Disappointed with Sylvania Silverstars

So i dished out 47.50 for a pair of silvania superstars hoping they would be a great improvemtn from stock. I know about the $10 rebate. I put them in.. went for a drive.. and was actually having trouble seeing. I think the silverstars were actually putting out less light than my stock. Sure it seems whiter, but its almost like the high beams are only a bit brighter than halogen stock. And my fogs light up more road than the silverstars. I had pepboy xenons last year on my old x and from my recollection, they seem brighter than my silverstars. Im actually on duty as an RA right now and itz raining.. so i cant do any comparison checks, but hopefully the weather is better tom night so i can put in one halogen and one silverstar and compare them. Anyone else with silverstar complaints?

 

[expo5.0]

i traded them for hiper brand bulbs, to a great benefit in performance and price. caveat- i used a higher wattage bulb than the x can "handle" so don't attempt to repeat what i did you may melt something important or start a fire or somethin, or you may run them for a year with no problems like me.

 

[tbomb]

whoa. thanks for posting that. i almost picked up a pair of those last weekend, and i decided not to at the last minute, but i was planning on really getting them in the next few weeks, but now i doubt i will.

 

[expo5.0]

funny, how tons of people seem to run them without complaining...

 

[Hartman]

Mine are truely awesome, I've had nothing better. Also a benefit is that I don't have to worry about my wiring harness going up in smoke.

Perhaps you got a bad set?

 

[jssong]

how would i go about gettin a new pair. once u open the box. u cant return them (at least at pepboys). should i contact sylvania?

 

[jssong]

tbomb.. i hope u dont base ur decision on my post. It is possible that i have a bad set. i posted this cus i wasnt sure if there were other bad cases. most people only have good reviews like hartman. Im gonna check it out tom.

 

[Explorer46L]

I used to use Hiper brand bulbs on a few different cars. Once I saw the Silverstars I got them and I am very happy with them. They have a color temp 4000 kelvin while the Hipers only had a temp of 3800K. You can really tell how clear the silverstars are with the diamond clear lights on the 2002.

 

[Tarron]

I just had a chance to do some night driving after installing my Silverstars and they are great. Maybe I just had some bad stock bulbs, but I can really see the road now. Since I only paid $22.50 for both of them I have no complaints.

 

[Rob Slade]

jssong....


You should probably just put them up for sale on this website. I'm sure someone on here would like them, especially since you haven't used them for long.

On another note, I just got a pair of Eurolite's Xenon Fusion headlight bulbs that replaced my $65 PIAA Superwhites. I must say I was very impressed with the Eurolites. They were much whiter than the PIAA's and put out just as much light. Plus they look blue on the bulb, but the light isn't. Just pure crisp white light, none of that fake looking blue. I got them at www.truckperformance.com for around $30.00 plus shipping for two. Good luck on your future decisions.

 

[aldive]

I am very happy with my SillverSrat bulbs.

 

['96explorereddiebauer]

One of my friends has a Camry and we installed a pair of fog lights on his car because he couldn't see well. Well, now that I convinced him to get the SilverStars, he told me a few days ago that the new headlights outshines the fog lights so he's 100% satisfied with them. He told me $42 was worth it.

 

[DesertSpive]

I was dissapointed in the Silver Stars at first too. but I have been running them about 3 months now. In the city with lots of street lights, I though tthe light out put was less. but when I get on a stretch of road where there are no lights, or even better, the desert at night, they outperform the stockers hands down. You need to get to a real dark area to truly appreciate how much better they are. I think the reason they seem weak in the city is that the street lights are yellow and the Silver Stars are closer to white and it confuses your eye. That's MHO, but I love them.

--Sean

 

[Mike]

u can return them to pepboys... just put them back in the box and bring them in... i do it all the time with stuff.. they dont say a thing... nothing but a bunch of kids in there.. they dont know any better...

 

[Jason_25]

I know for a fact my Silverstars made the light from the headlights a nice, clean white color instead of the ugly stock yellow. As for light output, I can't say because I need new headlight lenses.

 

[balck explorer]

Originally posted by DesertSpive
I was dissapointed in the Silver Stars at first too. but I have been running them about 3 months now. In the city with lots of street lights, I though tthe light out put was less. but when I get on a stretch of road where there are no lights, or even better, the desert at night, they outperform the stockers hands down. You need to get to a real dark area to truly appreciate how much better they are. I think the reason they seem weak in the city is that the street lights are yellow and the Silver Stars are closer to white and it confuses your eye. That's MHO, but I love them.

--Sean

If that is the case then, they are no better than the Sylvania Cool Blues. They have the same effect. The European Silverstars have no coating on the bulb unlike, the US versions. Thanks for the testimonials. I was about to fall for these.

As for refunding the bulbs. Youc could exchange them at Pep Boys if, you think you have a defective pair.

 

[Maniak]

I have run the Sylvania Cool blues and the Silverstarts in our '92 X.. The silverstars are brighter.. I have to drive down a 2 lane blacktop for about 7 miles (twisty/hilly) to get home and at night I noticed a big difference with the silverstarts over stock and teh cool blues.

To me the cool blues were no brighter than the stock ones.. just a different color light. The silverstars are really white..

When I turn onto our dirt road at night with the silverstars it is practically daylight..

I did re-adjust our headlights after I put in the silverstars becuase they were blinding people.. The coolblues and the stock ones were not blinding people and I had them set so I could see as far ahead as possible without blinding people.. with the silverstars I can adjust them down (I had to) and see just as far as before.. but now I see more.. I see the animals on the road much sooner than I did before..

~Mark

 

[tbomb]

Originally posted by jssong
tbomb.. i hope u dont base ur decision on my post. It is possible that i have a bad set. i posted this cus i wasnt sure if there were other bad cases. most people only have good reviews like hartman. Im gonna check it out tom.

i was gonna get them, just to get them. im not too concerned really, and im not shopping around or anything. to me, theyre just light bulbs - if i dont get them, oh well, ill spend the $50 on something else. dont worry bout it.

 

[jssong]

hMM.. i dont know.. i asked pepboys when i bought the bulbs and they said no exchanges or refunds with opened HEADLIGHT bulbs. they said any other bulb like 3157 and 198 are fine.. but headlights they cant take back cus people get body oil on the bulbs and causes it to burn out. im gonna try the silverstars next to stock tonite or tom and then see how they compare.

 

[jssong]

so i did a side by side comparison of the silverstars, stock, and cool blues i had from last year. the cool blues are definately not as bright as stock or silverstars. the silverstars and stock are almost identical, except the silverstars are a tad bit brighter up close(0-15 feet) and then seem to be as bright as stock. the only advantage of the silverstar i guess is that the light is whiter, although not by much compared to my fogs which are stock fogs. i might consider going somewhere else with a return policy and getting some xenon hiperwhites and seeing how much brither they are, although they might burn out my wires like alphas.

and by the way.. i have the fogs that are similar to the 9005 bulbs. how do i take the bulbs out. i tried twisting like normal headlight bulbs and what not, but was afriad i was gonna break them because they werent coming out. do i just turn to the left like any other bulb?