The silverstar's purplish tint is designed to give an HID-like white color, which is exactly what ricer bulbs do for the most part unless they are trying to go for a bluer color. Any amount of tinting on the bulb lens is going to reduce light output due to the filtering. Yes it may change the color/appearance of the light, but that doesn't make it brighter unless they compensate with more power (wouldn't be street legal if they exceeded 55/65W for the most part). The way I see it, any bulb that relies on a filter to give it a "white HID" appearance falls into the same category as ricer bulbs. I'm interested in brightness and not so much the color, because I find that the "white light" only works well in unlit roads in the middle of nowhere (like most of I-80 in PA at midnight) with enough brightness to back it up like Narva's Ultra Efficiency H4 E-code bulbs mounted in Cibie H4 lamps. Normal street legal 55/65 bulbs that produce white light through filtering have been generally useless in bad weather and in urban environments w/ more ambient street lighting. Genuine HIDs are much brighter, so people tend to think the color has a lot to do with it.

SAE J578 has different specifications for color, and the light has to fall within the "white" boundary: http://www.dialight.com/ledinfo.tpl?page=chromaticity
The actual chromaticity may deviate towards one color or another, but I recall that Dan Stern's findings indicated a slightly more yellow light is easier to pick up using human eyes.

 

Silverstar ultras are mainly about longer bulb life. Had Silverstars on my last car, didn't seem to make much difference as far as distance, but it did look nicer without being "ricer" (bluish/purplish tint).

 

SilverStars are 20% brighter than standard halogens, irrespective of either color OR kelvin temperatures.

"Ricer" bulbs do not provide a white light - they're net result is a bluish or purplish cast to the illumination.

 

There's absolutely nothing wrong with Noyka bulbs. Same goes with Luminics. They're not the "cheaper" of the "ricer" bulbs if that makes any sense. Trust me... silverstars components arent USA made either

Made in another country, assembled in America... just like our vehicles.

That shouldn't make any difference. Either it's a quality product or it's not. I've never had any problem with Nokya bulbs. Just make sure the wattage on whatever bulb you purchase is right. You wont have trouble with Nokya, Luminics, or Sylvania.

The "ricer" bulbs are more blue because of the temperature, not because Japanese kids think "thats the new hotness".

CR
Tillman Speed

 

http://www.automotivelightingusa.com...7a3f0d79a55e7c

Will those do?

and I plan on throwing these for my fogs

http://www.automotivelightingusa.com...7a3f0d79a55e7c

 

I'm not too fond of MTEC. Go with Nokya or Luminics on the fogs. They're ones you DEFINETLY don't want to have to change often!!

As mentioned above, dont touch the glass with your fingers! I just wear rubber gloves during the install!

CR
Tillman Speed

 

I dont think Nokya or Luminics have a gold style bulb, but I'll search right now.

I'm ready to order bulbs right now and not sure of what to do. I know I want my fogs to be gold/yellow in color and white headlights. I just want the bulbs to be brighter and light up more of the street then stock.

 

Don't waste your time with halogen bulbs, go HID.

I had Silverstars and I guess I fall in to the 33% category that did not like them. Run a search and you will find my comparo between stock fog lights and Silverstars complete with pix. I was *not* happy with the Silverstars, and as a matter of fact they now reside in a drawer in my garage.

In MY 2008 (which is coming up) HID headlights will become optional, which means pricing should fall on the HID kits. Check with KC, he should have good hot sheet pricing when they become available.

Check out my pix in the other thread for HID headlights, foglights, installation, and pricing (no I don't sell them). You'll be much happier with HID!

 

HIDs are great (I personally love 'em), but then you're faced with the problem of your foglights looking yellow and dim by comparison.

 

How much are replacement HID capsules?

 

Precisely... that is why I went HID all around!

 

Where did you buy the HID foglight conversions? Are they projectors or did they simply replace the bulbs with the HID capsules?

 

Yeah, that's what I was wondering.

 

That is also what I did. Replaced the headlamps with HID capsuls (Hi/lo) and the fogs with new housings to accept h3 HIDs (the gt500 fogs are a very wierd, unavailable 24w bulb in a plastic housing).

 

Where did you get the headlamp capsules? Are they noticeably brighter than stock with a clean beam pattern? How much do replacement capsules cost? How much was the kit?

 

Here's a link to my original thread with pix, pricing, and where I got them from.

http://forums.bradbarnett.net/showth...HID+Fog+Lights

jcthorne, your Pony looks GREAT!!!