Your favorite non-OEM halogen headlight bulb?

I'd say Sylvania ZXEs if they weren't advertised as "HID" look. I mean the color output is fine for what is it but when they feed [censored] it makes me hate them.

But one light that I wouldn't mind going back to are Napa long lites. Slightly whiter than the average clear bulb(same style of tint as Sylvania ultras). Throws light far.

I want to try out Napa safety lites and nokya 7000k halogens some time.
 
9006 to 9012 upgrade
9005 to 9011 upgrade (close to hid brightness!)
And then Philips Xtreme Vision for everything else. I think they're better than silver star/ silver star ultra's. So far I have almost 2 years on them, and I work nights. Probably helps the brights are on about 50% of the time.
 
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There is a candlepower store online. They stock many of the euro spec halogens.

I put the osram nightbreakers in my sonata and didn't notice a huge difference. Color temperature went from yellow stock to white, and marginally better.

I put another german headlamp in my wife's scion xb with new headlights as well. That made a nice difference, but I think it was due to the new headlamps not the bulbs.
 
Dan Stern will have 65W 2100 lumen H7 bulbs available in June 2019

Quote
65W Osram Ultra High Output (2100 lumen, H9 burner on H7 base, race and special-purpose use):
Osram discontinued this bulb several years ago , and all stocks have been exhausted—there are some poor-quality counterfeits flushing around, but those don't count. Update, May 13 2019: After a great deal of work, I have secured new availability of first-quality, German-made 65w - 2100 lumen H7 bulbs. They are presently being manufactured and I expect to have them on shelf in June.
 
Found some interesting charts:

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[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
 
I've never done anything remarkable with my car headlamps. Usual replacements are OEM style at the local auto store and I lean to the better rated ones. Probably had good luck getting as good or better performance in those cases.

I waited to see if my HID lamps would go out on my Infiniti just because I knew of a few good rated replacements and testimonials that were not the $150 to $200 OEM versions. Got lucky though while I had the car, didn't need to address that.
Sports car forums are a good place to search headlamp info although lots of chat and posts relate to kelvin preferences that may not relate to actual performance but more to the custom genre and aesthetics. It is helpful to ref though if you have concerns about how white, yellow-ish or blue-ish the look.

This last car purchase was one of the few I did without testing the car on a night drive. Not saying it's a deal breaker but I'd be seriously disappointed if night illumination on a vehicle I just bought was sub par. A standout for great road lighting in my memory was our 2002 Mazda Tribute. Really good pattern and wide. SUV height likely helps too.
Our current cars seem fine but not really outstanding. When the day comes, I'll research Mazda and VW forums for improved options specific to owners who've been there already.
 
Osram Nightbreaker Unlimited and Lasers have worked well for me in several vehicles.

www.bulbfacts.com has some good comparison and videos on youtube.
 
What service life are you guy’s getting from Silverstar Ultra ?
My H11’s are a year old and that’s about all I used to get from the standard Silverstar …

(they double as DRL, maybe that’s stepped down wattage?)
 
4WD said:
What service life are you guy’s getting from Silverstar Ultra ?
My H11’s are a year old and that’s about all I used to get from the standard Silverstar …

(they double as DRL, maybe that’s stepped down wattage?)
Click to expand...
I usually get about a year or year and a half out of them.
 
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Phillips X-treme vision are by far the best replacement bulbs I've found. Tried all the others and they are disappointing in comparison.
 
non OEM brand i am using recently in my cars is OSRAM Night Breaker. usually this bulb maintain the effectiveness maximum is 1 years if we use the car for daily basis.
why i am choosing this bulb is actually i want to get more light capacity with the same watt. oem basic is 55/60 watt. this non OEM is also 55/60 watt with 75% capacity more than the OEM. and i dont want my lamp plastic is yellowing in the future
 
Holy moly I didn't realize this was a 14 year old thread when I was reading it from page 1 just now.
 
Osram is a good bulb.

I just changed a pair of Sylvania Basic H1 (I think H1) and someone remarked, Wow they are so bright.

I didn't even clean the housing lens, which could use a cleaning. I just replaced in pairs when one decided to give it up and not work...
 
Skippy722 said:
9006 to 9012 upgrade
9005 to 9011 upgrade (close to hid brightness!)
And then Philips Xtreme Vision for everything else. I think they're better than silver star/ silver star ultra's. So far I have almost 2 years on them, and I work nights. Probably helps the brights are on about 50% of the time.
Click to expand...
I have experience with all the bulbs you mentioned.

9012 & 9011 are the best halogen upgrades bar none. I've been running them as lows in my cars for a few years now. In particular, they are excellent on wet roads, where regular bulbs get swallowed up by the black asphalt, and also do a great job lighting up the shoulder.

I'm also running XtremeVisions in one of my cars and am pleased. They don't give 100% more light or whatever the marketing claims but the difference is appreciable. The light is noticeably whiter as well.

I had Silverstar Ultras and found them to be just okay. The light output was definitely whiter but I think this fooled my eyes into thinking the bulbs were brighter than they actually were. Despite the common complaints about longevity, they lasted me 2 yrs and were still going strong. I decided to pull them because they became noticeably dimmer as time went on.
 
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