![]() |
I just read a few bulb sites - they pretty much all said to expect significantly lower bulb life with the ultra-high wattage bulbs.
So that seems to explain why my 100/150 night piercers crapped out after 4 weeks - |
Quote:
afaik they are made in China. Chow Mein says you need 150w, noo pobblem. I change marking to 150w. |
Quote:
ps: total bulb life so far is over 10,000mi night driving. |
The set of lights I was looking at at the 180w bulbs, not any of the "Same as 180w " junk but the true blue battery sucking 180w lights.
I figured they had a downfall.. seems it's longevity. I'll stick with my 65/55's for now and upgrade to 100's when I'm driving it most every day. |
The most important thing:
I noticed little to no difference between the high wattage bulbs and the regular wattage bulbs. Zip, really. |
Dittos to both Ron & Warren on this one...if higher output is your need, I'd suggest following their advice. However, if you MUST do otherwise, it's your nickle. Me? I don't drive the P-car at night that much these days, and the h-1's with standard 55 watt bulbs are adequate for me. I'll try to hook a pic Jeff took when he was here...
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1095371869.jpg |
I got lucky in thiis respect. The PO put h1's on my car and I had it for a while before I found out it had them on it.
I found out when a bulb burned out and I had to replace it. This was before I knew about this site so I didn't know the difference.:D |
On the subject of H1's, when I purchased my '86 a few months ago, it came with H1's (!) on it. The first thing I noticed was that they desperately needed aligning. Found a nice flat piece of asphalt in front of a brick wall and went to town. No problems aligning everything. What I did notice is that my H1 low beams don't seem to be quite as bright as the H4's on the SC. High beams are an entirely different story. Hit the high beams on the H1's and reflective road signs will blind you! :cool: Awsome! The H1's have good 55w bulbs all the way around. Has anybody else noticed this difference?
|
Quote:
i installed them in april of 03' with around 12,000miles........extremely reliable stuff for 130/100's :) |
FWIW, I've been told to use only Osram bulbs.
Ron's open hwy idea is good. I like to find a spot with reflective signs every few hundred feet. Mark a spot to stop or park somehow. Then you can different test bulbs, headlights, whatever. |
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
Seems Hella has never manufactured bulbs. According to Stern, up until about 10 years ago the entire Hella bulb line was just private-labelled Philips bulbs, all made in Germany. Then a few things happened: Philips started making bulbs in places other than Germany (Korea, Taiwan, etc.) and Hella started shopping around for low bids on most of their bulb line (Taiwan, China, etc.). "Those 3rd world bulb companies have no qualms about inking whatever you want on the base of the bulb, if you buy enough of them" or words to that effect. The 160/100W "Hella" bulb, again per Stern, is or was a product of the mediocre Gerlux firm in (formerly East) Germany. I love my 130/100w Narvas. :cool: |
Quote:
Which headlights, DOT H5s or Euro H4s? Stock wiring, or heavy wiring with relays? Which exact brand and type of bulbs did you try out? I resisted the idea of swapping the H5s off my '88 for as long as I possibly could. Tried just about every bulb out there that would fit them, finally had to agree they are junk. Put in the H4s, better beam pattern, but no difference with high-wattage bulbs except my switches got hot and failed. Put in relays and heavy wiring, and NOW there's a difference between low and high wattage bulbs! :D |
We've been speaking of H4s since the start of this thread - these are what I have. Heavy wiring, and - like I said - a PIAA relay.
I also wrapped the wires in foil tape - it gets extremely hot in back of the reflector. The bulbs were the 100/150 plain old Hellas - or whoever makes them for Hella. I now have 55/80 and I notice no difference as noted. |
Quote:
Bulb quality matters large -- more than wattage does. Crappy bulbs of any wattage don't give better performance. I bet you would notice a difference with well-made overwattage bulbs (Osram, Narva, Philips, Candlepower). And, none of the reputable companies make 55/80w bulbs, so if you actually have that wattage, you're still running 3rd world cheepies. |
I have the 55/60 Hella bulbs, not the 55/80 as I stated.
Chnaane sez: Quote:
Really. Is this some well-knwon phenomenon that I haven't heard of over the past 6 years of Porsche forums? Guess I need a Narva bulb. |
Quote:
As far as PIAA goes, my experience matches Stern's advice (though I don't rant quite the way he does about it :p ): PIAA is a marketing company. Their quality and performance are poor, because they spend all their $$$ not on actual R&D but instead on fancy packaging, glossy catalogs and getting their name plastered on race cars. They price their stuff high so people will buy into the notion that they're getting "professional grade" equipment. For what it's worth, the comparative H4 bulb tests AutoExpress recently did in England seem to validate my experience (and my choice of 60/55 H4 bulb...!) Be careful not to trip on the "name game" that Osram/Sylvania plays. They sell a blue bulb in North America and call it the "Sylvania Silver Star". In the rest of the world, that bulb is called the "Osram Cool Blue", and another bulb is available called "Osram Silver Star", which has no officially-imported equivalent in a Sylvania package (I guess Candlepower brings them in unofficially). This "Osram Silver Star" bulb has uncolored clear glass and high-output filaments, unlike the US "Sylvania Silver Star" (rest of world "Osram Cool Blue") which has blue glass. The URLs for the AutoExpress bulb tests are Standard and blue bulbs incl. PIAA High efficiency "plus 30" type bulbs Super High efficiency "plus 50" type bulbs The site gets uppity and demands that you register if you want to view more than two pages. I just fed it phony name/address info and it swallowed it happily and let me see the third page. I don't wanna sound like a stooge for Candlepower, but I've gotten cool stuff from them that I haven't found anywhere else. I got some super nice halogen reverse bulbs (for the back up lights) not like any I've ever seen. They're not the 55-watt cemented-together ones I've seen in parts stores; they are a 35-watt (therefore safe for stock wiring and the plastic housing) 1-piece item made in Germany, and they give an enormous help in backing up at night. Part number on those is P-796. And they have P-3496 and P-3497 high-efficiency/high-output brake/tail/park/turn bulbs that have brightened those lights up nicely. I think Stern might be working there, not sure though. Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm a geek... http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/hiding.gif |
Wow, you are into lights :-)
THX for the info - |
a standard bosch 30 amp relay is golden and bulletproof.
i've been using them in all manors for 15 years and maybe 1 failure out of 2000. |
All times are GMT -8. The time now is 10:13 PM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0
Copyright 2025 Pelican Parts, LLC - Posts may be archived for display on the Pelican Parts Website