3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

Philips H9 and change every year make hella sense to me

 

The Philips H9s are rated at 400 hours IIRC. My headlight use is 200 hours/year (I know because I ran 200hr bulbs for many years and they failed almost perfectly annually like clockwork). For my use the Philips would last 2 years. The Hellas are coated, coated bulbs tend to run hotter and not last as long with everything else being equal, they also claim to be a performance H9 which is hard to say if that is truly accurate in terms of filament design above a normal H9. I haven't seen published life specs from Hella but I'd suspect 200-300 hour lifespan, probably closer to 200 and based on my use 200-300hrs that would be 12-18mos. It seems you got ~18mos to the first failure. Hard to know if our bulb use is the same but I suspect that lifespan is about on par.

Remember to always change your headlight bulbs in pairs, as they dim over time and typically when one fails the other isn't far behind.

 

Hmm… installed my Phillips H9s in May 2020 & ~40k miles on them… should probably proactively change them out.

 

Yes, I watched Crashes video before the installation. However, I was curious as to what it would take to trim the tab on the H9 bulbs so I opted for that method with a pair of small side cutters. Very easy. I just thought that the windshield washer reservoir may make it a little difficult to do crashes method. I might try crashes method next time.

 

Coming up on 3 years, I would. Brighter lights and do it on your own schedule vs what will of course be an inconvenient time when the bulb fails. Plus they are cheap.

Certainly easier when the headlights are out of the truck in my demo.

 

It wasn't too bad, Once I found the large tab on bulb/headlight I found a spot where my hand fit between the reservoir. No cutting but I may buy some small cutters and keep it as back up incase there was a slight emergency w replacing a bulb.

 

If anyone is wondering like I was… this green piece just comes right out without any force and can easily be reused if you want to go back to h11 bulbs for any reason.

 

Did the H9 swap and pulled the high beam bulb on the passenger side and was wondering
why it was a german H9 until I caught my mistake. So if I need a spare pull the bulb from
the high beam to make it home. I did keep the H11s for spares just in case.

However I picked up some Flosser H11 70W for the high beams, but I recall reading that
I would need a heavier duty harness for the bulb. I have tried to find the correct part of
this forum but am unable to find it again. So am I able to run the 70W bulbs on the OEM
harness?

 

The Philips 65w H9s actually pull about 75w. There is a 15% +/- variance allowed in the rating, and Philips pegs that out at the max, part of the reason why they are the best performing bulb. The 70w H11 Flossers are most likely lower performing than the Philips H9s, though I’ve not tested them.

 

Now I all confused. I thought that the high beams were also H11s. How ever in my truck the
OEM high beams are german H9s. So what should I look at for an improvement. I what should
I look at for an improved H9 for the high beams. I saw the H11s but on post 2 but it doesn't say
they are for the low or highs.
thanks

 

OEM low beam is an H11
OEM high beam is a German Philips H9

Best performing bulb is a German Philips H9. Put it in your low beam for the best low beam upgrade. Being you are already running the best available bulb in your high beam as OEM, there is no high beam bulb upgrade. If you want better high beams/driving lights you need to add aux high beam/driving lights. Lots of options discussed here:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-sae-j581-aux-high-beam-thread.696597/

 

This. Headlamp bulbs, turn signals/brake lights are consumables, and there's 20 reasons to replace them with some semblance of regularity, rather than try to eke every single pennies worth of value from them. For want of a $12 bulb, a headlamp was lost. For want of a headlamp, a deer was hit. And so on and so forth

 

Yes, this is what I did. I too found the green piece of plastic came right out with a very gentle pry of a screwdriver. Original H11's and the green insert packaged and put away if I ever wanted to go back to stock.

 

I pulled the green adapter out which comes right out and can easily be reused and if you insert the H9 bulb tilted in at first so the larger metal tab fits in the socket first you do not need to modify the bulb at all.

 

thanks for the info on the ighbeams when I pulled it by mistake and saw the H9 I was confused.

 

I found German made Sylvnaia H9 Silverstar bulbs at AutoZone. $35 for the 2-pack.

 

I wonder if there better than the Standard Philips H9?

 

Supposedly, the Silverstar Ultra is one step up in the brightness and made in USA, but only available in H11, not H9.

 

probably not.

the blue coating will reduce light output

But open to be proven wrong.