Does anyone have his/her high beam bulbs replaced with DOT approved hyper white ones? Are the stock ones 65w? How long have they been lasting? And what brand do you have? Thanks.

 

I replaced mine with HID bulbs and I added in a relay harness to bypass the DRL.

 

I did the Sylvania Ultra Whites.

 

any pics of either set up?

 

Sylvania SilverStar Ultra

 

Sorry, no pics, but I can tell you that they are much whiter than the stock bulbs. Much closer match to the HID low beams.

 

Tell us more about this bypass harness. What is the part? Are there any warning messages on the MID?

Rob144

 

no message on the MID, thankfully.
I'll see if I can find that part again, I did a search on the internet for a 12V relay harness for fog lamps, and they also had a harness for different bulbs.... so its basically a harness that they make for any bulb connection.
I used HID's from http://www.xtralights.com/index.asp?...OD&ProdID=1337
and I am extremely happy with them.

 

Here is the place:
http://www.pilothid.com/relaywirekit.html
just select which connector you need it to mate to.
I think our HB are 9005.
Here is how it works:
The relay energizes at 12V, the DRL operate at 2V, so its not enough to energize the relay.
When you flash to pass or in the evening, your HB are on, the relay energizes by receiving 12V from the car, and the HID are fed 12V from the battery, which is very easy to mate this harness to the battery.
Should take no more than one hour to install.
Use the digital HID ballasts, the smallest you can find, mounting is hard if you use standard big ballasts.

 

any luck with them lasting a long time?

 

before I did mine to HID, I had them in, they lasted 6mo before they just burned out.
its gotta be the DRL that eats them up

 

Actually, I think it is the higher color temperature (more bluish white) that does it. Typically, whiter (i.e. hotter) burning bulbs such as the Sylvanias, Philips, etc, do not last as long as the conventional halogens from the same manufacturers. I think the spec sheets even show the life as shorter.

 

I did the Silver Star Ultras over a year ago. Still going strong. No issues.

 

Good data.

 

UW RL,

kmcheney has me beat. I've had mine for about six months and I use them a lot. I've heard that they last longer if you don't touch the bulbs with your bare fingers. I used rubber gloves while installing mine.

 

Hey do you have any pics with the DRL on? Does it look white or bluish duing the day?

 

I hope you are not using those HID high beams during regular city driving.

 

i know i asked for pics before and no one had them... but i'm still really curious to see what the HIDs look like or the Sylvanias in the DRLs. how about a quick snap shot.... pleeeeeeeaaaaassssseeeee. =) i'm sure i'm not the only one that would like to see. besides, pics make any thread that much better. show off that ride!

 

Can't show you a picture right now because I'm traveling. The DRL voltage to the high beams is so low that the bulbs are a yellow tint when on in that mode. When lit up as high beams they are whiter than stock but I'd be lying if I said that you'd mistake them for xenon HIDs. They are still a slightly yellower tint of white, not bluish like the stock low beam HIDs. But hey, they were quite inexpensive, easy to change out, and are an improvement over stock. I'm not interested in hacking up the system to put in true HID high beams. I've read too many problems with over heated harnesses, over heated housings, problems with voltage sensed by car computers, etc. etc..

 

there is no problem with overheating a harness, or having voltage issues, or electronic issues.
there is no hacking a harness, at least with the one I used.
It was a simple click in to one socket that would normally go into high beam bulb, then ground the ground wire, attach the 12V to the battery, and then click the sockets of the harness into the socket provided by the HID ballasts, which when you order them, you specify what you want, 9004, 9005 etc.
the hardest part was just running the wire from the left to the right side, took 15 minutes to do that, and secure it.
Mounting the HID ballasts was easy, they were mounted to the fender just in front of the front wheels, in the engine compartment, and that took 10 min per side.
There is no dreaded DRL MID message, no burning out the ballasts b/c its getting 2V, and best of all, no damn DRL.
Having true white high beams isnt too bad either.

 

Good data. This is exactly what I would expect.

From what I have read, it is pretty hard to make incandescent bulbs look like HIDs, and still put out a decent amount of light, and not burn up the stock wiring harnesses, or worse yet, the car. I used to frequent a Philips automotive lighting forum, and one guy said he did exactly that by installing 100w+ bulbs, causing a fire in the engine compartment from the wiring harness which spread to the rest of the car.