[ST] Re: bulbs

["Daphne Lowe" <lowedaph@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> miles!!.  SO, while I have 2 yellow bulbs in there, only one of them is
> still yellow.  Does anyone know if a slightly burned bulb receptacle would
> cause a yellow bulb to go clear?

I don't how badly melted yours is, but a damaged connector has the potential
to destroy a bulb's tint, furthermore, it can cause subsequent bulbs to fail
prematurely. I know this from personal experience, but I'm guessing as to
the reason: a burnt connector allowing excessive heat exposure to damage the
bulb. Replacing the burnt connector isn't expensive, if I recall correctly,
the OEM part is about $30. Cheaper still, you can solder together a generic
connector.

I ran 80/100 for about a year. What I discovered was that 80 could be run
all day, all the time, without a problem. When I began the habit of running
with high beams on all the time, a bulb blew withing a couple of months, and
when I opened it up, the connector was melted. My conclusion was that 100
can only be used for short periods of time.

I've tried several different brands of bulbs, including Piaa Platinum Super
Whites, Xenon XP3, and a couple of others that I don't remember the name of
(I haven't tried Fosmo's) in the search of HID performance. From what I've
read, heard, and tried, there's no substitute for the real thing. I ran
experiments*, replacing the bulb in only one of the twin headlights and
leaving the other with ordinary 55/60 or 80/100. Compared to the stock bulb,
the colored bulbs have a bluish or whitish hue that imitates the HID look,
and appears brighter. But the tint actually reduces the effective light, the
brightness is due to being higher wattage than the stock 55/60. None of the
colored bulbs gave off more light than a regular 80/100.

I decided I wanted better lighting more than I wanted the HID look. Now I'm
running regular 80/80 that cost $4/ea. It may not be trick looking, but its
effective.

For more info, check out:
http://lighting.mbz.org/tech/info/bulbs/
http://www.bajadesigns.com/p25b.html
http://www.autobulbdepot.com/fr_bulb_faq.tpl?cart=3079718547450515

Daphne
* This isn't as obsessive-compulsive as it sounds. I have a SpdTrp, so its
incredibly easy to swap bulbs. The first time, it took me an inordinately
long time- something like 5 minutes, to change bulbs.


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