So I have been using traditional bulbs for a while and so far I cant really find anything brighter without going to projection bulbs which require special housings and lenses
I looked into LED bulbs but there dont seem to be many out there for my car which are the 9003/H4 I found most of them on ebay and of course the one i picked was complete dud and did not provide enough brightness for night driving. If anyone can recommend a good high intensity LED bulb for this form factor with a higher intensity than standard halogen I would greatly appreciate it
If this is your 2003 Galant your best bet is to just buy good replacement bulbs from Autozone or a parts store like that. I seriously doubt LED would be any better.
Edit: Could it be as simple as cleaning the plastic lenses , they are 14 years old.
Exactly what kind of traditional bulbs have you been using?
I can tell you that I switched from “standard” replacement bulbs to Sylvania Silverstar Ultra bulbs (see attached chart) when I had my cataracts (since removed) and it truly made a huge, huge difference. They really are far, far brighter and whiter.
How do they accomplish this? By altering the gas and the filament (purer) to allow the filament to burn hotter.
The tradeoffs? Operating hours and cost.
A Silverstar Ultra is life rated at about 1/4 the operating hours of a standard bulb.
It also costs about 4 times the price.
net/net, it’s about 16 times the cost long term. They’re 4 times the price and you have to replace them 4 times as often.
Is it worth it? Absolutely positively in my opinion. It greatly enhanced my driving safety until I got my cataract surgery. I strongly urge you to try these (if you haven’t already) before investing in an different system. NOTE: I realize that they now make LED lamps that are allegedly direct-replacement for quartz-halogen incandescent bulbs, which is what standard bulbs are. And, in the interest of full disclosure, I haven’t tried them. But I still recommend trying the Silverstar Ultras first. You’ll be amazed. I was.
That too can make a huge difference. I polish mine occasionally. If yours are fogged, you could be reducing your light output dramatically, even 40% to 60% if they’re bad. If you’d like some tips, simply ask. My car is over 12 years old…
I am looking into LED for high intensity but overall I like the idea of the longer life spans I live in Rhode Island and the roads are really bad here I go through a lot more of those silver-star bulbs than i would like and i honestly blame the vibrations from all the grooved pavement and excessive potholes. and those silver-stars aren’t cheap. and i know its technologically possible because my bike has dual headlight assemblies with 3 high intensity Cree bulbs each and its actually brighter than my car XD… Hang on a sec (Duct Tapes his bike lights to the hood )
Let us know the results. I, for one, would really like some real-world feedback on these from somebody without a commercial interest. Can’t trust paid responses.
I sure hope that if you’re going to go to a brighter bulb, you make sure you’re not blinding other drivers at night. Is there any reason you think you need more brightness than what is provided by the standard bulbs?
You might want to first check to see if your lenses are fogged and whether your headlights need to be readjusted. Those would be the preferred ways to solve your problem without shining bright light in other drivers’ faces.
If there is such a law I can’t believe it would be enforced or that any police officers would even know about it the LED bulbs aren’t really conversion kits they just come in the standard size I think you’re probably referring to the laws Banning decorative LEDs like ground lighting or strips
In my personal experience, asking those who are charged with enforcing laws for legal advice is usually a bad idea. On several occasions, I’ve had a law enforcement officer tell me something was illegal when it wasn’t. I recommend researching the laws yourself or asking a lawyer, because those who are relied upon to enforce our laws are often shockingly ignorant of the actual laws.
My latest example was when a police officer drew his gun on my friend for wearing his full-face motorcycle helmet into a convenience store. The cop said wearing the helmet inside the store was illegal, but when I asked him to cite the statute, he couldn’t. I looked it up later online, and no such law exists in my state, county, or city.
Good Grief, that is just plain dumb. Scare the living daylights out the clerk, cause an unqualified open carry person to panic and possibly shoot first and ask questions later. I always took my helmet off as soon as possible when parking the motorcycle at a convenience store or removing my ski mask when using my bicycle.
He was wearing a clear face shield, and it was open enough to see his eyes, nose, and the top of his mouth. I wear my helmet into convenience stores at least three times a week just because taking it off and putting it on is a hassle, and I don’t expect the people around me to react like panicked animals. It reveals much more of my face than a ski mask.
Assuming a repeat customer who always leaves his helmet on is there to rob you would be the dumbest move of all, but don’t let that stop you from jumping to conclusions.
Be careful with LEDs, or for that matter with HID conversions. I have looked at LED headlights several times , and each time I looked, there were no aftermarket LEDs available that were DOT approved street legal. If you are involved in an accident and the other driver says your headlights were a factor contributing to the accident, and your headlights are not DOT approved street legal lights, it may not go well for you in court.
In my experience, the plug-and-play conversions put out rather poor light patterns because the headlight reflectors/projectors are not intended to work with LED or HID bulbs. A good conversion kit will put the light source at the correct location, but the pattern still won’t be uniform.
