mcnab

Well Id like to upgrade my OEM lighting, but at this point a full out HID retrofit is not within budget, nor is it likely to be in the forseeable future.

Now, I'd like NOT to put in some crappy ricer blue bulbs, and I've been doing a lot of research into aftermarket HALOGEN alternatives. I don't want to put in a cheap "HID Kit" as they produce way to much glare.

So that I've been looking into his HIR Bulbs. This seems liek a good alternative, but they don't make them in an H1 size.

Now I've also started looking into "Osram Hyper" bulbs. I believe they are only made in H4 and H7 bulb types. So my question is, is it possible to modify the bulb or housing slightly (ie dremeling?) in order to fit an Osram H7 bulb into our housing? The bulb is only 10watts higher Ie 65watt compared to 55 watt stock) so heat shouldnt' be a problem. But the bulb puts out over 2100 lumens at a 3200 kelvin temp! This is a HUGE improvement.

I've tried to get some sizing on the bulbs. Here is what I was able to find.

H1 Bulb


H7 BULB


What it looks like to me is the H7 bulb is only 44mm in length PAST the mounting point, vs 49mm in a stock H1 bulb. So in theory, the bulb SHOULDN'T be any closer to the reflector. So there shouldn't be any issues there. The bulb will be 5mm back more than the stock H1 bulb, so I expect maybe a slightly different beam spread than with stock lighting?

Curious to what everyones thoughts are? I'd like to upgrade my OEM lighting, and want something that isn't too ricey (a very nice white light with MAYBE a very small small hint of blue at most) The Osram H7's seem great if I can make them work.

badahab

I thought HIR is only made in the 9005 9006 styles... I think they call them the 9012 and 9011. I've never seen an h7 hir bulb.

Hirheadlights.com site has some good info about them and RallyLights.com sells them. I was thinking about picking up a set for my 88 civic wagovan.

I don't think it would work as well as you are hoping if you did manage to mount the bulb into our housing. The glass part of the bulb is much longer and wider than an H1 bulb so the light source would probably sit in the wrong spot. I'm gonna guess that it would sit too far back and you would end up with a pencil beam similar to driving lights. That would be your best case scenario.

Worst case is that you end up with a skinny beam that glares like crazy right in the eyes of oncoming traffic.

If you read Gerhard's 5th Gen Bulb Comparison v2 r3 you'll find that even an h1 can cause bad glare.

If you just want more light then I highly recommend a +50 bulb. I use powerbulb power plus h1 and really really like them. Also the Phillips vision plus bulbs are great. I hear the Osram silverstars are good if you get them from the uk, but I will never buy any silverstar after the problems I had with them. I hear the hella bulbs are good, but have never tried them myself.

Defiantly stick with a 55w bulb for the low beams but I've read a few reports that say you can get away with a 100w high beam, maybe because its not on as long or something... hard to say. On rallylights.com they have a chart of the different h1 bulbs they have and a 100w Hella optilux xb puts out 2500 lumens with a 4k color. I just ordered a set and will let ya know how well they work if you want. I drive with my high beams on quite a bit so I'm really interested to see if it burns my harness or the bulb holder or anything else.

Maybe one day they will have HIR for H1 style sockets, but I doubt it. Good luck in your quest for more light.

-Sean