The Truth About Aftermarket Lighting...

Owners of the Gen III Prius II-IV do not have the luxury of having the LED headlights of the Prius V. Once you experience the light output of the LED lights, it's really tempting to look at upgrading your stock halogen H11 bulbs to something better.

Some owners have or will be upgrading to aftermarket HIDs. Technically, aftermarket HIDs are illegal in most if not all states. So some of us do not want to venture beyond the law or are not willing to risk a possible voided warranty should the HIDs be blamed for (but may not be the actual cause of) any problems down the road. I will leave the topic of HIDs for the many other posts on this forum and let that be...

Truth be told, the stock Phillips H11 bulb installed on the Prius do a credible job lighting the road at night when compared to other halogen headlights. The H11 bulb is a 55-watt rated bulb that outputs 1200 lumens +/-15%. This means your bulb can be outputting anywhere between 1000-1380lumens.

I have driven my Prius IV a few weeks and have exchanged the H11s out for a generic H11 "blue" bulb (LUX branded) rated for 55 watts and 5000 degrees kelvin. I was immediately dismayed that while the light was nice and white, the actual lumens output was definitely reduced... This was the same experience I had when my previous VW Passat H7 lamps were exchanged out for Sylvania SilverStars. The light was whiter but not brighter.

Doing some research, I discovered that bulb makers uses a blue tint quartz bulb to reduce the yellow light produced by the filament. This makes sense, reducing the yellow output will make the light whiter. Normal lamps generate a LOT of yellow light and not much of blue. What I discovered was that by removing the yellow spectrum of light, you are actually reducing the lumens output of the bulb by filtering out needed lumens. That was why I was experiencing a whiter but reduced light on the bulbs.

So technically, ANY bulb that uses a blue-tinted bulb will actually give you less light down the road. According to tests done by the DOT, a blue tinted lamp can reduce light output by a staggering 66%. Not only that, blue light is harder for the human eye to handle and is perceived as more glaring than yellow light (that is why some fog lamps uses yellow lamps, reduced glare).

Sylvania's much hyped SilverStar and SilverStar Ultra lamps use a lighter tinted blue crystal or bulb than most "blue" lamps. To achieve their whiter light, they modify the filament to a smaller condensed area and by using a smaller coil. This runs the filament hotter to help achieve a whiter light. But now you are stressing the filament. Whereas a normal stock H11 lamp will run about 650 hours, the SilverStars will only run about 250 hours, which was why I was always changing bulbs every few months. They did not design the filament to increase output by much because that would stress the filament even more, further reducing its lifetime which is already abysmally low.


The Bose of Headlights... the SilverStar

Before finding out all this information, I already ordered and just received a pair of PIAA H11 Extreme White lamps, with a temperature of 4000 kelvin... These lamps are "supposed" to output an equivalent 100 watts from the 55 watt input. I have just installed the lamps in the Prius today and noticed that while they are whiter than the stock lamps, they are not as blue as the LUX 5000 kelvin lamps that I removed (the quartz bulb on the PIAA is tinted a very faint vblue, while the LUX bulb was a deep blue). I will be posting my subjective observations over the next few days. (Update: The PIAA bulb appears to be slightly brighter than the LUX bulb, but the overall light output appears equal or less than the stock lamps. The color is a tad whiter than the stock but nowhere as blue as the Lux lamps.)

:focus:
You can read about all the hype and myths of aftermarket lamps here at Daniel Stern Lighting. It is very good reading... The articles posted there mentions that the Sylvania SilverStars, PIAA Whites are useless and money wasted. Further research mentions that the OSRAM (German made) SilverStars are a real improvement over stock lights, with 50% more light than stock, but the lamps are not tinted (so the light is still yellowish). OSRAM has improved the light with the new Night Breaker series which gives out 90% more light than stock. Daniel Stern recommends these lights over the PIAA and the U.S. made Sylvania SilverStars. You can find the lamps at Powerbulbs, they cost a bit over $40/pair and with free shipping, they are still cheaper than the crappier SilverStars. I also have these lamps on order and will post my observations when tested.


Take this picture with a grain of salt... it's photochopped...

Note that the chart measures in meters...

I expect to get these lamps in a couple of weeks so don't be bugging me for the updates till then (Hawaii is real far from England)...

Now, what about those high beams???
All the Prius Gen III models uses a 9005/HB3 (not H3!!!) lamp for the high beam. This lamp is rated for 1700 lumens from 65 watts. You can upgrade these to the Phillips 9005+30. These lamps are rated for 1870 lumens, or about a 10% increase in light output. To be frank, the standard 9005 lamp is bright enough for most people. But there is another option...

Enter HIR
GE developed a new technology in HIR lamps... What are they? High-intensity Infrared Reflected lamps. The bulbs are coated with a thin film which reflects infrared light. The infrared light heats up the filament to a higher temperature which gives you a whopping 2350 lumens, an increase of 38%. Contrary to what is expected, HIR lamps do not reduce the life of the filament, retaining a ~650 hour life, even though it is putting out more light. Toshiba is currently the only manufacturer of these lamps and the one you need is the 9011. The bulb is round instead of tubular...


Toshiba 9011 High-intensity Infrared Reflector lamps


stock lamp on left, HIR lamp on right

If you decide to buy these lamps (there are a shade under $23 each, a bargain to me), you must be aware that the fitting on the lamp must be modified to fit in the Prius. There are three tabs to locate the lamp in position and one of the plastic tabs must be filed down to fit (and as you probably guessed, i also have these on order, subjective observations will be posted)...

Oh yeah, I know that pictures would be nice... but I do not have the luxury of finding a suitable place to take pictures at night near me...

(to be continued...)

 

I drove the car out this morning at night with the new PIAA lamps installed.

The PIAA H11 Xtreme White bulb was disappointing as well. As you can see, the bulb has a slight bluish tint compared to the LUX H11 I previously installed. The PIAA is definitely brighter than the Lux lamps but the Lux lamps were so dim, anything would be brighter. The darker blue filter on the Lux eliminated too much of the yellow spectrum of light which severely reduced the light output.

The PIAA bulb is supposed to output 100 watts equivalent output from 55 watt consumption, but it fared no better than the stock Philips lamps. The temperature was a whiter than stock but a still had a bit of yellowish tinit where the stock lamp was definitely yellow.

IMHO, save your money... the PIAAs are not worth the cost. They are whiter but not brighter.

 

The H9 bulb is designed for high output for high beams... The problem is you don't get higher output for nothing. Sylvania rates the H9 bulb for only 120 hours and the H11 for 550 hours. Since I am always driving at night, I don't want to be changing the bulb every couple of months.

Mind you, the 550 hours for an H11 is for stock bulbs. Any bulb that delivers more lumens than stock will have reduced life span.

One interesting tidbit of info... Sylvania rates their bulb lumen output (e.g. 50% brighter for the Ultras) at the filament. This means the light output is measured before the light has to go through the blue quartz which reduces the lumens output. pretty sneaky....

 

The Osram Nightbreaker H11 bulbs arrived yesterday. While it proved to be brighter and a bit whiter than the stock lamps, the overall improvement over the PIAA Xtreme White lamps and the stock ones was not that huge. Need to verify as there was a slight drizzle last night and that impacts the lighting on the road. The right front headlight is a PIA to replace. The engine air intake is in the way and the wiring has no slack, you end up pulling the wiring harness when replacing and removing the lamp from the housing. I have small hands and it was still very difficult...

I also got the Philips W5W "blue" lamps. While it is tinted a medium blue, the light looks almost white, matching the NightBreaker pretty closely. I also used these lamps to replace the license plate lights on the hatch. Be aware that the fittings on the trunk lid is very finicky, it took me several minutes to get the light fixtures back on. Make sure that the wiring harness for the license lamps are connected when replacing the lamps... you do not want to "drop" them in the gap between the hatch and the plastic body panel. Otherwise you have to take the rear hatch apart to get the lamp out. Don't ask me how I know...The lamps are used for the parking lights in the headlight housing and replacing them was easier than the license lamps...

 

I finally got the HIR 9011 lamps to replace the high beams. After installing, it was a noticeable improvement over stock. I will try to post pictures of the end result if possible...

 

As promised, here are some shots of the Prius with aftermarket lights...

1. Headlight assembly with the odd looking HIR high beam lamp installed...
2. Low beam shot with the Osram NightBreaker lamp
3. High beam shot with the HIR lamp
4. Shot showing the approx white color of the lights
5. Shots of car in the garage...

since these shots were shot at dusk, the lights do not appear too bright, but they are a lot brighter than the stock lamps... You can order the Osram NightBreakers from Powerbulbs.com... delivery was super quick, took only five days to Hawaii from Great Britain...