Headlamps... not the same 'ol install question

843 Views 8 Replies 6 Participants Last post by D.Passat00, Jul 12, 2004

Cycles

Discussion Starter · Jul 11, 2004

Hey All:

Just swapped out the headlamp bulbs in my B5.5 and wanted to run something by everyone. Having never ventured into this particular area of upgrade, I blindly (no pun intended) picked up these bulbs on EBay:

I swapped them for my low beam bulbs, both sets being the same, 55W H7 rating. They dropped right in and seem to work fine.
I can tell there is a long history of experience in this forum with this modification. So... here is my question... given these facts - Will my car blow up?

Thanks in advance.

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B54ME

· #2 · Jul 11, 2004

hmm don't really foresee an explosion. I think most reports are they generally aren't any brighter then stock just a different color and they tend to burn out faster. but if they do the job they do the job. personally I have the silverstars and love them.

Andrew

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pete1

· #3 · Jul 11, 2004

Since they are 55W H7, you can rest easy that they are not gonna fry your wires. They're not really HID's... they still use a fillament, not a gas arc. The xenon, etc. are halogen gasses surrounding the fillament.

The main concerns would be *actual* visibility (blue is not as good at lighting up the road as white/yellow is -- there will be some dissent on this opinion). Also, if the bulbs put out a lot of UV, they will eventually yellow your lenses (it takes months/years). See is the product literature makes any claims regarding UV transmission.

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Cycles

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jul 11, 2004

Ah that's good news, thanks for the reply. Actually I was being a be melodramatic..hehe.. but I have read about mis-matched bulbs causing problems and I know these are cheapo-s, so was a bit concerned. I suppose they wouldn't really last long selling these things if they were actually rated improperly.

My logic was to try out a less expensive bulb and if I saw any improvement (and liked it) I would work up the some nice ones.

Actually, the stock lamps (bulbs and all) in the '03 Passat are pretty darn nice, imho.

Thanks again.

Mike

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Cycles

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jul 11, 2004

pete1 said:
Since they are 55W H7, you can rest easy that they are not gonna fry your wires. They're not really HID's... they still use a fillament, not a gas arc. The xenon, etc. are halogen gasses surrounding the fillament.

The main concerns would be *actual* visibility (blue is not as good at lighting up the road as white/yellow is -- there will be some dissent on this opinion). Also, if the bulbs put out a lot of UV, they will eventually yellow your lenses (it takes months/years). See is the product literature makes any claims regarding UV transmission.

Ah thanks... good info. Having just skimmed the lit. on these bulbs I was pretty confident they were not authentic (altho the seller advertises them as such). I was careful with the gloves and kept my original bulbs intact should the visibility suck.

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Barnacle-Billy

· #6 · Jul 11, 2004

Simple answer...these things are junk. You get what you pay for...

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Cycles

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jul 12, 2004

Barnacle-Billy said:
Simple answer...these things are junk. You get what you pay for...

Hmm... really? I guess there's no point in asking about those brake rotors I won in a Taco Bell scratch off contest then...

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A-Tiller-the hun

· #8 · Jul 12, 2004

Barnacle-Billy said:
Simple answer...these things are junk. You get what you pay for...

Bingo...

and they are probably worse at lighting the road than the stock bulbs...

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D.Passat00

· #9 · Jul 12, 2004

i installed these on mine before i installed HIDs, and they'll work, but because of the blue tint on the bulb, the light output would probably be less. it looked better though. i really scratched the bulb when i installed mine, and it still worked for 2-3 months before dying.

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