draco067

I keep telling people that Sylvania Silverstar bulbs are not all they're cracked up to be, but no one seems to take my word for it. Here's some documentation from rec.autos.tech, from the resident lighting guru.

For some additional info, see:
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...lbs/bulbs.html

-------------------------------

In reply to:

> I just bought the 9006XS 's (low beam) for my PT Cruiser. They look a
> little whiter and brighter than the 2.5 year old originals. They are
> 55 watts and the originals were 51 watts, I think. Has anyone else
> here got them? What do you think? DS could you explain what you
> think about them?

They produce *less* and *bluer* light than standard bulbs, and have a
shorter lifespan. The claim that "Whiter light helps you see better" has
no factual basis, and "brighter" is being misused. ("Brighter" is like
"Louder": It's a subjective term that doesn't mean you have more light or
more sound, respectively).

A bulb of given parameters with clear glass is ALWAYS better than a bulb
with colored glass -- always. Doesn't matter whose name is on the blue
bulb (Sylvania, PIAA, etc.), all of the bulbs with blue glass are gimmick
products that do not help you see better under any circumstances. (Ha ha,
joke's on the buyer, they don't fool anyone into thinking your car has HID
Xenon headlights, either.) The "brighter" impression is an optical
illusion, and these bulbs are _markedly_ worse in any kind of bad weather.
You'll run into people who swear they can see vastly better with
Silverstars or PIAA, etc. This is nothing more than self-delusion; I call
it the "Slick-50 Effect" ("Of _course_ my engine runs smoother and
stronger and gets 5 more miles per gallon; I just spent $40 on a bottle of
Slick-50!")

There aren't many options in the straight-base 9006XS and 9005XS bulbs
used by a lot of Chrysler products, but the PT Cruiser happens to
physically accept the regular angle-base 9005/9006 bulbs (it's just a
question of whether the angled base part will clear the housing, and in
this case it does). That opens up the options considerably. You might want
to go over and look at

http://bmwz.org/articles/lighting/0506trick/

And now the in-depth tech talk:

Here's manufacturer data for output and lifespan at 13.2v for all the
Osram/Sylvania H1 bulbs. Lifespan is given as Tc, the hour figure at which
63.2 percent of the bulbs have failed. Though I've chosen H1 bulbs for
this comparison, the relative comparisons apply to any given bulb type:

Osram or Sylvania H1 (regular normal): 1550 lumens, 650 hours

Osram or Sylvania H1 long life: 1460 lumens, 1200 hours

Osram H1 Super (if Sylvania Xtravision line included H1, this'd be it):
1700 lumens, 350 hours

Osram H1 Silver Star (NOT Sylvania Silver Star!): 1750 lumens, 350 hours

Osram H1 CoolBlue or Sylvania H1 Silver Star: 1380 lumens, 250 hours

Now, looking over these results, which one would you rather:

(a) Buy?
(b) Sell?

The answer to (a) depends on how well you want to see versus how often to
change the bulb. If you want the best possible seeing, you pick the Osram
Silver Star. If you don't care as long as it works and you don't want to
hassle with it, you pick the long life or Daytime Running. The answer to
(b) is determined by how rich your company's shareholders want you to be,
and is obvious: You want to sell the bulb with the shortest lifespan and
highest price. That'd be the Sylvania Silver Star.

More? Sure:

AutoExpress finally released the results of their new H4 (=9003, =HB2)
bulb tests.

Standard and blue bulbs ("Osram CoolBlue" is what is sold in North America
as "Sylvania Silverstar"):

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/product...y.php?id=39920

"Plus 30" high efficiency bulbs ("Osram Super" is what is sold in North
America as "Sylvania Xtravision", while "Philips Premium" is available in
North America as "Wagner BriteLite" and "Candlepower Bright Light"):

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/product...y.php?id=39919

"Plus 50" ultra high efficiency bulbs (Osram Silverstar is available in
North America as Candlepower Super Bright Light, or -- like the Philips
VisionPlus -- can be ordered from one of the overseas websites that ships
worldwide):

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/product...y.php?id=39917

The AutoExpress website will let you view up to two articles before it
wants you to "register" -- throwing phony info at it will make it shut up
and let you see more stories.

DreRX8

I have the Silverstar in my Millenia S and they are ok. I hadn't had any problems with them.

draco067

That's not the point. I had them too, in my last car. The point is, for those looking for the "best" headlight bulbs, they are not it.

David_M

Your Bulb expert outs himself for a fool. If you put angle plug bulbs in a straight socket ( even if they fit the in the housing ) then you move the bulb in relation to the reflector and reduce the effeciency of the reflector, making the light output more diffuse, and move the aim point of your headlights. Both bad things.

Also remember that different light frequencies diffuse at different rates so lumens measured in a lab wont reflect what happens on the road unless their tested at several distances and in an actual headlight housing. Further the human eye sees some light frequencies better than others ( pure white simply supplies the most available frequencies ). Then there is reflectivity to consider. So lumens aren't the whole story.

Xyntax

PT Cruiser...pfftt hahahahahha!

Sure, Silverstars aren't the best out there but at least they are being sold in real stores and have a good reputation for a great improvement over stock halogen bulbs. I've never seen a car that switched from stock to Silverstars that was worse off with it. A 93 MX-6 with stock bulbs were terrible, especially because the housings were yellowish. With silverstars, visibility is far greater inside the car and outside.

As for an RX-8 application. I didn't have complaints about the stock bulb in the first place since the headlight projectors were awesome already. I just needed to see brighter and whiter beam of light from the driver's view coz I got used to that in my Solara, which I installed Silverstars too. I'm not too sold on those PIAA or whatever hyper bulbs out there. They just don't last that long and are expensive to replace.

Like everyone says, if you want BRIGHT you need HIDs!

NomisR

Anti aftermarket light bulb person here..

What's with those wanna be HID halogen headlights? They're usually extremely bright and blinding and most likely illegal for road use. Show some consideration for other drivers out there, don't blind them with those ricer lights. :D

Speedtoys

With the projectors that the 8 has, HID kits are perfectly acceptable..

I am -the- skeptic, so I tried a kit that a friend bought to see..

The dispersion, PATTERN, and glare patterns are the -same-.

Look inside the non HID headlight sometime..there is an active restriction of the light output itself.

I kept my friends kit..and bought him another.

Now..I just want to find 5200k bulbs for it, the 6Ks are OK, but a tad too ricey...I want whiter.

Again, there is absolutely -no- difference in pattern or dispersion in the HID kits for the 8, as long as they have the adaptor to set the bulb depth like mine had..youre gold.

Umbra

I find the sylvania just fine in my other car, far better than stock. The 8's stock lights are fine and it would be silly to upgrade those.

Aipex8

iTrader: (1)

I know that this thread is more about headlights, but the foglights on the 8 are a joke no matter what bulb you use. I believe Daniel Stern talks about the H11 bulb and how much it sucks on his site, if not his another lighting site talks about it. Not to mention US models have an extra metal cap over the bulb inside the foglight housing (check out pics of euro and JDM RX-8's, no caps) to further dim the light. I've read that a lot of car manufacturers do this to US models because here we use fog lights as driving lights or status symbols (look how cool I am driving around with my fog lights on) here in the US.

I use PIAA Xtreme Force bulbs that are 4700K color temp in my fogs knowing full well that they are dimmer than a clear bulb, but they match the color of the stock HIDs and that's the only reason that I went with them. If I actually wanted a foglight that worked, I'd probably pull the whole OEM foglight out and replace it with something aftermarket.

CosmosMpower

Has anyone retrofitted a HID kit into the factory fogs?

Aipex8

iTrader: (1)

Yes, Rotary Rasp has. Check out my posts in the following thread:

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discussion-3/fog-lights-hid-110728/

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

haha, I just put in new headlamp assemblies into my GF's Tacoma and put Sylvania Silverstars.

You have to take claims like "the whitest and brightest" with a grain of salt. Yeah, they might be whiter and brigher, but c'mon.... are they REALLY the best? I think most people buy them because they're better then OEM's and because Sylvania is a widely known brand.

If I get bored later, I'll post pics of her truck... the sylvania's definitely are better then what she had before.

CarAndDriver

Go with PIAA or Hoen.

Tanaka826

i like my silverstars also...havent had any problems with them

WRXtoRX8

I have used the silverstars in my wrx since i got it. My first set only lasted about 6 months before one died. replaced the one and they went for about a year. replaced that one and the next week the other went out. Just yesterday I had another one go out so I will not be going with them anymore as they are to expensive and don't last for anything.

as the orignal post indicates the lights did look brighter than the stock ones

caaahhlvinn

same thing with me. i used to own a c class and i tried a pair of sylvanias.. they are definitely brighter and they look much better than stock. i found it funny that you had the same results than me..

spigot52

I agree completely
I would love to pull the fogs and put in some decent driving lights