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Superwhite bulbs

2.9K views 16 replies 12 participants last post by  LIUSPEED  
#1 ·
I have a 04 spec-v and I was looking for Piaa bulbs (or any quality superwhite bulb) that fits my 9008 (H13) headlights and my H11 fogs. I have yet to find any bulbs superwhite or not that fit. Is this a new type of bulb? Do you know of any place that might sell these bulbs? Please help :confused:
 
#4 ·
i would suggest PIAA highly.. they back up their products and replace them if they blow out.. just call up PIAA themselves and ask if they have those numbers if you dont have a local performance shop.. i dont believe autozone or pepboys carry that stuff
 
#7 ·
Spec'd Out said:
I have a 04 spec-v and I was looking for Piaa bulbs (or any quality superwhite bulb) that fits my 9008 (H13) headlights and my H11 fogs. I have yet to find any bulbs superwhite or not that fit. Is this a new type of bulb? Do you know of any place that might sell these bulbs? Please help :confused:
From the manufacturer sites I checked out, it doesn't appear that PIAA, Hella or Sylvania support these lights in the aftermarket yet. You may have to wait a while before you can change.
 
#8 ·
fcsmotorsports said:
From the manufacturer sites I checked out, it doesn't appear that PIAA, Hella or Sylvania support these lights in the aftermarket yet. You may have to wait a while before you can change.
Thats what I was thinking of doing as well. I'll just have to wait. By the way psulemon I will only buy PIAA, I had a set of their platinum superwhites on my 89 Maxima and i loved them .
:cheers:
 
#9 · (Edited)
quoted: "spelch, i do agree with you on that in some ways and those blue lights are illegal but you got to remeber that jags, bmw, audi, vw, mercedies and all high class cars use those lights"

No, they use real high output lighting. They may look similar at first but drive head on with an expensive car and it wont hurt your eyes as bad. Ricer bulbs are actually blue which is a very narrow band of light that the eye doesn't like to adjust to very well. Thats why its hard to focus while driving straight at them. High end cars use HID systems or something similar which is a disernable purple tinted light which is actually wide spectrum light, much closer to "white". Yours eyes can adjust to these and are far less annoying at night and especially in the rain. Use a monochromatic light meter (only sees how much light, not what color) and you see that blue bulbs put out much less light than true hyperwhites or even regular bulbs. There is a web site out there whichs documents this experiment. Again, the two types of lights look very similar until you know how to tell the difference. Once you can you can tell if an expensive car is coming at you on the highway. Only time its not is if someone has done an HID conversion (expensive) and this is 90% reliable for me.
 
#10 ·
psulemon said:
spelch, i do agree with you on that in some ways and those blue lights are illegal but you got to remeber that jags, bmw, audi, vw, mercedies and all high class cars use those lights
If that were true, it would be illegal to import those cars. It also couldn't be very high class if i can go to any ricer shop and order a set of them for 60 bucks. Real high output lighting is designed to resonate through the bulb so that any oncoming traffic is not distracted - but those blue ones aren't. they're easily identifiable because if you see some lights that you think might be on a 'high class' car coming toward you, you will know that it's just ricer lights as soon as the car hits a bump or dip, because then their headlights will flash blue because of the angle. Apparently you're supposed to flash your bright lights at anyone with ricer headlights as well.
 
#11 ·
Just a general question here, for people who have a problem with blue headlights (I personally don't care either way):

Do you have the same dislike for the superwhite bulbs? I had these in my last car and found that a lot of _idiot_ people instantly labeled me a ricer (though it was the only "mod" I did).

I actually got them because it helped me spot deer on the sides of the road (A must when living in WI) better than the stock bulbs. Those cheap-ass whistles are ugly and don't work to deter animals at all, I found it actually spooked them into running the road a lot more.
 
#13 ·
I have no problem what so ever with good hyperwhites. Nice, clean, doesn't hurt the eye. Very similar to when our 98 was new and one of the few cars in town with crystal headlights. Blue however is scientifically proven to be more dangerous for headlights. Per previous post the light meter will show that they actually put out less light. But blue is nearly the shortest wavelength of light energy. That means it bounces around more than red or white light and that's why ricer bulbs are even worse on a rainy/foggy night. The light is diffracting like crazy off of the watter droplets. On top of that the human eye focuses slower/less clearly on blue wavelengths. The eye appreciates reds and greens better. So in summary, blue is bad for headlights. For both the driver and the poor guy getting blinded by them.
 
#15 · (Edited)
Yeah,
Consumer Reports had a real negative article on HID which was mainly an ingnorant jealous-cuz-american-cars-don't-have-it rant.
Anyway...
HID lights are not blue. Neither is the bulb. The light is a 'cold' white light.
The blue you see is a prism effect from the lens. When you look head on or from behind you can see that it is white. Just when you are at an agle you are looking through the side of te lens and it skews the light so you only see the bluish/purplish spectrum.

Halogens on the otherhand produce a yellow colored light.

Seth
 
#16 ·
headlight bulbs

Spec'd Out said:
I have a 04 spec-v and I was looking for Piaa bulbs (or any quality superwhite bulb) that fits my 9008 (H13) headlights and my H11 fogs. I have yet to find any bulbs superwhite or not that fit. Is this a new type of bulb? Do you know of any place that might sell these bulbs? Please help :confused:
Ive been looking for them too the only thing I found were the H11's for the fogs. The place I bought them told me to check back in a few months to see about the H13's.