Anyone replaced their regular OEM/ beams w/ Silverstar beams. If so was it worth the upgrade? Thinking about the Silverstars - don't want any non-DOT certified beams.
Hi Everett. They're fairly decent and have good lifespan to better stretch your dollar but the selection for hi-po sealed beams were extremely limited the last time I checked. If you do want to ante up for hi-po bulbs like these and get the most bang for your buck?.. make sure to go the extra bit and do an H4 conversion to allow getting the much brighter Ultra's. I've run every version except for the ZX, or whatever they're called, and they are the best model that Sylvania has to offer without that stupid "euro purple HID" look all the import guys love. Here's my take on hi-po lighting. If the guys who can afford 50k+ cars can have great lighting and extra safety and damned near blinding visibility?.. why can't I? With that in mind.. it's one of the first things that I ALWAYS do to every single car we own.. toy or daily driver. Plus, we drive in deer country and need all the extra help we can get in that department. The older cars really benefit the most from a housing conversion to eliminate the sealed beams and allows greater bulb choice. PIAA is still the best on the market.. with Hella close behind.. and not much more than the top of the line Ultra's. I've tried to save cash on the ebay and parts store specials.. but they just don't last like the top line stuff does and don't turn out to save you money in the long run. WELL worth the upgrade if you do a lot of night driving.. especially out in the country where you can switch on the high beams. Another thing you can do if you don't want to go full tilt on the main headlight conversion/output(a little over a hundred bucks for every thing) is to supplement them with DOT legal driving lights. But as I'm sure you already know.. it's tough to find a set that looks period correct on our cars without hacking it up to look like a rally car or something that's been chopped on and has a huge CB antenna sticking up into the stratosphere. lol
Do the headlight relay harness if you want the most benefit. While not specific to the Maverick, here is a link that gives you an idea what you need to do: http://www.73-87.com/7387garage/exterior/headlight_relay.htm Micah
I ran the silverstars for years and loved them. But I found after about 5 or 6 years that they began to dim. Last year I could see my shadow in front of me from the lights behind me being so much brighter. I read that the bulbs can be taxing on the headlight switch over time and cause dimmer lights. The relay that goes with H4 conversion eliminates drawing the current from the switch and supplies the lights power direct from the battery. All the headlight switch does is activate the relay. I did the H4 conversion and Im very pleased with how bright my headlights are. I suppose if you want to stick with a sealed beam you can still buy a relay harness from ebay for 25 bucks and use the silverstars. Then you dont have to worry about your headlight switch.
Yeah.. I'm sure the deer do as well. At least until they have to watch their family members get tossed into the ditch from some car that only sees 50 feet ahead while traveling 60 mph down a dark road into oncoming traffics lights. Oh.. and with light refracting rain on the windshield and crappy wiper blades leaving blurry streaks too. Bottom line is that these lights sucked more 70 years ago when they were designed and certainly don't seem to be any better even with today's better roadway delineation and signage.
Thanks for input guys. I have the relays installed. I just need to decide what lights Im going with. I don't do very much nite driving, so really don't need anything exotic. I wud estimate 20% of my driving for headlite usage. I will research the H4 convert - Don't want the plastic lense.
Dude, those fancy headlights do not improve visibility one bit over the stock headlights. It's a bunch of hype, which is something society is full of these days. If they were substantially brighter, they would not be street-legal. Edit: And by the way, I'm from Colorado where there are lots of deer. If you think a deer isn't gonna jump out in front of you because you have some fancy, expensive headlights, you're sadly mistaken. They don't get hit because you didn't see them; they get hit because they run out in front of you, and there's no time to stop.
Everrett I got Hella H4 bulb housing, glass, for about $75 on ebay. They came with h4 bulbs as well. You should be just fine with Silverstars since you have the relay.
I am lookin at those Hellas and KC Hi Lites #42301 on Amazon, will most likely buy one of those units. Do the Hellas plug directly into the OEM plug? Are they glass or plastic/lexan lense? The KC are UV treated lexan.
I'm using a set of Lucas European glass housings with the Silver Star H-4 bulbs. I had a set left over from my Jaguar. Even before adding the relay, they were substantially brighter than the sealed halogen bulbs. I'm looking forward to how much brighter they will be with the relays. When looking for a bulb, you want to try and find out what the Lumen (amount of light) and temperature (color) are. Some cheap bulbs put a coating on them that changes the temperature to a nice white but at a cost of lumens. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lucas-Europ...Parts_Accessories&hash=item338dfd4f4c&vxp=mtr Micah
Hella 002395301 uses HB2 bulb (not H4, as the H4 Hella version is not USA DOT approved except for motorcycles) are direct replacements and are glass. No personal experience with these, just reading from the Hella website. http://www.myhellalights.com/index.php/default/auxiliary-lamps/sealed-beam-conversion-headlamps/ Here is a quick and dirty on the HB2 / H4 DOT allowance: http://candlepowerinc.com/pdfs/H4_9003.pdf This is probably more than most care about, but it is interesting, to me atleast.
Interesting reading - thanks for the link. I cud probably use any of the units--we don't have vech. inspection in Illinois cept exhaust emissions, excluding vintage cars. The problem wud be when I leave the metro areas in state or leave the state. I don't want any issues so will stay w/ what's legal-- enough can go wrong w/ 40+year vehicle w/o law enforcement ruining one's day/trip..
I seriously doubt any officer would care to pull your over unless your lights were blinding other drivers. They have so many other problems to deal with than to waste their time on some old car with lights that are a little brighter. In comparison to a new car, they would probably still be dim. I'm runing a set of Lucas Square 8 (Shelby/CA Special) driving lights with modern bulbs. They can be blinding if aimed wrong. I had them on all the time and no one flashed their lights at me and I never got pulled over. http://www.holden.co.uk/displayProduct.asp?pCode=LR8/C Micah
