PIAA Night Tech

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I got a decent deal on a pair of these bulbs (H11) on Amazon last year in April. One of them flared out on me yesterday. So, 1.5 year life span - not too impressive. The bulbs are not "colored" and were slightly whiter than OEM (Phillips from Germany). The PIAA bulbs have "Made in Germany" printed on them so I suspected they were made by Phillips.

Anyone else here try a pair of these? I'm glad I kept my original one year old bulbs. This was not $40 well spent. I should have learned my lesson in the past. "Improved" performance bulbs don't seem to last very long. My best, so far, were a pair of Hella long-life H4's used in my previous vehicle.
 
Brighter bulbs usually have shorter life-spans. Many have a graphic on the back that shows the brightness and longevity of the "improved" bulbs.

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BTW, a 1.5 years is heads better than the 3-5 months I get from the cheap Wagner 9003 bulbs I get from Rock Auto..
 
I got less than a year out of GE Nighthawk Platinums in our MDX (also H11). I've found that the best bang-for-the-buck is the Sylvania Xtravision. I get years' of service from them and they seem to provide a reasonable improvement in performance. They're available everywhere and they're inexpensive. I recommend them for your application (H11) because they're made in Germany by Osram.
 
Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
I got less than a year out of GE Nighthawk Platinums in our MDX (also H11). I've found that the best bang-for-the-buck is the Sylvania Xtravision. I get years' of service from them and they seem to provide a reasonable improvement in performance. They're available everywhere and they're inexpensive. I recommend them for your application (H11) because they're made in Germany by Osram.



Your last sentence is very important. XtraVision is good in H4, but pretty junky in some other formats- a good example being 9007.

I'm a fan of Philips XtremeVision in most of the formats that Sylvania/Osram isn't so good in. Its not an overwattage design, just has a few tricks and optimizations to extract the maximum legal output in the right areas of the beam pattern... a sort of "balanced and blueprinted" bulb.
 
You guys made me feel better. I think I'll stick with "standard" bulbs. The PIAA's weren't increased wattage, but I suppose that brighter generally means hotter filament (shorter life). I'll stick with Phillips or Hella.
 
Also, maybe I'll try the Sylvanias you mention after my OE bulbs are ready for replacement. I had less than a year on them before I stuck the PIAA's in. Even though they came OEM on the Mazda3 (built in Japan) they are German bulbs.
 
The best-bang-for-the-buck is H9 in place of H11 if you have low beam projector, H9 has 2100 lumen vs H11 1200-300 lumen. With small modification H9 fits H11 harness easily and costs less than $20 a pair.
 
^I've been reading about this mod here and elsewhere for a couple of years now. The OEM lighting is fine on my car. I just liked the whiter (again, NOT blue) color of the Night Tech bulbs. I have previous experience using over wattage bulbs - H9 is one - and issues occurred. In my Accord the dash clock kept resetting itself - weird. And, in my 72 Pontiac I burned out the foot dimmer switch. In those days the switches were heavier duty and relays were not employed.

I have enough gripes about other drivers blinding me with their headlights that I don't want to become part of the issue.
 
Originally Posted By: DBMaster
I got a decent deal on a pair of these bulbs (H11) on Amazon last year in April. One of them flared out on me yesterday. So, 1.5 year life span - not too impressive. The bulbs are not "colored" and were slightly whiter than OEM (Phillips from Germany). The PIAA bulbs have "Made in Germany" printed on them so I suspected they were made by Phillips.

Anyone else here try a pair of these? I'm glad I kept my original one year old bulbs. This was not $40 well spent. I should have learned my lesson in the past. "Improved" performance bulbs don't seem to last very long. My best, so far, were a pair of Hella long-life H4's used in my previous vehicle.


the Night Techs have 2 light blue tint bands on it, which, to me, looks like repackaged Osram Nightbreaker.
 
Originally Posted By: UG_Passat
the Night Techs have 2 light blue tint bands on it, which, to me, looks like repackaged Osram Nightbreaker.


Looks like it to me, too, since you brought it to my attention. The tint bands are not there to change the color of the beam. They are there to help focus the beam. As I mentioned, they were decent, but not decent enough to be worth $40/pair and last a year and a half.
 
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