2014 Halogen Headlight Upgrade?

[J_Westy]

I tried a search, but I couldn't find any wisdom to upgrade the bulbs in our 2014. The intent is to not retrofit HID. I like white light, not fake blue light.

I'm considering either:
- Narva Range Power +50
- - http://store.candlepower.com/narapo5hi90h1.html

- Philips X-treme Vision
- - http://www.amazon.com/Philips-9005XVS2-X-Treme-Vision-Headlight/dp/B00BQWQLOU

What works well in the Explorer projectors?

Does Ford PWM the bulbs? i.e. would a relay harness improve voltage at the bulb?

Will "off road" 100W bulbs melt wiring or housings?

J_Westy

 

[J_Westy]

What works well in the Explorer projectors?

Hmmm. No wisdom yet...

I think I'll go with the Philips and report back. I liked thier older X-treme Power line in my other vehicles.

J_Westy

 

[Anime]

Stock halogen bulbs are the 9005 size, so you can pretty much use the slight upgraded bulbs and that might be all you need.

Plus 50 bulbs like the Narva Rangepower are good if you must have a 'boutique' bulb, but you can get bulbs like the Philips Hi-visibility, Philips Vision Plus and Sylvania XtraVision at stores like walmart and kmart for just $10-20 a pair. GE also makes the Nighthawk bulbs, and the Nighthawk Platinum, which are "Plus 90" bulbs, and do put out an impressive amount of light.

However, the thing to keep in mind about higher output halogen bulbs, just like the "fake HID" versions, is there is no free lunch. The higher output comes at the cost of bulb life. The GE Nighthawk Platinum and the Philips X-treme Power / X-treme Vision have a very short bulb life, at least compared to standard bulbs and even the more common Philips Hi-Visibility and Sylvania XtraVision.

You'll have to make your own judgement about what you're willing to pay for an incremental improvement in output, but I would say cost/benefit wise, it's hard to justify spending $30-50 on a pair of boutique bulbs that might only last a year when you can get longer life and almost as much light on the road from a pair of $10-20 bulbs.


If you want an upgrade that's close to HID, but with a halogen bulb, look into using a 9011 HIR (Halogen Infrared) bulb in place of the 9005.

http://hirheadlights.com/

 

[J_Westy]

You'll have to make your own judgement about what you're willing to pay for an incremental improvement in output, but I would say cost/benefit wise, it's hard to justify spending $30-50 on a pair of boutique bulbs that might only last a year when you can get longer life and almost as much light on the road from a pair of $10-20 bulbs.


If you want an upgrade that's close to HID, but with a halogen bulb, look into using a 9011 HIR (Halogen Infrared) bulb in place of the 9005.

http://hirheadlights.com/

Thanks for the info... I don't mind replacing bulbs every year or so... which has been my experience with no-free-lunch bulbs. I think I'll still give the X-treme Visions a try.

The HIRs are new to me (probably becuase I've never had a car with 9005/9006 bulbs). How long do they last?

J_Westy

 

[Anime]

There have been reports of some of the Xtreme Power / Xtreme Vision bulbs lasting well under a year, only a few months, which is why I steer people away from them. Of course it varies by vehicle and usage, and a proper install will let a bulb last way longer.

Cost-wise though, the Xtreme Visions are about ~$35, the Philips Vision Plus and Sylvania XtraVision are ~$15. It's more than double the price for a VERY slight increase in light on the road AND you get the shorter bulb life.

Whatever you decide to try, it'd be helpful to post back and note your impressions of the beam pattern and amount of light compared to the stock bulbs. Surely lots of other new Explorer owners would like to know if aftermarket bulbs give any reasonable improvement in the stock headlamps.

HIR's aren't very well known since they sort of came and went once people found out about them, but they are still available if you do some digging and are willing to pay a premium price. GE still uses the HIR technology in residential halogen lighting, like flood lights, too. I've never used a pair of auto HIR bulbs, but they seem to last about the same as premium halogen bulbs, a year to a few years depending on use.

 

[J_Westy]

Whatever you decide to try, it'd be helpful to post back and note your impressions of the beam pattern and amount of light compared to the stock bulbs. Surely lots of other new Explorer owners would like to know if aftermarket bulbs give any reasonable improvement in the stock headlamps.

Thanks again, I think I'll give the Philips HIRs a shot.

The XLT is just a mall Explorer, so we didn't want to afford a trim package with HIDs, but my wife's night vision needs all the help it can get.

I'll report back.

J_Westy

 

[wbrudi28]

since when did HIDs look "cheap" and "blue"...you can get them in 35w and 55w in an array of temperatures. I have 55w 6k and they are a pure white light.you should check that combination out!

 

[Anime]

Fake "superwhite" bulbs like Sylvania Silverstars and the like look "cheap" and "blue" - and put less light on the road than even a regular halogen headlight bulb.

The only "real" HID is either a factory system or doing a custom conversion with HID housings and bulbs.

HID has its merits, but cost savings isn't one of them.

In this case, the owner didn't want the expense of the factory HID system and opted for the halogen headlamps, and apparently will be seeing how the HIR bulbs do in comparison to the stock halogen bulbs.

 

[J_Westy]

In this case, the owner didn't want the expense of the factory HID system and opted for the halogen headlamps, and apparently will be seeing how the HIR bulbs do in comparison to the stock halogen bulbs.

Right - To get factory HIDs, I would have had to step up to a Limited with the 302A package versus what we got... an XLT with the 202A package -- a $7500 increase. I can buy a lot of $30 - $50 bulbs for that.

The HIRs come in the mail on Wednesday.

 

[wbrudi28]

http://www.ddmtuning.com/Product-Categories/HID-Kits-and-Components

not to start a war, but these HIDs have been in every single forward facing bulb in every single one of my vehicles, less my 88 firebird that takes fixed filament bulbs.

Lifetime warranty, awesome customer support and a price that you can't beat. Even the normal ballasts are "slim" in my mind, all metal construction (not the cheap crap you get off Ebay) and even come with wire extensions in case you want to route the ballast more than ~1.5" from the actual headlight.

 

[J_Westy]

not to start a war, but these HIDs...

I won't dive into the HID retrofit kit in halogen optics debate either, but as someone sensitive to glare, it's just something I personally won't do.

 

[Anime]

Without an HID housing for the HID bulb, those "retrofit" kits are dangerous and illegal.

The only way to do it right is a factory HID system or a complete retrofit with full HID assemblies, including the housing/reflector.

The HIR halogen bulbs in this case will likely give more light on the road (where you want it) than even the best HID bulbs, which just glare everywhere in halogen housings.

 

[J_Westy]

The HIRs come in the mail on Wednesday.

The bulbs came in the mail today.

I followed the 9011 to 9005 trimming method described here:
http://www.iwsti.com/forums/gr-exterior/227770-sunday-mod-diy-hir-9011-9005-bulb-conversion.html

In my opinion, I see no difference between the stock bulb and this one.

Doing a little more snorting around the web, it seems this bulb is a "standard" Philips bulb (i.e. not X-treme Vision or other botique style from Philips) and according to Candle Power

The Philips HIR1 (9011) and HIR2 (9012) Halogen Infrared Reflective bulbs no longer have the electo-deposited coating that reflects the filament's infrared (heat) back onto the filament.

http://store.candlepower.com/hirlighting.html

So maybe it makes sense that it's not brighter.

I think I'll try the 9005 X-treme Vision bulbs eventually.

J_Westy

 

[Anime]

Yeah, I saw that on the candlepower site when I posted that link to the HIRs.

Without the coating, the filament doesn't get as hot/bright, and also won't last as long, but it should still be a noticeable improvement over the standard 9005 bulbs.

Maybe the stock bulbs are already HIR or improved halogens? Could also be the lamp/reflector design is already at the limit. There's a point at which a headlamp design no longer projects any more useful light despite brighter bulbs being used.

 

[J_Westy]

Yeah, I saw that on the candlepower site when I posted that link to the HIRs.

Without the coating, the filament doesn't get as hot/bright, and also won't last as long, but it should still be a noticeable improvement over the standard 9005 bulbs.

Maybe the stock bulbs are already HIR or improved halogens? Could also be the lamp/reflector design is already at the limit. There's a point at which a headlamp design no longer projects any more useful light despite brighter bulbs being used.

My sense is that since these "New" Philips 9011/HIR1 bulbs came in "Standard" Philips orange packaging, they are nothing more than standard halogen 9005 bulbs on a 9011 base.

The stock bulbs are just regular Sylvania halogens. I just swapped one 9011 into the right socket and drove to a dark wall and I really couldn't tell any difference left to right. I might even have chosen the stock bulb as being marginally better.

 

[Anime]

My sense is that since these "New" Philips 9011/HIR1 bulbs came in "Standard" Philips orange packaging, they are nothing more than standard halogen 9005 bulbs on a 9011 base.

Yikes, if that's the case I'd be pretty mad at paying ~$50 for a set of regular bulbs that cost $10 anywhere else and demanding a refund or at least an exchange for the Philips Xtreme bulbs.

It'd be against the law for Candlepower to sell a regular 9011 halogen bulb as an 9011 HIR bulb, so while their 'disclaimer' about the coating is nice, they're still listing them as HIR bulbs when they're just regular 'ol standard halogens if that's the exact package they come in, and selling them at a deceptive price.

I feel bad about even suggesting the HIRs now, which got you to this point, you would have been better off getting some Sylvania XtraVisions or the Philips X-treme.

 

[J_Westy]

I feel bad about even suggesting the HIRs now, which got you to this point, you would have been better off getting some Sylvania XtraVisions or the Philips X-treme.

No worries. Again the 9005 in a 9011 base is just my guess. If they were really supposed to be 200% brighter though, I don't see Philips putting them in "Standard" orange packaging.

Weird thing is there's all kinds of interweb posts saying these things are great... maybe the Explorer is lamp housing limited, but I'm skeptical.

 

[Anime]

Some real-world light meter testing shows those Philips bulbs are putting out decent light:

http://forum.ih8mud.com/200-series-cruisers/701565-hir1-high-beam-bulbs-brightest.html


Although the bulbs are a much better deal on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00480J5CW/ref=nosim/ihco-20



If the base says they are HIR1 and 9011, that's about all there is. I was suspicious that like you said, there was just a 9005 bulb on a 9011 base, but that's either the case with certain bulbs, or, possibly more likely, the Explorer halogen headlamp can't do anything with the additional output. I guess the Philips X-treme bulbs would be the second test to determine if that's the case or not.

 

[J_Westy]

Some real-world light meter testing shows those Philips bulbs are putting out decent light:

Although the bulbs are a much better deal on Amazon:

If the base says they are HIR1 and 9011, that's about all there is. I was suspicious that like you said, there was just a 9005 bulb on a 9011 base, but that's either the case with certain bulbs, or, possibly more likely, the Explorer halogen headlamp can't do anything with the additional output. I guess the Philips X-treme bulbs would be the second test to determine if that's the case or not.

I got them from a reputable ebay seller before I found the slightly better price Amazon. They look exactly like the Amazon bubble pack picture and the bulb pictures your ih8mud link. Anyway, I'm going to try to return them, but we'll see how that goes. If not, it's not so much money over a set of regular bulbs and can be a spare set.

My thought is that if these 9011s don't have the internal reflective coating to extra-heat up the filament, they can't be real patented HIR technology right? So why should they be any brighter than a regular standard 9005?

But, anyway I agree, the next experiment should be some X-tremes.

 

[Anime]

While the 9011's, without the IR reflective coating, aren't really HIR bulbs anymore (and they should not be able to refer to them as such), they still technically are meeting the HIR1 bulb spec, so they can refer to them as such. Their additional brightness would now probably come from just having a more precise filament with gas designed to let the filament burn hotter and brighter - essentially the same thing as higher output halogen bulbs like the Philips Hi-Visibility, Vision Plus, and X-treme bulbs.

I'm reluctant to claim Philips is outright deceiving it's customers and simply packaging a standard halogen bulb with a 9011 base and then slapping the "HIR1" on the base and allowing it's retailers to continue to refer to them as "HIR" bulbs and sell them at insane prices just to seperate people from their money who are still seeking out HIR bulbs after the wave has passed, but I wouldn't put it past them. Philips and even Osram/Sylvania are big companies that make great products, but they aren't above false advertising and outright lying to people and gouging them on price for products that don't do what they imply or claim. One need only to notice the Philips BlueVision / CrystalVision and Sylvania Silverstar line, and how they are advertised, to see that. These are companies that produce some of the best lighting products in the world, and clearly have people that understand physics working for them - yet are claming that blue/white light is somehow "whiter, brighter, safer" light - and that the blue/white bulbs are magically putting out more light, when physics shows it isn't. Marketing takes over science and facts when it comes to sales, even for the giants of the auto lighting industry.

For all we know, the perceived brightness of the "new" 9011 "HIR" bulbs is just because they are new and replacing older, dimmer bulbs - and the same brightness would be seen by replacing older, dimmer bulbs with new $10 standard halogen bulbs.