Here's why:
Mi Madre was complaining about weak lights in her '02 Cougar...the light seemed fine to me but it was useless in rural roads and thunderstorms according to Mom. Sure enough after 4 years the filiments were trashed.
Pulled the ones in my Dad's 2000 Town Car, the filments were falling apart. ( auto headlights)
Replaced them all with Sylvania Xtra-visions (high output clear bulbs, no blue tinted ricer ) and both are so much better its not even funny.
Pulled the bulbs in my 88 Cougar (replaced in 1998) and they looked okay, but I decided to get a fresh set of XV's at the same time. Sure enough the old filiments looked okay, but new bulbs spit out a TON more light.
Lesson learned, new bulbs every 2-3 years for daily drivers. ;)
first thing i did when ever i got a used car!
well after changing the fliuds and giving it a tune, well sometimes i would just do all that at once.
I put XV's in my car, along with sanding and buffing the lenses it helped a lot.
I put Silverstars into my TC shortly after I got it, but I never noticed much difference in light output...
That's cuz blue tinted bulbs are the work of the devil. :)
Yeah, we changed the headlights on my Tbird because it had the fogged, dim headlights that are notorious on these cars. Made a world of a difference.
I thought Silverstars were the really nice, bright bulbs? I don't think they're the trendy blue ones.
They are made out of blue glass and project an artificial white light instead of the normal yellow-ish light. Bought a set of silverstars for my Mark VIII, thought they were good. Had to considering how expensive they are. Then I converted the Mark to HID, using Ford parts. The new lights came with OEM highbeam bulbs.
I switched between OEM and silverstars, sure enough, the OEMs threw out more light, it was just a lot yellower.
Silverstars are trash, I can't believe they actually market them as a higher quality light when they obviously are lower performers than regular lights...not to mention they are supposed to last 1-2 years.
No kidding?!
I was planning on buying them, too. Thanks for the heads-up!
Ive heard of them burning out in as little as one month.
This only applies to north america-sold silverstars. European silverstars (sold by sylvanias parent company Osram) are totally different, and much better. They dont rely on the bulb to make the light white, but instead they use a different filament style or something, i think they burn hotter, anyway they are much better. The silverstars we buy here have the blue coating or something on the bulb which causes higher temps in the bulb which burns them out.
I think. I read about it somewhere.
Didn't know about the Euro spec ones...things like that probably don't meet our stricter guidelines. but the USA ones also burn hotter than a normal light, probably using a different gas inside, hence why they don't last very long.
Yes the Silverstars use blue glass, not blue paint like other ones. If I could sue them for scamming me out of $70 (set of four on the Mark VIII) I would.
As far as I know, thats all true. I think they're even 55watt lowbeam over there.
Blue glass? Silverstars have very LIGHT blue glass, it's not super blue like most of those other bulbs are.
Also I've had mine for over 2 years with no problems...
Anyway I just figured my headlights suck and that's why there doesn't seem to be much light. I had that problem with my Mustang too.
Yup, its light blue glass. Doesn't matter, its not clear and it reduces actual light output.
i liked my silverstars when i had them in my cougar. i have yet to put a set in my stang though. keep forgetting. also the same with the wiper blades.
Damm! Even though I only paid $20 for the set (silverstarts) in my Neon, I wish I hadn't gotten them now. I just accidentally broke my stock ones the other day, too. Poop on headlights. They are, indeed, worthless on rainy nights... it's like the water absorbs and refracts all the light. Now I must look for some of these Sylvania Xtra-visions you speak of.