Xenon bulbs

So I put Sylvania Silverstar 65W 100% white bulbs in my truck about a month ago, it made a difference but not a big difference compared to my previous Sylvania 60W bulbs, which came with the truck 10 years ago, never blew out once. I was impressed enough they had such lights in them already considering it was an old truck. I know the newer more expensive trucks already come with Xenon bulbs.
Anyway, I originally wanted to go with Xenon bulbs, but I heard they're bad for long distance, considering they make everything look blue..duh. I stopped by Autozone a few days ago and saw the Xenon bulbs, and thought of picking them up because I figured it would look better anyway, and a lot more noticable than these "100% white" bulbs. They look whiter, okay, but not much BRIGHTer. They just make my high beams blinding, but I'm not planning on using my high beams 24/7, unless I really wanted to annoy people. I also hear from people all the time, "New bulbs? Xenons?" or "Xenons look really good", and I just think well obviously people like them..
I figured I'd pick them up next time I went to autozone, because $20-25 for a pair of nice headlights that should last me is surely not much of a loss..

Anyone have pros or cons on Xenons? Do you have them? And are they actually that bad for long distance?
I found a pair on Stylintrucks.com. The Autozone website is either going really slow, or the shopping section is just down..so I can't see if their Xenons would fit my truck. Do they all basically fit the same vehicles? As long as they have that standard plug in type?

what do you mean by "Xenon" ?   regular halogen bulbs that have a blue-ish coating (more-so than the silverstars)     or actual HID xenon bulbs.  the shape of a HID bulb is much different than a standard halogen bulb.




if they look similar to the bulbs below, dont waste your money.  i bought a pair like this for $9.50 on eBay and they are MUCH dimmer than the silverstars that i had before.  i cant emphasize enough dont waste money buying them




However, if you get actual HID bulbs and ballasts, that will be way brighter...     theres an ongoing thread about HID bulbs in a blazer/jimmy thats like 6 pages long. they do make HID's that arent blue, it all depends on what color temperature you get.  i got 5000K which is nearly pure white. you can get 4300K which will be more bright and slightly yellow-er  and you can get 3000K which will be even more yellow...



DONT BUY THE BULBS AT AUTOZONE!!!!!   unless its a true HID kit that comes with EVERYTHING (bulbs, ballasts, misc. wiring)


true HIDs will come with all this stuff

Well I'm talking about the halogens because they're cheaper than a $200+ HID kit of course, which I'm not really looking to do unless I had a nice car/truck that I wanted to add a stylish look to.
How many watts are the ones you bought?
On http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.white-light.net/images/9006.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.white-light.net/XenonBulbs.aspx&h=459&w=523&sz=27&hl=en&start=24&um=1&tbnid=nIYpjxhOr9YDkM:&tbnh=115&tbnw=131&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dxenon%2Bhid%2B9006%26start%3D18%26ndsp%3D18%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN
I found 9007, 100W/80W Hi/Lo Beams
http://www.white-light.net/images/9007.jpg


I've also found the same lights for cheaper on another site, but at halogen bulbs with 100W/80W hi/low beams, shouldn't that be a bigger improvement than halogen bulbs with 65W in general?

the blue halogen bulbs i bought were 55w  9006 low beams...     the HIDs i bought are 35w  9006 low beams
 
 
does your truck use 9007's?   im not sure how the headlights on the '96 are
 
if not, theres another option called HIR...   halogen infrared reflecting. theres a coating on them that reflects infrared light (useless to the naked eye) back into the bulb making it burn hotter, brighter, and whiter.  however, they are only made in 9005 or 9006 options. and they are $25 per bulb.
 
the HIDs i bought were only $75

As far as how the 9007 goes, it looks like the same type bulb. I went on a site and put in what year truck I had, and it came out with 9005 + 9006 results. I think they're the same as the 9007. Wouldn't 80w low and 100w high still be more intense even if it's not HID? I know HID is much better, but I don't feel like putting a conversion into the truck.

yeah the 80w should still be a lot brighter  but that might be too much power for the stock wiring...     the HIDs are only 35w but they have caused a few problems on my truck at least from not getting enough power and im waiting for a wiring kit to come in so i can draw the power directly form the battery instead of running through the fuse box.
 
 
im not sure of the difference in 9005/9006  and 9007.  i know some high/low bulbs have a little metal shield inside that flips up and down when high or low is on. the shield will either aim the light down with the lows or up with the highs.  i dont think thats how the 9007 is but im not real sure
 

That's true, 100/80w bulbs should use too much power. How much are you paying for the kit?

the relay kit was $38 but i bought a name brand one unlike my cheap no-name HIDs...   it has HID specific connectors on it so it might not be easy to hook up to halogen bulbs.  not to say it cant be done.


www.pilothid.com 

 

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WIKIPEDIA:
 
One filament is located at the focal point of the reflector. The other filament is shifted axially and radially away from the focal point. In most 2-filament sealed beams and in 2-filament replaceable bulbs type 9004, 9007 and H13, the high beam filament is at the focal point and the low beam filament is off focus. For use in right-traffic countries, the low beam filament is positioned slightly upward, forward and leftward of the focal point, so that when it is energized, the light beam is widened and shifted slightly downward and rightward of the headlamp's axis. Transverse-filament bulbs such as 9004 can only be used with the filaments horizontal, but axial-filament bulbs can be rotated or "clocked" by the headlamp designer so as to optimize the beam pattern or to effect the traffic-handedness of the low beam. The latter is accomplished by clocking the low-beam filament in an upward-forward-leftward position to produce a right-traffic low beam, or in an upward-forward-rightward position to produce a left-traffic low beam.
The opposite tactic has also been employed in certain 2-filament sealed beams: placing the low beam filament at the focal point to maximize light collection by the reflector, and positioning the high beam filament slightly rearward-rightward-downward of the focal point. The relative directional shift between the two beams is the same with either technique—in a right-traffic country, the low beam is slightly downward-rightward and the high beam is slightly upward-leftward, relative to one another—but the lens optics must be matched to the filament placements selected.

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I'd get HID if I found the cheapest kit and bulbs, but I found 65/55w bulbs like I have now, only they're Xenon 9007 blue bulbs which should change the color. I just don't know if they're dimmer than the bulbs I have now.

best bulbs I used were plasma glows, brighter then silverstars and come with a 10year warranty. they come in lots of differant colors too, if your into that sort of thing.
 
http://www.plasmaglow.com/products_bulbs.php

i checked back on the thread i posted when i got the xenon/halogens but i didnt have any pics...  
 
in my experience with the cheap eBay xenon bulbs, they were a lot whiter than silverstars but were a lot dimmer too.  my truck has the factory foglights (880 bulb 35w) next to the turn signals and i have silverstars in them.  with my low beams on(silverstar 9006), they are about 1/2  to   2/3 as bright as the lows...      with the xenon bulbs in place of the 9006 silverstars, the factory foglights are pretty much just as bright as the xenon
 
however, mine were $3 bulbs and $6.50 shipping compared to some of the highend bulbs like PIAA or the ones cliro linked to.  they may turn out good though.   i see a lot of cars and trucks during daylight where you can see a deep blue tint in their headlights. 
 
 
im still not sure what size bulb your truck uses.  if its 9007, which is a dual filament bulb, and its 100w/80w  it should be brighter than the eBay bulbs i had...    if you can, try and buy a single bulb that way if its not what you thought it would be, you dont lose as much money than if you buy two (assuming installation would void the return policy)

Thanks for the site Cliro, and I was looking at Plasma bulbs yesterday. The factory lights I had in my truck were Sylvania 9005HB3 12v 60w bulbs, but they don't have any special type of blue film over them. I did find these guys had a kinda weak yellow glow to them.

http://www.car-stuff.com/store/details/chevroletblazer19922005sylvaniasy-9005st1.html
Those are the guys I replaced them with, which I just realized says 65w for high beam. What does that mean with my low beam? Because I know my high beams are more intense and my low beams just look whiter.
They're single filament just like my 9005's that I used to have in. I know the highest I've seen for my truck are 9006, but I don't know about 9007. And I think for a 9007 I might have to buy a new wire harness.

9005 is the highbeam, 9006 is the low beam...   most headlights are 65w 9005 and 55w 9006
 
9007 is dual-filament which is basically high/low in the same bulb

So since I got 9005's, basically I'd only see the difference when my high beams are on? If I got 9007's the difference would be in both high and low?

When you shop for headlights, you gotta look for the color temperature as otnietdehoooo mentioned.  The higher the temp, the more bluish or "cooler" they will look and, most importantly, you get less light output.  So a halogen bulb with a color temp of 3500k should give you more visibility at night than a 5000k halogen bulb.  Many states keep the legal limit at around 5000k because of the less light output at higher temps. 
 
Personally, I think PIAA is one of the best in the business and Sylvania close behind in 2nd.  This is a thread from another forum that convinced me to try them out, may be worthwhile for you to read, I dunno. 
 
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=177538
 
I have Xtreme white for my Hi/DRL (4000k, really nice white) and the super plasmas for lo (5100k, white with a small hint of the blue/purple seen in HID).  Both deliver excellent visibility, especially the xtreme whites, and are warrantied for a year.  As for price, they run around 60-70 bucks, but you get what you pay for in the lighting world, that's for sure.  If you really wanna get cheap Xenon bulbs from ebay, whatever you do, don't buy them for your high beams cuz you won't see anything with your hi beams at night.  I wouldn't say they are terrible for your lo beams.  No light output isn't good, but I think they look really sweet with its cool blue and probably would still have the ebay knockoffs in my truck if I didn't live in such a deer infested state.
 
As for HID, its probably not for you.  No you can't just swap in those xenon bulbs and get the same results.  Many things are different between the two setups, like the housing and power wattage used.  There aren't too many real HID kits around so that means those real ones won't be cheap whatsoever.

Today my dad was infront of my truck and he said they look much brighter, which is good, but even in NY, I've seen people with lights that literally take my eyes off the road because you just can't see. I saw some guy today who must've had HID's because they were whitish blue, but they were blinding and I just thought that's what I want..haha.

But my high beams I'd never use, because they are bad for using all the time since they hardly even hit the road. We have a lot of deer around here, too. I know many people who have hit deers, and I've come very close to it. Around my house, we have groups of deer who just run around all day, especially in the winter. Some days you'd look in the back yard and see 5-6 deer just standing around. I was driving pretty fast on my way home one day, and I decided to slow down randomly, and in a split second I saw a deer dart across the road. If I was going an faster he probably would've hit my door, or the front left side of my truck.

quote:

ORIGINAL: dimmuborgir6nik6

Today my dad was infront of my truck and he said they look much brighter, which is good, but even in NY, I've seen people with lights that literally take my eyes off the road because you just can't see. I saw some guy today who must've had HID's because they were whitish blue, but they were blinding and I just thought that's what I want..haha.

But my high beams I'd never use, because they are bad for using all the time since they hardly even hit the road. We have a lot of deer around here, too. I know many people who have hit deers, and I've come very close to it. Around my house, we have groups of deer who just run around all day, especially in the winter. Some days you'd look in the back yard and see 5-6 deer just standing around. I was driving pretty fast on my way home one day, and I decided to slow down randomly, and in a split second I saw a deer dart across the road. If I was going an faster he probably would've hit my door, or the front left side of my truck.

 
If your high beams barely hit the road, you need your lights adjusted...
 
and FYI, a 9007 and 9005/9006 are NOT interchangable... without modifying wiring or the socket.

One vehicle i've noticed that have unusually bright low beams are the newer chevy pickups, like 03 or 04 models to present.  They're just so damn brighter than any other bulb i've seen, makes me think the hi beams are on but they're not.
 
You only need to follow my advice really if you need your headlights to actually help you see at night.  Still, the crap bulbs in hi beams don't look as good as the crap bulbs in lo beams anyway (I never got that cool blue in my DRLs) and they will only be on when you really need to see so you should make these a top quality brand like the Sylvania Silverstars or something from PIAA.  Put the cool looking ones in the lo beam cuz those will look much better, day or night.   

Yeah, I have Sylvania Silverstars in them now. I don't really have trouble seeing at night at all. That was never really the problem, especially when I just ordered driving lights, I just want it to look cooler.