Headlight upgrade

[Fergie]

Can anyone suggest the best way to upgrade the headlights in a 95 Civic
in order to get the most light from the headlights?
I do a lot of night highway driving and it is nice to see the "critters"
as soon as possible.
Thanks

 

[M.C. Tee]

do a H.I.D conversion, its fairly expensive, but it will give you alot more
light

 

[Randolph]

None of the The H.I.D. conversions are DOT compliant. With many (but not
all) of them you also loose your high-beams.

The easiest upgrade is to use Sylvania Xtravision or Philips
HiVisibility bulbs. These are perfectly legal and give about 30% more
light than regular.

You can also add a set of Sylvania Xenarc 1010 H.I.D. Auxiliary Low Beam
lights. These are DOT compliant and you mount them as you would fog
lights. They need to be properly aimed to be DOT compliant (and to not
aggravate oncoming traffic).

I put a set of these on a '94 Civic. Bought them from
http://www.suvlights.com/. They have a choice between 5400K / 2800 lumen
bulbs or 4250K / 3200 lumen bulbs. The latter provide more light, and
are less bluish.

Hella also makes auxilliary H.I.D. lights, but I do not know if they are
available in the US. I believe Hella's lights are to be used with the
high beams only.

 

[Scott Schuckert]

The easiest upgrade is to use Sylvania Xtravision or Philips
HiVisibility bulbs. These are perfectly legal and give about 30% more
light than regular.

I use theXtravision lamps, and they're a worthwhile upgrade. Not
dramatic, but noticeable.

Sylvania has also recently introduced their Silver Star replacemnt
lamps. They're only a bit more expensive (perhaps $20 each). I haven't
tried them yet, but they're supposed to be better still, at the cost of
somewhat shorter life.

 

[Robert Upward]

Had the same problem with my 01 Prelude. On a dark two lane, the high
beams worked about as well as me holding a flashlight out the window. I
installed some PIAA "Extreme white plus" bulbs and it was like night into
day. The bulbs were expensive, but worth it.

Rob

 

[J.]

I thought about replacing my halogen bulbs with Sylvania's Silverstar until
I read the tech specs on their website's 'Automotive Lamp Catalog'.

For the H1 bulbs, the Silverstars up the wattage from a standard 55 watts to
65 watts, but light output DECREASES 25% from 129 to 95 mscd (mean sperical
candela, which is proprotional to lumens). The worst aspect is rated life.
It decreases from the typical 225 hours to just 100 hours (using fixed
laboratory racks and a B50 statistical testing method - where 50% of the
lamps fail).

Doesn't seem worth it to get a 'whiter' light at $22.49 per bulb.