Your favorite non-OEM halogen headlight bulb?

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Since this is a new area of the forum, I thought I'd start it off with this question. What is your favorite non-OEM headlight bulb?

I figure this will give people a "quick reference" to see what's popular and what's not among the BITOG members.

Back in the day, I tried as many "blue" headlights as I could find. I figured out that most didn't last very long at all. When Sylvania came out with the Silverstar, I tried those. I really liked the light output, however, I tried 2-3 sets of bulbs and none of them lasted more than a year. Now, I've gone back to standard halogen bulbs. Except, this time I put in the brighter XtraVision bulbs from Sylvania. These lights provided more lighting than the Silverstars, however they don't have that nice WHITE look to them. I will say though, they've been in for about 2.5 years and are still going strong.

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I've got Sylvania XtraVision in my Olds van. More light output than the stock bulbs, but these are still a crapy headlight design with a very poor pattern.

It's long been known that axial filaments put more light on the reflector, so I never understood when the 9004 bulb was introduced why the filament placement was horizontal, just as it had been in the old dual filament sealed-beams. They corrected the problem with the 9007, which I was hoping would be completely interchangable with the 9004, but it isn't.

I haven't had to replace the bulbs in my 300M yet, but this car has by far the best headlights of any US-made vehicle I've ever driven. Great low beam coverage, decent cut-off, and good throw on hi-beam.

Way back when American cars only came with sealed-beams and the glass used for the lenses was as cloudy as Coke bottle glass, I routinely replaced my headlights with aftermarket units from Cibie, SEV Marchal, and Hella. With H4 quartz iodine bulbs and a nice sharp cutoff, these lights were phenomenal.
 
I had 9006 silverstars in my last truck. They were still going when I sold it and I think they had been in for about 2.5 years. This is a canadian truck and so they doubled as DRL's, they were on every second the truck was on. I had no complaints.
 
I use Philips Vision Plus 9007's. I used to use PIAA Super Whites, but the Philips bulb puts out more light. Anything advertised as being whiter than standard means that more filtering of the light is done to get that whiter light, so more filtering equals less light output.
 
I've tried Silvania Silverstars, OSRAM Silverstars and Sylvania XtraVisions in my 99 Miata. The difference between the Silverstars and the XtraVision is neglible.

Though I still have the Silverstars, I keep the XtraVision in the headlights.

I've even tried the H4 HID retrofit. I have to say they work great. BUT, used in a headlight not meant for HIDs, as they are reflectors and not even projectors, they glared all over the place and was blinding oncoming traffic. After a while, I decided the safety of other drivers just wasn't worth me having HIDs on my car.
 
I just put Silverstar "SU" 9007 in my Frontier and it's very different..I really like them. I hope I have better luck with longevity than a lot of people say. I'd like to give their new "SU" a try, but at $50 a pair, not sure it'd be worth it unless they are supernova bright.
 
I totally agree with what is said in Link #1, Stuart. That's why I no longer use the "blue" bulbs. It's just like putting window tint on your headlights.
 
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Fwiw I buy my stuff and listen to what this guy says. He's opinionated and can be a bit grumpy at times but he has some impressive credentials when it comes to automotive lighting:

http://tinyurl.com/9xj7o




Daniel Stern is a member here and has posted in the past. Now that we have a forum dedicated to his specialty, I hope we will see more of him.
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With my Camaro's sealed beams, I simply change the 9006 bulb inside. The best so far have been higher wattage Luk bulbs that produce more light output than anything else for a relative low cost.

I didn't see much difference in light output from stock with the Silverstars. For such a high price, I expected a little more than just a whiter light. Too bad...
 
From what I have heard, Silverstar is just XtraVision with a tint. I have seen $10 after rebate for XtraVision twin packs and it is a very good deal.
 
Plain 'Ol regular halogen bulbs. Nothing special. Gave up on that when afte finding out my blues were no different than stock after 2 months (had one blow in 2 months and had to put the Stock bulb back in), then tried the next step up and even SilverStars which are fantastic when first put in but at last when I put in my stock bulb after 6 months due to another blown bulb what the now 1 1/2 year old stock bulb was the same. Absolutely no difference at all.

Works great at first then fades to stock. Bull ________, I only buy the $7.50 bulb now.
 
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