What's the brightest and whitest headlight bulb for street use?

[Steel2686]

I have some really bad lights in my S10. They are so yellow and dim. I guess I need to replace them today.

If you take Steve's advice and get the PIAA's, they'll be worse than yellow and dim... They'll be burned out.

[DeWynter]

Well I run Silver star replacments in my 95 Chevy k1500 and I run the star bright PIAA also. The silver star are really white on the low beam but kinda yellowy on the Bright. The star bright PIAA are definatly not nearly as white as the silver star low beams.

[Z Ya Later]

Geez, I never get any love here anymore. Sheesh

[AmericanZ28]

The PIAA are definately the way to go, Kev! The Silverstars are ok, but they seem to lack light output. Also, don't confuse color temperature (Kelvins) with light output (lumens). A bulb with a color temperature of 6000K will put less light on the road than a 4000K bulb of the same wattage. On a Halogen bulb, the higher Kelvin will result in a darker coating on the bulb to filter out the unwanted color. The thicker the coating, the lower the light output (lumens). PIAA is superior in performance and quality compared to Sylvania IMO. I've used both and I really like the PIAA. And as Steve mentioned, they last long. Something else you might want to look into, if you haven't already, is a new bulb technology called HIR. Apparantly , they are much better than conventional Halogen in terms of light output. I've yet to try these, but maybe you can review them for us all. Here's some quick info I found on the net:

The new bulbs are not some tinted or overwattage version of 9005, but rather employ a relatively new technology called HIR, Halogen Infrared. The mechanical dimensions of the bulb are all virtually identical to the 9005 bulbs, but the bulb glass is spherical instead of tubular, with the sphere centered around the filament. There is a "Durable IR Reflective" coating on the spherical glass. Infrared = heat, so the coating causes heat to be reflected back to the filament at the center of the sphere. This causes the filament to become much hotter (producing more light) than it can by passing electricity through it, *without* the shorter life or greater heat production that comes with overwattage bulbs (to say nothing of overwattage bulbs' incompatibility with stock wiring.)

Here's the comparison:

High beam:

stock: 9005, 12.8V, 65W, 1700 lumens
new: HIR1, 12.8V, 65W, 2530 lumens

The beam pattern will not change, but there will be considerably more light within the beam pattern.

There is an application for the 9006:

stock: 9006, 12.8V, 55W, 1000 lumens
new: HIR2, 12.8V, 55W, 1875 lumens

[Steel2686]

PIAA propaganda!!!

Actually, that was a very good write-up. I loved the PIAA's on my S-10, but they just didn't last. I thought maybe it was just me, but a few forums I visited all had similar issues at the time.

If you buy them from a reputable dealer who will replace them, give them a shot.