Replacment Head Lights

Looking to get rid of the stock head lights and upgrade to something that actually lights up the road at night. Can anyone recomend something good?

search headlights and Silverstar, E codes, H4, etc

there have been quite a few threads about the silverstar headlights, and H4 upgrades

danzy said:

Looking to get rid of the stock head lights and upgrade to something that actually lights up the road at night. Can anyone recomend something good?

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rather than upgrading to really expensive lamps, take a look at the wiring harness first.
bigoffroad makes a plug and play harness kit.

don't use the cheap clear housings off ebay that hold an H4, they have a horrible spread pattern and won't illuminate the road well. i replaced my H4 set with Slyvania Silverstars, 19.99 per headlight from the local auto shop. they are great! don't forget to align your headlights...

i cant find H4 locally, is 9003 the same, they have the 3 prongs on the back

I would recommend GE sport nighthawks part number h6054nhs. work great,I can see again.

i installed a set of hella lens/h4 conversions a bit spendy but I had them from another vehicle that they never got put into. I would highly recomend them. glass lenses actual balanced reflectors. well worth the money

I have read quite a bit about the Silverstars and I will check out the GE Sport Nighthawks. Thanks everyone for the imput!!

Silverstars are OK (as I understand it,) but I have no direct experience with them.

I've got Hella Vision Plus in my wife's rig, and she's happy with them. I've got Hella E-codes in my rig, and I've got some "white" fog lamps (clear lense) to five some peripheral vision with the full beam on, and uprated wiring all around. With the 90W dip beam, I've got great peripheral vision and can see well for short ranges (say, about a mile.) With the 130W full beam, I don't so much "annoy" oncoming traffic as "disorient" them - and the effects on riceboys who overtake without dipping their headlamps first is amusing. I'd say the E-code full beam illuminates to about a two and a half mile range, and is roughly analogous to a "pencil beam" driving lamp. In fact - that's why I've got the "white fog" lamps (they don't get used in fog - I've got amber fog lamps for that,) for close-range fill-in and peripheral vision.

Since I've not used the Silverstars, I don't know anything about them. However, the main advantage to the H4 housings (quality ones, mind - not that $10 ebay crappola!) is simply that they are not disposable, and can therefore be made as quality parts. Cut glass lenses and metal reflector bowls are the norm, vice the moulded glass lense and "sprayed" reflector of the sealed beam units.

Hella, PIAA, and CIBIE are all brands that I'd consider "quality" lighting - with most of my experience being with Hella (PIAA and CIBIE are rather spendy.) If you want to get an idea what this stuff will cost, go to Susquehanna Motorsports (www.rallylights.com) and peruse there - I don't recall the part numbers for the housings, but they're the "200m/m square" ones that replace part number 6054

I do concur on the harness upgrade tho - that's why I'm designing one of my own (which I haven't even been able to prototype yet - too much stuff happening that demands my attention first! That's still got a WAY up in the air prototype date, much less a release date...) Even using the stock 55/65W bulbs with the H4 housings, you're likely to note a significant improvement. Going to an uprated bulb will only make that setup better.

Note that if you get the E-code housings, you can't quite aim them the same way you can the Vision Plus, since the beam pattern is different. I've covered it in detail here a few times before, so you can find it with a little looking. Does my method work? I'm in CA, and I've been running E-codes with 90/130W bulbs for about six years without any trouble from other drivers or cops, so I must be doing something right...

5-90

97XJ Jeeper said:

i cant find H4 locally, is 9003 the same, they have the 3 prongs on the back

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5-90 do you know?

http://www.jeepersandcreepers.com/client/Products.php?prokey=436

I bought this kit and don't regret it one bit. Yeah they are pricey but now I have the option to try different bulbs and upgrade the harness later if I need to. The housings are pretty thick glass with a nice pattern. I'm not a guy who compromises much on safety devices so they were worth the dough and with the unlit roads to and from work these are great without being ridiculously bright and getting flashed.

I replaced my stocks with Silverstars.

They made a noticable differance but I dont think they are nearly as good as somthing like a Hella or IPF H4 setup.

The life span of the Silverstar is not good. I used them in my YJ and the low beam would burn out after a few months. I would replace the bad one with a new.... and shortly after the other would go too.

Hella Vision Plus.

97XJ Jeeper said:

5-90 do you know?

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I believe the 9003 and H4 are the same - but you can probably confirm that with nearly any lighting site. Hang on tho - I've got a Hella catalogue around here somewhere...

Hm - the H4 and 9003/HB2 are dimensionally very similar, and have the same base used (and very nearly the same envelope,) but they are listed under different part numbers. This tells me that they could probably be interchanged in a pinch - but I'd not recommend it, if possible.

By the by (and to elaborate further...) the Vision Plus part number you'd want would be the 72207, and the E-code would be 72206. Interestingly, the E-code seems to want H4 bulbs, and the VP wants HB2 - I've been using H4s in both of them that I have, so disregard my "no interchange" note above - I have apparently been doing it for years...

5-90

5-90 said:

I believe the 9003 and H4 are the same - but you can probably confirm that with nearly any lighting site. Hang on tho - I've got a Hella catalogue around here somewhere...

Hm - the H4 and 9003/HB2 are dimensionally very similar, and have the same base used (and very nearly the same envelope,) but they are listed under different part numbers. This tells me that they could probably be interchanged in a pinch - but I'd not recommend it, if possible.

By the by (and to elaborate further...) the Vision Plus part number you'd want would be the 72207, and the E-code would be 72206. Interestingly, the E-code seems to want H4 bulbs, and the VP wants HB2 - I've been using H4s in both of them that I have, so disregard my "no interchange" note above - I have apparently been doing it for years...

5-90

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ok i went on ebay and typed in "9003 headlights" and alot of the ones it came up with said "9003/H4 headlights". i know that what the sellers put but would it be safe to use 9003. i plan on doing this conversion....
http://quadratec.com/products/97009_501.htm
and would like to buy bulbs at the parts store so i didnt have to keep ordering bulbs. i have Silverstars now and when the bulbs blow in the rampages i will prolly put Silverstars in them but the part stores around here only carry 9003 they dont even list H4 bulbs. so what do i do? just order extra bulbs and when they burn out order some more. i know they last a while. or just put the 9003s in.
Thanks
97XJ Jeeper

I personally like my silverstars, at least for the price. They were $14.88 at advance auto parts a week or two ago.

9003 and H4 are the same. some of the older silverstar packages used to even say 9003/H4. i believe H4 was originally what the size was called for a motorcycle.

ive know people who have done it before with no issue at all.


:skull2:

thanks for the help sorry to hack this thread it just came up and figured why start a new thread

I run Hella E codes with Silverstar bulbs, OK combo. Hella 450 fogs down low, thats on the XJ, TJ has CIBIE 7" rounds with 55/65 bulbs. The cibie's are much higher quality than the others but these CIBIE's were purchased in sep of 73 by me for my vega and have been in 5 different cars.
I"m going to do harness's in the XJ and TJ this month or next, depends on whether I go to qatar or not..