Sylvania SilverStar Headlamps

[Guest my3buicks]

Are Sylvania Silver Star still the favored replacement headlamp bulbs? I drove home the other night from nationals with the original Guide Halogens and ran high beams the entire time and no one noticed. I need better light. No interest in converting to another type of system.

[NCReatta]

I run silver stars in my cars. They work great!

[D-a-n-i-e-l]

Yes as long as you are sticking to sealed beam. I swapped to autopal brand sealed beam adapters and a $10 H4 bulb(6500k) with outstanding results. Also no one has flashed me for brightness, and the vision is twice as good as the silverstars.

Are Sylvania Silver Star still the favored replacement headlamp bulbs? I drove home the other night from nationals with the original Guide Halogens and ran high beams the entire time and no one noticed. I need better light. No interest in converting to another type of system.

[KDirk]

I kind of like the Wagner tru-vision bulbs but they are not easy to find anymore. Silverstar lamps are probably the best bet unless you really want to convert to composite lamps.

KDirk

[Guest Kitskaboodle]

I have a love/hate relationship with Silverstars. They're great but longevity absolutely sucks! I have replaced far too many, especially since I have two Fiero's & a Reatta and they all take the same light ! You get what you pay for. Greater light output at the expense of overdriven bulbs.

Kit

[wws944]

No wonder. The original Guide lights only have 35 watt low beams. If you want to stick with sealed beams, look for ones with 50+ watt low beams. Though one of the first things I did with my Reatta was swap in some E-code Hella H4s. The Hellas have glass lenses and metal housings:

(Trashed Sylvania XtraVision on the left, and Hella H4 on the right.)

If you decide to try the Hellas, let me know. There is a small clearance issue on the drivers side I had to deal with. Not hard to solve though.

[Guest Mc_Reatta]

Daniel, did you notice any clearance issues with the Autopals like wws944 mentioned with the Hellas?

[wws944]

IIRC, the Autopal lights are made out of plastic and are a different kettle of fish than the Hellas.

If one takes a close look at the connector on the back of the headlight, you will notice that the wires come out at a right angle. This is because there is not a lot of room between the back of the connector and the headlight bracket *while the headlight is being rotated*. On the drivers side, the Hella lamp protruded just a bit further back than the stock sealed beam lamp. But it was just enough that the connector 'bumped' against the bracket during rotation. I lost two H4 bulbs due to the impact before I figured out what was going on.

One could probably just use a Dremel and grind a little material off the back of the connector. However my approach was to build a little adapter cable. I bought a male headlight connector from an ebay vendor for a couple of bucks, and spliced it together with a Dorman #84790 right angle female connector. The Dorman connector is a little less deep than the stock Packard connector so there is enough clearance, and even has a little rubber shroud around it. Plugged it all together, used couple of wire ties for neatness, and it all works great.

[johnemac]

Do a search on "crystal vision" and you will see my thread where there is a picture of the Phillips Crystal Vision bulb in the left headlamp and a Silverstar in the right. I did my time with Silverstars until I saw the light..of Phillips bulbs

[juddev]

I just changed my headlights to the hella's, I made up the power harness to get power straight from the alternator and also used the alternator for the ground point. I went with the 80/100 watt hella bulbs and I WILL NEVER GO BACK, the increased vision is NIGHT and DAY from the originals.

The Hella (cibie is the brand recommended now) housings have very sharp cutoffs and the light goes where it is needed, and the hella replacement bulbs are about $8

I should have done this years ago.

[D-a-n-i-e-l]

IIRC, the Autopal lights are made out of plastic and are a different kettle of fish than the Hellas.

If one takes a close look at the connector on the back of the headlight, you will notice that the wires come out at a right angle. This is because there is not a lot of room between the back of the connector and the headlight bracket *while the headlight is being rotated*. On the drivers side, the Hella lamp protruded just a bit further back than the stock sealed beam lamp. But it was just enough that the connector 'bumped' against the bracket during rotation. I lost two H4 bulbs due to the impact before I figured out what was going on.

One could probably just use a Dremel and grind a little material off the back of the connector. However my approach was to build a little adapter cable. I bought a male headlight connector from an ebay vendor for a couple of bucks, and spliced it together with a Dorman #84790 right angle female connector. The Dorman connector is a little less deep than the stock Packard connector so there is enough clearance, and even has a little rubber shroud around it. Plugged it all together, used couple of wire ties for neatness, and it all works great.

Just to set the record straight. My Auto pals are glass and have a great cutoff angle. No modifications were needed. As long as you get the DOT approved ones they will be glass.

[wws944]

Just to set the record straight. My Auto pals are glass and have a great cutoff angle. No modifications were needed. As long as you get the DOT approved ones they will be glass.

Thanks for clearing that up!