Sylvania Silverstar Ultra Istalled, wow!

As the high and low beam of my recently acquired RAM1500 with quad headlights where very dim i ordered the Sylvania Silverstar Ultra's 9500 for the high beam to see how much better they illuminate the road.
I have to say that i am extremely surprised how much brighter they are!
The ex owner put some VISION X in, but they are very dim and have a very short range.
The Silverstar Ultra trow a nice, focused beam in front of the car, probably 150 yards far without illuminating everything on the other road side.

I will order the same ones in H11 version to replace the dim low beam as well.

The only pita is to get the headlight out, but i guess after some bulb changes i will do it with closed eyes ...

Chris

I don't want to be a Debbie Downer but from my own personal experience with those Silverstar Ultras, you get about a year or less worth of use. They quickly start to lose brightness and will burn out. They're great for the first few months or so but you'll notice them dying out. It's been awhile since I've had a set, but unless they've drastically increased the lifetime of those bulbs somehow, I wouldn't recommend them. Not to burst your bubble, I just wanted you to know now, so it's not a surprise later.

shibby927 said:

I don't want to be a Debbie Downer but from my own personal experience with those Silverstar Ultras, you get about a year or less worth of use. They quickly start to lose brightness and will burn out. They're great for the first few months or so but you'll notice them dying out. It's been awhile since I've had a set, but unless they've drastically increased the lifetime of those bulbs somehow, I wouldn't recommend them. Not to burst your bubble, I just wanted you to know now, so it's not a surprise later.

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+1

Been my experience with them also. Went through three sets of them on my wife's FJ cruiser and was lucky to get 6 months of use before one would blow. Finally went back to a factory style rated lamp and problems went away.

I was reading about a short life of the Siverstar Ultra, but i have 2 particular conditions:
I live in Costa Rica where the roads are ******, bikes, pedestrians without illumination and a lot of animals crossing the street and it's pitch black here.
Also i drive the truck only 6 month and have to import most of special stuff from the US.
It is my personal believe that i rather change the light bulbs once a year and have a nice light rather than having a dim light and see nothing probably leading to a accident.
LED bulbs suppose to live much longer and are even brighter, but the problem is the dust cap of the quad headlights making the installation complicated.
It is possible to install some of them inside the housing with the dust cap on,
but this may lead to a overheating problem as the air space inside the headlight housing is small.
LED's are very sturdy bulbs, but the only thing killing them fast or reducing their lifespan is heat.
Long-Term first hand experience of the users here will show ow long they really last!

Everybody here is using cheap LED bars or ultrabright blue bulbs dazzeling terribly the opposite traffic, and i don't wanna be one of them.

Chris

CostaRam said:

LED bulbs suppose to live much longer and are even brighter, but the problem is the dust cap of the quad headlights making the installation complicated.
It is possible to install some of them inside the housing with the dust cap on,
but this may lead to a overheating problem as the air space inside the headlight housing is small.
LED's are very sturdy bulbs, but the only thing killing them fast or reducing their lifespan is heat.

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I didn't see what year your truck is, but the OPT7 LED's will fit inside the quad housings with the dust caps. There are a couple members on here that are going on 2 yrs with them and haven't had any issues. The newer version - Fluxbeam X - are supposed to be smaller, yet brighter, with better cooling setups.

I've always heard about the short lifespans with the Sylvanias however I've been through 4 sets of ZXE's (all in different vehicles) and I never experienced any failures, dimming, etc. Of course I never had any of those vehicles longer than 2 years either so there's that. I haven't decided which route I want to go with my current truck yet, leaning towards LED at the moment.

2 yrs and still going on my truck.
If hey blow, hey blow, worth the cost, for the amount of light and how much i drive at night.

If better cheaper alternative, please, let me know . . .

If you are prepared and they get you the performance for a year that you want and are happy that is all that maters. Glad they are currently making seeing at night better for you

If you ever want to get super bright lights for cheap, look up my thread on LED bulbs.

CostaRam said:

.
LED bulbs suppose to live much longer and are even brighter, but the problem is the dust cap of the quad headlights making the installation complicated.
It is possible to install some of them inside the housing with the dust cap on,
but this may lead to a overheating problem as the air space inside the headlight housing is small.
LED's are very sturdy bulbs, but the only thing killing them fast or reducing their lifespan is heat.
Long-Term first hand experience of the users here will show ow long they really last!

Everybody here is using cheap LED bars or ultrabright blue bulbs dazzeling terribly the opposite traffic, and i don't wanna be one of them.

Chris

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Not true. I have the OPT-7 FluxBeam-X H11 Low Beams and they are super bright and fit perfectly inside the quads lowbeam. See my pictures below of them installed on my Quad headlights.

EagleChief said:

I didn't see what year your truck is, but the OPT7 LED's will fit inside the quad housings with the dust caps. There are a couple members on here that are going on 2 yrs with them and haven't had any issues. The newer version - Fluxbeam X - are supposed to be smaller, yet brighter, with better cooling setups.

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I have the Opt-7 FluxBeam-X LED H11's in my current set of lights, a custom built set of Quads.

They are insanely bright and the beam pattern is amazing. They don't blind oncoming traffic, and they are SUPER bright!

Yes the LED's fan is close to the dust cap but it's not going to hurt the bulb. They still get plenty of air.



If you look at the picture of the lights against the wall, you will notice how they are very focused and clean. They don't "scatter" and throw light everywhere. Now, the cutoff isn't anywhere close to being as clean as an hid in a projector, but for an LED Bulb in a halogen housing, the cutoff on the light is really sharp and nice.

Also in the picture from the drivers seat you can see how the bulbs don't throw light everywhere up into the trees or grass on the sides of the road. Again, they are focused and centered.

As for longevity, the bulbs are rated for 50,000 hours. I have not had one issue with them yet and the Opt-7 2 year warranty will send you 2 replacement bulbs and 1 replacement Driver, for free, if anything goes bad. That's a decent warranty.

I highly recommend the Opt-7 FluxBeam-X LED Bulbs to anyone with a Dodge Ram and Quad Style headlights who doesn't want to go HID's. The key to not blinding oncoming traffic and getting them to shine like mine, is properly adjusting the headlight housing and making sure the LED Bulb is seated and aligned properly inside the housing!! The bulbs have a L and an R on them. You need to make sure they are put in the right way or the light output will suck and you will blind other drivers.








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scubabill said:

Do you have an install thread?

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http://www.ramforum.com/showthread.php?t=95801

I don't have any step by step install pics because it's very simple. All you do is take out your headlight like you normally would. Then the LED Bulb has 2 wires coming off of it numbered 2 & 3. You connect the #2 wire from the bulb to the #2 labeled plug coming off the red led Driver that's included and connect the #3 bulb wire to the #3 labeled plug on the driver. Then the other end of the driver has a #1 plug. You connect that to the capacitor that's included. It also has a #1 Tag on it with a plug. Then finally you connect the last part of the wiring to the Quad headlights plug that normally goes onto the halogen bulb.

With the FluxBeam-X kit, all of the wires have numbered tags on them so hooking it up its fool proof. You literally can not mess it up.

If you look at my pictures in the thread I just linked too you will see the numbered tags on the wires I am talking about.
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the issue with silver stars and the like are that the wiring harnesses usually can not provide the current draw they requires hence the bun out prematurely

It was always my knowledge that incandescend bulbs burn out by overcurrent and not by lower current.
It is a common practice to overdrive/overpower halogen lamps to make them brighter with the backdraw of reduced llifespan.
It is a widely used practice to run public illumination systems in clubs or at concerts at 90% of its power to make the expensive bulbs holding longer.
Chris

OP: I'm extremely pleased to hear that you are so satisfied with the performance of your new headlights.

As a member of the manufacturing management team here at the Sylvania (now Osram) facility that manufactures the bulbs in question, I'm not allowed to provide any kind of official statements on quality - they prefer our customer service and marketing teams to do that. However, I CAN provide a couple of points that are general knowledge in the lighting industry that may help those concerned with lifespan limitations of performance bulbs.

1. The SilverStar Ultra and SilverStar zXe bulbs - along with other performance bulbs in the product line - are color-coated so that the yellower portion of light is filtered out. The filament is also different to maximize electric current potential. These changes are engineered for performance first and longevity second.

2. This is an excerpt from the official statement on our website regarding the performance of traditional filament headlights:

Lights, no matter the time of year, dim over time. To maximize visibility, it is important to replace headlights every few years, even before burnout. However, it is common for most people to wait until one burns out and replace it. At this point, it is very important to replace both bulbs at the same time.

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3. The SilverStar Ultra 9007 (as just one example) specifically states on the product packaging that it is rated for 250 hours.

4. This is the official product statement regarding bulb life that we print right on the outside of the SilverStar zXe packaging:

Sylvania SilverStar zXe lamps are engineered to achieve the highest performance possible, which results in product life that is less than standard lamps. Sylvania guarantees your complete satisfaction for up to 12 months from date of purchase.

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5. Due to the thermodynamics involved in the coating of glass that houses a heat source (the filament) along with the basic electrical theory involved in the engineering of a performance-rated filament, reduced lifespan is to be expected when compared to basic, non-performance-rated filament bulbs. We have found that, when our customers understand this and do not expect a bulb that will last for five years, their overall satisfaction goes up substantially.

Again, I have to be clear for the sake of my employment that I do not in any way represent any official position of my company. Just sharing information and perspective. If I can help answer any questions about our product, please do not hesitate to ask and I will either answer myself or pass your question along to the appropriate member of our team.

Does anybody have any experience with the headlight revolution led kits? I have a 2013 express that I am looking to do led bulbs in...