I'm sure if I took a poll of those who own 3rd Gen Pontiac Sunfires, there would be an overwhelming opinion of
"The headlights SUCK!!!)
I've put in the expensive short lived super bright bulbs with only slight improvements, my plastic lens isn't cloudy or discolored.
What have any of you done to remedy this? Short of putting on a Cavalier nose!
Auxiliary lights in the grills on either side of the front plate operating with the headlights?
Some better unit that fits in the stock location only actually cast enough light to see at night?
A deer spot light mounted on the drivers door??
Any help or ideas would be great. Better yet would be proven modifications and maybe pictures if you are generous.
No, I don't have the driving light front bumper to work with, I wish I did, I'd fix this in a heart beat though not legally!!
Dave
Talk to John Benham about getting some projector housings and HIDs. Done!
Personally, and this is just my opinion i don't know that the headlights are any better on the 3rd generation Cavys i've flipped on my headlights at night and when they were all the way on people ask me if my headlights were on. I just laughed and was like yeah they're on, i guess from the inside of the car they don't appear really bright.
Sylvania and Luminics are two great options for 9007 bulbs. For halogens, stay away from blue bulbs like 5900k and above. Luminics Ultra Whites are 5150k and the only reason I took them out was for an HID kit.
That being said, your best option is an HID kit but you'll have to retrofit projectors or aim your stockers down considerably. There are plenty of driving lights you could mount as well, Hella 1300s are only $50 and they were a nice compliment to my headlights before I got my HID kit.
Why are there no ebay projectors for sunfires but tones for cavis, thats bull@!#$.
1991 Skyline GTR
1996 Sunfire
Because of the relatively low volume of Sunfires made vs Cavaliers.
Im charging at almost 15v and my headlights are nice and bright.
Anyone know how long the factory headlights are good for, don't know if it's just me or what but so far i've gotten a little over 5 yrs out of mine. Just wondered if anyone else has gotten that much or more , seem to be a lot different than cars in the 80's where you had a headlight out every month or 2 it seemed like.
Providing mine gets fixed, i will be getting proj. lights....ya can't beat the brightness and clarity...expensive? yes...worth it ? hell yes !!!
2003 Cavalier
Stock 2.2 Liter, 5 speed
" Leave the rice to Uncle Ben's and the wings to KFC..
Go clean or go home. "
TheSundownFire (JBO Chat) wrote:Because of the relatively low volume of Sunfires made vs Cavaliers.
I don't think that's a fair comparison... the two sets of projectors that are available for the Cavalier are both for the 95-99 model years... of those, there were 1,567,000 Cavaliers made (approximately). But the 95-02 Sunfire headlights (didn't change til 03 model year), there were 1,021,000 Sunfires made that they would fit. Two thirds as many, yet still over a million of them... I don't think that's exactly "low".
It comes down to... the aftermarket companies made very little for the Sunfire. Even less than what the Cavaliers had.
No one has made a production replacement headlight assembly for the 00-02 Cavalier, the 03-05 Cavalier, or any Sunfire. Kinda sucks.
this is an interesting thread....... im very happy with how well my stock headlights light up the road...
i dont remember what bulbs i have in there but i feel they work great!
granted i dont have HID experience to compare them too but at the same time thats not a "fair" comparison either. What i do have to compare mine lights to are my wifes headlights (2000 VW Passat). THOSE HEADLIGHTS SUCK! i drive around with the brights on and no one even notices! my dims are brighter than her brights!!!!
I'm highly considering HID for the passat as i will likely be driving that when the sunfire is gone...
By far the worst headlights are the ones on 4th gen Camaros and 96-01 Grand Prixs. Bastards fog on the inside and outside and no matter what you do they re-fog. My GFs car looks like it has only its fog lights on at night.
Bill wrote:Anyone know how long the factory headlights are good for, don't know if it's just me or what but so far i've gotten a little over 5 yrs out of mine. Just wondered if anyone else has gotten that much or more , seem to be a lot different than cars in the 80's where you had a headlight out every month or 2 it seemed like.
stockers still in mine!
car is a 2000 cavalier!
so 9, almost 10 years!!!!!
I'm not sure if the Sylvania HB5's are the stock ones for our cars. According to the manufacturing dates, one bulb lasted 7 years and the other one lasted 10 years. Yep, one was made in '99 and the other was made in '02. I've got a set of Sylvania Xtravisions installed now and they do just fine on the road. The high-beams are not much brighter than low-beams, but I'm happy.
whiskerbiscuit wrote:ChevyBoi89 wrote:Bill wrote:Anyone know how long the factory headlights are good for, don't know if it's just me or what but so far i've gotten a little over 5 yrs out of mine. Just wondered if anyone else has gotten that much or more , seem to be a lot different than cars in the 80's where you had a headlight out every month or 2 it seemed like.
stockers still in mine!
car is a 2000 cavalier!
so 9, almost 10 years!!!!!
LIAR!!!
are you calling me a liar?
lol. i tried silverstar ultras, they were worse.
and the streetglow ones were even worse than those....and then they blew out,
my headlight socket on the drivers side! ...i had both of those sets of bulbs in for a month
total all together....then put my stockers back in....had the silverstars in for a week and a half,
and for three weeks, i had the streetglows on...just caz they looked cool...then they friend the plug!
so, for the entire life of the car, its had stockers in it, basically the whole time!
The factory lights in Cavis and Sunfires have always been crap. The lights on my '90 Z-24 were good but after that the designs went for a crap.
Someone needs to mod 4x6 H4 conversions lenses behind the factory lenses. The only vehicles that seem to have truly good lighting are cars that come with or are converted to H4 lights or projectors. It seems to be common for all manufacturers to focus on designs that look good and will blind other drivers rather then put light on the road.
To fight people that have HID conversions in any housing that has no cutoff, I run 130 watt driving lights and H4 90/130w headlights. H4s have a cut so people aren't bothered by the bright low beams, but if I am getting blinded by hi beams or @!#$ty HIDs watch out. Ask a few of the inconsiderate cops around here.
I'd rather drive an A than push a J...
