HIR Bulbs

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I've heard the absolute fact that high-wattage bulbs don't last, heard it for decades. My Audi has 100W highs and 80/100W lows. I've replaced two bulbs in eight years/150k. I've had 80/100W Hella bulbs in my Subaru since this winter, haven't used the spare in the glovebox yet.

And now something of value: high-wattage Hellas and $30 Toshiba HIR bulbs are here http://www.rallylights.com/hella/9005.asp I've had excellent service there. They actually forgot to include a bulb and made it right with many apologies, no argument. They have some things I couldn't find anywhere else.
 
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If you are not going to beleive what you read, why do you even bother coming to a Land Cruiser board?

I read once that jumping off a cliff can kill you. Do I need to jump off a cliff to prove that to myself?

If you SEARCH through the threads, you will see a lot of people have used the 100w bulbs, NONE OF WHOM HAVE BEEN PLEASED WITH THEIR PERFORMANCE, QUALITY, AND LONGEVITY.

You ask what people's opinions are, people tell you.

If you are going to be in the backroads, depending on those JC Whitney bulbs for your survival, please do us all a favor and pack a ton of spares.

Also, and I dont even know why I'm bothering anymore, if you do buy the Whitney bulbs, stay away from the blue tinted or diamond white ones. Blue tinting on bulbs is worthless, and actually decreases the light output.

Have fun.
 
Well, right when I post that, I read the first positive review of the 100w bulbs I've ever seen.

So that's 1 to about 10-20 or so.
 
I think Doug has had good service from his 100W, and another brother of ours has had a set in his '86 quattro since it was fairly new with few problems. I have several friends who've had good luck with them, but I've always heard they're trouble. I carry spares just in case.
 
Boston Mangler said:
I know it sounds lame and petty, but 2 reasons, one i like the clean look. 2 i live in San Diego and 2 friends of mine recently had their aux lights stolen (within 2 weeks of each other). One of them had 4 hella HID's stolen and the other had 2 cheesy procomps stolen. Both were in their driveways! I know obviously anything can be stolen, but my rig sits for sometimes weeks at a time in my driveway and i am out of town. I would like to try to limit exterior items attracting thieving scumbags.
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Hey, I don't blame you at all!
I swear that it wasn't me who stole the Hella HID's even though I have 2 pairs of them. ;)

And also I know that many prefer the clean look of unmolested 80. So I can certainly understand that as well. I have heard that they have locking washers or nuts or whatever for aux. lights, but like you said, if a DB wanted it bad(ly) enough there is not much you can do to stop them.


shocker said:
If you are not going to beleive what you read, why do you even bother coming to a Land Cruiser board?

I read once that jumping off a cliff can kill you. Do I need to jump off a cliff to prove that to myself?

If you SEARCH through the threads, you will see a lot of people have used the 100w bulbs, NONE OF WHOM HAVE BEEN PLEASED WITH THEIR PERFORMANCE, QUALITY, AND LONGEVITY.

You ask what people's opinions are, people tell you.

If you are going to be in the backroads, depending on those JC Whitney bulbs for your survival, please do us all a favor and pack a ton of spares.

Also, and I dont even know why I'm bothering anymore, if you do buy the Whitney bulbs, stay away from the blue tinted or diamond white ones. Blue tinting on bulbs is worthless, and actually decreases the light output.
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Ryan,

Rough day at the office? :D

I've been told from people or given advice before and had to learn it the hard way more than once. :mad: I'm sure you understand. I don't think Mangler really meant to insult you, Cary or anybody, well, not intentionally anyway. ;)



shocker said:
So that's 1 to about 10-20 or so.
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Mangler is a gambler, he likes his odds. :D


PEACE!

Mot :)
 
shocker said:
If you are not going to beleive what you read, why do you even bother coming to a Land Cruiser board?

I read once that jumping off a cliff can kill you. Do I need to jump off a cliff to prove that to myself?

If you SEARCH through the threads, you will see a lot of people have used the 100w bulbs, NONE OF WHOM HAVE BEEN PLEASED WITH THEIR PERFORMANCE, QUALITY, AND LONGEVITY.

You ask what people's opinions are, people tell you.

If you are going to be in the backroads, depending on those JC Whitney bulbs for your survival, please do us all a favor and pack a ton of spares.

Also, and I dont even know why I'm bothering anymore, if you do buy the Whitney bulbs, stay away from the blue tinted or diamond white ones. Blue tinting on bulbs is worthless, and actually decreases the light output.

Have fun.
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Lay off the caffeine bro! :D

I have searched many a threads, found MANY threads of people speaking poorly of these 100w's that they HEARD were bad, didnt really come into many posts of people that ACTUALLY owned a set that failed, just regergitating info they read. Sure they're were a few, but not that many! Only one i actually recall owning a set was Beowulf. One last 5 minutes or so, and one is still going! Go figure!

I am also curious of all the supposed people that had failing 100w bulbs, how many had the harness upgrade????

Why the personal attack man? Obviously i take peoples advice, that is why i went with the HIR's for my lows in the first place! Never even heard of them UNTIL I STARTED searching HERE and found the FAQ thread!
 
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shocker said:
If you are going to be in the backroads, depending on those JC Whitney bulbs for your survival, please do us all a favor and pack a ton of spares.
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Relying on high beam bulbs for survival? Thats a bit of a stretch huh? Not that it is any of your biz, but yes, when i go on long trips, i have at least one spare hi and one spare low.

Do you approve? :flipoff2:
 
scottm said:
I've heard the absolute fact that high-wattage bulbs don't last, heard it for decades. My Audi has 100W highs and 80/100W lows. I've replaced two bulbs in eight years/150k. I've had 80/100W Hella bulbs in my Subaru since this winter, haven't used the spare in the glovebox yet.

And now something of value: high-wattage Hellas and $30 Toshiba HIR bulbs are here http://www.rallylights.com/hella/9005.asp I've had excellent service there. They actually forgot to include a bulb and made it right with many apologies, no argument. They have some things I couldn't find anywhere else.
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Yeah, i contacted them about the 100w 9005 and they said they are currently sold out. But should be getting more, they couldnt give a time frame though, they said they were switching vendors! (maybe because of the poor korean bulbs, i dont know, they wouldnt say)

On a side note, they are great people to deal with!

I will post my updated progress on this, for those that care! :D
 
I'm in: 2 hi +2 lo! :cheers:
 
Boston Mangler said:
Only one i actually recall owning a set was Beowulf. One last 5 minutes or so, and one is still going! Go figure!

I am also curious of all the supposed people that had failing 100w bulbs, how many had the harness upgrade????
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Installed the Slee headlight wiring harness about 3 or 4 years ago, long before I tried the Korean Hella 100w high beams. Neither are still going. One failed after about 5 minutes (maybe less) on high beams and the other failed a couple of months later. Keep in mind that I rarely (very, very rarely) drive at night and use the high beams. Maybe 3 x year for any length of time. Other times the high beams are used to signal another driver.

shocker,
I believe the short-life issue was specifically related to the Korean 100w Hellas and not all 100w high beams.

-B-
 
What's the verdict here on the order? Are we attempting a group buy or shall we head over to the guy on ebay?
 
Beowulf said:
Installed the Slee headlight wiring harness about 3 or 4 years ago, long before I tried the Korean Hella 100w high beams. Neither are still going. One failed after about 5 minutes (maybe less) on high beams and the other failed a couple of months later. Keep in mind that I rarely (very, very rarely) drive at night and use the high beams. Maybe 3 x year for any length of time. Other times the high beams are used to signal another driver.

shocker,
I believe the short-life issue was specifically related to the Korean 100w Hellas and not all 100w high beams.

-B-
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Cool, thanks for the info Beowulf! Good to hear some real world feedback!

I will report back on the bulbs i get from JCW

Thanks
 
TOY350 said:
What's the verdict here on the order? Are we attempting a group buy or shall we head over to the guy on eBay?
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Group buy is tabled - Monday (maybe Tuesday) I'll report the results of my trip to Deere (scroll back up to post #46). If it works out then Deere is where anyone can easily go to get the LOW BEAM BULBS. The lows seem to be what most want as they provide the most performance bang for the buck.

HIGH BEAM BULBS - as already mentioned - the eBay seller seems the easiest route. However, someone else will need to verify that as I only intend (for now) to upgrade the lows (happy with the highs). Use this eBay link now as the one mentioned back in post #13 expired

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HIR-...ryZ33710QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


In general - group buys are worth the effort only if it achieves a superior price. The prices available in the two places above are better than the group buy Stern price. So (for now) the group buy is tabled pending verification of the two above sources. I'm verifying the LOW BEAM BULBS. Anyone else care to verify the HIGH BEAM BULBS????


Clear???


Til Monday ...... :cheers: & :beer: s
 
Boston Mangler said:
Lay off the caffeine bro! :D

I have searched many a threads, found MANY threads of people speaking poorly of these 100w's that they HEARD were bad, didnt really come into many posts of people that ACTUALLY owned a set that failed, just regergitating info they read. Sure they're were a few, but not that many! Only one i actually recall owning a set was Beowulf. One last 5 minutes or so, and one is still going! Go figure!

I am also curious of all the supposed people that had failing 100w bulbs, how many had the harness upgrade????

Why the personal attack man? Obviously i take peoples advice, that is why i went with the HIR's for my lows in the first place! Never even heard of them UNTIL I STARTED searching HERE and found the FAQ thread!
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I posted a link to IdahoDoug earlier in the thread that had him speaking poorly of the 100w bulbs, Cary had them I believe, as well as a few others. This is just off memory, dont feel like searching the forum for this.

Every one of them had the harness upgrade. Not that it matters, because not having the harness upgrade would actually send less power to the bulbs, theoretically prolonging their life. Harness upgrades are for wiring longevity, not bulb longevity.

There was no personal attack, man. I was just responding to what you said, and what you said alone. Just frustrated that you would ask a question, then get all defensive when the answers aren't what you want to hear. Why ask the question in the first place?

As far as the survival comment I made, yes, I would consider driving at 50 - 60mph down in pitch-black-at-night Baja and having one or both of my bulbs suddenly go out a threat to my survival.

I guess I'm just taking offense to your whole "bandwagon" comment about heeding the advice of the board. Am I a bandwagonner because I actually researched the bulbs myself after reading about them on the board, and am now trying to convey this info to others as a service? Extrapolating, is it bandwaggoning to do preventative maintenance like birfield repacking, PHH, starter contacts, etc. just because you read about them here?

If so, the bandwaggoners have the better vehicles, IMHO.

It's not that I'm upset you aren't "doing what we say", it's the whole attitude towards what we're saying and how we're just a bunch of followers that has struck a nerve.

I honestly hope the 100w bulbs work out for you, I hope they last a while and you dont have to work to get them aiming properly. One thing that sucks about US 80series is that the high and low beams cannot be aimed seperately. If a filament happens to be off a little in one of the 100w high beam bulbs, aiming the headlight to compensate will also effect your low beam.

Just more stuff to keep in mind. :cheers: :cheers:
 
I have had the low and high HIR from d.stern for almost a year now. No failures. I do carry a spare of each though. I think, at least compared to what I replaced (I don't know if they were stock or not) - that the high beams are a bigger 'abng for the buck' upgrade than the lows. I drive a lot at night, in the country, with highs on for extended periods. btw - i also have the OEM lighting harness. I would upgrade but everything is working to well to mess with it.
 
Have had 3 of the Hella's from Daniel Stern fail... 1 Instantaneously.. and 2 within a month of install... Dan sent a round of replacements but I didnt bother with it after the replacements failed. Still need to pick up some HIR's..
 
shocker said:
.....
Every one of them had the harness upgrade. Not that it matters, because not having the harness upgrade would actually send less power to the bulbs, theoretically prolonging their life. Harness upgrades are for wiring longevity, not bulb longevity.....
Just more stuff to keep in mind. :cheers: :cheers:
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Running halogen type bulbs with low voltage is a fast way to kill them, automotive halogen bulbs get maximum life at about 14V and drops very fast when under 12.5V. Output is greatly reduced at lower voltage, if the a bulb is rated 1200 lumens at 13.5V with a voltage drop to 12V the output drops to 800 Lumens! 100 watt bulbs pull about 10 amps, the stock harness is not made to handle that much power and you will have voltage drop until it's upgraded. In the search for better headlights the first thing to check is adequate power delivery to the bulb.
 
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