Stock headlight replacement options

Prior to last month, the only experience I had with replacing burnt out headlights were my 97' Ranger and my Mom's 93' Taurus, and both set-ups required only removing and replacing the actual bulb (as opposed to removing the headlight assembly also). Anyway, my wife and I own an 07' Ford Edge and an 08' Ford Ranger, and both vehicles have reached 60,000 miles. Coincidentally, both vehicles needed headlights replaced last month, and even more coincidentally, both the Edge and the Ranger use the same H11 (A.K.A. 9007) halogen bulb commonly found at any autoparts store or national retailer, such as Wal-Mart. I wasn't expecting to find several different options, and I'm only interested in OEM replacement -- not HID's or LED's, and Sylvania alone has the basic stock for $7.99, the Sylvania X-travision for $9.99, the Silverstar's for $14.99, and the Sylvania Silverstar Ultra's for $17.99 (per singe bulb). I needed both passenger and driver for the Edge but only the driver side for the Ranger, and naturally, the local Wal-Mart only had a single pack left of the regular Sylvania, which I used for the passenger side on the Edge for practice (with no problems). I, then, went to another Wal-Mart for the other Sylvania, but that store only had the Sylvania X-travision. I bought a single pack for the driver side Edge and the double pack X-travision for the Ranger. I had trouble removing the driver side bulb on the Edge, but with pliers I was able to get the bulb out w/o damaging the base or wiring. I then replaced both headlights on the Ranger because of dissatisfaction with the apparent difference in lighting between the old and new bulb. Also, I had a heck of a time lining-up the headlight assembly on the Ranger, and for those unfamiliar, there are metal tabs that hold the assembly in place. It is very hard to slightly loosen the tabs from inside the hood, pull the headlight assembly out, change the bulb, properly align the headlight assembly in place, and push the metal tabs back in to lock the headlight assembly. The process for replacing two bulbs in the Ranger took over 1 hour 15 min., and I do not ever look forward to doing it again. The problem I have now is that I don't feel like the headlights are aimed correctly or that the lights shine far enough. The X-travision, for instance, claim to be 20% brighter than the basic bulbs and also claim to radiate out 20% farther, and I am not convinced. It is more apparent in the Edge with the two different bulbs, and I'm really thinking of trying an experiment -- taking the X-travision out of the driver side of the Edge and replacing with a regular Sylvania. I am very interested to hear about other's experience replacing headlights. A couple other options exist, such as trying to align the Ranger's headlights, but since I have the problem with the Edge, I'm thinking the bulbs are crap. I know from my recent findings that other inexpensive OEM brands exist, such as Phillips, Eiko, and Wagner. Does anyone have experience with these? Thank you in advance.

 

[toypaseo]

I'll recommend looking at Philips X-treme Power Bulbs

Has won Product of the Year a few times on http://www.autoexpress.co.uk

I have a set awaiting installation, along with new OEM headlights, someday...

I have a set in some OEM JDM headlights on my Paseo. HUGE improvement over the older Sylvania Silverstars they replaced.

Here are the 9007 on Amazon for $30.13:
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-9007-..._1?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1331165235&sr=1-1

 

[Bill Kemp]

Ya know, H-11 is not the same (or even close) to 9007. These are different bulbs that do not interchange.
What exactly did you put in each car?

 

[fifthranger]

Ya know, H-11 is not the same (or even close) to 9007. These are different bulbs that do not interchange. What exactly did you put in each car?

Brain cramp since I did use the correct 9007 bulbs, which I found out are the H-4 or H-5 and not the H-11.

I'll recommend looking at Philips X-treme Power Bulbs

Thanks.