Hello folks I'm new to this forum. My dad has a 2006 Corolla, his low beams are too dim for him. Can some one recommend some replacement bulbs that will be brighter than the OEM?
Headlights can't be brighter than what the DOT specifies, and OEM bulbs are as bright as they can be. However, the bulbs do dim with age, so a new cheap set of bulbs will likely be brighter than what he has now.
Don't be fooled by gimmicks like the Silverstars...yes, they are whiter, but they actually put out less light, don't last very long, and god bless you if you can see in the rain with them.
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Toyotas in the family/next of kin:
1982 Corolla Wagon, 1989 Corolla DX, 1991 Previa LE, 1993 Previa LE,
1993 Pickup, 1994 Corolla DX, 1995 Avalon XL, 1996 Camry XLE, 1998 Avalon XL,
1998 Sienna CE, 1999 Camry XL, 2000 Camry XLE, 2002 Tundra, 2003 Tundra,
2003 ES 300, 2004 Camry XLE, 2005 Tacoma
GE Nighthawk work well, but are hard to find in stores. As gideon mentioned, stay away from gimmick bulbs/blue bulbs. Look for a clear bulb with no filtering. If they are dim, due to use and DRL use, any unfiltered light would be better. Are his headlight lenses cloudy or yellow?
His lenses are very clear and in great condition. He just said that he could hardly see at night with the oem low beams. I do believe that he uses them as daytime running lights. So just buy new oem? Are the stock lights h4's
His lenses are very clear and in great condition. He just said that he could hardly see at night with the oem low beams. I do believe that he uses them as daytime running lights. So just buy new oem? Are the stock lights h4's
You can buy lights at just about any store, walmart, pepboys, autozone, etc. I would stay away from the $tealership though. If you want OEM, sylvania is the OEM manfacturer halogen bulbs for toyota. 9006 is the bulb for low beam. If the problem is still bad, he may need his low beams realigned.
There are a number of upgrade bulbs, but again, they're all going to be limited to 1000 lumens +/- 15% for the 9006 fitment that our low beams take. Good upgrade bulbs are Sylvania Xtravision, GE Nighthawk or Megalight, Philips VisionPlus, and Wagner BriteLights.
I would not recommend blue-coated bulbs, like Sylvania SilverStar, Philips CrystalVision, GE Nighthawk Sport, and other blue-coated eBay bulbs. All those bulbs have a blue coating on them that reduces light output. To compensate, the bulb maker "overdrives" the bulbs to get the light output back into legal range (can't fall below 1000 - 15% lumens) and the result is a shorter bulb life.
You have a few more options. You can search for Toshiba HIR 9012 bulbs. These will physically fit into the low beam housing with some bulb trimming. I've tried these before in my Corolla. They made a nice difference in light output. They're about as bright as the high beams, but take the same 50/55W of the low beam lights. I'd say they're about 20% better than the GE Nighthawks, which were in turn about 20% better than the stock standard Sylvania 9006 bulbs (that's obviously totally subjective).
An other option is running the high beam bulbs in the low beam sockets. The high beam bulbs are 60/65W vs. 50/55W, but that's usually not enough to cause a real difference in heat or load on the wiring. Just for fun, I'm running the stock standard Sylvania 9005 high beams in my lows right now, but just in one side, so I can compare it to the GE Nighthawk in the other side. There's a nice difference...probably about the same as the HIR 9012 vs. the GE Nighthawk. I just bought a pair of Sylvania Xtravision 9005 (high beams) tonight and I'll install one of THOSE in and see if there's an even bigger difference. It takes a bit of trimming to make the 9005 bulb fit and plug in to where a 9006 should be, but it's very easily doable with a Dremel tool.
A third option is a combination of the above two. The Toshiba HIR 9012 bulb is the "equivalent" of the stock 9006 low beam bulb. Only some trimming of the "tangs" is required to mount it in. The plug is the same as the 9006. The Toshiba HIR 9011 bulb is the "equivalent" of the high beam bulb. You can just as easily modify it to fit into the low beam and make the plug fit (again, not hard). This would be your MAXIMUM amount of light available, at about 2400 lumens. That's over twice the light of the stock bulbs.
Note that, technically, installing the 9005 high beam bulbs into the low beam sockets is technically illegal, as is fitting either the 9011 or 9012 HIR bulbs. However, since the light filament is in EXACTLY the same place, spatially, inside the light housing, the light pattern is still the same, and still has a very nice upper cut-off to prevent blinding other drivers.
Installing High Intensity Discharge (HID) lights into the low beams is an option. Like some of the others I presented, it's not legal to do so. But unlike ALL of the above options, an HID light that's fitted to a 9006 base to make it fit into the low beam housing is NOT a good option. The reason is the nature of an arc-discharge light source like HID compared with halogen. A halogen bulb's filament is small, and is often considered a "point source"...the very brightest portion of the light is in the center of the filament, with less bright areas on the ends. An arc-discharge light is exactly opposite. Not only is the bulb itself much longer, but it also has the brightest parts of the light at the very ENDS of the bulb, rather than near the center. The light housings were designed with the halogen bulbs in mind, and retrofitting HID bulbs into them causes a lot of extra glare. It's nice for YOU, because you have a lot of light. But the downside is the light you have is not well-controlled, and it's not nice for oncoming drivers, who have to stare into your glare.
My recommendation: get a set of genuine Toshiba HIR 9012 bulbs. They're not cheap (about $25/bulb), but they're going to give you the best bang-for-the-buck, while still maintaining the as-designed current on the low beam circuit.
I finished trimming the 9005XV lights (Sylvania Xtravision for the high beams) I bought tonight so I could use them in the low beams. The difference is really dramatic. I took some shots just for comparison purposes. All camera settings are the same (digital SRL-type camera on manual settings), all in a dark garage, and with no photo post-processing or color correction, other than resizing to 800x600 for posting here.
This is the 9005XV in the driver side low beam, and the stock Sylvania 9006 in the passenger side low beam. Very dramatic difference:
Now this is the 9005XV in the driver side low beam, compared with a Toshiba 9012 HIR bulb in the passenger side low beam. The HIR is obviously better than the stock 9006, but still not quite up to the 9005XV:
And here's a 9005XV in both low beam sockets:
I will continue to keep a close watch on the temperature of the light housings and wiring just to make sure there are no overheating problems with these bulbs. But there shouldn't be...it's not like these are 100W bulbs or anything like that. They're 60W, compared with 51W for the low beams.
hi everyone, I got a short question about bulbs, does anyone knows if the american 9006 is the same as the european HB4 ? I mean if I buy philips vision plus HB4 (because i'm from europe) will it fits my '05 corolla LE ?
Get a xenon HID kit, its about 150-200$ and requires minimal instalation, your light will be alot brighter and light blue for optimal visibility.
A HID kit consists of two PDA size ballasts, waterproof wiring and two xenon special lightbulbs, becouse the lightbulbs contain expensive xenon gas in them, replacing both of them is 70-100$ for a pair, but they last a very long time of you install them propertly and with care.
Installing the HID kit is easy, you have to attach the ballasts somewere under your hood making sure the wires can reach the headlights, the ballasts come with metalic holders and with screw/bolt holes, there will be a manual on how to wire everything.
but there's a problem of police giving tickets for aftermarket xenon lights. there are some regulations that say you can't install xenon by yourself, it needs to be made original by the car producer
The one problem with putting 9005 bulbs in a 9006 socket is lifespan, as 9005's last about a 1/3rd of the 9006 lifespan. SO, if you buy HIR's for twice the price of standard 9006's, you will get brighter than 9005's (9005's are 65 w, 9006 are 55w) and longer lifespan as a 9006 is 875 hours, HIR 9012 also is 875 hours as it is a 55w bulb.
SO, spend the money on the HIRs (23 bucks at candlepower?), and have brighter bulbs with a lifespan the same as standard 9006's yet much brighter. And get Toshibas.
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