9005 upgrade bulbs?

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AZjeff

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I commute at 4am for 40 minutes all year and most of it is at 65-70 mph with very little traffic. The RAV4 uses 9005s for high and low ( projector) beams, I had Sylvania Xtra Visions in the high beam that doubles as the DRL at reduced power. One of the bulbs blew up and made a mess in the housing, not sure if it had to do with the DRL function but since then I've kept the DRL off. I'd like to have more light in both low and high beams. Do any of the enhanced bulbs from Sylvania or Philips or Hella have a noticeable difference in output? Not real interested in LEDs as there seems to be conflicting reports and I really don't want to experiment. I see Hella has 100W 9005s, standard is 65W. They also come with a warning about damaging housings not designed for the higher wattage.

Thanks for any advice.
 
Look up 9011/9012 HIR swaps. No extra power consumption, they use some technological tweaks to achieve the extra output and higher longevity.
 
Originally Posted by pitzel
Look up 9011/9012 HIR swaps. No extra power consumption, they use some technological tweaks to achieve the extra output and higher longevity.


I've been considering this. Worth it for my Suburban or should I go LED? for my high beams
 
Originally Posted by dogememe
Originally Posted by pitzel
Look up 9011/9012 HIR swaps. No extra power consumption, they use some technological tweaks to achieve the extra output and higher longevity.


I've been considering this. Worth it for my Suburban or should I go LED? for my high beams


I actually switched from LED's back to 9011's. Love them, great brightness and they don't produce any funky beam patterns like LED's do.
 
Originally Posted by dogememe
Originally Posted by pitzel
Look up 9011/9012 HIR swaps. No extra power consumption, they use some technological tweaks to achieve the extra output and higher longevity.


I've been considering this. Worth it for my Suburban or should I go LED? for my high beams


LEDs are so hit and miss, and there's so much cr*p out there. Plus while 9011's are basically just an upgraded 9005 bulb (on steroids), LEDs can have completely different beam patterns and have unpredictable interactions with headlight projectors/reflectors/etc.

If you shop on Amazon and eBay, you can retrofit Philips 9011/9012's into 9005/9006's all 4 bulbs for $50-ish. The 9012's are apparently good for 1000 hours, which, in my world, is 100k miles of use. Maybe in a few years, there will be better/cheap LED options available from reputable outfits (not random People's Republic manufacturers) at more reasonable prices. And longevity will be better understood as there's very little good data out there on how long the cheapie LED headlight bulbs last.
 
What Skippy said... 9011s in place of 9005s is a big upgrade in light output. I got some 9011 HIRs for about $17 each from Amazon; first time I had them in I had my son actuate the highs while I was about 30 feet in front of the car... I still have blue orbs floating in my vision
lol.gif


I had a set of Hikari LEDs in my Outback's low beams (H7), and in addition to a less than optimal beam pattern, to get a good cutoff line where I could actually see more than 4' in front of the car I had to raise the housings so high I'm sure aircraft pilots wondered WTH was going on when I had the highs on.... tops of trees was the lowest thing they hit with the LEDs in the low beam!
 
I did the 9011 swap and the bulbs burned out within 3 months (bulbs were handled with gloves(correctly) too). I went to LEDs, 2 years later they still work. Maybe HID is worth a look. I think the risk with 9011 is ruining the headlight lenses with increased heat...
 
Originally Posted by Rolla07
I think the risk with 9011 is ruining the headlight lenses with increased heat...


That makes almost no sense as the upgrade from OEM to 9011 has been done a million times and I have personally run them for years in several vehicles. they are just slightly higher Watts, nothing like a 100W bulb the OP was thinking about and have much brighter/whiter output. The other great thing is that its available anyplace unlike a LED or HID kit which if you have a failure then you are stuck looking for parts online or removing the whole thing.

To the OP read some more about it here

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/v...12-always-the-best-upgrade-for-9005-9006
 
If you can do it how about switching to LED. I know you have to change out the entire housings but in my opinion for a guy like you it's worth it. 4 AM is just the perfect time to be running into Bambi having dinner on the side of the road at least around here. We just got LEDs for the first time six months ago and I'll never go back. The way they illuminate the roadsides off into the tree line would be especially useful for a guy was driving at four in the morning once it's in the urban areas. Maybe even good in urban areas to simply because it lights up the edges so well and the throw is nothing short of fantastic. Of course there's the price but that's dropping fast .....
 
If your housing is no good it wouldn't matter what bulb you use. Degraded reflective coating often hurts housing performance worse than a cloudy lens, and it can be difficult to spot.
 
Thanks, the 9011 upgrade was exactly what I was looking for. It seems like the price of 9011s has gone up, pretty hard to replace all 4 for $50 now. The links were interesting reading for the tech and the fact that there are light bulb nerds out there.
 
Originally Posted by AZjeff
Thanks, the 9011 upgrade was exactly what I was looking for. It seems like the price of 9011s has gone up, pretty hard to replace all 4 for $50 now. The links were interesting reading for the tech and the fact that there are light bulb nerds out there.


Yeah they were like $11 on Amazon for a few months, the 9011s, but a little more now. I can still find genuine Philips 9012LL's on eBay (from a vendor that I've purchased from previously) for $22 for the pair. So a slight bit over $50. LEDs, at least twice that, if not 3X that, and almost none of the LEDs on the market are backed by a major brand name (although I see Philips has succumbed to the siren call of retrofit LEDs and hawks some kits that have fans -- I personally wouldn't consider anything that needs a fan!).
 
[Linked Image]


Here's a low beam road shot of my SL1 LED's on top and 9011 halogens on bottom. The high beam with the halogens is so so so much better than the LED's.
 
Originally Posted by AZjeff
I commute at 4am for 40 minutes all year and most of it is at 65-70 mph with very little traffic.


At those speeds and given that there is little traffic, I would seriously consider a ECE-approved auxiliary driving lamp/auxiliary high-beam. One of these will basically double your stock high-beam setup's output. They're very small and light and can easily fit somewhere in the fascia of your car.

https://www.quadratec.com/p/hella/470-series-19-led-light-bars
 
Originally Posted by pitzel
I can still find genuine Philips 9012LL's on eBay (from a vendor that I've purchased from previously) for $22 for the pair. So a slight bit over $50. .


I'm not clear on exactly what will work, will the 9012s work instead of 9011s in the 9005 socket?

Originally Posted by Deontologist
At those speeds and given that there is little traffic, I would seriously consider a ECE-approved auxiliary driving lamp/auxiliary high-beam. One of these will basically double your stock high-beam setup's output. They're very small and light and can easily fit somewhere in the fascia of your car.

https://www.quadratec.com/p/hella/470-series-19-led-light-bars


That's an interesting idea but for 2 things: It would require removing the bumper cover which apparently always breaks clips I'm told to fabricate some kind of solid mount and more importantly because of relocating I commute in her RAV4 and she drives my truck a short distance to work and there will be no redneck light bar on her car. For now I'll try the bulb upgrade.
 
Originally Posted by AZjeff
Originally Posted by pitzel
I can still find genuine Philips 9012LL's on eBay (from a vendor that I've purchased from previously) for $22 for the pair. So a slight bit over $50. .


I'm not clear on exactly what will work, will the 9012s work instead of 9011s in the 9005 socket?



9005 --> 9011
9006 --> 9012

You have to do a slight mod to the base key on the bulb itself to make them work. But you get a lot more light output from the bulb. One thing that has to be cautioned in particular is that the 9012's lack the end-cap reflector of the 9006, so should only be used in enclosures that have a glare shield built in.

So if you're just looking for a high-beam upgrade, you'd buy a pair of 9011's, trim the tabs, and insert into your 9005 socket. Electrically they're identical.
 
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Sounds interesting. My Saab 9000 has glass lenses so clouding is not an issue. Currently I have modest upgrade, using 9005 bulbs with modded base in place of 9006 for the low beams for a bit more light. Using 9011s for high beams sound like it should work well, but not sure whether I have the required glare shield to use 9012s for the lows in this car. (Probably not.)
 
9011's definitely. First thing I did when I bought my Sonata was rip out the cheap LEDs that someone put in there and put in 9011's.

Get out a pair of wire cutters and trim the 9011 to have the same tabs as a 9005 and it'll fit fine. They won't fit without a trim though. Takes 15-20 seconds to do.
 
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