Has anyone had problems with aftermarket bulbs melting the light assembly. The reason I ask is that I had Grand Am and I replaced all 6 lights fogs, low, and high beams with aftermarket bulbs. I can't remember the brand. But anyway my fogs melted and both high and low beams burn out within 2 months. I want to replace my high beams and fogs on my tl-s with a bulb that matches the color of the HID's. I am just worried about spending money on something that is not going to last or melt my light assemblies. Any feed back would be greatly appreciated. I also would like to know what bulbs match the closest to the HID's for the high beams and the fogs. Thanks in advance.

 

Funny I was just looking this up myself. This is what I found.

Piaa Superwhites (that is sold on this site) emits 3800k.

Sylvania Siverstars (available at your local autostore) emits 4000k

Both seems to work fine without burning up our light assembly.

Keep in mind that even though the whiter silverstars emit a whiter light, it does NOT emit more than the 3500k cool blues (which is cheaper).

 

It's not the color temperature that melts your housing, it's the power output (wattage) of the bulb.

The fog housing on my TL-S accepts 51W bulbs. If you put an 80W bulb in there you're going to burn it up, no matter what color bulb it is.

 

I was also concerned about replacing the fogs with a higher wattage bulb. However, I tried the Solaris 9006 which I believe is 80W compared to the stock 51W. I've had them for the past 8 months and haven't had any problems. Of course, I am in no way saying that it's okay to replace with higher wattage bulbs...just that it's working fine in my car. Had to put that disclaimer in

 

Don't forget that our fog light housings are glass and not plastic.

 

Doesn't higher color temp. means brighter?
You are saying silverstar(4000K) is not as bright as cool blues(3500K). can someone explain this?

Which brand of these bulbs last longer on our fogs?

 

daverman Read closely. Nowhere did I say that the color of the bulb is what melts the housing. I was mearly pointing magicman888 to 3 brands of bulbs that can help him choose to match the color of his HIDs. The reason why those bulbs were mentioned in the first place is because the highest burning one (Silverstar) uses up only 60W which to my opinion is still ok.

 

Common misconseption my friend.

Slyvania SilverStar 9006 Lumens : 1000 Watts: 60W Color: 4000° K $24.95
Slyvania CoolBlue 9006 Lumens : 1000 Watts: 55W Color: 3500° K $10.95

Piaa Platinum Series Super White Bulb
Type : 9006 Wattage : 51w = 105w Color: 3800° K $75.16/2=37.58

This info was directly taken from the manufacturers website. Lumens is what measures light (1 lumen = 1 candle). Temp color is just that...the color that it emits. Some people on this board houses 6000k HIDs which has less lumens than the stock HIDs...but since they believe the color is far superior, they are happy with it.

Both manufacturers agree that Natural Sunlight is between 5250k-5400k. Piaa didnt list the lumen for their bulbs but instead used a comparison to other regular bulbs (which I dont like).

 

edgalang