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Lighting question...

Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 5:22 pm
by Danguy426
hey everyone...
I'm a tad disappointed with my stock bulbs. Has anyone tried the new silverstar ultras from sylvania? ANy increase in visibility?

lemme know..
thx all

Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 8:54 pm
by 08Datsun
I put a set of those in my Maxima. It was definitely brighter. However, the Maxima was already eight or nine years old at that point. The difference between your new bulbs and the Silverstars is probably less. The Silverstars do have a whiter light than the bulbs in the Pathfinder.

Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 11:58 pm
by cvsir7turbo
Don't know how much your looking into better lighting but I'm in the process of putting HID lights in the PF. You might want to look into it.

HID CONVERSION
Slickcar.com $165.99 ($176.69 w/shipping) (800)780-1409
I Bought ebay bi-xenon hid kit for $115 total

With about 2 hours of your time and $150 you would probably triple your headlight output. (make sure you get the bi-xenon kits or you will not have high beams!)

Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:28 am
by phantom2
I'm using Silverstars and they do a great job.They seem much better than stock.

Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 10:18 am
by NVSteve
cvsir7turbo wrote:Don't know how much your looking into better lighting but I'm in the process of putting HID lights in the PF. You might want to look into it.

HID CONVERSION
Slickcar.com $165.99 ($176.69 w/shipping) (800)780-1409
I Bought ebay bi-xenon hid kit for $115 total

With about 2 hours of your time and $150 you would probably triple your headlight output. (make sure you get the bi-xenon kits or you will not have high beams!)
How involved is the install? Did you have to make a number of electrical mods and/or additions? The photos you posted in the other thread sure makes it look like a lot of additional wiring is involved. And where do you install the square relays (or whatever they are)? I'm interested.

Before I even took delivery of the PF, I bought the Silverstars. I'm not that impressed with the output, although they have worked fine on my other vehicles.

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:07 am
by Fofiddy
phantom2 wrote:I'm using Silverstars and they do a great job.They seem much better than stock.
Ehhhh, I disagree
I personally think the Silverstars (non ultras) are a total waste of money they lasted me 10-15k before they crapped out on me. The light looks great on dry roads but once you hit the wet stuff the output seems to glare off more than the OEM which especially is a PIA in the boonies.
I've looked for HID conversions but the whole Halogen reflector and dual purpose single bulb puts you at a disadvantage...
Too bad there isn't a OEM Euro HID retrofit or a manufacuterer that makes a quality projector replacment for the Path. All I see is that ricer Altezza/BMW wannbe crap. Is it too much to ask for some aftermarket parts that don't look like they belong on some highschool kid's 92 Civic?

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 6:22 pm
by cvsir7turbo
What is it that puts you at a disadvantage with the halogen reflector and the duel purpose bulb?? People say that there isn't much of a difference between high/low beam output but low beam output is soo fantastic that most don't mind.

I know that alot of people think you have your high beams on but it doesn't bother me any...most people say the same with the bmw and mercedes.

In reference to the wiring for the hid setup its very simple. The Ballasts (big relays as you said) are mounted behind the headlight assembly and they are simple plug and play. Most companies say it takes about one hour to install the whole set-up. It took me about that long to mount the ballasts and probably another 10-20 minutes to remove and install that battery to be able to mount the ballasts. Overall I would say you are gonna need about 2 hours for install and you don't need to be a mechanic or have a vast knowledge of electronics.

Unfortunately there aren't many companies that make a good projector setup for the pf but there are companies that will retrofit a acura high/low beam lens/projector into the pf headlight assembly but as I posted earlier it's gonna run about $700 give or take.

Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 9:48 pm
by Gray
Have any looked at an HID conversion and about a 3500K color bulb for winter snow, fog and rain use for reduced reflective glare...a 5000K bulb should work great for dry condition though.

I recently did a 300 mile night return from a work site through whiteout conditions and the stock lamps did fine on low beam but I had to keep the speed to about 50 mph...upside was about 9.0 L/100 kms fuel economy according to the trip counter, about 26 mpg.

Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 11:59 pm
by Fofiddy
cvsir7turbo wrote:What is it that puts you at a disadvantage with the halogen reflector and the duel purpose bulb?
It limits your options. You have your 3 basic upgrades over stock halogen lighting:

HID conversion: Which with a DP bulb you have to rely on a servo or an alternate arc point, which adds an extra POF (point of failure). Also being the optics aren't designed for HID application there can be alot of scatter or glare and ofcourse the possibility of losing your highbeams (I like to flash mine at folks, hate the horn on this thing).
I'm not totally opposed to this option as I saw a Frontier with a 8000K (very blue) kit on it the other month. It looked awesome, but anything looks cool in a parking lot. I'd like reserve judgement until I see them on a pitchblack wet road .

"Super White Bulbs": I'm just gona lump them all together, anyway you slice it if you have a color coating on a bulb, your loosing lumens. There is an OSRAM Silverstar bulb ( NOT SILVANIA) that is supposed to be awsome
but only available in europe :( .

HIR Bulbs: Infared reflective coating ups output a great deal giving Halogen cars brighter ouput than a run of the mill HID kit (from the pics I saw it's a very accurate claim. The bummer: they are only available for single purpose bulbs (assed out again)

Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 11:01 am
by Gray
Here's some info on this site which outlines DIY retrofiting projector HID's;

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/