Headlight Bulbs

[Lzybum06]

I just bought a pair of Symmic Halo Projector headlights. I want the Sylvania Silverstar headlights but because of prices I am looking at other options. I can also get ones made by Tucan which are I believe 70 watts and ones from StreetGlow which are 100 watts. I was wondering if these would work or if they would melt or if anyone has done this. Also I was going to replace the fog light bulbs which are the H3's and have the same problem and was wondering if they could handle 100watts. Thanks for any help.

 

[nelapse]

Watts are a big factor in deciding what light to use. DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT use bulbs with high wattage. It will increase the amperage you use with your hiring harness and yes they will melt burn the whole nine yards. Now some people sell bulbs that use stock wattage but use 8500 k light output. You WILL fry your harness, if the light is not DOT approved I would not use it if i were you. just my .02

 

[Slipstream]

You can use 100watt bulbs, but let me be very clear hear. Some people have no issues at all when swapping them, others have melted their lighting harnesses into puddles of goo. If you want to run bulbs with a higher wattage than the factory intended I would highly suggest rewiring the harnesses with heavier guage wire. You'll probably find the followin links helpful.
http://dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=158956.

 

[Lzybum06]

Ok so if they are DOT approved then they should be fine, right? Cause I may have access to some 70 watt ones.

 

[Defiant]

It's illegal to replace any automotive bulb with other than factory-specified wattage.

I know of no one serving time for it.

I run 65W lows, 100W highs, and you coppers can come and get me.

The only trouble was with the lows, the factory cheeseball plastic connectors didn't survive. Replacements from AutoZone, hewn of stoutest Other Plastic, are holding up just swell.

The benefit of higher-wattage is slight- for better light, you need better reflectors.

 

[ClevSilverEclip]

Like the other guys here have said:




(1)

Some people have no problems with higher wattage - others wind up with melted goo. It just seems to be a "luck of the draw" type of thing. So do this at your own risk.

If you know wiring, though, it is an easy if somewhat time-consuming and slightly frustrating task to simply re-wire your harness with heavier gauge wire. The benefit of doing this, again as others have said, is that you don't have to worry about the melted goo of wiring that's *_possible_*, but it's a heavy trade-off in terms of time. If you're lazy, I'd almost say it's worth watching/inspecting your stock harness/wiring over the course of the first few hours and days after using higher-wattage replacements to see if you're getting any funny smells or smoking ( ) to see if you need to bother with the retrofit.



(2)

Like Defiant said, anything over stock wattage is ILLEGAL.

However, this is nearly impossible to enforce as there is just so much difference between different cars' headlight pattern/brightness, etc., that almost no sane-minded officer will even attempt to tackle this task unless your lights are just absolutely blinding to oncoming traffic.

And that's the other point - you want to see well, but not so well that oncoming traffic can do nothing but run head-on into you because you've blinded them.



Sure, I can wire up enough lights to turn night in to day for my section of the road, but if it truly offends oncoming traffic, that's not going to do much good!

Typically, though, due to the relatively small differences in light output between bulbs, of, say, 55W and 65W output or even 75W, this won't be much of a concern - but if you start running 100W lows and have your headlight aim even just a bit north of ideal, oncoming traffic won't hesitate to let you know that you're a dork!


(3)

Current draw can be severe if you start racking up the number of bulbs you've got lit at one time. This may not be much of a worry if you're cruising down the road, but at stop-lights or in the parking lot, you might have severe power drain problems - particularly if your car is already putting a severe strain on its charging/electrical systems with UDPs and/or a heavy show/sound system.

My '92 N/T 2L DOHC was blessed with a very strong set of factory wiring - I ran 9005 SilverStars in place of the lows with the "9005 mod" with no problems. However, JUST with the 9005 mod, my idle voltage went from a steady 13.1-.2 to 12.2-.3 - which is by far the most severe draw I had from any single lighting mod, and this was accounting for the fact that my car was fitted with an aftermarket "grounding" system, which had, before the 9005 mod., pegged voltage at idle upwards of 13.4V, steady.





Overall, yes, higher-Wattage bulbs will help, but like Defiant said, it will only help a little. Will you see this little bit of difference? More than likely, yes, but you won't notice much of an improvement.

What your problem is with the aftermarket projectors is just that - their optics, well, suck.

What determines the beam-pattern and throw of your light, any light, is the optics. Short of upgrading your optics with a retrofit from a factory projector unit from some other car with excellent optics, what you can do with getting higher-Wattage bulbs is basically simply putting a Band-Aid on a severed limb.

-A
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PS:

DO NOT go for high "K" (Kelvin)-value bulbs. Anything more than 5000K (4300 to 4600, to be precise), and you're moving in to the blue end of the color spectrum, which will actually DECREASE your overall visibility as you see it from behind the wheel.

True OEM HID systems APPEAR "blue" only due to the diffraction of their specialized optics and project a multi-colored effect at the edges of their throw and beam-pattern as an artifact (i.e. non-desireable).

In reality, the light projected from true HID systems that are superior OEM-quality is a bright and pure, cold WHITE that is about 4600K in color temperature.

Going any higher than that will simply move the light you throw out to a more visible blue to purple hue. This is totally detrimental to your night-time vision as our eyes are much less sensitive to this end of the color spectrum than to white-yellow. You'll actually see better with even the stock "yellowish" bulbs than with bulbs that exceed 6000K. Although road-signs may "pop out" at you due to their reflectors coming back with a different color than what you're expecting, what you see of the actual road and surroundings will be nearly nothing but blackness with these super-high Kelvin bulbs.

SilverStar bulbs, right at around 4000K, is an ideal compromise when you cannot get true factory-OEM superior HID (i.e. between 4300 and 5000K).

 

[nelapse]

It's illegal to replace any automotive bulb with other than factory-specified wattage.

I know of no one serving time for it.

I run 65W lows, 100W highs, and you coppers can come and get me.

The only trouble was with the lows, the factory cheeseball plastic connectors didn't survive. Replacements from AutoZone, hewn of stoutest Other Plastic, are holding up just swell.

The benefit of higher-wattage is slight- for better light, you need better reflectors.

This only applies if you are unfortunate enough to live in California. Everystate is different, He lives in kansas. For instance here in GA, you can have blue or red neons as long as they arent flashing. we can have 15% tint. All which or illegal in Ca. Check your state laws Lzybum06 just incase.

 

[ClevSilverEclip]

Check your state laws Lzybum06 just incase.

Not only state laws, though. Also remember to check local laws!

-A
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[Lzybum06]

Not only state laws, though. Also remember to check local laws!

-A
/

Hey thanks all for your help I believe I have found some bulbs that are DOT approved and are 55w that are made by Toucan which I can get. Also thanks for the reminder to check with the laws it just so happens my boss is a county sheriff so that comes in handy at times like these. Thanks again.

 

[ClevSilverEclip]

NP!

It's not only the law that you've gotta worry about - but as your LEO friends have no doubt taught you, it's also the prevaling enforcement attitude in your local area as well as the surrounding townships/cities/etc. that matters a lot in terms of whether or not you get pulled-over for something like this.

Hope the Toucans work out well for you - and in the mean time, save up for a true HID retrofit! Drive safe!

-A
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