those phillips look interesting. I might try a set of them out.

Check out the January 2006 issue of Consumer Reports, page 47. They did a comparison of replacement headlight bulbs. They tested using the OE bulbs, Arc Plasma Ultra White, GE Nighthawk, Philips Crystalvision, Sylvania Silverstar, and Wagner Truview in three different vehicles (Honda Ridgeline, Chrylser Sebring, and Toyota Camry). Results varied depending on vehicle, but only the GE Nighthawk in the Ridgeline improved low-beam distance. Yet, the same brand reduced distance in the Camry.

I recently installed the wiring harness 4Crawler sells and it made a very noticable difference with Sylvania XtraVisions I had on the truck. I now have the e-spec Hella Vision Plus lights with Hella Xenon +30 bulbs. The "brightness" did not increase dramatically (in my opinion). But, what is noticable is the light pattern is more consistant across the the road vs. the XtraVision tended to have hotspots.

I posted a thread on here a few months ago about brighter headlights. My opinion of the silverstars have since changed (for the worse). I've run the Silverstars in 4 vehicles (a '92 camry, '94 camry, '95 Land Rover, '99 Land Rover) and yes they were whiter and brighter. But as it turns out, they do in fact burn out faster. I wrote a complaint to Sylvania just this week, and they responded telling me that the higher performance comes at a cost in terms of lifespan (and a cost in your wallet). The blue coating on the bulbs shortens the life. They recommend replacing your silverstars once a year (no thanks!). There is a FAQ section on their website that says the same thing.

What I DO LIKE is Roger's (4Crawler's) wiring harness upgrade. That made a HUGE difference in light output and my headlights look as bright as any newer vehicle (with exception of HID). And this is with old crusty 6054 housings that are years old and not high performance. I bought the Hella Vision Plus H4 housings (they came with bulbs too) but only installed one lamp. The lighting is brighter yet with the one Hella and the bulb it came with as compared to the OEM 6054 light. I was going to take pictures but it's really hard to capture the effect. The Hella has a more defined beam cut-off so you can focus it higher and not blind oncoming traffic. I also bought Silvania Silverstars to put in the Hella housings as my final test, but I will be returning those. I refuse to buy new bulbs every year at $40-$50 a pair.

The biggest impact was the wiring harness. The second biggest was the Hella's. The headlights are already so white (vs. the old yellow looking light) that I don't see how the Silverstars could of been any better and I'm not going to waste the money to find out.

good to hear. I have 9004's in my '94. So I'll probly do the upgrade wiring harness and just run some nice 9004 bulbs (IE no coating on the glass!) and be done with it.

That must only apply to H4 and 9004 SilverStar light bulbs.

Because I run the OEM style SilverStar sealed beam replacements and have had them in for just about 3 years and I drive frequently @ night, but mostly freeway driving using the low beams.

Chucky MoMo <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I know this thread is about Silverstars, but since you're talking about your 94 Runner, I figured I'd share my lighting "upgrade"

After having my vehicle a year or so I realized my high beams worked about as well as the low beams in other vehicles I drove.
Just to test the theory I'd drive with my high beams on a few times to see if anyone would flash their lights at me. NO ONE DID!!! and this is with them aligned properly with 3" of lift! I changed out the bulbs- still didn't help.

Unlike sealed beam headlights that see a lens replacement every time the bulb is changed, vehicles like ours are running the same lenses for 12 years!

It's not really that hard to buff the lenses back to their factory clear finish, but I was lazy and just bought a pair of headlights.

The difference was literally night and day! Not only did my lights appear twice as bright as before, it made the vehicle look a lot better. I am no longer searching for a brighter bulb or some far reaching driving lights.

There's actually very little difference between my 45w low beams and my 55w fog lights. And there's definitely no need to test the bright's out on some poor person, as I can see about twice as far down the road as I could before.

Just sharing my story/opinion <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

HTH

~R

what did you use to buff out the lenses with? some of that plastic cleaner stuff?

Well...like I said in my post I was too lazy so I just bought some aftermarket headlights. I got them off of carparts.com via ebay motors.

Here's a couple of good links I found after 'googling' buff headlights-
Link to using sandpaper and a buffing wheel
Here's another that uses plastic cleaner, glazing, and sealer

The second link is kind of a product plug but it supplies all the pictures and steps in the restoration process.

I'm sure there's a lot more links out there that give even better directions and tips. If you take this route, I'd probably try to read them all <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/zombie.gif" alt="" /> or at least a few more!

Good luck <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Rusty

Here's a link to a general plastic buffing guideline I have on my own website:

http://www.geocities.com/toyotashawn/colorsanding.html

I've done everything from tail lights to headlights to dash gauge covers to the plastic screen on my dive computer (as shown on the website). Chances are, the plastic headlight lenses on the '92 and newer 4Runners using the 9004 bulbs are just faded and just need more of a buffing than actual sanding.