Sylvania Silverstar headlights

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?

Thanks in advance; SRG

Reply to
SRG
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He probably won't answer, as I (and probably a few others) have written to him regarding this subject. He's dead-set against them according to his website.

I like them though. The light is whiter, but that only refers to color temp and not brightness. They only last a year according to Sylvania, maybe longer depending on usage.

Reply to
soxinseven

A google search on this newsgroup will reveal DS's opinions of the SilverStar (generally negative). I've also seen a lot of complaints on various forums on their short life.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my adddress with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

I already *did* answer. Extensively.

I answer all my e-mail.

DS

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

In addition to my earlier, long response about why Silverstars aren't better (let me know if it doesn't show up for you -- I might be having trouble with my news host), note that there is no wattage difference between your originals and the Silverstars. 51w is the European rating (at 12v), 55w is the US rating (at 12.8v).

DS

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

The light is *bluer* (not "whiter") and dimmer.

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

I may be off on my Ohm's Law, but does not a load draw more current at a lower voltage? Give me a reality check on this Dan.

Richard.

Reply to
Richard

Think about it - if that were true, then at 0 volts, the device would pull more current than at 13.8 volts, and at 100 volts, it wouldn't pull much current at all. Doesn't make sense does it.

For ohmic devices (passive devices like resistors), ohms law is ohms = volts/amps, so amps = volts/ohms. For a given resistance, amps go up as volts go up.

Light bulbs are not linear because their resistance changes with filament temperature. The hotter the filament, the higher its resistance, which is why you get inrush current at initial turn on. The result is that you won't get as drastic a change in current with a given change in voltage, but still, you do get increase in current with increase in voltage (i.e., it's less than a factor of 1).

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my adddress with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

No. I=V/R. Assuming that the load resistance is constant, lowering V will lower the I (current). I suspect you are thinking about keeping the power constant. It is true that to maintain the same power, more current is required as the voltage is reduced since power is the product of current times voltage. However, maintaining constant power would require an "intelligent" load that could vary its resistance in response to changes in available voltage.

Matt

Reply to
Matt Whiting

Yep; thanks for getting my tired old brain back into focus on this point.

Richard.

Reply to
Richard

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

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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"):

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"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"):

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"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):

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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.

DS

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

DS

Thanks for the informative reply, I had already gone ahead and replaced the bulbs in my PT, but held off on my wife's car. I've since read your and other posts that talk about the shorter bulb life.

In a side-by-side comparison with another PT with OEM bulbs (which were Sylvanias in my car, btw) the Silverstars were whiter and brighter looking, the OEM bulbs looked to have a brownish tint comparatively. They seem to be pretty good, but not enough difference to be worth $20.00 each and certainly not for a shorter bulb life. So I'll just see how long they last and hope to get a reasonable amount of use out of them.

Thanks aga>

Reply to
SRG

Were the bulbs in the other car brand new or were they a couple years old? No sense comparing new to old. Old will always be dimmer.

Also did you just look at the headlight or did you see how well they illuminated (point the car down a road and see how far you could see)?

Reply to
Bill 2

That is true. What's more, "brighter and whiter LOOKING" is not the same as "more intense". The impression of "brighter and whiter light" from the Silverstars or other blue bulbs is, diplomatically speaking, quite subjective. (in plain talk: it's an optical illusion).

That's the insidious part of the optical illusion: People will swear they can "see better" with blue bulbs, when they actually can't. When you think you can see better than you actually can, safety is *reduced*, and not increased.

DS (and that's not even accounting for the increased glare and backdazzle).

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

Backdazzle - wasn't that a movie with Kurt Russell? 8^)

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my adddress with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

I recommend you visit this web site:

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I put a pair of these into my 98 RAV4 and the low beams on my PT Cruiser and they did everything claimed for them. These are the real deal, but they cost about $30.00 a bulb. The RAV4 really needed them, the PT Cruiser already had decent lighting with the Xtravision bulbs.

Richard.

Reply to
Richard

Yep, as I mentioned in my response, these are a very hot ticket. BUT, they cannot be used indiscriminately in just any ol' low beam or fog lamp that takes a 9006. The 9012 puts out nearly 90% more light than the 9006; that is a huge amount more light and if there's not adequate glare control, massive glare and backdazzle results.

See

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DS (And yeah, the PT Cruiser has decent lights with Xtravision, but they get even better with the 9011-9012s...)

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

Even if they DO help the driver see better, they don't help oncoming traffic to see better. Getting hit with a set of those coming over a hill with the high-beams on is like driving into the sun.

Reply to
Bob Lutz

Is it legal in California to put HIR/9011/9012 bulbs into 9005/9006 sockets? If so I might try that.

Chris

Reply to
C.H.

There's nothing in the letter of the law that says you can't. 9011s and

9012s are DOT-certified bulb types, and I will eat my keyboard the first time a policeman -- ANY policeman -- knows enough to say "Hey, these 9012 bulbs don't belong in these 9006 headlamps!". But, any given headlamp is designed and intended to take one and only one type of bulb (9006, 9004, H7, H11, H13, D2S, 9012, whatever).

It would be Federally illegal for any individual to make this swap on another individual's car in exchange for consideration (money, goods, services).

DS

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

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