I would get these... They cost $75 Dollars.

But i dont want to waste my money if they are going to look dimmer than the stock headlights..... What does everyone think http://www.tirerack.com/accessories/...asma_gt_h4.jpg

 

They aren't dimmer, they are the same wattage as your stock bulbs. The only difference is the coating filters out a certain spectrum of the light to make it appear as if it is brighter. PIAA's are good quality, but are very expensive.

 

I had a set of PIAA's plasma whites in my Nissan that actually had double the wattage of stock bulbs @ 110w. Even though they were $90 for the set, they were worth every penny as that car had really poor headlights to begin with. Functionally and astetically, they were unbeatable.

PIAA is a great company- their products are expensive, but you get what you pay for. I had a set of the 1400 series dichroic foul weather lamps and when one of them burned out, I found a 2 month nationwide backorder on the bulbs (which were $45 ea). I called PIAA to complain and they sent me a whole new lamp just to replace the bulb free of charge!

 

Looks cool, but whatever you do, (and I can't say this enough) KEEP THEM AT STOCK WATTAGE!!!

 

I don't know about the Pro, but I ran 110w lights in my Nissan for 2+ years with no problems. Have there been meltdown problems with the mazdas?

 

YOU DO GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR INSOFARAS CUSTOMER SERVICE! THATS ALL I MEANT. I've had experience with PIAA as well as many less expensive products. Besides superior performance on most products, when your PIAA's fail (a rare occurrance in my experience), they'll bend over backwards to make sure you're taken care of. When most others fail, they tell you to **** off. While the 'you get what you pay for' mantra doesn't always ring true, it does more often than not.

 

Well, I don't know about that purple coated crap... but I hear the beam pattern is horrible. And I don't care if it's PIAA, I don't want that **** blinding my face, so be sure to read up that lighting page on mbz.org

I tried out some Sylvania CoolBlues 9004 (1st gen pros)... which say "100% legal"

but they were pure ****. The "white" light looks in the rear view mirror as daytime running lights. But when it came time for rain...the "white" light (same as regular bulbs except the blue coating strips out certain wavelengths of light) scattered like ****.

I finally got pissed on a dark road with no streetlamps and put in my regular Sylvanias, which aren't even the Long Life or anything (cheap mazda dealer), and it was MUCH better.

If I were really concerned about my headlighting, I'd buy bulbs that are RATED FOR ILLUMINATION, NOT THEIR COLOR. And don't buy that B.S. that those coated lights are brighter because of their shade of light. THE ONLY TRUE WAY TO GET THE PROPER BEAM PATTERN / LIGHTING WITH WHITE LIGHTING IS WITH FACTORY INSTALLED BMW STYLE HEADLIGHTS.

 

God damn it, I am so f***ing sick of the rampant ignorance on this board. Like I said, its not always worth paying extra money. Not all products are superior because thet're more expensive. "Lost concept" simply asked for opinions on this product and I shared my experience. I've tried several diffenent types of headlight bulbs: cool blue, xenon, & all other sorts of bullshit & the PIAAs were the only thing that made a difference for the better. Speculate all you want about what works and what doesn't, but I've got real life long term experience. Might there be a product that's as good or better for less? Sure! Might another company stand behind their products as much as PIAA? You bet. BUT DON'T BERATE ME FOR MY EXPERIENCE. I was simly speaking of this particular product- not the sum total of the automotive lighting world.

 

Yeah, we've probably beaten this topic into the ground too many times (especially you).

You are totally right, the beam pattern is controlled by the housings. It's just that I thought I read the so called "xenon-charged" lamps that you find that are made for non xenon system somehow create an improper beam pattern -- although I'll try and look for a reliable source on that. (Most likely place to find it would be the aforementioned Daniel Stern's lighting page, if any of you guys don't believe about him -- notice how his proposals about upcoming NHTSA's glare standards are published on the DOT's webpage).

I like the look of these PIAA bulbs and everything, it's the fact that they aren't really any kind of replacement for your standard headlights. I would however recommend their auxillary lighting...just remember to have your standard yellow color bulbs in the stock headlight housing when it comes to rain season.

So my recommendation... don't use them to upgrade your stock bulbs. The Daniel Stern lighting page will do a much greater job explaining it than I will.

Sorry HubbMP5 if I pissed you off

 

No matter what the TRUTH is about anything, people will always WANT to believe that such products are really an UPGRADE, because if it looks cool, it's gotta be better, right?

I need to start selling bridges - make a killing.

To answer the original question - none of the "cool blue" or "puple haze" or whateverthefuckyouwannacallthem bulbs are BETTER than stock. And anyone who says they ARE better is foolish.

~HH

 

OK- Perhaps I wan't specific enough...

The nissan of which I spoke was my 91 Stanza. I had epuipped this vehicle with a set of the 1400 series aux. lamps which have a very wide beam pattern. However, the center of my viewing area was very dim with the stock bulbs. Replacing the bulbs with the PIAA platinum series bulbs cured this problem- probably because it narrowed and brightened the "hot-spot". Peripheral visibility wasn't a concern for me because of the beam pattern of the aux. lights. As for the wattage argument posted on the Daniel Stern page, its a bit misleading. The brightness of a lamp can, in fact, be determinied by the lamp itself- given the proper current, of course. Using the little knowledge given on his page, one would be incluned to say that a lightbulb for your reading lamp would put out the same light weather it was 40w or 100w beacuse its using the same voltage when, in fact, the number and size of the filament coils has much to do with the brightness of the lamp. Anyway, it all boils down to exactly what he says at the bottom of the page.. .which I what I should've simply stated in the first place, "They aren't as bad as the "ion blue" junk used by poseur kids who want to pretend they have HID headlamps, but they're not magical. "

 

is there a better buld than the stock bulb to buy besides a 500 buck HID kit

 

i saw some website selling these halogen bulbs which are like 100W on low beam. they're like 12 bucks each free shipping. i emailed to ask if these are safe in plastic lensed headlamps and the guy emailed me back saying it would be fine.

maybe these would be better? no blue coating!@$

 

The problem with higher wattage is the issue of the wiring not being able to hold that much without melting. I don't know how well ours will hold up, I guess it varies car to car but the DOT specifications only mandate about the absolute minimum. That's about double the wattage of regulars. (45w lo beam / 65w hi beam for traditional 9004s).

 

nevermind =\ the rally bulbs dont even come in 9004!!

http://www.powerbulbs.com/rallye.htm

so anyone else know where i can find some 100W 9004's?
seems as if the brightest low beam for 9004's i just looked up are 80W, 100W high beam *hmf*