Aftermarket Headlights

[twxsby]

You know those blue tinted headlights that claim to be brighter, don't buy them, and if you have them, change back. I bought a pair of these thinking it would brighten my world. After about 6 months, I started having intermittent problems wiht my headlights. I changed the switch, even bought a new hi beam switch. Wacky problems: my low beams only worked when I pulled the "flash to pass" lever, high beams went bye bye all together... Turns out, those Blue Xenon or whatever they called em were hotter, and melted away inside the light bulb itself, so I was getting crossed wires, shorts etc.
Thought you might like to know.

[CraigK]

I had the same experience with H4 bulbs (not on my Bronco II though). I bought some inexpensive high wattage "blue xexon" bulbs (they just had a blue tint to the glass!). What crap! They were actually less bright (turns out its not the watts that count), and soon blew both highs and lows, both bulbs. I returned them to JC Whitney for full credit. Then I bought a set of Sylvania Silver Stars. Nice and bright and white.

CraigK

[gotmudd]

if they are the "plug in type "and you touched the glass part of the bulb, your "body oil transfered" to the glass. not sure why but it creates havoc with bulbs

[KELLY88]

if they are the "plug in type "and you touched the glass part of the bulb, your "body oil transfered" to the glass. not sure why but it creates havoc with bulbs

He's right, the oil from your skin creates some kind of internal reflection deal which will incinerate the bulbs pretty fast. I bought a cheap set of HID bulbs and installed them wearing a pair of gloves. Doubled the brightness and never had any melting issues or anything.

[CraigK]

Yes. I know this.

I can assure you, my fingers did not touch these bulbs. They are crap. If you don't believe it, buy a set and try them.

[twxsby]

I too know this, and was wearing latex gloves. When I was at the dealer buying (2) new pigtails, he asked me if I had been using the blue tinted lamps, like he has sold them to many others before me. That was the reason I posted this.
As far as being HID, BS. HID lights have there own remote ballasts, and it's not as simple as changing lamps. It's about an $800 process to convert to HID, and is illegal unless it came from the factory. I also got mine from JC Whitney, and they had no problem refunding my money, like they knew it was going to happen from the beginning.