Aftermarket replacement halogen bulbs for GenIII

H9 bulbs can me altered to work in h11 spec'd headlights. Not advocating it, necessarily, just letting people know it works

 

I tried the H9's in for about a month before switching back to HID. The H9's are brighter than stock but they look like the same color spectrum (yellowish). It is very easy to modify the socket to allow it to fit the H11 socket. All you have to do is shave a tab off with a utility knife.

 

Just to inform you, after five months, my Osram Night Breaker burned out. Had to revert to my old PIAA Xtreme bulbs until my order from Powerbulbs comes in. There is a slight but noticeable reduction in light throw on the PIAA compared to the Osrams. Oh yeah, I drive mostly at nights... I figure I had about 100 hours on the bulbs....

 

I would like to order the Philips Xtreme Power bulbs for my 2010 but do not know the bulb number?

 

Is there an option to go with higher wattage bulbs "like 100watt or 75" that are not of the intense type so you will still have bulb life "and" brightness or is that too much heat?

I agree,... I still have two GenII's and my Gen III, while the G2's have a nice wide spread, I do love the throw and penetration of the GIII Halogen bulbs..... would be fun especially to ramp up the high beam.

Also, is the general consensus that the PIAA Xtreme are the best for balance between brightness and longevity?

If so, does anyone have a recommended link?

Also.... I see lots of folks replacing thier H11 bulbs, but why not the high beams too?... "HB3"

 

On previous cars I have used HID conversions for the low beams. In each case it was a disappointment. Brighter than hell but they didn't seem to have the same distance penetration of the stock lights.

On this car I am using PIAA Xtreme low beams and 6000k HID's in the fog lights. The fogs are illuminated at all times as DRL's (see and be seen!). At night the combination gives a superior illumination of the ground/sides and distance penetration. Have never had an on coming driver complain by flashing his/her brights.

 

The directional style lamps with HID's in the III works very well.

 

well, my second set of Osram Night Breakers failed... Again, this was about six months after installation. They keep blowing with less than 100 hours on them, I think i only got about 60 hours to be frank... While a lot brighter, their lifespan really sucks.

 

I'm running the PIAA's.. don't know how long they will last but they are awesome!.... almost supernatural how much they light up on the freeway.

Its fun to wait till I have a long stretch in front of me and hit the highbeams... every sign both high and wide light up.. every road marker, lane markers..... blows away what others see.

I'm running the regular bright white. around 4500K I think.
while the bluer looks omnious, they are less bright in lumens the higher you go in kelvin.

 

I replaced the Osrams with a set of PIAA extremes, the OSRAM is noticeably brighter than the PIAAs... I sent an email to Powerbulbs and their response was...

"I would say that it's not the norm, but has been a criticism. The original OSRAM Night Breaker has now been replaced the Night Breaker Plus which is designed to last 50% longer than the original, and so hopefully, any problems with longevity have now been addressed."

So instead of 60 hours, the bulbs will last me 90..... be still my heart.... I heard that the SilverStars by Sylvania last only 200-300 hours and the their silverstar ultras are half that....

 

Brighter than PIAAs eh?
My PIAAs are sinkin bright... I'm not sure what the life expectancy is on them.... do you know?

If the Osrams are brighter.. I"m tempted to get them even though my PIAA's are new.
But being even brighter explains the very short life...... but the mention of the extremes does sound interesting.

 

One advantage of the Osrams... they are treated with UV filters, PIAA's are not. These bulbs give off a lot of UV light which hazes the lexan clear headlight covers and eventually turns them yellow. The UV filter should reduce that issue.

 

Humm.... the yellowing occurs on the outside of the lens.... now sure thats from UV coming from the inside.
But I'm talking about the actual reflector lenses.. not "covers" for the housings... which sounds like what your talking about.

Nevertheless.. those kits that remove the yellow really work... I bought one for about 24bucks and did three cars and still have enough product left for I would guess another 10 cars.... comes with 4 different grits of sandpaper to be used with water and some cleaning/polishing solution and a buffer wheel that goes on a drill... works like a charm!

 

the yellowing/haze can also occurr inside the lens... My VW Passat had hazed and the haze was inside the lexan cover. I had buffed out the outside but there was still some internal hazing...

 

I realize that this is an old thread, but I notice that the original question wasn't totally answered. I just had to change out my original right lowbeam bulb. I have a 2010 Gen III that was purchased during the clunkers program 2.4 years ago. It has about 29,500 miles and I kept my lights on roughly 85% of the time. The lifetime average speed is roughly 24mph. so calculations say the bulb lasted about 29500 x 0.85 / 24 = 1045 hours.

The bulb that came out was a Philips H11 LL (long life) 55W. The failure was not catastrophic. The old filiment still looks fine with the naked eye. But an ohmeter shows it wide open.

I was in a night rush, so i just replaced it with a standard Sylvania H11.

Left beams are still original. I also note there may be a loose connection on the right front parking light. Sometimes it is off and if I tap on the headlight, it turns back on.

happy holidaze
rich

 

Wick1ert and I are in the middle of investigating if an H9 bulb can be easily modified to fit in the H11 socket. If so one could use a high output H9 bulb. One could also look into the Sylvania Silverstar zXe or Ultra which are available in an H11.

 

OK, edumatcate me!

What does the H9 Have that the H11 doesn't?

I thought they were all limited to 55W no matter what?

I"m using the PIAA 19615 for my Highbeam and the
Silverstar Ultra for my low "ZXE" and am very pleased with both...

What will the H9 give?