| donnieo |
| I've read numerous threads about upgrading to HID but I really don't want to do that. I just planned on upgrading the bulbs. Has anyone purchased any of the upgraded halogen or xenon bulbs for the newer model Pilots? There's so many brands out there along with several models in each brand. |
|
|
| ctobio |
Most of the "upgrade" bulbs (for example, Sylvania Silverstars) have very short lifetimes. In order to deliver the appropriate amount of light through the filters on the glass, the bulb's output needs to be increased, which leads to shorter life.
Me personally, stick with a high quality clear lens lamp. GE Nighthawk, Osram (not Sylvania) Silverstar are two that come to mind. |
|
|
| charly |
| I personally recomend PIAA. just because i tried them in my accord and i saw the difference in between. Try going to piaa.com and read all about it. the model i had was the Xtreme white. wich is brighter than sylvania's |
|
|
| ctobio |
quote:
Originally posted by charly
I personally recomend PIAA. just because i tried them in my accord and i saw the difference in between. Try going to piaa.com and read all about it. the model i had was the Xtreme white. wich is brighter than sylvania's
That's all well and good- just bear in mind that you're paying 3x as much for a lamp with 1/5 the lifetime. Just sayin'.
It's probably been discussed before, but the H11 lamp's base keys are too similar to the H9 base keys. It is possible in some applications to stick an H9 where an H11 would go, which is the difference between 2100 lumens vs 1350 lumens. Not sure how well the Pilot's projectors handle all this light, whether they do it without producing excessive glare.
[edit- in fact, it came up in an older thread I posted in. I must be getting old. http://www.hondapilot.org/forums/sh...&threadid=20739 Looks like I had good technical reasons for saying it was a bad idea.]
The thing about headlamps- so many folks think that headlamp upgrades are all about them, at the cost of causing excessive glare for other drivers. Poorly thought up lighting upgrades make for being a bad fellow driver. |
|
|
| donnieo |
quote:
Originally posted by ctobio
That's all well and good- just bear in mind that you're paying 3x as much for a lamp with 1/5 the lifetime. Just sayin'.
I read the previous posts about the brightness of PIAA but the cost and the short life don't make it worthwhile to me.
I was more interested in upgrading the brights as I drive in rural areas. Glare isn't an issue in that case. The deer may complain though. |
|
|
| rlapid |
| i hear the silverstar ultras are supposed to have the brightness of silverstars plus the lifespan of standard halogen bulbs. i have never used them and don't know if they make them in H11, but just thought i'd put it out there... |
|
|
| youbetcha |
quote:
Originally posted by rlapid
i hear the silverstar ultras are supposed to have the brightness of silverstars plus the lifespan of standard halogen bulbs. i have never used them and don't know if they make them in H11, but just thought i'd put it out there...
Of course, they couldn't just improve the product. They have to market it as an upgrade, that you get a product that lasts as long as the old tech. |
|
|
| N_Jay |
quote:
Originally posted by youbetcha
Of course, they couldn't just improve the product. They have to market it as an upgrade, that you get a product that lasts as long as the old tech.
I don't believe it.
I think they may have the life span of the original H4 bulbs (2 years or so), not the life of today's normal brightness H4s. |
|
|
| macphanatic |
| I had thought about getting the wiring harness that connects between the oem harness and the bulbs, with a direct connection to the battery. The oem harness controls relays that supply power to the lights directly from the battery. I know that this harness improves light output on the Ford pickups, not sure what difference it makes on the Honda's. |
|
|
| N_Jay |
quote:
Originally posted by humanoid
These might be worth getting:
http://www.powerbulbs.com/product_detail.asp?prod=113
I have purchased several sets of bulbs from Power-bulbs. They are a great company to deal with.
Of course with the USD weak the prices may not be great. |
|
|
| charly |
quote:
Originally posted by donnieo
I read the previous posts about the brightness of PIAA but the cost and the short life don't make it worthwhile to me.
I was more interested in upgrading the brights as I drive in rural areas. Glare isn't an issue in that case. The deer may complain though.
Well i had my PIAAS 9006 on my 2005 accord,for about 2+years and it never burned out. I don't think the piaa's light bulbs got a short life, comparing it to others high wattege bulbs...Let me tell you something before i purchased my piaa's i had the sylverstar but offcourse i was't happy on how the lumens looked like, But the piaas gave me the brightness i needed. |
|
|
| N_Jay |
quote:
Originally posted by charly
Well i had my PIAAS 9006 on my 2005 accord,for about 2+years and it never burned out. I don't think the piaa's light bulbs got a short life, comparing it to others high wattege bulbs...Let me tell you something before i purchased my piaa's i had the sylverstar but offcourse i was't happy on how the lumens looked like, But the piaas gave me the brightness i needed.
Did you have the high wattage (off-road) bulbs, or the high brightness standard wattage (legal) bulbs? |
|
|
| charly |
quote:
Originally posted by N_Jay
Did you have the high wattage (off-road) bulbs, or the high brightness standard wattage (legal) bulbs?
I had the high wattage one, the 100+ watts. |
|
|
| N_Jay |
quote:
Originally posted by charly
I had the high wattage one, the 100+ watts.
It is the legal wattage-high brightness bulbs that have the short life.
I just noticed, that it seems that PIAA does not sell the high wattage bulbs except in their lights. |
|
|
| Bowzer |
My 2 cents and experience...
I've run 2 sets of Sylania Silverstars in my 99 Accord both lasting about 3 years each. So, my experience with their duration and performance has been good. But, I know there's plenty of folks with short lifespans on these. I have detected there seems to be a bit of a trend where northern climates or areas with colder temps seem to really shorten the bulb life...very unscientific study on my part though. But here in Houston, I've had no problems and the whiter (they're not really brighter by the way) color helped.
I would think the direct relay for battery power may help a bit as already mentioned also.
On my 08 Pilot, my headlights are adequate for now (no long trips yet on the open road). I am looking to add some driving lights once I find a decent form of mounting them (bull/push bar or similar). Good driving lights (Hella or PIAA) can really help on the beam distance in my experience. |
|
|
| slanky |
quote:
Originally posted by donnieo
I've read numerous threads about upgrading to HID but I really don't want to do that. I just planned on upgrading the bulbs. Has anyone purchased any of the upgraded halogen or xenon bulbs for the newer model Pilots? There's so many brands out there along with several models in each brand.
The fake bulbs suck. Why not just do the real upgrade? You can get a knockoff HID kit for ~100-140 on Ebay with electronic ballasts and bulbs. Installation is about as simple as you can get - unplug old bulbs, plug new ballasts into old wiring harness, plug bulbs into ballast, put new bulbs in place, ziptie ballasts where you want. That's it, and you'll get real xenon and light output rather than a colored bulb. |
|
|
| N_Jay |
quote:
Originally posted by slanky
The fake bulbs suck. Why not just do the real upgrade? You can get a knockoff HID kit for ~100-140 on Ebay with electronic ballasts and bulbs. Installation is about as simple as you can get - unplug old bulbs, plug new ballasts into old wiring harness, plug bulbs into ballast, put new bulbs in place, ziptie ballasts where you want. That's it, and you'll get real xenon and light output rather than a colored bulb.
We were not talking about "colored (ricer) bulbs.
We were talking about "high brightness" halogen bulbs.
HIDs in reflectors not designed for them usually have very bad light pattern control and end up annoying other drivers. (besides being illegal) |
|
|
| slanky |
quote:
Originally posted by N_Jay
We were not talking about "colored (ricer) bulbs.
We were talking about "high brightness" halogen bulbs.
HIDs in reflectors not designed for them usually have very bad light pattern control and end up annoying other drivers. (besides being illegal)
Since the title of the thread is for an '08 and the '08 Pilot has projectors capable of keeping the light from scattering upward, why would you ever want "high brightness" halogen bulbs which burn out faster, use more power and don't give you the light output of HID? Just doesn't make sense to me, but to each his own. |
|
|
| pat2k8 |
| I must chime in:2: .....I did the H9-H11 conversion. Best money I spent on bulbs! Projectors do a great job focusing the light! This setup is as effective as HID's, for the cost of bulbs! I did not put in the driving lights as they would be too bright in a reflector housing. just my $.02 |
|
|
| donnieo |
I received the following response from http://www.danielsternlighting.com/.
> I just finished reading your site. Very interesting information. Thank
> you.
You're welcome!
> I recently purchased a 2008 Honda Pilot. The headlights are good but
> not great.
The optics are quite good. You can without too much trouble replace the
H11 (1350 lumen) low beam bulb with an H9 (2100 lumen) item:
http://store.candlepower.com/h-9.html You may need to shave a small ridge of plastic off the H9 bulb's connector so that the H11 socket will snap on. Other than that, it's a direct swap.
Your high beams can also be significantly upgraded if you will Replace the existing 9005 bulbs with 9011. The new bulbs are not some tinted or
overwattage version of 9005, but rather employ a relatively new technology called HIR, Halogen Infrared Reflection. The mechanical dimensions of the bulb are all virtually identical to the 9005, but the bulb glass is spherical instead of tubular, with the sphere centered around the filament. There is a "Durable IR Reflective" coating on the spherical
glass. Infrared = heat, so the coating causes heat to be reflected back to the filament at the center of the sphere. This causes the filament to
become much hotter (producing more light) than it can by passing
electricity through it, *without* the shorter life or greater heat
production that comes with overwattage bulbs (to say nothing of
overwattage bulbs' incompatibility with stock wiring.)
Here's the comparison:
stock: 9005, 12.8V, 65W, 1700 lumens, 320 hours
compare: 9005+50, 12.8V, 55W, 1830 lumens, 175 hours
new: HIR1, 12.8V, 65W, 2530 lumens, 320 hours
These bulbs are costly as bulbs go - $23.95/ea - but their cost is worth
considering in context: Any number of companies will charge you more than this for a tarted-up 9005 with blue colored glass (PIAA and Sylvania
Silverstar come to mind) that doesn't produce more light and has a very
short lifespan.
The HIR bulbs have a double-wide top ear on the plastic bulb base, this is to comply with the law requiring different bulbs to have different bases. The extra-wide plastic top ear is easily trimmed or filed to make the bulb fit your headlamp's bulb receptacle. Once that's done, they go directly into the headlamp, and the existing sockets snap on. Please see
http://dastern.torque.net/Mods/HIRmod.html for details.
The direct order link for these bulbs is
http://store.candlepower.com/9011.html
> What about brake lights, turn signal, etc?
No upgrades for these. It is a real shame; Honda upgraded the lighting
system on the pilot last year with better headlamps, side turn signal
repeaters, etc., but kept the *red* rear turn signals. Amber ones are much safer and are required everywhere outside America.
> I was also going to do the turn signal rewire but my car has side lights
> (on the fenders, just in front of the doors) that flash when the turn
> signal is activated.
Right, so the rewire isn't needed. But you can make the side turn signal
repeaters and front parking and front/rear sidemarker lights brighter for
better conspicuity with these:
http://store.candlepower.com/2886x.html
DS |
|
|
| Bowzer |
Fantastic info provided on those bulb upgrades. I do believe I'll be going after some of these shortly.
Thanks for posting! |
|
|
| 1331 |
| I work for a lighting company and strongly advise against upgrading the output of your bulbs. The reflectors are designed and validated for the bulbs that are sold with them. There is a high probability that if you significantly increase the output of the lamp, there will be photometric points that exceed legal maxima. This is particularly a concern with putting an HID bulb in a reflector that was designed for a halogen bulb. Even if it is a projector the reflector design is specific to the bulb being used and there are several points where the output will most likely exceed legal maxima. |
|
|
| kbeans |
Long time reader but first time poster here. Be gentle.
I did the H9 convert about 2 weeks ago. Much brighter than the stock H11.
Then I decided to grab a set of HID from retro-solutions and tried that out. Installed it yesterday but didn't get a chance to put it to test yet. But overall the HIDs seems to have a more uniform output.
Install took less time for the HIDs compared to trimming off the H9 fitting. :)
Gonna leave the HIDs in for a week or two and then switch back the H9 and compare. |
|
|
| Bowzer |
quote:
Originally posted by kbeans
Long time reader but first time poster here. Be gentle.
I did the H9 convert about 2 weeks ago. Much brighter than the stock H11.
Then I decided to grab a set of HID from retro-solutions and tried that out. Installed it yesterday but didn't get a chance to put it to test yet. But overall the HIDs seems to have a more uniform output.
Install took less time for the HIDs compared to trimming off the H9 fitting. :)
Gonna leave the HIDs in for a week or two and then switch back the H9 and compare.
Look forward to hearing of the results! THanks for sharing. |
|
|
| DB22 |
quote:
Originally posted by donnieo
I received the following response from http://www.danielsternlighting.com/.
No upgrades for these. It is a real shame; Honda upgraded the lighting
system on the pilot last year with better headlamps, side turn signal
repeaters, etc., but kept the *red* rear turn signals. Amber ones are much safer and are required everywhere outside America.
DS
Check my post today in "General" re: Amber turn signals. |
|
|
| kbeans |
It's only a week or so. But I thought I chime in on my progress.
First let me say why I want more light. My night vision is not that good--especially if it rains. My vision is good...provided that there the area I'm in is well lit. Anyway take it or leave, that's my excuse.
I got the 4300k HIDs. Overall I'm satisfy. Compared to the H9 it lights up further and wider.
The cut off is very nice. On roads where there's a concrete divider in the middle, the beam doesn't go above the divider (about 2 - 3 feet high).
When I pull up to a car in front, the beam cuts off right below the trunk of a sedan.
I've had the car parked behind my sister's car and sat in my sister's car and noticed the glare is not much more than the stock halogen.
The extra light helps with on coming traffic glare too. It seems to decrease it somewhat.
Lastly, nobody has highbeamed me yet. But then again, it seems like everyone in the city has glaring headlights lol. And driving right behind a police cruiser wasn't a problem either.
But let me say this, the pictures you see posted is not what you get. I live in the city. So there are plenty of street lights. With the 4300k HIDs, the street lights actually seems to blend in until you get to a dimmer area. So in the city the WOW factor is not that big. It's only apparent when you go you a dark area/street.
If you really want some WOW factor, go for the higher K ... 6000k maybe. I had a car that was behind me and I swear from behind his looked sooo much brighter and bluer. But when I looked at the side walls, visible is not there. The difference in color temp made it seem like it's brighter but in reality it wasn't. I saw less on the area he lit up compared to the area i lit up.
The H9 were nice, but this was definitely better. So what did I do with the H9s? I placed it in the fogs.
The H9s doesn't have a coated tip like the H11s. So there is a bit more glare from these...but not that much.
With the HIDs, I don't use the fogs anymore unless I'm on the left side of the lane and I'm trying to minimize the oncoming glare or when it rains--haven't tried that yet since it hasn't rained in the last week when I use the car lol.
When I have both of these on, there's a bit of a WOW even if theres plenty of street lights. :)
The HIDs does take about 3-5 secs to fully brighten up. So I would not use this on the highbeam.
As for the fogs. I want to try a yellower light next...after I tried the H9s in rainy weather. No HIDs for the fogs. I wouldn't know where to put the ballast.
Next up is changing the parking lights to LEDs. Not really adding anything to the overall visibility here. Just esthetics. |
|
|
|
