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Cheap head light conversion - opinions wanted

C

Calata

NAXJA Forum User
Location
NY
If you are looking for something cheap, I'm really impressed with the difference my Sylvania Silverstars made. I hated the headlights on my XJ before now they are much much better, and they bolted right in. For $40 you can't go wrong. I'm really happy with them now.

Edit: Probably stating the obvious but make sure your headlights are adjusted properly. When I first got my jeep the headlights were a little too low and adjusting them higher made a difference.
 
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I went with Silverstars also.
The only complaint I have is that they only lasted about a year.
I'm on my 2nd set now, and I've only had my XJ for 14 months.
I do use my headlights quite a bit though. I usually have them on if it's a cloudy day, which is not the norm in this part of the country.
 
You get what you pay for, the hellas are more expensive up front but the bulbs are replaceable. I'd do two things, first pull the lights and clean the connectors, both the lugs on the housings and use a burnishing tool to clean the plug sockets on the wires. Both get corroded and reduce the voltage to the lights. Then put some dielectric grease [Tune up grease] on the light lugs before plugging them back in. Second would be to locate all your grounds, unscrew them, hit them with some emory cloth to get the crud off, clean up the mounting points they were attached to and again some grease and screw them back in. That should give you a lot of improvment off the bat...
The silverstars were an improvement but as stated before when they go they go totally and the whole sealed beam game is repeated at $40 a shot. The H4 bulbs generally last 4-6 years then you just replace the $14 bulb...
 
I've had my SilverStars for about two and a half years now with no problems. There is a significant difference with them as compared to stock; I do want to upgrade the wiring, though.
 
I have those ebay H4 ones with sylvania 9003 SilverStar Headlight bulbs. I bought them off my brother after his 89 Prelude was totaled for 20 bucks and they're 100% better then the super dim wagners that came with the Jeep.
 
Check the brand of the sealed beams. I've had Wagners in the past, too, and they are rather poor. Both Sylvania and GE, even in the standard wattage, are significantly better and cost about $10 each. The Sylvania Silverstars are higher wattage than OEM on the low beam, and don't last as long because they are being over-driven for the wattage to produce more light. It's very rare to see both lights burn out at once, so RichP's $40 replacement estimate is off by a factor of two. Advance Auto sell the Silverstars around here for $19.95 per, so that's the replacement cost, vs $15 for the halogen. When you replace a Silverstar, you get a complete new uint. When you replace a halogen, you keep the housing and reflector, so you have to hope that the cheapie reflector hasn't rusted or tarnished.
 
Silverstars are the way to go, my 01 had yellow Wagner lights, you are right, they sucked. The Silverstars made all the difference, and will work with your original wiring / wattage.
 
While not as bright as the Silverstar, I use the Sylvania H6054LL Long Life Halogen. They were brighter than stock. I have a light minder so my lights are always on. I bought my XJ new in 2000, put the Sylvanias in six months later and I haven't replaced them yet.

So, I guess the question is, do you just want good light and long life or just lots of light?

I'm going to presume most of you guys responding to this thread are under 50 and should have decent eyes. I'm over 50 and the Long Life lighting is still good for me.
 
I got a XJ in July of 04 and immediately I got the silverstars and have no complaints. Be sure you aim them properly. The color of the light is brighter than stock and it makes it seem like the range is further. For 40 bucks you can't go wrong and it takes no more than 10 minutes and a philips. There are some cool true H.I.D.'s i've found on this board and the replacement H4 bulbs from what i've heard are unpredictable and have usually an annoying tint of blue or purple etc...that makes them look like "rice".
 
RichP said:
The silverstars were an improvement but as stated before when they go they go totally and the whole sealed beam game is repeated at $40 a shot. The H4 bulbs generally last 4-6 years then you just replace the $14 bulb...
Click to expand...

Thanks all for your replies. I'm still debating on these with a wiring harness, a set of GE Nighthawk, or GE HO version. Don't really care for the high wattage bulbs in the ebay package above.

As for the H4 costing $14, I usually get my bulbs from http://autolumination.com/headlights.htm and they cost $3 each.
 
If you looking for H4's I would reccommend the Osram Silverstars from http://www.powerbulbs.co.uk Its obviously the same company as Sylvania and have the same "model" bulb but the Sylvania Silverstar has a blue tint to them where the Osram Silverstars are white. I have both bulbs, the Sylvania's in my Jeep and the Osram's in my VW and I can see the color difference when I pull up to my garage door...which is white.
 
Just to say thanks to everyone who posted and to post my fix ( I hate threads without an ending posted ).

I've settled on the Sylvania Silverstars since it'll do for now and it'll buy be more time to look around and see what I'll settle for later.

I purchaced them, went to install them. Wound up changing the whole connector on both head lights since the stock ones were corroded onto the old headlamps. Overall, its a HUGE improvement over the 1 candlepower I had before, but I'd still like more. Will do more reading on the smaller type driving lights since I don't want to stick Hella 550s in front of the radiator. ( roof mount is not an option at this point )

On the other hand, I might pull my 250W each 5" round bulbs from the closet, make some aluminum housings for them and install those.
 
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Timber said:
I've had my SilverStars for about two and a half years now with no problems. There is a significant difference with them as compared to stock; I do want to upgrade the wiring, though.
Click to expand...

Same here. I've had a set of Silverstar bulbs on one of my cars for about three years now, and they're still great. On the XJ, this was the first upgrade I did - the stock lights are, frankly, feeble. They really do a damned good job. Upgrading the wiring is on the cards, though - I'm not sure that they're quite as effective as they could be.

BTW, you may want to check out this link for future upgrades to the Silverstars - Hella has 6054 drop-in replacements using H4 bulbs (up to 100W/85W!) that would probably be the ne plus ultra of non-HID lights.
 
Calata said:
Just to say thanks to everyone who posted and to post my fix ( I hate threads without an ending posted ).

I've settled on the Sylvania Silverstars since it'll do for now and it'll buy be more time to look around and see what I'll settle for later.

I purchaced them, went to install them. Wound up changing the whole connector on both head lights since the stock ones were corroded onto the old headlamps. Overall, its a HUGE improvement over the 1 candlepower I had before, but I'd still like more. Will do more reading on the smaller type driving lights since I don't want to stick Hella 550s in front of the radiator. ( roof mount is not an option at this point )

On the other hand, I might pull my 250W each 5" round bulbs from the closet, make some aluminum housings for them and install those.
Click to expand...

You may want to spend some time adjusting the lamps, I noticed their lighting pattern is rather peculiar with a significant straight ahead strength and nice wide, to-the-side, curb lighting. I spent a couple of evenings adjusting and driving to pin down the best lighting. Good luck!
 
Calata said:
Just to say thanks to everyone who posted and to post my fix ( I hate threads without an ending posted ).

I've settled on the Sylvania Silverstars since it'll do for now and it'll buy be more time to look around and see what I'll settle for later.

I purchaced them, went to install them. Wound up changing the whole connector on both head lights since the stock ones were corroded onto the old headlamps. Overall, its a HUGE improvement over the 1 candlepower I had before, but I'd still like more. Will do more reading on the smaller type driving lights since I don't want to stick Hella 550s in front of the radiator. ( roof mount is not an option at this point )

On the other hand, I might pull my 250W each 5" round bulbs from the closet, make some aluminum housings for them and install those.
Click to expand...

Once you get the extra money get,or build a heavy duty wiring harness for them you'll be amazed. The only down side to the harness is it seams to shorten there life a bit.
 
Having great results from IPF harness, IPF and Hella H4 lenses and 170-100 IPF and 130-90 Hella H4 bulbs...

Not cheap though... good stuff rarely is.
 
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