Lets talk fancy headlight bulbs...

Ok, I just purchased a new factory replacement pair of sport headlamps for my Dodge as my original ones are wanting to glaze over pretty good with oxidation.

My new headlamps come with factory bulbs, but I have Xenon hyper white bulbs in my current lamps on the low beam side.

My question is what are the best brands/models of bulbs out there? I have found PIAA's but they are really high. Are they worth the cost? Also, what is the difference between 9004 and 9007 bulbs? Can I move my hyper white Xenon 9007's to the high beam side of my new lamps and put a potentially better bulb in the low beam spot?

 

Any of the aftermarket bulbs, short of HID's, just seem to be for looks only. Every one of them I have tried has been less bright as stock, there blue, but not as bright... HID replacements are cool though.

 

Do you have a link to an HID bulb? I get confused what I am looking at, some say HID, some don't, some say they mimic HID....

 

nothing like using a HID light on a ricer that just was tailgaiting you then pulls in front and slows down,oh yeah dont forget the high beams

 

The big deal with HID is it mimicks the color of natural daylight. Yeah, they are brighter, but they are clearer. The color of the light makes everything one the road easier to see clearly. Now the way the aftermarket bulbs from walmart and such work is by fooling the eye. Believe it or not, if you want a while to appear more white, you add a SMALL amount of blue to the color. Some of these manufacturers get a little overboard on the color.

I have found that the PIAAs do increase my visibility, and I put them in both the headlamps and fog lamps of my 03. It really made a difference, and made night driving easier. In my 02 I found that I was able to drive almost everywhere with the high beams on and it dodn't offend the oncoming drivers nearly as bad as the stockers did on low. I still need to put them in my 06.

 

Real HID's require a new headlight housing, the ballast to run the bulbs, and the bulbs and harness. It's usually around $5-600. There are HID kits that don't replace the headlight housing but the housing will melt over time...

These things are sick:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/03-TO-05-DODGE-RAM-2500-3500-HID-PROJECTOR-HEADLIGHTS_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33710QQihZ013QQitemZ230003114291QQrdZ1

 

Looking on line at the Hella HID Fog Lights the price increase over HID and Non-HID is at least five times,but worth it especially if it saves you or your rig from a accident or hazard.

 

To add 2 cents: The diff between a 9004 & 9007 is the 9004's have a horizontal filament, and the 9007's are vertical. That's if the bulb is standing up on its base. They dont interchange, even though the electrical plug is the same.

JCwhitney & a few other places has some higher wattage bulbs you could use, up to 80w/100w. I tried those on my last minivan, and it melted the ground section of the plug due to the high current useage. There's a harness sold by Painless designed just for the high watt bulbs that uses relays and bigger gauge wire, and it's about $40.

 

:doah: I once placed high out put headlights in my 89 Bronco burned the plastic housing

 

Well, I definantly am not going to do an HID conversion, too expensive and not really needed for me.

I screwed up on Ebay, I accidently bought A head lamp. Not lampS.:doah: So now I apparently have a single right hand new lamp coming soon, since the seller won't email me back to try and work with me on it. The seller has an Ebay store, I could pay a small "restocking" fee and he could just relist it, but no...no response.

Anyway, once I sort through this mistake I think I am going to buy a PAIR (rotfl ) of lamps that have aftermarket bulbs in them already on both the high and low side.

 

cant you get ebay or paypal to help out in anyway?

 

I already have sent an email to Ebay. Meanwhile my money cleared.:doah:

I went ahead and purchased that pair that I mentioned.

 

re sell it on ebay or here

 

If I wind up with a RH headlamp and without my money, thats the plan.

 

They're perdy mayn. how many watts are the bulbs?

 

You guys must be doing a ton of slow speed driving. I had the PIAA's in my 02 for 35K miles and in my 03 for around 85K miles and never melted anything. Maybe the airflow kept them cool enough?

 

I said the HID bulbs melt the housings, not just the ugly blue ricer bulbs. Put some real HID's in your housings and see what happens waytogo

 

Now I read ya! I'd like to have HID headlamps, but as spendy as they are and trying to get the fog lamps to match, I may just have to wait until dodge does it.
Till then, I guess I'll stick with the PIAA ones.

 

I got my new lamps in the mail today....




I also ordered a second pair of the exact same lenses from a private seller (these lamps came from a vendor) because he has the matching euro clear corner lights too. The clear corners are no longer available for Sport models. I jumped on his auction and made a deal with my dad, he gets the lenses for his '02 and I keep the clear corners.


I'll have more pics in a few days of night time shots with the blueish bulbs and clear corners.