search on LED alternative bulbs to H4. Many options available that can work well. Less current draw and fewer heat dissipation issues. Often four or five times the life of traditional halogen bulbs. Honestly. night and day difference (pun intended) in my opinion.
Halogen headlight recommendation
- Thread starter supton
- Start date
I use osram nightbreaker laser halogens on my wifes Tucson. They are better than stock for sure. Even SHE noticed and she doesn't notice this kind of thing.
The LEDs frequently have terrible patterns. David Stern recommends the Philips Nightbreakers as the brightest, best pattern and will work with stock wiring.
@supton, if you haven’t bought yet, I’d go with the cheapest, NON-long life bulb you can find in a brand like osram or sylvania.
LL bulbs use a thicker filament, so they can run slightly cooler to last longer. This lowers the color temperature slightly, but also reduces the focus from the original reflector design. Going to a non long-life bulb provides a slightly hotter color temperature, while preserving the color rendering of real halogen light, with the benefit of improved focus.
LL bulbs use a thicker filament, so they can run slightly cooler to last longer. This lowers the color temperature slightly, but also reduces the focus from the original reflector design. Going to a non long-life bulb provides a slightly hotter color temperature, while preserving the color rendering of real halogen light, with the benefit of improved focus.
Daniel Stern the auto lighting guru?
Yep. Th H4 recommendation was a little while back when I had my Forester.
If I had listened to him on the Impreza I most certainly wouldn’t have a destroyed connector today…
I think you will like them. Have been using them for years and am happy with them...Brighter then stock...without the blue gimmick coating...
Just replaced the 9012 bulbs in my wife's 2012 Abarth for the second time in the 11 years we've owned it.
This time I used Philips Automotive Lighting 9012 NightGuide Platinum, and they are much much brighter than the Philips 9012 LL's that I replaced the OEM's with, and haven't been happy with in the past few years.
I do wish it was possible to replace the 9012 Halogens with real D3S 35W BiXenon's like what comes standard on either the Cayman or the Stelvio. The light is just so much better on those two cars. Hell, I'd even settle for the D5S 25W that came on the Giulia, to be honest, even though I was never happy with those headlights. They still lit up the road in front of the car, but just always was a bit dimmer than I would have preferred.
My one major complaint are car companies (I'l looking at you, FCA), that use 1 bulb to cover high and low beam duties, and just use a flapper that lifts out of the way to switch to high beam. If that flapper breaks, or the motor dies, you have to buy a whole new headlight assembly. Not to mention the THUNK they make when you turn on/off the high beams.
This time I used Philips Automotive Lighting 9012 NightGuide Platinum, and they are much much brighter than the Philips 9012 LL's that I replaced the OEM's with, and haven't been happy with in the past few years.
I do wish it was possible to replace the 9012 Halogens with real D3S 35W BiXenon's like what comes standard on either the Cayman or the Stelvio. The light is just so much better on those two cars. Hell, I'd even settle for the D5S 25W that came on the Giulia, to be honest, even though I was never happy with those headlights. They still lit up the road in front of the car, but just always was a bit dimmer than I would have preferred.
My one major complaint are car companies (I'l looking at you, FCA), that use 1 bulb to cover high and low beam duties, and just use a flapper that lifts out of the way to switch to high beam. If that flapper breaks, or the motor dies, you have to buy a whole new headlight assembly. Not to mention the THUNK they make when you turn on/off the high beams.
I know what you mean and agree retrofits scatter light all over, but.... if you have adequate power on the lows and they can effectively light their total range you really don't need the highs anymore. Aimed 1% down, a 2ft high mounted low could light up to 200 ft ahead and not blind anyone except cresting a hill.
DRL's disabled. Easy, like @eljefino said.
Philips Extreme in. Didn't feel like it did much?
Looks pretty yellow to me. I did give in and tried my hand at polishing the housings last year, but didn't feel like it did much.
Did a quick look, and O'Reilly's had a set of TYC's for $108, in stock. Price didn't seem bad, compared to shopping online--and I wanted this done and over with. I have my moments of impatience...
Side by side. Hard to tell which one is the new one, I forget if it's the one on the left.
That's more like it!
I don't think I have aimed correctly, a bit high and so on high beam I actually feel like it's worse than low beam. But on low beam... wowzer, I should have done this before. Like a couple years ago. These TYC's came with Osram bulbs, the p/n matches the "Basic" bulbs I have as spares, that I got from Walmart. Now I have two sets of spares, as I'll keep the Philips in here.
Old units were VAIP's. I thought PO had them replaced, but I can't find a receipt--but I recall them being aligned way off when I got it. This is from the ad, 6 years ago. They looked (and worked!) much better back then. But I think even in this photo this looks "off".
Philips Extreme in. Didn't feel like it did much?
Looks pretty yellow to me. I did give in and tried my hand at polishing the housings last year, but didn't feel like it did much.
Did a quick look, and O'Reilly's had a set of TYC's for $108, in stock. Price didn't seem bad, compared to shopping online--and I wanted this done and over with. I have my moments of impatience...
Side by side. Hard to tell which one is the new one, I forget if it's the one on the left.
That's more like it!
I don't think I have aimed correctly, a bit high and so on high beam I actually feel like it's worse than low beam. But on low beam... wowzer, I should have done this before. Like a couple years ago. These TYC's came with Osram bulbs, the p/n matches the "Basic" bulbs I have as spares, that I got from Walmart. Now I have two sets of spares, as I'll keep the Philips in here.
Old units were VAIP's. I thought PO had them replaced, but I can't find a receipt--but I recall them being aligned way off when I got it. This is from the ad, 6 years ago. They looked (and worked!) much better back then. But I think even in this photo this looks "off".
I didn't realize how much of a difference to output that my cloudy headlight housings were having until I cleaned them up and got rid of the haze.
You have to pick one. Long life or more output. Can't have both with halogen bulbs.
