I was driving my g/f's 02 sunfire last night in the rain and I realized its just about impossible to see at night. I swapped the factory bulbs out for the Sylvania Silverstars and really can't tell much of a difference. Does anyone know the the brightest bulbs I can buy??
Im sure they are not the brightest you can get, but not long ago I got the GE Nighthawks, and they were a significant improvement over whatever I had before.
Matt
I have the same problem but is with my subaru Legacy. I bought the Sylvania Silverstars bulbs and I couldn't tell much of a difference.
Just a little... not worth the cost because maybe I just needed regular new bulbs and still get the same results.
who knows..
Are you sure her headlights are aimed properly? As dirty as that sounded, I swear it wasn't intended to be that way.
Same here, I got the GE Nighthawks and they're quite an improvement over the factory replacement. I noticed it right away because I drive home at night on totally unlit roads and it's at least 30% better visibility with these. They may not be the absolute brightest you can get but for improved visibility at night they're very good.
up here in Canada I paid about 26$ a bulb
Agent Omega wrote:Are you sure her headlights are aimed properly? As dirty as that sounded, I swear it wasn't intended to be that way.
So how would you aim them properly?
Does the car get driven on hiways that are sanded/graveled in the winter a fair bit of the time? My cavalier had badly pitted lenses and it didn't matter what I put in it for bulbs, they still sucked. Silverstars, Nighthawks(Don't see the pointy in them) 80/100 Watt bulbs(Jetco, about $5 each at most peterbuilt parts departments) and even upgraded to 12guage wireing and ran 4 relays. I finally grabbed some 4x6" H4 conversion lenses and modded the mounts from a '79 Dodge van into the car. Now with the 12 guage wiring and the 130 watt Hi/90 watt low H4 bulbs I can light up almost 1 km ahead of me on high beam. I also have a set of 4x6 Jetco spot lights on ther bumper wired into the high beam circuit.
Just a suggestion but,meguiars and another company make a polish that will clean the lens on ur headlight housing for about 10 bux or more depending.I know carquest sells this and maybe napa.When the lens get dirty not like from not washing but wear they haze a bit and this product will clean up the exterior lens.This may not help 100% but I would recommend it and keeping ur windshield protected with a good wax or rain product repelent can help in visibility at night or day helps.I use mequiars #26 wax on my ext glass to make water sheet off in weather.Hope this helps regardless of not enuff light.
Mariano Robello wrote:Agent Omega wrote:Are you sure her headlights are aimed properly? As dirty as that sounded, I swear it wasn't intended to be that way.
So how would you aim them properly?
Usually what I do is pull the "bad" car up to a wall with a "good" car right next to it, same exact distance away from the wall. See where HER headlights hit the wall in comparison to the "good" car. My g/f's Grand Prix had the same problem (could NOT see at night) and they were just grossly out of adjustment. Use the aiming screws to adjust side to side and up and down if they're out of whack.
My headlights were aligned by the body shop when i had it fixed. After that they were so out of line I couldn't see anything at all at night. I followed the alignment instructions I found on here. It took a few minutes to get it right, but now they light up everything while not blinding everyone else. Also, I just recently installed Silverstars, and they made a noticable difference. They also come with a 1 year warrenty, which is good, because my Cav likes to burn out headlights / foglights at an alarming rate.
Thanks for the info guys... I'll try aiming "her headlights" (hehe) tomorrow.
Quote:
Just a suggestion but,meguiars and another company make a polish that will clean the lens on ur headlight housing for about 10 bux or more depending.I know carquest sells this and maybe napa.When the lens get dirty not like from not washing but wear they haze a bit and this product will clean up the exterior lens.This may not help 100% but I would recommend it and keeping ur windshield protected with a good wax or rain product repelent can help in visibility at night or day helps.I use mequiars #26 wax on my ext glass to make water sheet off in weather.Hope this helps regardless of not enuff light.
I second that about "cleaning" the headlights with the polish. I would try that with the Silverstars and see what a difference that makes. If not you can move onto the aiming of the headlights. My Sunfire had the same kind of issue, so I know how frustrating it is.
"All men are created equal, only a select few become firefighters"
I have silverstars in mine... and the only difference I noticed wat that the color changed to a more white looking light instead of the stock yellowish..
APC and Zenon headlight bulbs seem to be bright as hell from my experience... wich one works better depends on the car though.
As far as keeping the headlights clean... I like to apply rain-x to mine in the summer.
A general rule for aligning the hight of the headlights for me has always been.....
with the low beams on and the front bumber about 6 feet from the wall... the lights should point streight ahead and be about 3 feet or so high,,,, if you've done enough vehicles... you get good at eyballing it after awhile..... but if you have another car with the same ride height..... that would be a good freference... you could probably just pencil mark the wall..
