Thread: This Is A HeadLight Bulb Question.

I do not know how many times I have told that to people and they do not understand.

Any time you put a filter over a light bulb, in any situation, you are lessening the total amount of light output and therefore hurting yourself.

Just within the Sylvania Family, I have tried the SilverStar Ultras, Xtravision, and Standards.

(Note: My girlfriend does not really understand a lot about cars and she lets me do as I wish. One day, to see if she would notice, I ran during the day time, left side with SilverStar Ultra and the right side with Xtravision. She even noticed that the light output on the back of other cars was brighter on the Xtravision side vs the SilverStar Ultra side. Silver Star Ultras are a fucking joke. Anything with tint on the bulb is stupid, imho)

Out of the three mentioned, the Xtravisions were the best so I use those. I changed them last winter and they have not burnt out, yet.

The other brand and style I was considering was Philips VisionPlus. They are neck and neck with the Sylvania Xtravision bulbs. Philips made a new style called NightGuide (http://www.lighting.philips.com/us_en/automotive/consumer_products/nightguide.php?main=us_en_automotive&parent=79912999330&id=&lang=en) that I was considering because it has three different scales of light being thrown down road. Yellow, white, and blue. All of those help see different things and I believe should increase safety during night driving. But I have not tried them at all.

i had those CPI bulbs....lasted 2 months in my fogs. thats why i now have yellow film on my lights. the narva's are nice, but the xtravisions are sold at local parts stores, and have a slim blue ring to make the color a bit whiter but not limit the output.


USDM silver stars are terrible. they have very poor life spans at times and the blue coating on the bulb actually limits the light output by filtering most all of the light except for the blue/white light. (this also increases the heat of the filament thus reducing the life span)

OSRAM silverstar bulbs are completely different.


....ummmmmm no. the cool blues are garbage, they are a ricer light. the sylvania xtravisions are silver star bulbs without the blue coating. they are brighter than the silverstars.

the phillips xtreme power bulbs are super bright compaired to all of the above mentioned bulbs..........especially the cool blues! the cool blues are actually, lumin wise, dimmer than an average parts store halogen bulb.



the best way to describe it to someone is this.

white light is produced by combining all of the primary colors. when a bulb has a filter on it it removes all the other colors of light to produce ONLY that color. there fore, a blue filter removes; red, yellow, and green light........thats about 50% of the light output! so now the bulb needs to be moddified the produce more useable light to make up for the light it is filtering out simply for style. the reason these other bulbs like the narva's, osrams, and xtreme power's are so great is they take the technology of filament design and increased output......... and they leave the filter out....... so now you just end up with ass loads of more light.

I should mention that I when I'm going to use my lights, I always turn them on and off with the car running, as I've heard that the "shock" of starting and turning off a car can reduce the life of the bulb.

Not only that, it strains the entire electrical system from the alternator to the battery, all of it is affected by that. That is one of the first things my father taught me when I began driving.

I laugh at people who do it when I see it happen in person. I see the lights shudder, shudder, shudder and cannot imagine the strain of fluctuating currents and volts running through there car.

P.S. Where can you buy 9004 Osram Silverstars? They do not list them on the site and I cannot find them.

And they do not make Philips Xtreme Power in 9004.

Philips has the VisionPlus and the NightGuide as the only acceptable upgrades for a 9004 stock bulb system.

Any other Narva's besides this? http://www.narva-light.com/en_EN/products/12v_Headlights/American_types/480043000

Candlepower Shopping Homepage

The Osram Night Breakers and Philips Xtreme Powers do not come in 9004 socket.

Btw suvlights.com only sells crap like OEM Silverstars now. I found a new source for 9003 and 9004 bulbs, bought OSRAM euro surplus 80W/100W bright white bulbs (no effin coatings, that is so true they just cut down light). They carry tons of H4 compatible bulbs for the Tsuru lights, I gave Jimmi a pair bc I ordered 6 sets - the most I paid was $7 a bulb. Shawn, I will look up the place I got them, they work great, are cheap as hell, and damn I cannot remember their name! Get back to you, for some reason my inbox is suddenly full +200.

Where is this place that sells 9004 bulbs at?

Still a mystery location afaik.

I just started buying from them last year, I need to find the bookmark or invoice...

Post back when I find it. Seriously only place I can find the euro-spec bulbs anymore, and was amazed at their prices.