[02Lightning]

I put some in my 2002 Lightning and it made a word of diffrence. I put some in my wifes 98 Grand Prix thinking I would get the same results and I'm not sure they were any better than the oem bulb. Go figure.

[donkie]

Well thanks to the teenage a**hat down my street and his christmas gifts of some 12's and a coffee can muffler for his POS cobalt I was up all night reading projector retro information, and I am curious. I still have plastic molding equipment from my R/C days. I just can't stand the look of any aftermarket lamp assemblies, so I might just pickup a set of used oem housings and call my junkyard buddy to see if he has any acura/bmw/audi's...too bad they closed mad's thread. I'd like to see how a larger projector than the Z's looks and works on a wj oem housing.

I just want to be able to see better at night without attracting attention from kids in hondas or state troopers, creating warranty issues or buying yet another vehicle.

A proper HID retrofit would cost somewhere around $1000 give or take. A KTM bumper, two 150W KC daylighters and 2 or so inches of lift would cost about the same, and I bet I could see really well then. Decisions decisions

[Woody]

This thread was made to show that someone tried Silverstar's and didn't get much outta them.

We are not talking about HID's or Projector's here.

Yes, pruning will be starting soon.

[///BHRpowered]

lol "Don't feed the troll"

Well, silverstars will react differently depending on the housing just like any bulb, but with a lumen meter under no condition will they provide more output without greatly increasing the power

[madcabbie]

Lol i thought we were in the NEWB HID thread....


Honestly, I like em. As long as you dont go blue or yellow or whatever, I dont see why they are rice..

They last long as hell (well they always have for me) so its worth it to buy them. I dont know how much brighter they are, but they help my ****ty eyes see better in the dark and in the rain

[donkie]

Well I'd rather not use crash parts for this except for the housings, and even a basic kit from hidplanet and new OEM housings (I'm not going to destroy my own) would run $500 in all new parts plus my time to retrofit the housings properly and make a harness. If I can find someone that can properly retrofit my housing I might be willing to pay for it and do the rest myself - that would be less than $800or so for a "professional" job. Or about a $1000.

///BHR who were you suggesting that does this, can you post a link? I found plenty looking around but I'm sure you know who does the good work. Are you using the projector from a Q45...? That would be really interesting.

After looking at the HID forums, seems they are all obsessed with cutoff and flooding the foreground with light. Not exactly what I am after. I just would like to be able to see even 85% as well as I do driving the 03 crown vic or my wifes accord when in my WJ on low beam...

Edit: heading out to align the gimmicks. Mods if I need to open a new thread titled "WJ HID retrofit technical info" I will

[capeennui]

When I installed them, I thought that they offered more reflectivity off of distant signs, even though they didn't seem to illuminate much farther out than stock.

[Woody]

It's your thread, if you wanna go elsewhere with it, that's fine.

[///BHRpowered]

If there reflecting more off distant road signs that is your key that there producing glare.

and yes, hidplanet is all about the extreme lighting, generally in sports cars. Get as much light as you can on the ground without extended beam pattern, get as LITTLE light above the cutoff as you can (many retrofits produce less glare then even the best oem systems) and make your cutoff rich, deep, and worthwhile...then move into boosting your ballasts etc.

The only company I know of that goes retrofits is www.illusion-lighting.com for a DOT spec projector retrofitted they charge 950-1250, depending on he shroud you choose and how good you want it to look. You must supply the headlights though

[lma1973]

I think the Silverstar high beams are much more noticeable over stock than the low beams. Either way, i can tell a difference with the Silverstars but its not huge. My 350Z has xenons and i can definitely tell a difference on that one.

[donkie]

So I just went and properly aimed the lights according to the FSM - the beam is centered 1 inch above and 3 inches below the centerline of about 34 inches. They were about a foot and a half low.

Now I do see a huge improvement, but chances are they were not properly adjusted with the OEM bulbs, so I'll have to rinse and repeat just to get a correct baseline for a comparison with these marketing wonders. The High beams look like KC daylighters or a q beam now, I can say that for sure. At least I can see better now, which is what I was after in the first place.

The fog lights are a big improvement. I'm not sure why Jeep switched the bulbs, but they used L0009055 (99-02) L0009040 (2003) L0009145 (2004) but the housing is the exact same part (except for 04 of course) and the harness looks to be the same, as well as the fuse ratings. Just for 03 they dropped them 15 watts but left everything else the same, the bulbs are identical just a slightly different locking tab on the 9145. I have a 5 watt higher in there now, and it's a big improvement.

[///BHRpowered]

I wonder how many people will tattle and complain about this, even through its fact and I'm not flaming anyone.

Unless you are driving around the country in truely dark woods, and I mean dark dark, no lights, no star light, no moonlight nothing, it is actually better to aim your headlights lower to increase driving light.

Think of a flashlight laying flat on the ground, the same flashlight may light 20 feet in front of it, but its rather dim, but start to lift it up and increase the angle and that same amount of light is put onto a smaller and smaller area. When you raise your headlights because you want to see further, your actually dimming the overall light by spreading it out more. Lower it and your putting more light when it needs to be. Also, the lower your headlights are aimmed the better rain vision you'll have as well as well glare to oncoming drivers if your concerned

[Woody]

That is true, to a point. Aimed too far down decreases forward visibility by a great amount. That's why you adjust it to the proper height.

[///BHRpowered]

*disclaimer, I'm not flamming woody, just making a point*

Every inch up to move the beam pattern at the 25ft aimming mark is something like 4 feet or extra light. Headlights aimmed at proper height will not only give you the best "road use" of the light, but if they were designed for US roads (DOT spec) then they were designed at ride height, which means when there adjusted to that height it will focus the light to the best of its ability.

Now, if you live way out in the country where its totally dark and have no extra driving lights, it would probably be in your best interest to see further ahead.

[Woody]

Point made, but how do we know he wasn't set to low to begin with?