My girlfriend is always complaining about her low beams not being so bright and she cant see well at night.

For the 9006 what out there will increase light output with out the bulbs blowing out ever couple of month.

I installed a pair of silverstar Ultra in my buddies accord and they blew out 6 month later.

 

I upgraded my wife's sentra headlights to silverstar bulbs and helped increase the brightness.

I don't know why they blew out in your friends accord. The first set I put in my wife's car lasted at least 3 years if I recall.

 

If you're just looking for brighter and longer lasting bulbs, how about HIR's?

Here's more info.

 

Honestly the stock bulbs probably give the best visibility...here is a graph I found on consumer reports:

 

For a consumer report finding, that information makes me

IMO it shows that bulb brightness is dependent on the quality of the headlight housing and there still is a good chance that changing the bulb could improve brightness.

For $30 you can get a set of silverstars, or for $50 get a HID conversion kit. Unfortunatly, if your girlfriend's car doesn't have projectors I highly recommend NOT getting an HID conversion kit unless you want to piss off other drivers.

 

Piaa Extream whites. Had several sets in other cars. Never a problem & they last.

 

HID conversion kits only $50?

 

they have dropped in price significantly. check out eBay.

The kits aren't necessarily the best kits, but for the price they are decent and easily replaceable. All plug in play, no cutting of existing wires needed. The only complaing or concern I've heard is that they use rebased bulbs, but I don't know if that is really that bad or not.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search...ion&category0=

Shipping on eBay is the killer from these guys though

You can still get the more expensive kits, but from what I've heard about the cheaper ones is that some of companies that make them give a 2 year warranty and have been honoring the warranty on them too. And even if it goes bad and they dont' honor the warranty, you'd have to replace it twice before coming up to the price of the more expensive kit.

 

^^^ but if you aren't planning on running projectors I highly suggest NOT converting to HID, you'll only piss other drivers off since standard halogen housings aren't properly engineering to focus the light that HID units put out.

 

i got Silverstars on my Accord and I've been pretty happy with them. they are IMHO brighter than stockers.

 

I'll admit, I got one of these cheap-o conversion kits for my Grand Prix. Stock light output would be better with a pack of matches and I had to do something about it.

I've aimed them properly where they benefit me the most, but still don't blind other drivers.

To test them I had my mother drive towards me on an empty two lane road with no lights other then mine, and she said that they were no brighter than any other cars on the road. I also drove behind her to see if there was any rear view glare. No more than any other car as well...

If they were harmful or blinding to other people I would have ripped them out instantly. Since putting them in at the beginning of Feb. I haven't gotten a single flash from another driver.

I'm not saying its your best option, but IF you go that route, make sure they are properly levelled and test them before you hit the streets...If you want I can post some pictures tonight.

 

^^^ What color temperature are your bulbs?

 

I got 6000k. Much more purple than I was expecting; I actually wanted a whiter light.

 

The whitest light you can get is achieved with a bulb outputing a color temperature of 4100K-4300K. 4300K is the color temperature of the stock bulbs in the CL.

Any bulb with a color temperature higher than 4300K puts out less light. That is a possible reason why you aren't blinding people with your HID setup. The higher the temperature of the bulb past 4300K, the less lumen output the bulb can achieve.

here's some quick diagrams:

 

I agree with Fuzzy, I heard the initial price of PIAA is expensive, but they actually last. So in the long run they are the better option.

 

I am with you, it feels as if silverstars or other bulbs are brighter. I might get a set of the GE nighthawks and see how they are.

 

Yeah, I read up on lumens before I purchased them. My intentions were to have a nice white light and not piss people off. I was going to go with 4300 until I saw a diagram showing them to be the brightest then thought they'd be too bright.

 

i put silverstars in my wife's car, and my bro-in-law put them in his car and his dad's car if I'm not mistaken and in both situations they were brighter.

 

S2k retrofit FTW

 

If it was my accord I would do that in a heartbeat.


I think the Silverstar Ultra will do for her car by the look of it.

 

Don't waste your money on the Silverstars. They burn out way too soon. Bulb life is usually between 6 months and 1.5 years.

 

Fog lights? What year Accord. I have a 2000 coupe.

I believe the color the HID's will emit also vary on the housing as for each car it is different. TSX lights look way brighter than CL-S lights but I assume both run 4300k. Do any manufacturers run higher temp?

 

Some do. Honda/Acura use 4300K, although when the S2000 came out they always seemed a little more purple/blue to me.

But you are right, the housing does make a huge difference, and projector's make a WORLD of difference.

 

well.. there's a huge difference between reflector based HID and projector HID.


HIR if you want to stay fairly OEM (the 9006 HIR2 bulb has similar output to a high beam 9005), HID kit if you want to blind people. just because you think it's not distracting to other people doesn't mean it's not. everything is designed with filament position in mind, and HID's have an arc that will be at a different position than the halogen filament. also, these "white" or "blue" bulbs with tint on them produce LESS light than something without tint; it's an illusion that you're getting more light on the road because of the colour it produces. i'm sure there are some blue bulbs that do put out more light, like the 75+ bulbs though.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...lbs/bulbs.html


s2000's have more colour than most projectors, but that's just the inherent nature of that projector; you can 'colour-mod' many projectors so that at the cut-off line they give off a very vibrant shade.. haha