SilverStar 9145's

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TrainTrac

TrainTrac

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The SilverStar 9145 fog light replacement bulbs are finally starting to hit the market. I picked up a pair at Advance Auto in Chesapeake, VA today. Piece of cake to install, and now the fogs match my SilverStar headlights.
 
what are silverstar Bulbs...stock replacements? better than stock?



Raserx
 
JK,



I paid $19.95/each for a pair.



RaserX,



They're high-performance replacement bulbs. You can get them for your headlights, fog lights and front turn signal bulbs.
 
I use 9005 headlight bulbs in my fog lights. They have been working perfectly for quite some time and they're mega bright. I have a 2003. I've got 9005 HIDs in them at the moment, and they're bright enough to illuminate the road, even WITHOUT the headlights. Of course I get bright-lighted quite often too.

If I end up trading for this mustang GT this week (50/50 chance), I'll have 2 sets of HID bulbs/ballasts/igniters for sale, cheaply, if they don't fit the GT...which they probably won't. One set is 9007 (headlights) and the other is 9005 (fog lights).
 
The 9005 bulbs are high beam bulbs used in vehicles that have 4 headlights. They are slightly different and sometimes you need to trim the tabs to get them to fit.



The problem with 9005 bulbs are that they are designed to be high beams. Most people do not use high beams all the time, so when you use them in the fog lights, they seem to burn out quickly because of the higher wattage.



9005 bulbs are 65 watts with 320 HR life.

9145 bulbs are 45 watts with 1000 HR life.



So, esentially, what you gain in visibility, you loose in life of the fog light bulbs using 9005.



In case you are wondering about Silverstar bulbs, they are brighter then standard bulbs. Do a search on headlights. I few years back, I tested different bulbs under a semi-controled environment and the results were impressive. Someone here talked about the "Eurodezigns" bulbs and said how much brighter they were over Silverstars. I blew that theory into the dirt too.



If you are looking for a relativly cheap upgrade for your headlights, get 9007 HO bulbs.



I have never tested PIAA Hyper White bulbs, so I can't compare them to Silverstars, but Silverstars blew away all the others I tested.





Tom
 
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Thing to remember is that fog lights are fog lights and driving lights are driving lights. Fogs are better mounted low and driving lights are better high. Put too bright a bulb in the fog light housing, and it will function poorly as both a driving light and a fog light.



That said, what I worked out for my old Ranger was to use 9005 all-weather bulbs from J.C. Whitney which cast a sort of yellow light (my Trac doesn't have fog lights). Here's a link to an online magazine article I wrote with the part numbers in it. Click on the link then click on the word "STREET" in the left margin. BTW, I was riding shotgun in the Bronco II on the cover when the pic was taken. :cool:
 
I pulled the Silverstar headlight bulbs out of my Ranger before I traded it to put them in the Trac. Honestly I didn't see a difference between them and the factory bulbs. The OE stuff must be getting better.
 
Personally, I have mtec 9005's and matching mtecs for my headlights. I havent had better lights befotre, such a nice clean white, no halogen look to them but not blue.



Dallas
 
I've got Nokya bulbs, and they are quite a bit brighter then SilverStars. Ask JeffC, at the last ATL meet, we were parked next to each other, he had SilverStars, but next to mine they looked as dim and yellow as OEM lights. I'm pretty sure he's switched over to Nokya and hasn't been back to the SSs yet.
 
Silverstars are better than stock but they still have the yellow hue. I have the Eurodezigns (sp) myself and no yellow at all, pure white. They do appear a little blue in the cold weather but once heated up go to white. I have probably purchased 10 different brands of headlight off Ebay looking for the right effect I wanted. What I have learned is the bluer(sp) the bulb the whiter the light will be. However you do give up brightness on some bulbs but that is not an issue for me as I am a in town driver. When you compare a white bulb next to a yellow bulb the difference is amazing in the appearance of your white bulb vehicle. Another hint is you must attempt to match your headlights with the same whiteness bulb as your fog lights. Don't assume that if you buy your fogs from the same manufacturer that the hue will be the same because I can tell you it doesn't always happen. One good thing about Ebay is I have bought lots of bulbs for .99 per set making it very cheap to try out many manufacturers. I just keep buying until I get the look I want. I also buy the higher output bulb going up from stock 65watts or so to 90watts and have not had any problems with heat or wiring.
 
EuroDezigns are junk. A long time ago, I tested EuroDezigns bulbs. here are the results. I am looking for the actual post when I did the test, at the moment I cant find it.



Here is a quick run down of the bulbs I tested.



Stock Bulbs emitted 58 Foot Candles

9007HO bulbs emitted 64 Foot Candles

Silverstars emitted 72 Foot Candles

EuroDezigns emitted 20 foot candles



EuroDezigns bulbs are blue, not white. They did not look white. They are not white, plain and simple.





Tom
 
Well, I found a link, but it looks like the info was not backed up, so it is gone.



Oh well.





Tom
 
Caymen you can clearly see in my library that even in daylight my bulbs appear extreme white. The effect is much greater of course at night. The blue color of the glass bulb filters out the yellows that are in standard bulbs. These of course are fakes to give the impression of HID. As I stated in my earlier post I do loose a little of what I will refer to as projection brightness as these bulbs do not shine a tremendous amount of light on the road, although effective enough for all purposes. The lights are brilliant white in color at night when looking at the vehicle.
 
Caymen you can clearly see in my library that even in daylight my bulbs appear extreme white. The effect is much greater of course at night. The blue color of the glass bulb filters out the yellows that are in standard bulbs. These of course are fakes to give the impression of HID. As I stated in my earlier post I do loose a little of what I will refer to as projection brightness as these bulbs do not shine a tremendous amount of light on the road, although effective enough for all purposes. The lights are brilliant white in color at night when looking at the vehicle.
 

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