I haven't found any thread specifically discuss about some Protege owners using Sylvania Silverstar headlight experience so I curious if anyone here had any experience with it. Would like to here if any good or bad experience with it. Iput ona set of these headlights about 2 months on my 99 Protege, I have to say my experience so far with it is more of a disappointment than impress with it. They are both pros and cons.

Pros: (1) Yes it is somewhat brighter than my OEM bulbs. (2) Yes, I can see somewhat better what is in front of me. But that's it! Good news stop there for me.

Cons: (1) Unless something is wrong with my car or I got defective Silverstar bulbs, I thought these bulbs suppose to be white, why is mine still somewhat yellowish even with the blue tint on it? (2) While this light is brighterthan OEM, I cannot see any farther than the distance compare to my OEM bulb, can only see somewhat better of what is in front of my car, like literally only the distance right in front of my car, that's it! And I thought they advertise saying these lights suppose to help you to see farther than OEM! (3) Most of the reviews I have found online everywhere, I constantly see the complaint of these bulbs don't last long, only months, not even more than a year. I haven't reach that stage yet, so I wouldn't know, but I am expecting the worse case sceneria, the bulbs die on me in 6 months.

I also dohave a 07 Acura TL and the HID of my TL is like5 times better than these Sylvania Silverstar bulbs. I know that HID will always be better than Xenon Halogen bulbs such as the ones from Sylvania, but I didn't expect it to be that much of a difference. I expect them to be at least 50% if not more for the brightness and visibility provide by these bulbs compare to HID, but somehow the ones I got on my 99 Protege seems like only about 20% of what my TL HID. Am I expecting too much? Or is it that I got unlucky and just happen to pick up a defective set? Or is it my car electrical system is not capable of providing enough voltage output to the bulb to make it bright? I still consider those all possibilities. I am interested to hear fromsome Protege owners that has some experience with these bulb if possible.

 

the bulbs may not be seated all of the way down, i would check that first. i have sylvania's and mine are a difference like night and day (pun slightly intended). i can see way farther and it is way brighter with the sylvanias. mine do have a slightly blue tint to them though. you can get them true white, but most people don't carry them. yes, they have a short life, but i pay it grudgingly.

HID is a huge difference than xenon. mainly for the combination of the projectors and the amount of visible light that the bulbs produce.

 

Thanks for the fast reply, I will probably check thebulb seating1st thing tomorrow. What do mean by most people don't carry them for the bulb to get true white? Do you mean Silverstar don't really get true white and I will have to go with a different bulb for true white?

Yea I know is a big difference between HID and xenon and I know how HID works, just didn't expected it to be that big of a difference, but then again could be mine wasn't install probably for the bulb seating like you said.

 

I've had two sets of silverstars, and after those I won't buy anymore. One lamp in each set lasted only two weeks or so and provided no discernible difference in light output. In fact when I replaced the burned out lamp I just put an el cheapo H7 in there and looking at the car I couldn't tell which side had the silverstar. The thing with silverstars is that while they are brighter and have the whitish color (in theory anyway) they do it by overdriving the filament and by adding a blue filter. All halogens still have to meet certain specs of light output. To use some random numbers let's say the range is 900-1100 for a standard halogen. The silverstars may emit 1300-1400 by overdriving the filament, but with the filter they may only be putting out 1100. So will they be brighter than a 900 lamp? Sure, but they're still in that halogen range for output. Also because of the overdriving they burn out more quickly. There have been people who have had them installed for over a year with no problems, but it seems like they're the exception and not the rule.

As to comparing to the HIDs in your TL, absolutely no contest. Even the worst HID is going to put out ~3x the light of the best halogen. My suggestion would be to stop wasting the money and put it towards a HID kit if your protege already has projector headlights...... I can't remember if they do. If they don't then think about doing a HID projector retrofit into your reflector housings. It's time consuming and will involve either some fabrication skills, or paying someone else to do it. Here's a pic of an Elantra headlight that was retrofitted with TSX projectors.

 

Nice pic. No my protege don't have projector headlight. At the moment, I am just experimenting with silverstar, plus my old OEM bulbs was on the verge of giving up and needed new ones. And I probably won't keep this car much longer. Right now, I have to say my protege is more like my little toy car that I don't care if anything happen to it. I got my TL to take road trip and all that good stuff. I am just using my protege as a local commuter car because I don't want my TL to get those reckless ppl at the parking lots to put on dent, ding or scratches on my TLyet. In fact, Ihave 3 big huge scratches on my protege from parking lotsfrom those imcompetent drivers that don't know how topark and scratch my car and took off.Not to mention a few dings here and there from reckless ppl they don't know the word "courtesy" when they open doors and do not understand they r ppl like me that actually admire my own car.

Sorry kind of went off topic there, yea after this set of silverstar I m not planning on getting another set nor am I doing any HID conversion. I might try some other inexpensive after market xenon bulbs online or from ebay just for the heck of it, since is officially downgraded to be my toy car. At least I get to hear both good and bad experience from some of you so far. Plus the main reason I wanted to try different xenon bulbs is to experiment which color bulbs look best on my protege and which one is the brightest. If any of the xenon bulb will show up as either white, purple or blue on my car headlight, I will be happy. Just somewhat disappointed at silverstar still yellowish, which to me is sad for a $40 set of bulbs. I could of just buy a $10 set of halogen bulbs with the same color...LOL!

 

im on my fourth set of silverstars in 1 1/2 years. one will go out and withen 2-3 weeks the second one will go out. I had enuff, ill be on ebay for a different brand next.

 

Cool, let me know how it goes for whatever ones you are going to try. I m just waiting a few more months for my silverstar to give up, then I will try something new too, maybe then we can compare about the experience with different bulbs.

 

Before you spend another $5-$50 on more blue bulbs that will only last a few months, may I suggest that you read this: http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...good/good.html

 

Thanks a lot for the article, nice info. I appreciate it! Save me some trouble about what is good and bad.

 

It"s a good site. Muchof the info I had to learn by trial anderror over the years and even w/that I wasn"t always sure of the whys some things worked while others didn"t?
I hope you take the time to look around all of it and not just the link I posted here.