Enlighten Me On

Headlight bulbs.

I have to replace a blown bulb on the gf/s 2015 Forester. While I’m in there I plan on doing both sides since the R&R looks pretty simple. The question is what should I get as a replacement output-wise and brand-wise?

Output-wise – she works nights (RN) and we live in a somewhat rural area. So if the lights are a bit more powerful that would be fine. But she does not need to light up the whole county. Also, for this car, we don’t want or need to do any modifications just a simple replacement.

Brand-wise – Autozone and O’Reilly both carry Sylvania (with various versions) and NAPA seems to carry mostly NAPA.

The bulb seems to be, per the store websites, either a 9005 or  H11.

Your input is appreciated.

Hella high wattage or Phillips extreme vision are my goto. Both available from Amazon,  and way cheaper and longer lived than silverstars. 

Only had one car not benefit dramatically from them, and polished housings. 

Don't fall for the brighter is better thing.  Brighter means brighter for the 5 months before they blow.  Not any easy way to escape the fact that brighter means hotter, and hotter means less life.

Also, don't fall for the super-hyper blue stuff.  Not only are they hotter, they simulate whiter light by being blue.

Don't fall for the LED replacement bulbs.  You'll be replacing a tubular/linear light source (filament) for a flat plane square light source (diode) and the reflector buckets will scatter light into the eyes of oncoming drivers.

Check out this page.  I have the Silver Star Ultra in my truck and they are a nice upgrade from stock.  They aren't blue, but they are whiter than stock and make a little more light.  Side-by-side comparison with one of each lamp shows a modest difference.  So far they've lasted two years, so keeping my fingers crossed.  The other option would be the Xtra Vision which is probably a little less light than the SS Ultra, but will likely last 10 years.

But as soon as you step "up" to the ZXE type blue bulbs, that is poser-ville.  You want to have annoying purple lights to match the lime green plywood spoiler on your Cavalier.  You want to announce that you think stickers make hp, and you don't care that you can't see anything at night as long as other losers on the road recognize that your lights were chosen just to piss them off.

Ok, I'm exaggerating... but right on Sylvania's website they say that the ZXE bulbs are for "style."

I'm not a fan of Amazon and need to get it done today so a local store is where I need to go. I generally like Hella but can't get those today. So it looks like the Xtra Vision is how it will go. 

Once I get my IMCA Cavalier it will have the fastest stickers I can find and a neon blue particle board spoiler.   

Anecdotal experience: I put Silver Stars in my Neon and the wiring harness fried after a while.  Of course this was 20 years ago so things might be different now.

L5wolvesf said:

Headlight bulbs.

 

I have to replace a blown bulb on the gf/s 2015 Forester. While I’m in there I plan on doing both sides since the R&R looks pretty simple. The question is what should I get as a replacement output-wise and brand-wise?

 

Output-wise – she works nights (RN) and we live in a somewhat rural area. So if the lights are a bit more powerful that would be fine. But she does not need to light up the whole county. Also, for this car, we don’t want or need to do any modifications just a simple replacement.

 

Brand-wise – Autozone and O’Reilly both carry Sylvania (with various versions) and NAPA seems to carry mostly NAPA.

 

The bulb seems to be, per the store websites, either a 9005 or  H11.

 

Your input is appreciated.

9005's? High beams? PERFECT!   9005 = H11. The BEST replacement for 9005's are HIR (not HID) bulbs. In fact, I just installed a set of HIR's in place of 9005's like 3 days ago. I've done this on 3 different cars ('96 K1500, '12 Camry, '99 Regal).  You'll need to trim one of the mounting tabs a very small amount. Other than that, they fit perfectly, and the optics are right.  Do some googling to confirm.  

In reply to Uncle David (Forum Supporter) :

Brand and part number on the HIRs?

I think Philips 9011B1 are the bulbs Uncle David is talking about. They don't specifically state that they are HIR bulbs but I read somewhere that they meet all of the specs for HIR bulbs, just without the coated glass.

I could be wrong though.