bulbs, bulbs, and more bulbs!!!!

[qship96]

I had one of my headlamps burn out the other day, and after visiting 4-5 local shops, the "best" I could get locally was the sylvania silverstar ultras in h4 size. Replaced both headlamp bulbs and waited til dark to see how they worked........not impressed, especially on wet pavement as the slightly blue tinted bulbs light gets lost on wet roads.

Contacted Daniel Stern lighting and found out he is the head engineer for Candlepower lighting, based here in Rockville Md....a phone call later had me an appointment to meet the owner{Kenny} and off I went! Spent the afternoon at candlepower touring the facility and having a good chat with Kenny all things cars and lighting!

Between Daniel/Kenny and myself, we came up with a plan to improve the Q lighting for both high and low beam headlights, rear turn signals/emergency flashers, brake lamps, and reverse lamps with the prerequisite that I wanted the absolute best improvements possible without going to gross overwattage bulbs requiring adding custom heavy duty wiring harnesses and relays {been there/done that with most of my previous cars}.

Both the high and low beam headlamp bulbs we chose were not in stock til later this month, so I will provide a followup to this and let you know how they work, they are the Osram h4 70/65W-a clear, not tinted bulb [37% more lumens on low beam, 26% on high from stock} and the Toshiba HIR 1 {65 Watt } -a clear, not blue bulb for the high beams {38% more lumens than stock}

The bulbs that replace the 1156/1157 in the tail/stop lamps and rear turn signals were in stock and installed- lumens were increased by 35-40% using Krypton charged P3496 & P3497CLEAR bulbs of the exact same wattage. Reverse lamps were replaced with 35W halogen #796 {7 additional watts from the stock bulb} that produce a 94% increase in lumens.

[elwesso]

I was pretty satisfied with my silverstars however i cant wait to see your results with this!

[jjbuzzman]

I have three Q's, all of which could use upgraded lighting. I've used the Silverstars on my 90, which showed some improvement, but not much. I look forward to your follow-up on this - maybe you can "light" the way to a one-stop-shopping lighting package upgrade (and get your new lighting friends some business too).

Jim

[Q451990]

Any idea of a price range for the whole package?

Heath

[qship96]

Any idea of a price range for the whole package?

Heath

Toal for headlamp bulbs ,reverse bulbs, rear turnsignals and tail/brake lamp bulbs will come to aprox. $135-140 for the 94-96Q....90-93 uses different lowbeam headlamp bulbs and additional bulb in taillamp assembly.

P.S- I now have for sale a 1 week old pair of Sylvania Silverstar Ultras in h4/9003 that fit the 94-96 Q low beam headlight{paid $47} and a pair of 2 month old PIAA extreme white 9005 highbeam bulbs that fit the 90-96Q....{paid $78} .........$75 gets you all 4 !!!!
Modified by qship96 at 7:04 PM 12/23/2008

[maxnix]

Toal for headlamp bulbs ,reverse bulbs, rear turnsignals and tail/brake lamp bulbs will come to aprox. $135-140 for the 94-96Q....90-93 uses different lowbeam headlamp bulbs and additional bulb in taillamp assembly.

P.S- I now have for sale a 1 week old pair of Sylvania Silverstar Ultras in h4/9003 that fit the 94-96 Q low beam headlight{paid $47, will sell for $30} and a pair of 2 month old PIAA extreme white 9005 highbeam bulbs that fit the 90-96Q....{paid $78, will sell for $45} .........$65 total if someone wants both!!!!

Care to share wattages?

[qship96]

wattage ratings of the new setup are in the first post of this thread- or if you are asking about the Silverstar ultras/Piaas I listed for sale, they are stock wattage bulbs{55/60 for the H4 Silvers, and 60W for the 9005 Piaas}
Modified by qship96 at 9:21 AM 12/9/2008

[Infinitiguy19]

Is there a time frame for when they will make them or even a contact number?

Is this a NICO thing only or will they distibute to stores as well such as Autozone, Infiiniti Dealer....

[qship96]

Is there a time frame for when they will make them or even a contact number?

Is this a NICO thing only or will they distibute to stores as well such as Autozone, Infiiniti Dealer....

All the bulbs are standard "off the shelf" items, and can be found at many different places on the net- most auto parts stores dont sell them as they produce a natural color light, unlike the Silverstar ultra/ Piaa crisp intense white or other "blue" tinted bulbs that are so popular now- Certainly the intense white bulbs look more attractive and modern in comparison!

[Infinitiguy19]

Yea I hate the rice blue even some of the lexus car have there light a bit blue.

Sorry I should have read the original post more clearly.

[Infinitiguy19]

I have only found these bulbs here:

http://store.candlepower.com/9011.htmlh ... p3496.html

But no reverse lights like you sugested "35W halogen #796 " and clue on where I could find those?

And I can't seem to find these at autozone or NAPA.

[maxnix]

All the bulbs are standard "off the shelf" items, and can be found at many different places on the net- most auto parts stores dont sell them as they produce a natural color light, unlike the Silverstar ultra/ Piaa crisp intense white or other "blue" tinted bulbs that are so popular now- Certainly the intense white bulbs look more attractive and modern in comparison!

I think I'll wait and watch on the higher than OEM current pull.

[qship96]

You could buy my slightly used Silverstar Ultras for your lowbeams and Piaa highbeam bulbs....stock wattages and crisp white color!

[qship96]

I have only found these bulbs here:

http://store.candlepower.com/9011.htmlh ... p3496.html

But no reverse lights like you sugested "35W halogen #796 " and clue on where I could find those?

And I can't seem to find these at autozone or NAPA.

The #796 reverse bulbs are listed on their website under tail/stop/backup lamp upgrades section.......they have them, as I walked out of their warehouse with them in my grubby little hands!!!

Paul, for the 90-93 the Toshiba HIR headlamp bulbs are available for both low and high beam headlamps,the 94-96 cant use them in their lowbeam ---I would get these before anything else, they are the brightest option available in stock wattage bulbs....part numbers 9011 and 9012--

[Infinitiguy19]

And all of these lights are DOT certified?

And these lights are the best of the best that you have found so far right, I mean the only lights better are HID right?

[qship96]

For the 90-93 Q45 the Toshiba HIR 9012 low beam lamp takes you from 1000 lumens stock to 1875 lumens- at the exact same wattage!...a 87% increase in light! The Toshiba HIR 9011 high beam lamp takes you from 1700 lumens stock to 2350-2500 lumens at the exact same wattage!....a 38-47% increase in light. Total cost would be just under $100 for al 4 bulbs, or $50 to do just the lowbeam bulbs{which is what you use 99% of the time in reality}

These are absolutly the best option to increase lighting, unless you wanted to go to overwattage bulbs that require installing custom heavy duty wiring harnesses and relays, and then have to deal with the problem of having to circumvent the "bulb out" warning display in the Q dash display, and the possibility of melting the plastic headlamp buckets.

Spend some time googling daniel stern lighting and read about the bulbs and his credentials, he is a published expert in automotive lighting, even consulting for NHTSA.

While installing a HID kit may be brighter, it wont be as effective due to the Q headlamp design not being designed to properly focus and control the light output of HID- you end up with tons of glare and most {all?} the retrofit kits you see are cheap chinese junk that is poorly made and short lived. Spend some time digging thru daniel sterns website if you are serious about improving lighting, instead of being fooled by marketing and advertising.

[Infinitiguy19]

Great post and information.

But from your experice with this bulbs, DO they work grat in rainy nights? Thats what I need most from my lights.

I think I'll wait and watch on the higher than OEM current pull.

How can they be differn't if Qship96 says there the same, I will look up the bulb specs as well though.

[qship96]

Paul, the 94-96Q unfortunatlty takes a h4 bulb for the lowbeams, unlike the 90-93Q which uses a 9006 lowbeam bulb and the toshiba HIR doesnt come in a H4....so I only have the HIR in the highbeams and had to go to the Osram h4 70/65W for the lowbeams.

The toshiba HIR in my highbeam lights produces more light, but in a "yellower" looking color compared to the crisp white I got from the Piaa bulbs I had in there before......The biggest improvement I see is on wet pavement the toshibas allow better vision, while the superwhite light from the previous Piaa bulbs got lost and visibility sucked- on dry pavement the difference is less noticable.

Being that you have a 93, you can use the HIR in your lowbeams and the difference is huge.....1875 lumens compared to your stock 1000 lumens{or less if you are using silverstars or other blue tint bulbs currently} is like night and day!

[Infinitiguy19]

Hey do you think you can give an update on the bulbs and perhaps some pictures?

[qship96]

Bulbs are working fine. The toshiba HIR high beams are bright, but not "blue-white" like Piaa/Silverstar; The Osram 70/65W H4 low beams are similar to stock, just brighter.

the bulbs in rear tail/turn signal lamps are working great, put out about 33% more light than stock for the same wattage consumed.Reverse lamps are brighter at 35 watt halogen.

Go to http://www.candlepower.com and click on bulb upgrades to see pictures/prices

If I owned a 90-93Q the first thing I would do is replace the 9006 low beam bulb with the Toshiba HIR 9012.....biggest bang for the buck taking you from 1000 lumens stock to 1875 lumens{ an 87% increase in light} for the exact same wattage. Unfortunatly Toshiba HIR bulbs are not available in H4 size for the 94-96Q low beams ........got a set for my 77 year old mom for Xmas for her Highlanders low beams though!

[Infinitiguy19]

Hey do any of these bulbs fit the interior of the Q45: http://www.candlepower.com/

[robo_geek]

the 9012 is standard on the 2007 maxima. I really like these bulbs.

The dealer really does too, they are $78 each.

John Deere dealers sell the 9012 for $29.95 each,he part #AH211917

for a while the JD dealers were selling these for $10 each, until the car guys started buying them ten at a time

[qship96]

Candlepower{Rockville,Md} sells the 9011 & 9012 for $22 each, the lowest price I have found anywhere, and close enough for me to pick up in person!

[Infinitiguy19]

Hey do you think they would be interested in a group buy or do we get a discount since you posted them on NICO?

[qship96]

I seriously doubt they would offer us any discount for the following 2 reasons.

1. They are already the lowest price provider on the Toshiba HIR bulbs anywhere.

2. They currently sell them faster than they can get them, just recently they were out of stock for quite some time, and had most of the incoming shipment already spoken for.

At $22 per bulb, they are cheaper than the crappy typical Silverstars and other tinted junk you find at autozone,etc.

[Infinitiguy19]

You have good points, just trying to save where I can.

But I would like to know if they last longer than Silverstars or any other autozone bulbs of the same wattage ofcourse.

I hope you did'nt replace your rear side marker with the higher wattage bulbs.

[qship96]

No, didnt touch the sidemarkers{ original factory installed bulbs still working at 223,000 miles!}

The 9012 HIR low beam bulb that fits only the 90-93Q has a lifespan of 1000 hours.....the Silverstars are rated at about 200 hours.

[Infinitiguy19]

WHAT how is silvania still in business then, i just read there statement:

An Important Note Before You Shop:When picking out your bulbs, please keep in mind that even with top-quality, precision-made bulbs like the ones you're about to buy from us, more light or an extra-white light color usually means significantly shorter bulb lifespan. This is a reality due to the laws of physics; there's no such thing as something for nothing, and shorter bulb life is simply the tradeoff involved in modifying basic bulb designs to give color-shifted (extra white) light or to give higher performance through better beam focus and greater light output. If your priority is to have the best possible seeing, please expect to change the bulbs oftener than you may be accustomed to.

Conversely, longer lifespan usually means less light, so if your priority is to have the bulbs last as long as possible, the tradeoff is less light and reduced beam focus; you may not see as well as you might prefer.

And after reading I thought they might not be worth it.

But where do they list how long the bulbs last?

[qship96]

Here is the link to sylvanias website showing the silverstar/Ultra specs.The 90-93Q uses the 9006 for low beams, and the 9005 for high beams- many will be shocked at how poor the silverstars lifespan really is. Also look at the candlepower{brightness},they rate their silverstars NO brighter than their other bulbs!http://www.sylvaniaautocatalog...Id=70

Here is Sylvanias 9006{low beam bulb for 90-93Q} lineup including lifespan-check out the life of the silverstars compared to the other sylvania bulbs they offer!

http://www.sylvaniaautocatalog...0,131

Modified by qship96 at 11:45 PM 2/13/2009

Modified by qship96 at 11:50 PM 2/13/2009
Modified by qship96 at 11:52 PM 2/13/2009

[maxnix]

Using 16 Silverstar lamps. Only one to fail was a newer H3 in FGY33 foglight. Oldest lamps are over 7 years old.

Have had one D2R fail also, and a rear running light on FGY33.