As many of you know, I changed over from PIAA SuperWhites to Philips blue vision. I said that they performed about the same and that it was not worth it to spend $60+ on PIAAs. Well I have to change what I said... they infact work BETTER than the PIAAs and it is definately NOT worth it to spend more money on the PIAAs... here's why.

Since I drive a lot of backroads at night, I've become very familiar with how and what the 4th gen headlights light up. In the past, the difference between having the OEM fogs on and off is very apparant. I always drove with the fogs on because they helped illuminate the road. But this weekend, with the BlueVision, I've noticed that it didn't matter if the fogs were on or not. Also, the beam pattern seems to be more defind and overall it's much eaiser to see.

Anyways, if you want new bulbs, get the Philips Blue Vision for about $8-10 a piece from you local Kmart.

-Shing

 

It sucked when I used Blue Vision (9004). It was worse than the Sylvania XV 9004 bulbs (which cost less, and wasn't SW...but still an improvement over regular 9004, the XV found home in my mom's 93 Caravan, which helped a lot). I found PIAA SW to be better, but a hole (from a small pebble) in my headlight ruined my PIAA's. Right now I'm running Hiper Plasma bulbs.

tan

 

Nope, piaas, is complete waste of money if you ask me. I've done many experiements on the bulbs... the beam pattern for the piaas and the bv as the same, but somehow the philips cast more like. Maybe you like them better for the color or what not, but my comparison is strictly for visibility.

-Shing

 

BTW here's the original "Results"...


http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....threadid=12641

-Shing

 

I'm assuming that the 9004 comments were on a different car, not a Maxima.....Shing's results have proven to me that PIAAs are a waste of money compared to the Phillips Bulbs....

Would it be out of line to have different bulb results on different cars but with the SAME headlight type?

Curious....

 

i just wish it was a little more blue.

 

Bill,

housing on different cars do infact produce a different result, even is they are both 9004. Case in point... my father's 94 MPV uses a 9004 as well. But the housing is designed better. How do I know? Well, until I got into the whole lighting deal, I've always noticed that my dad's MPV was much easier to drive at night. The light was much better focused on where itn eeded to be. When I put in the CoolBlues on his car, all I told him was I put in new bulbs. The next day, he asked if I put in higher wattage bulbs(dad's and electrical engineer, he worries about these things), I said no.. he said he noticed a good inprovement while driving at night. Now there is one difference... he's MPV has glass lens, like the 95-96 maximas and 3rd gens, my 98 has the clear plastic... this could be further prof of the previous conversaion we had Bill?

Perlmax90: sorry, as i've stated in my previous posts, I am not going for blue... simply going for visibility at night, after all that's what head lights are for, to see.

-Shing

 

Yeah, I guess the effort required to etch the glass properly actually forces the engineers to get up off their duff and perfect it since (and I assume here) getting the glass etched properly, etc. is much more expensive to manufacture than the plastic lens/plastic reflector combination that the 97-99 Maxes have. Also, since every manufacturer has different engineers, I guess some 'decent' 9004 headlights do exist on other cars....

I guess I'm getting a little more excited about the possibilities/improvements of these bulbs on my 94....

Hmmm...I guess I know what I get to do next week with a couple of days off....

BTW, the Blackstone Lab kit actually arrived in the mail today...now I'm waiting on a new oil drain plug from nissanautoparts.com (who is cheaper than Courtesy, I don't care what I've been told) and my 10+k ULX-110 oil will get analyzed. I assume I'll have postable results the first week of January....

 

Yeah, different cars...we got Maximas, Mustangs, 88 Camry (Haven't tried BV's on 92-96 Caravans, they really suck). WE got different cars with different lens designs. Toyota sources it to Koito (same as Honda). Chrysler LH cars were done at Osram Sylvania...

tan

 

Hmm... I wonder if blackstone would be intersted in giving maxima.org club discounts... do yu think it's even worth it?

-Shing

 

i didn't say you were going for blue i said i was going for blue, and i was disapointed. but i do agree you see better with them, but i still wanted them to be alittle more blue.

 

What would you consider to best the brightest stock wattage bulbs for visibility? That's something I'm very interested but never really got answers for.. thanks!

 

Honda headlamps are all currently supplied by Stanley.

Koito is OEM for Nissan and Toyota, as well as Subaru.

 

I don't believe that there is an advantage to a multi-reflector type of lens vs the etched glass type. The pattern is mostly determined by the reflector (unless it's a projector). Reflectors are designed with a parabolic (sometime hyperbolic) shape. Etched glass lenses are used when the reflector does not have multiple reflection surfaces. The etched patterns aid in the dispersion of light. But if one remembers high school physics, refraction of light can cause changes in frequency...and in headlamps changes in color. Clear lenses transmit the light without refraction. In this manner, clear lensed, multi-reflector housing fare better. If one takes sections out of the headlamp reflector, you can mathematically figure out the optimal equation for the type of pattern you want, given the dimensions of the bulb you will be using.

A 9004 bulb is inferior mainly because of the configuration of the filaments. They are mounted transverse (perpendicular) to the vehicles fore/aft axis. So, even though an engineer could optimize the pattern vertically and horizontally by coming up with a correct parabolic equations, there just isn't enough light emitted from the sides of the filament to reflect off of the reflector to cover the sides of the road. THe filament emits light radially only. All other types of headlamp bulbs have filaments mounted parallel to the fore/aft axis. When these filaments emit light radially, equal amounts of light strike the top, bottom and boths sides of the reflector. So, when the optimal parabolic equations are applied to the reflector's shape, light is distributed vertically AND horizontally to where the engineer wants it to be. The H4 bulb takes it a step further. By blocking the bottom portion of the low beam filament, light is restricted to only reflect off of the top area of the reflector. This in turn places light on the ground, "cutting off" the light that would normally go up in the air.

Take a look at these pics. The first one is of the reflector itself. I generated the shape with the equation
y=0.1x^2

The second pic is of the pattern. If you notice, cutting off the lower part of the light emitted from the filament, allows for light to only travel downwards. The high beam filament in an H4 bulb is located further back (to the left in the drawing). This would place it behind the focal point, causing the reflector to reflect light in all directions...the way a high beam should.

http://www.geocities.com/poohbearing...r_closeup.jpeg

http://www.geocities.com/poohbearing...r_pattern.jpeg

 

Good explanation....

There goes my cheapness theory, to a degree.....

And just further proves why Nissan went to H4s on the 5th gens....

Hmmm....I've finally found something I like about the 5th gen on the outside.....I guess there's hope for me yet!

 

I agree with you one most points... but I suspect the etched glass lens dose infact have an effect. like you mentioned, it helps to distribute light. And because of this, i suspect that is the cause for 3rd gens, earlier 4th gens, and my dad's mpv to have more usable light.

-Shing

 

At this ponit, i'd have to say the Philips Blue Visions for the 4th gen... they are inexpensive and very effective(relatively speaking.)

-Shing

 

I was wondering...do you still have the packaging for your BlueVisions? Where are they made. I looked at a package here in CT in the Costco and it was printed...MADE IN MEXICO. I know for a fact that the H4 BV I have got for my Dad's car were made in Germany.

The Hella 9004 80/100Ws I am currently running were made in Korea. I think that I will compare the pattern with the BlueVision. Even though there is the huge difference in wattage...I still want to see if the pattern is that much better with the BlueVisions...if so...I will go with them too.

 

Mine is Korea as well... you know some have said that bulbs made in Korea don't last as long... any truth to this? My cool blues that I had on my dads MPV burnt out pretty fast. I think I am going to put my piaa's in his car tongiht.

-Shing

 

High School physics?? Even if I took it, I would have forgotten it by now. Also, did somebody say that PIAAS cost $60? Is that for one or a pair? For that kind of money, they ought to make a no doubt about it, clear as day difference.

 

I currently use the Hiper Industries 85/100 watt 9004 lights. They are very white and look excellent but the visibility seems to be horrible. I think that the yellow light which comes out of regular bulbs gives much better visibility then any after market "H.I.D" type bulbs. Of course real H.I.D's visibility is excellent but any substitute in my opinion, is sub-par in the visibility category.
The Blue Visions visibility is pretty good but they don't have a hint of blue in them. They produce the same yellow light as any OEM bulb.

 

I currently use the Hiper Industries 85/100 watt 9004 lights. They are very white and look excellent but the visibility seems to be horrible. I think that the yellow light which comes out of regular bulbs gives much better visibility then any after market "H.I.D" type bulbs. Of course real H.I.D's visibility is excellent but any substitute in my opinion, is sub-par in the visibility category.
The Blue Visions visibility is pretty good but they don't have a hint of blue in them. They produce the same yellow light as any OEM bulb.
What do other people think of the Hiper Industries bulbs?

 

The BlueVision is infact a little whiter than OEM. They are the same color as PIAAs and there is a difference from piaas to oem.

Actually, if you ever get a chance to drive a car with 9006 type bulbs and housing, you will realize that you don't need HIDs to see at night. 9004 is just a bad design...

-Shing

 

If you look at the headlight color in the day time, BV's are yellow. PIAA SW are less yellow. Hiper and Optiblue are white with a bluish tint. Come night time, everything is bluer from BV to Hiper.

Check it out yourself.

tan

 

Unless you are talking about HID lighting, in order for PIAA to achieve the higher color temperature (white), it has to sacrifice intensity (Lumens). There is a compromise. Plain and simple, more light means NO TINT on the bulb.

 

I don't understand why people are so hung up on color. In order for a halogen bulb to become "white" or blue you have to tint it... you tint it, you lose intensity plan and simple, unless you up the wattage. Color means abousolutely nothing if you can't see.

-shing

 

Using regular lights in my car...the light output is so crappy in the first place. That's basically why I drive with my driving lights on (PIAA 1253 gold dichroic) anyway. But I'm really considering going the all-weather bulbs route for better clarify when the ground is wet (or the road is freshly paved). Though Sylvania 9004XV bulbs claim to have 20% more light output (drawing the same power), in fact it is true. I eventually put those in my mom's 93 Caravan which has much more crappier lights, and it made a good difference. So eventually I'll sell cheaply my old Hiper bulbs and go the all-weather bulbs route.

tan

 

got my 9004 BV right after reading Shing's original comment. I must say it is the best bulb I have used so far.

btw, my pairs are made in Korea.

and no, my OEM bulbs came from GE, not Koito.

I wonder if anyone has the BV H3.

 

Have any of you tried Cool Blues? They have been out longer than the Phillips. I had a set of 9004 on my 90 Corolla and they are much whiter than the OEM Sylvanias. I put a set of Cool Blue 9006 in my Avalon and they are much whiter with a tinge of blue. The cool blue 9007s just recently came out and I put a set in our 2000 Grand Caravan. Bigger difference in illumination from stock since they are known to suck. I've seen Phillips but looking at the glass color of both Sylvania and Phillips...they look exactly the same. Conspiracy maybe? who knows.