Silverstar - Why are 9007's white and H1's are blue?

[Ozz]

Greetings,
I replaced my headlights with 9007 ST (silverstars) a few weeks ago. They look white when I drive at night.
Last night I put in a set of H1 ST in the Fog Lamps.... they look very blue. When I drove to work this morning I turned on the fog lamps to see what they looked like and they cast a blue light on the road.
Is it just a case of the light being concentrated in front of the car that makes them look more blue than the headlights or is there something else I am missing?
They are an 'ebay special' and came in bubble wrap - no Sylvania container. They say 'Osram' and have a part number and 'ST' on the base so I am confident that are Silverstars...
they are just very blue in color...
Anybody else notice this?

[STLR FN]

Mine aren't like that. Both are the same white color. Call me a cynic but I think they're not SilverStars.

[CRUZTAKER]

Your fogs are not Silverstars.

The Silverstars, however highly spoken of around here are not much better than OEM. They do not appear white, nor blue in comparison tests. You recieved a bulb that is likely a ZENON type bulb.

There are inexpensive alternatives to the Silverstar if you do indeed seek a brighter 'white/blue' hue in the light cast from the bulb.

JCWhitney catalogue carries a variety of bulb styles in all fitments. A set of headlamp Zenons are $9.99 each.

I use these in all of my bulb applications.

[Rider90]

My silverstars are the same color. Atleast they were until I pulled my dash apart a few weeks ago, I guess an experience like that blows them out :dunno:

[SID210SA]

I was contemplating on weather or not to buy the "silver stars" and asked around this board....waited....thinking... .waited some more....finally bought the lights...now I dont notice too much of a difference when driving around town...but the difference really becomes noticable when driving in unlit areas...IMO...much better than OEM lights...and if you see these lights comming at you they look really nice....sets the car apart from all the other head lights on the road.... :cool:

[STLR FN]

...now I dont notice too much of a difference when driving around town...but the difference really becomes noticable when driving in unlit areas...IMO...much better than OEM lights... :cool:

I think the exact same way, my wife on the other hand thinks I just wasted my money.

[hitchhiker]

Your fogs are not Silverstars.

The Silverstars, however highly spoken of around here are not much better than OEM. They do not appear white, nor blue in comparison tests. You recieved a bulb that is likely a ZENON type bulb.

There are inexpensive alternatives to the Silverstar if you do indeed seek a brighter 'white/blue' hue in the light cast from the bulb.

JCWhitney catalogue carries a variety of bulb styles in all fitments. A set of headlamp Zenons are $9.99 each.

I use these in all of my bulb applications.

Do you have the JCW part numbers for these?

Thanks,

Dave

[Ozz]

Does anyone remember if the glass of their H1 Silverstar's were blue?
The glass on mine were blue. They said OSRAM on the back, had a 5 digit number that started with 16 I beleive (wrote it down at home...16150 or something like that...) and had 'ST' after the number. They said 55W also...

They guy I bought them from on EBay has a perfect 100% rating. I would think that if he was shipping something other than Silverstars that someone else would have noticed it before....? I guess I'll stop at a parts store and see if what's in the package there looks to be the same color as mine.

Thanks.

[Black 04]

My H1s are the same as the 9007ST headlights. I don't see blue on them. I really like the silverstars, I just bought a pair for my Honda.

[rayjay]

After having replaced my Silver Star H-1s in November, the left side blew last week. Two months for $15, not good. I decided to try to locate Hella bulbs that I used on my Focus. $23.07 to my door in three days. The Hella bulbs are the same color in the package as the Silver Stars. I have not installed them yet due to the weather. I won't be surprized if they appear the same once installed. I had really good luck with these on my Focus and the price is certainly better than the Silver Stars.

[MM2004]

Does anyone remember if the glass of their H1 Silverstar's were blue?
The glass on mine were blue. They said OSRAM on the back, had a 5 digit number that started with 16 I beleive (wrote it down at home...16150 or something like that...) and had 'ST' after the number. They said 55W also...

They guy I bought them from on EBay has a perfect 100% rating. I would think that if he was shipping something other than Silverstars that someone else would have noticed it before....? I guess I'll stop at a parts store and see if what's in the package there looks to be the same color as mine.

Thanks.

Check this out,...

Both of my Silverstars are as white as my hiney,...:D

[RF Overlord]

Ozz, you did not get genuine Sylvania SilverStars. It sounds like you got a pair of cheap knock-offs. :(

e-Bay is FULL of sellers with 100% satisfaction ratings that are nonetheless selling crap...like those 69-cent Radio Shack resistors people sell as "performance chips" for $10... :shake:

[Ozz]

hey MM2004, the bulbs in the picture look pretty blue to me. I would say that mine were that shade of blue as well. If I put them next to a 9007 ST bulb, the H1's glass is much bluer though.
Thanks for posting the picture.

I am not sure what I have... unless there is someone out there making counterfeit bulbs with 'OSRAM H1 ST' on the bottom of the round metal base, I'm thinking I may have the real thing. Not sure why they didn't send them in the box. I figured it was to save shipping.

You know, this could be another thing... I cleaned all the winter road grime off the fog light lenses before I drove the car with the new bulbs. The headlights on the other hand were still covered in brown winter grime. I have noticed a distinct difference in light color after cleaning the headlight lenses... Perhaps this explains the difference? :rolleyes:

[MM2004]

See my post above for the pic added of the headlamp bulbs.

Mike.

[MENINBLK]

IMHO, the H1s ST are NOT worth the money.
They are only rated for ONE HUNDRED HOURS.
That's right, 100 hours.
http://www.sylvaniaautocatalog.com/sylvania/ProductBrowse_Highp_SilverStar .asp?BepartNo=&BatchId=70&ProductNumber=H1%20ST&PartNo=%20ST,%20%20ST

The week I purchased my Marauder, I replaced the 9007 and the H1
with SilverStars, and I like the way the 9007s are brighter.

After replacing the H1s at least 3 times in the first year, and 4 times last year,
I wrote to Sylvania to ask if I was doing something wrong.
When I found out they were rated only 100 hours, I told them
that I would no longer be buying SilverStar products.
I drive everywhere WITH MY LIGHTS ON.
Having a bulb that can't handle that, is not where I want to invest my money.
The sylvania OEM H1 is about $5 and lasts a whole year...

BTW, the 9007 is rated for only 150 hours in low beam, 90 hours in High Beam,
and I've been burning them for 2 years now.
I'm going to change them, only because they do get dimmer over time.

[rayjay]

I installed a Hella H-1 bulb yesterday. Although better than OEM, they are not the equal of the Silver Stars. The Silver Star on the right side is whiter in appearance than the Hella. I guess I'll leave the Hella in and see which one lasts longer. :rolleyes:

[CRUZTAKER]

Do you have the JCW part numbers for these?

Thanks,

Dave

Off hand no...sorry...

But if you have a catalogue, they are on the page that has ALL automobile bulbs in on e ctergory, and each is available in FOUR different styles. The style you want is ZENON.

The H1 Zenons I bought 3 years ago are still in the car. At 9.99 that's not to bad. I also bought the 100w version H1 Zenon as our fogs have glass faces and the wiring has presented no problems with the .5 amp additional current draw.

[alarmguy]

Ozz, I just purchased 9007 and HS1 Silverstars last weekend. They were on sale at Advance Auto Parts. I hadn't got around to installing the HS1's yet so I opened the package the other night. They do have a blue tint and say osram on the base, although I didn't make note of the numbers.

[fastblackmerc]

Remember to not touch the bulb of a halogen light. The oils from your skin will boil and the bulb will burst. If you do touch the bulb clean it off with rubbing alcohol. I believe it's also stated in the installation instructions.

[stryker]

:burn: Don't worry man, either way the Sylvania silverstars are CRAP,GARBAGE,*****,WASTE. The power of light they promote are false I have a 9005/9006 and are same as the stock ones but I will upgrade to HID's now that's a big light upgrade do the same. :2thumbs:


STRYKER.

[alarmguy]

Has anyone here tried the PIAA's? They're expensive but are they worth it?

[rayjay]

Has anyone here tried the PIAA's? They're expensive but are they worth it?

The worth it part to me is how long they last. My 1st set of Silver Star H-1s lasted about 14 months. $17.50 a bulb is a little steep for a 2 month life span.

[Ozz]

For what it's worth, the bulbs I got say "OSRAM 64150 ST' on the base. I finally found a cross reference and this bulb is the same as 'H1 ST'... the cross reference lists both and even lists the 64150 like this: '64150 ST (H1 ST)'.
So I am pretty sure they are H1 ST's....

Yea, as others have said, they are no brighter, just a different color.
I guess there is only so much light that can be created with a filament bulb without bumping up the wattage.

[purelux]

Its XENON gas which silverstars have along with many of the "hyper white" or bluish after markets do along with halogen and sometimes krypton gas as well. If you get the osram (european) silverstars you will have a higher quality bulb without the blue glass filter on the american version. Check on www.suvlights.com for example. I have the +50' bulbs. Rough explanation is higher lumes without simply a highwatt bulb to overcome the color filter. It uses a thicker better quality filament to achieve its performance. I've tried high watt bulbs standard watt, halogen, halogen with xenon and xenon, hydrogen and krypton. In the dry and espically on concrete they are quite bright, espically in the case of the high watt ones. Though not always mentioned you really need a heavier gauge wire harness. For several reasons most stock wires are quite thin and even oem bulbs are brighter with the harnesses. Also with highwatt bulbs they don't shine as bright as advertised and still often put additional stress on the wires. The harnesses basically take one of your headlight plugs and have it plug on the harness to triugger the lights. They also have their own plugs which go onto the lights and thicker wires. They also tie directly to the battery with inline fuses (sometimes) and relays (always) and have a ground for each headlight. I can say from personal experience that the osram +50' bulbs are the best all around that I have tried. Also there are so many people running the blue lights now its getting kind of played out so to speak.

[metroplex]

Uhm Osram, IIRC, owns Sylvania. The H1 you have might be an E-Code SilverStar (ST). Osram E-Code SilverStars are very good. The 900x DOT SilverStars are over-watted tinted bulbs, similar to ricer bulbs from eBay. This comes from Dan Stern, the lighting expert. Sylvania admits the XtraVision 9007s will far outlast the SilverStar 9007s and yield comparable light output.