Headlight bulb upgrade....

[militarydave]

I'm deciding to get some Nokya, PIAA or Silverstar Headlight bulbs for my 99 CE. looking at it... it seems to be a no brainer - but um... i guess my dumb question is: do I have to remove the windshield washer reservoir, DRL fuse panel, and battery on the opposing side?

i looked for a DIY on here for the corolla, but only found 7th and 9th gen and camry step-by-step.


so, before I buy the dual-beam bulbs (9003 is the right one, right?), does anyone know if there's a trick to it?

thanks!

[TwoPageAfro]

I went with Hella bulbs and they are holding up great.

Sylvania 98 Corolla Light Guide

Also, when the lights are off there is a blue-ish tint which looks nice.

Replacing the bulbs is a piece of cake. Simply, open the hood, remove the black rubber boot-thingy that's behind the bulb, pop open the retaining spring, and place the bulb in. Put everything back in reverse order.

[Redline322]

It is a bit of a tight fit, but you can replace them without removing any other parts and I believe the correct bulbs are H4, not 9003, so you might want to double check that.

[1998rolla]

its hard to access the drivers side bulb without removing the battery but it can be done. i had the silver stars and they worked great but both blew out with in the same week from each other about a year after purchasing them

[militarydave]

yeah i heard the life expectancy of the silverstars aren't very high. especially since i do have my DRL on and drive about 67 miles roundtrip.

so is the 1999 model an H4 and the 2000 model 9003? dual beam right? (high and low in the same bulb?)

[leeor_net]

Originally Posted by Redline322

It is a bit of a tight fit, but you can replace them without removing any other parts and I believe the correct bulbs are H4, not 9003, so you might want to double check that.

For the 1999 - 2000 model years the correct bulb is, in fact, the 9003 dual beam bulbs. 2001 - 2002 model years switched to a dual bulb setup with 9006's as the low beam and 9005's as the high beams.

You should not have to remove anything from the engine compartment to remove the bulbs but it will most definitely be a tight fit, depending on how large your hands are and how skilled you are at maneuvering your hands in tight space. Be sure not to touch the new bulbs with your bare hands - wear gloves if you need to.

As a side note:

SilverStar Ultra's burn out quite fast -- expect to replace them frequently. If the cost of a set of them isn't an issue, by all means get the extra brightness out of them. Otherwise stick with the SilverStar's -- they last about 30% longer than the Ultra's although they're not quite as bright. The real benefit to the SilverStar's, though, isn't their brightness so much as the whiteness of the light they produce. If you don't care how white the lights are and just want a boost to brightness get the Xtra vision bulbs. They'll last about as long as standard halogen's but will produce about 30% more light and they're only a few dollars more than standard halogens.