Anybody ever used these lights?? Are they any good??

 

I had them in my Altima and I wasn't terribly impressed. They were brighter, but there wasn't much of a color change. I also had to replace them once a month because they have something like a 1000 hour lifespan. For $20 apiece, I want them to last longer than a month, lol.

Why are you considering them? Do you want something brighter? Are you looking for something with a bluish tint? Let us know what you're looking for and maybe someone could suggest a bulb better suited to your needs.

 

I Have...But I'm Using Plasma Glow Bulbs And I Love Them, Soo Much Brighter Than The Stockies.... I Can't Remeber Witch One Had Higher The Wattage Is But I Kno I Got 85W And 65W

 

Silver star bulbs have a MUCH lower life than a general replacement bulb. In a good headlight design, they will provide marginal light output increase.

As with any bulb that has a color coating on the glass, it actually decreases the amount of light potential it has. When a bulb has a blue coating to try to minimize the 'yellowing' of the beam, it effectively masks the other colors in the spectrum to get the blue tint. Here is a few articles that have some very useful information in them - DanielSternLighting.com - Blue Bulbs. As you'll read (if you choose to do so), a blue tinted bulb of the same wattage will never produce more light than the exact same bulb with no coating (aka clear glass).

Most of the higher wattage bulbs run at higher temperatures and is why they burn out faster. They also put a higher load on your electrical wiring and in some cases have cause premature headlight modules to blow. Ex - Dodge Intrepids where, as a direct result higher wattage bulbs, the headlight switch inside the vehicle would over heat and melt the contacts. In one case, the heat resulted in a local fire in the steering column that put itself out...

When my bulbs go out on any one of my vehicles, I'll be replacing them with PIAA Ion Crystal bulbs. Sure they cost quite a bit, but the light output is phenomenal with little to no glare and excellent depth perception. Much the same as using an amber tinted pair of goggles while skiing. Since my vehicles spend 1/4 to 1/3 of the year in snow, I'd rather be able to see everything in much more detail, than see everything with more glare.

*EDIT* - Made a mistake, was supposed to be Ion Crystal, not Ion Plasma. The Ion Crystals are available for fog light applications only. For high/low beams, don't think I would go with PIAA considering they don't make a clear replacement bulb any longer. The closest they get to having a clear bulb is the Star White bulb which I have heard nothing but good things about, but have not used them myself.

 

If you are really considering putting in higher wattage bulbs (+30watts or more over stock), you should install a relay setup to save the wiring and switches in your vehicle. It is a simple enough setup to run, and will actually provide higher voltage to the bulb which really wakes them up.

 

Thanks for all the input. I was looking for something that would be brighter. I would prefer something without the bluish tint. I dont think it would look right being my blazer is red. I might check out some of the PIAA like swartlkk said.

 

I bought some blue bulbs from Best Buy one time. The high was 85w and the low was 65w, they melted the inside of the headlight lenses, lol. They were blue as crap but once they started melting the headlights it was really hard to see.