Corolla 2001 Headlights - "Xenon HID" or Halogen?

[bb147]

Hi,

I am a new poster here so please forgive me if this has already been covered but I tried searching and couldn't find much concrete information about it.

I have a 2001 Corolla and the low-beam bulb has burnt out on the driver side.

I was looking at just replacing the bulb myself as it would be much cheaper then taking it to a mechanic, i am a complete noob at it but I found some online articles that make it seem fairly easy so I will give it a shot.

Now I am trying to decide if I should just buy another halogen bulb like this one OR I found on eBay several interesting alternatives.

The first one I found is called the " HiLite Superlite XE" I did a little bit of research and it looks like these are not real xenon or HID lights, they very similar to xenon lights so it will give me a much brighter output then standard halogen lights. What's interesting is it claims I don't need to modify anything at all and I can just literally plug these bulbs in as a replacement and it will work properly with no problems, for this particular model it even saids it uses the exact same wattage as the halogen bulbs.

Is this true? Do I really just plug in these bulbs like they are halogen ones and it is good to go? Anything wrong with doing that or anything I should be aware of? It just seems a little too good to be true.

The second ones I found is " HiPro Power", which is very similar to the first one, it saids I just plug it in like a regular light bulb, but it does say it will uses around 65w vs the 50w for a stock halogen bulb, that has me a little concerned as I don't really want to break anything by doing this.

What should I do? I want something brighter then the stock bulbs, it is just not bright enough for me when driving at night, I can barely even tell the headlights are on and the cover is as clean as it can be.

PS: I am located in Canada so DRL are a MUST, will this somehow affect my DRL?

Thank you very much in advance!!!

[PhatRoyale]

For the sake of others safety, please don't put HID kits in halogen bulb housings.

It will create massive hot spotting and glare for oncoming traffic.

Stick with a colored halogen bulb if you want the look of HID.

[leerosky]

hey im not a aguy into mechanic at all but i did change my halogen bulbs in my 99 corolla for hid's.Hid's use less power and produce more light close to the sunlight. You have to be careful because getting halogen bulb with more wattage can make the headlight socket to fail. my dad have a 05 Lancer and halogen bulbs with more wattage with the hid look and he had to replace one headlight socket because of the high wattage. I did replace the halogen on his car with HID's 6000k and they work really cool and at night are great. I do have Bi-xenon HID 8000k on my corolla because it use 1 bulb for hi and low beam,now if your car have DRL or known as daytime running light which i know it have you maybe need to get rid of that or just get the hid's and plug it in no wire cutting or anything everything is plug n play, what Ido with my car that have DRL too is everytime i drive the car i turn the headlight switch to ON position tho it work with the drl i dont want to take any chance for best nighttime ilumination i recommend HID with 4300K, 5000K or 6000K ,I do have 8000k on mine but the one i told u r better

[bb147]

So I didn't buy HID's or Xenon's, I went out to buy the Sylvania Silverstar High Performance lights.

I chose these ones because I wanted to follow the advice of not putting in super bright lights in stock housing so I don't blind others, yet at the same time I wanted something a little brighter and whiter then stock halogen.

Install took about an hour and more then half the time was spent trying to remove the air filter

The bulbs have a tint of blue over them which gives it a more white look then the yellowish stock lights, I really like the outcome of these lights, they weren't cheap though, 3x the cost of a generic halogen replacement at Canadian Tire.

Here's the picture, I took it with my iPhone so it looks like it may be blinding (even the blinkers look blinding!) but it really isn't, i can stare at the lights and they definitely don't blind my eyes, they are just a tad brighter then the stock halogens, they're still halogens after-all.

PS: I saw the Silverstar ULTRAS as well for a few dollars more but I didn't want it to be too bright for oncoming traffic.



What do you guys think?

[leerosky]

they are good man i use to have those too i just like better hid's now they would blind the oncoming traffic if the haedlight is not well levelized but it looks good man an as long you like the way they work on your car that all that matter

[AJW6]

You say they have a bluish tint, but they look like they have the stock yellowy look. Is that the actual color they are? Could we possibly get a night shot? I'm looking for a set of lights that look white or a tiny bit blue but not yellow. Which ones did you buy? H4?

[Crowbar911]

You removed the air filter?
You should be able to reach in with your hands. Its a little tight, but they should fit in enough so you dont have to remove anything.

I have superstars on my highbeams, lowbeams, and foglights. I dont see much of a bluish tint. They are very white to start out with, but they do dull down and have a yellow tint. (not as much as oem)

[BigTDogg (MA)]

Originally Posted by Crowbar911

You removed the air filter?
You should be able to reach in with your hands. Its a little tight, but they should fit in enough so you dont have to remove anything.

I have superstars on my highbeams, lowbeams, and foglights. I dont see much of a bluish tint. They are very white to start out with, but they do dull down and have a yellow tint. (not as much as oem)

Silverstars are good bulbs, they just burn out fast.

[bb147]

Originally Posted by AJW6

You say they have a bluish tint, but they look like they have the stock yellowy look. Is that the actual color they are? Could we possibly get a night shot? I'm looking for a set of lights that look white or a tiny bit blue but not yellow. Which ones did you buy? H4?

Sorry I meant the bulb itself has a bluish tint, the photo does make it look yellow but looking at it directly or looking at the produced light it looks bright white.

And I can't remember what size, I just know it was 9006 which is equivalent to H3 or H4 according to the Toyota Owner's Manual which I don't have with me at the moment, but I can check if you want.

PS: I'll try to add a night photo tonight and use my actual camera instead of a phone, the sky is still too bright right now.

[bb147]

Originally Posted by Crowbar911

You removed the air filter?
You should be able to reach in with your hands. Its a little tight, but they should fit in enough so you dont have to remove anything.

I have superstars on my highbeams, lowbeams, and foglights. I dont see much of a bluish tint. They are very white to start out with, but they do dull down and have a yellow tint. (not as much as oem)

The manual called for a removal, I tried it initially without removing it but it was a little too tight, as I didn't want the new bulb to touch ANYTHING as it was going in because I heard that can significantly shorten the lifespan, these things are short enough I don't need to give it another push

[leerosky]

this is my car with hid

[leerosky]

those sylvania bulbs are cool they are great in high beam i just swith to hid because the low beam is better and mycar use H4 so it use both low and hi the same bulb so i find a hid bulb the same they called it Bi-xenon this is my car with hid

[leerosky]

sorry this is my car with hid [IMG][/IMG]

[bb147]

Originally Posted by leerosky

those sylvania bulbs are cool they are great in high beam i just swith to hid because the low beam is better and mycar use H4 so it use both low and hi the same bulb so i find a hid bulb the same they called it Bi-xenon this is my car with hid

Looks pretty good, I like the blue tint it gives off, do you find the lights to be blinding though? That's my biggest concern because I hate people that blind me so I want to make sure I don't do the same thing to others.

I left my hi breams alone because I never use them.

Where'd you buy the lights?


One thing I also noticed and hopefully I'm not going crazy is my daytime running lights seem to run at full power even if I don't have the headlight switch turned on, whereas with the stock bulbs they either run it a lot dimmer or I just never noticed it and it seemed like it was a noticeable difference after I turn the headlight switch on. Now it just seems like whether I have it on or off it doesn't matter because the headlights are on. (and of course I will still turn it on at night or if its raining for the back lights!)

Am I going crazy or I just never noticed it before because it was so dim?

[DjiNN]

Yes when having HID's in your car be careful not to have the housing up too high. I pointed my headlights a little lower than normal just to compensate for oncoming traffic.