Honda Car Forum

Greetings to all

Can any one help me in selecting the correct PIAA or anyother bright white
lamp for my Honda Pilot EX 2004 SUV?

Any help in pointing to the right direction will be appreciated.

Thanks

asfand@frontiernet.net

sylvania.com


____________________________________
Do not write below this line. Reserved for me.

In article <41827a2f$1_5@alt.athenanews.com>, naila_aleem@hotmail.com says...
>Greetings to all
>Can any one help me in selecting the correct PIAA or anyother bright white
>lamp for my Honda Pilot EX 2004 SUV?

Keep away from any lamp that has colored glass. They cost more and give out
less light.
-------------
Alex

On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 10:12:33 -0700, "Seeker" <naila_aleem@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>Greetings to all
>
>Can any one help me in selecting the correct PIAA or anyother bright white
>lamp for my Honda Pilot EX 2004 SUV?
>
>Any help in pointing to the right direction will be appreciated.
>
>Thanks
>
>asfand@frontiernet.net

I'm using Sylvania Silver Stars and while they're an improvement over
the OEM ones, longevity is another matter. When I bought a pair, one
went only after 8 months or so and the other one crapped out at
something like 15 months. YMMV.

But there are some discussion of other bulbs over at
www.hondapilot.org. Do a search for "sylvania" and read some of the
threads. In the Sylvania threads is where you'll find discussions of
other bulbs, such as Phillips, PIAA and etc.

Connor Maxwell wrote:
>
> On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 10:12:33 -0700, "Seeker" <naila_aleem@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> >Greetings to all
> >
> >Can any one help me in selecting the correct PIAA or anyother bright white
> >lamp for my Honda Pilot EX 2004 SUV?
> >
> >Any help in pointing to the right direction will be appreciated.
> >
> >Thanks
> >
> >asfand@frontiernet.net
>
> I'm using Sylvania Silver Stars and while they're an improvement over
> the OEM ones, longevity is another matter. When I bought a pair, one
> went only after 8 months or so and the other one crapped out at
> something like 15 months. YMMV.

Sylvania also has XtraVision bulbs. After a long chain of e-mails back
and forth to Sylvania customer service they told me that the SilverStar
and the XtraVision has the same light output (Lumens), the XtraVision
has much longer life expectancy than SilverStars, but the SilverStars
have higher color temperature. Light output in Lumens is weighted
according to how humans perceive light at different color. Thus even
though the two bulbs have a different color temperature, as far as the
human eye is concerned they are equally bright since they have the same
light output measured in Lumens.

As far as I know, your car uses 9003 headlight bulbs. These are
virtually identical to H4 bulbs as used in Europe. Osram H4 SilverStar
bulbs are brighter than Sylvania 9003 SilverStar bulbs (even though
Sulvania and Osram is the same company). A number of on-line retailers
sell Osram H4 SilverStar bulbs in the US. I have bought things from
http://www.suvlights.com in the past and been happy with them. They have
the Osram SilverStar, as do a number of other retailers.

>I'm using Sylvania Silver Stars and while they're an improvement over
>the OEM ones, longevity is another matter. When I bought a pair, one
>went only after 8 months or so and the other one crapped out at
>something like 15 months. YMMV.
>

I've had mine for over a year and still as bright as ever. Not bad for
$10/pair. Currently Pepboys is selling them at $20/pair. Regular price being
$40/pair.




____________________________________
Do not write below this line. Reserved for me.

Randolph <trash@junkmail.com> wrote in message news:<4185CE62.EEC3BA42@junkmail.com>...
> Connor Maxwell wrote:
> >
> > On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 10:12:33 -0700, "Seeker" <naila_aleem@hotmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > >Greetings to all
> > >
> > >Can any one help me in selecting the correct PIAA or anyother bright white
> > >lamp for my Honda Pilot EX 2004 SUV?
> > >
> > >Any help in pointing to the right direction will be appreciated.
> > >
> > >Thanks
> > >
> > >asfand@frontiernet.net
> >
> > I'm using Sylvania Silver Stars and while they're an improvement over
> > the OEM ones, longevity is another matter. When I bought a pair, one
> > went only after 8 months or so and the other one crapped out at
> > something like 15 months. YMMV.
>
> Sylvania also has XtraVision bulbs. After a long chain of e-mails back
> and forth to Sylvania customer service they told me that the SilverStar
> and the XtraVision has the same light output (Lumens), the XtraVision
> has much longer life expectancy than SilverStars, but the SilverStars
> have higher color temperature. Light output in Lumens is weighted
> according to how humans perceive light at different color. Thus even
> though the two bulbs have a different color temperature, as far as the
> human eye is concerned they are equally bright since they have the same
> light output measured in Lumens.
>
> As far as I know, your car uses 9003 headlight bulbs. These are
> virtually identical to H4 bulbs as used in Europe. Osram H4 SilverStar
> bulbs are brighter than Sylvania 9003 SilverStar bulbs (even though
> Sulvania and Osram is the same company). A number of on-line retailers
> sell Osram H4 SilverStar bulbs in the US. I have bought things from
> http://www.suvlights.com in the past and been happy with them. They have
> the Osram SilverStar, as do a number of other retailers.


I'm going to cross-post this to rec.autos.tech. I'm sure that Daniel J.
Stern will pick up on this.

I'll sum up what I'm sure will be his short answers.

1) PIAA = way overpriced crap.

2) **Sylvania** Silverstar = overpriced, short-lived, underperforming,
just-to-look-cool crap. In 9006, they're rated for less than 1/5
the life of XtraVision.

3) **Osram** Silverstars = a good way to go, although they also don't
last as long (but not as bad as their Sylvania counterparts).

4) What most bulb makers sell as "whiter" light is really bluer light.
Bluer light is not better light, and to make it blue (short of a
real HID system) means reducing light output or doing something
potentially dangerous/illegal.

5) The rated light output in lumens is within a legal range, but has
little to do with the actual light output. The XtraVisions will
illuminate better than Sylvania Silverstar.