Sylvania XtraVision Service Life

[sciphi]

Originally Posted By: mechanicx
I dislike HID. They are very glaring to other drivers and have that annoying blue tint. I do like projector beam headlamps though and as long as they're tungsten-halogen based don't seem to cause any extra glare and they give great visibility.


Factory HID, plug-and-play HID, or HID retrofit with purpose-designed projectors? I don't have a problem with the first and last. I have a major problem with the middle. Those are the "glare monsters" we all hate.

 

[mechanicx]

Even the factory installed HIDs have more glare to other drivers than tungsten lamps due to their intensity and color.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2001-06-07-xenon.htm
Quote:
The university has spent at least 10 years trying to quantify the problem, and thinks it has done so. The short version: Oncoming drivers are bothered by HID glare because of its harsher, blue light. Light from conventional tungsten-halogen headlights is toward the softer, red end of the spectrum. Halogens have to put out 1.5 times as much light as HID lights do to cause the same wincing, squinting and looking away.

 

[Hokiefyd]

I don't like HID either. Even driving WITH HID, I don't like it. They have poor color contrast...almost turning what's in the beam monochromatic. I find it fatiguing to drive with HIDs at night because of this. HIDs also reduce long-range vision for me at night because of the incredibly bright foreground, another means of eye fatigue in my experience.

I've driven two Acuras and a BMW with HIDs at night, and don't feel that night vision was improved in any of them compared with a good halogen source. HID may be a cripple for a poorly-designed multi-reflector housing (as is found OEM in older Acura TLs, Lexus RX330s, etc) or similar, but I don't believe they contribute to superior vision when a good projector system is used. They are brighter, there's no question about that. But I believe their pros outweigh their cons.

I'm hoping it's a fad that will soon fade (quite literally). Or maybe yellower HIDs would help. The "yellowest" HID system out there is 4300K for main driving beams...then 3000K for fog lamps (equally silly in my opinion). I'd like to see a 3600K HID system...something that would replicate the color (and possibly also the color contrast) of a halogen light source.

 

[The Critic]

Well I answered my own question. The LF bulb burned out on my Prius tonight. These bulbs went into service 4 months and 11,500 miles ago. My headlights are usually on about 90% of the time, so the service life was somewhere around 250 hours.

This is for the H11 application.

 

[Garak]

Good grief. If my XtraVisions did that, I'd pitch a fit!

 

[Klutch9]

Mine have been in my Focus for over a year now, and still working great. As a side note... every time I'm in a parking garage or under a soft yellow street light, I realize just how white these bulbs are in combination with the harness!

 

[Vikas]

4 months and 11.5K miles? You drive 35K miles per year??

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: Klutch9
Mine have been in my Focus for over a year now, and still working great. As a side note... every time I'm in a parking garage or under a soft yellow street light, I realize just how white these bulbs are in combination with the harness!


Check out the Philips Xtreme Power then. The XtraVisions that used to be in my CR-V look like 10-year-old yellowed OEM bulbs compared to the color coming out of the Philips bulbs. I was shocked at the difference. And I don't even have an add-on harness.

The Acura has XtraVisions in H11 right now, but will be getting the Xtreme Power bulbs next.

 

[Klutch9]

Hmmm... I may consider the XtremePower for next time. I still haven't touched the bulbs in our Fusion. I REALLY want to do the H11 to H9 conversion, but that extra 10 watt power draw on those skinny wires + the added heat in the projector housing really scares me... I know it'll probably be fine, but I'm sure those headlights aren't cheap to replace if something went wrong. Plus, my wife would kill me for experimenting with her car

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Klutch9
Mine have been in my Focus for over a year now, and still working great.


Mine are still in the old Audi, and I put them in there three years ago. The XtraVision sealed beams are still on my F-150, and I put them in there in around 2000 or 2001.

 

[Whimsey]

Wow, I have 10+ year old factory bulbs in my 2002 F-150 and the brightness is still good, at least to me. If I replace them what would be good for long life and use on mainly secondary back roads with out street lights? Or should I wait till they burn out. I replaced the original bulbs in my 1996 Contour with HID's, not because bulbs burned out. But after 15 years the factory bulbs on low beam were still horrible if not worse from day one. Ironically the high beams were good. The wiring harnesses on these vehicles are horribly frail and higher watt bulbs in low beam position tend to fry the wires it seems. The HID's run on a much lower wattage and produce a brighter light. So far the HID's I got off of EBAY still work good after a year. They were only ~$40 delivered.

Whimsey

 

[sciphi]

Hmm, the H13 (9008) XV's in the Cruze have been going strong since my lighting upgrade during early December 2011. The low beams are always on full-power as the DRL. I'm pretty sure they're running at 12.5 volts when running as DRL, and at 14 volts as low beams due to the "smart" alternator doing its thing.

 

[Garak]

Personally, as you see in my last post, I've had very good luck with the XtraVisions, both in sealed beams and in replaceable bulbs. What attracted me to them was that they (at least advertise such) have brighter light. They're hardly any more money than generic halogens, they don't have blue filters, and they're not requiring excess current to provide the light. They're also readily available.

There's nothing wrong with keeping what you have in the truck until they burn out, particularly if you're satisfied with them.

 

[dragonsamus]

I bought a set to replace my silver stars. I never knew the white light from the silver stars were filtered to look that way. Can't wait to get these. Purchased from Amazon. They were $19 for two.

 

[lt1man]

Use the cheaper ones with the lowest lumen capability, they have the longest life. Just because it claims its bright, I've never noticed any differences except that they burn out quicker!