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HIR Headlight Bulbs

40K views 82 replies 26 participants last post by  0dyfamily 
#1 ·
I just replaced the lo beam bulbs with the new Toshiba HIR bulbs from Daniel Stern - around $55 shipped.

Anyone else have these? Your observations?

My initial thoughts are that they are not as bright as the lumens suggest. Then again, we don't really drive at night very much and I just looked at the lights in the garage right after install.

I may also do the headlight wiring upgrade where a relay is added.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/
 
#2 ·
I received my 9012/HIR2 low-beam bulbs from Daniel Stern a few weeks ago but haven't installed them yet. I contacted Daniel to inquire about upgraded H4 bulbs for my Mazda and also asked about the Odyssey, it seems a few years ago he was not recommending the HIR bulb in our application (refer to the 9011 Bulb thread) but now says the headlight beam pattern changed early in 2005 and the HIR bulb is a nice upgrade. It seems to be the next best thing to a HID upgrade.

I currently have Silverstars which are just over 1 year old so I expect them to burn out any day now, the HIR 9012 is rated at 800 hours from a few sources compared to 1000 hours on stock bulbs and 150 hours on the Silverstar.
 
#3 ·
After reading all of the www.odyclub.com lighting threads and in particular reading the information on the www.finemotoring.com
Website, I purchased the HIR 9011 (9005 high beam equivalent) and 9012 (9006 low beam equivalent) lights from eBay item 170153546935
I paid $105.80 for all four lights shipped. That’s 26.45 for each light.

The recipient of these new lights will be our new 2007 Odyssey EX-L RES NAV. The lights will arrive next week. I plan on posting the following pictures:

1. Both factory installed halogen lights High &low beam
2. A stock headlight on one side and a HIR on the other
3. Both HIR head lights High & Low beam
4. Side by side photographs cut and pasted together showing both the High & Low pictures side by side of the HIR and factory halogens.

Dont hold your breath, but I may even purchase an xtravision bulb to throw into the mix just for comparison.

I am disregarding testimony from other members pertaining to how difficult it is to replace the high beam lights....I may regret this later, however for better or for worse they're getting installed. Primarily because the idea of turning my high beams into "photon torpedoes" is too irresistible.

Before I sold our 2002 EX-L RES NAV I had installed Sylvania Silver Stars. While the SS were defiantly whiter that the xtravisions they replaced; I wouldn’t say they were brighter or illuminated any further down the road. My impression is that whiter seems brighter. After reading the fine motor article I regret purchasing the Silver Stars.

I resisted the urge to order the HID bulbs that fit into the stock halogen receptacles because I did not want to blind other drivers. I did not perform any further research to verify if Honda actually changed the headlights in the Odyssey to eliminate the lack of light "sharp horizontal cutoff" described in the 9011 Bulb post
 
#4 ·
I look for forward to reading about your impressions.

As I've posted elsewhere, the difference between Sylvania Silverstars, Osram Silverstars and the Sylvania XtraVisions were negligible at best (on my Miata H4 headlights).

The price just isn't worth it.

However, with Daniel Stern selling the HIRs, I thought it was worth the price. If we drove the Ody more often at night, I may be able to evaluate their effectiveness better, but...

When the HIRs burn out eventually, I may just order HIDs for the Ody.



Curiodyssey said:
After reading all of the www.odyclub.com lighting threads and in particular reading the information on the www.finemotoring.com
Website, I purchased the HIR 9011 (9005 high beam equivalent) and 9012 (9006 low beam equivalent) lights from eBay item 170153546935
I paid $105.80 for all four lights shipped. That’s 26.45 for each light.

The recipient of these new lights will be our new 2007 Odyssey EX-L RES NAV. The lights will arrive next week. I plan on posting the following pictures:

1. Both factory installed halogen lights High &low beam
2. A stock headlight on one side and a HIR on the other
3. Both HIR head lights High & Low beam
4. Side by side photographs cut and pasted together showing both the High & Low pictures side by side of the HIR and factory halogens.

Dont hold your breath, but I may even purchase an xtravision bulb to throw into the mix just for comparison.

I am disregarding testimony from other members pertaining to how difficult it is to replace the high beam lights....I may regret this later, however for better or for worse they're getting installed. Primarily because the idea of turning my high beams into "photon torpedoes" is too irresistible.

Before I sold our 2002 EX-L RES NAV I had installed Sylvania Silver Stars. While the SS were defiantly whiter that the xtravisions they replaced; I wouldn’t say they were brighter or illuminated any further down the road. My impression is that whiter seems brighter. After reading the fine motor article I regret purchasing the Silver Stars.

I resisted the urge to order the HID bulbs that fit into the stock halogen receptacles because I did not want to blind other drivers. I did not perform any further research to verify if Honda actually changed the headlights in the Odyssey to eliminate the lack of light "sharp horizontal cutoff" described in the 9011 Bulb post
 
#5 ·
The recipient of these new lights will be our new 2007 Odyssey EX-L RES NAV. The lights will arrive next week. I plan on posting the following pictures:

1. Both factory installed halogen lights High &low beam
2. A stock headlight on one side and a HIR on the other
3. Both HIR head lights High & Low beam
4. Side by side photographs cut and pasted together showing both the High & Low pictures side by side of the HIR and factory halogens.
Hello! Do you have any comment/photos about your HIR? Thanks!
 
#6 ·
I put the low HIR in the low and the Hi HIR in the HI and i like thm

I would like to try the Hi HIR in the low.....
 
#7 ·
KiteSquid said:
I put the low HIR in the low and the Hi HIR in the HI and i like thm

I would like to try the Hi HIR in the low.....
Have you had any trouble installing these bulbs?
I tried to install 9012 on 2009 Ody. But it does not fit. I did the tab trimming as instructed so the tab is not the problem. The base of 9012 is larger than stock bulb. It just does not fit. How did you install it?
 
#9 ·
thelinux said:
Have you had any trouble installing these bulbs?
I tried to install 9012 on 2009 Ody. But it does not fit. I did the tab trimming as instructed so the tab is not the problem. The base of 9012 is larger than stock bulb. It just does not fit. How did you install it?
Mine went in with the tab trimming, but I also loosened the three screws in the lamp that holds the bulbs as I have large hands and it is difficult for me to get to the bulbs...
 
#10 ·
KiteSquid said:
Mine went in with the tab trimming, but I also loosened the three screws in the lamp that holds the bulbs as I have large hands and it is difficult for me to get to the bulbs...
+1

I had to loosen the 3 screws on each retaining ring. It is a real pain to get to some of the bulbs due to the obstacles under the hood. I put HIR in both High and Low beam lights. I am happy with them and have also put them in my 06 Acura RL and 08 Ford Taurus.
 
#11 ·
I just remembered that I also put a little dielectric compound on the o-rings.


I will also be installing them in my wife's car too.

I do wish they made a HIR in H4 and H3, PAR36 or 801 so I could use this technology on my motorcycle too.
 
#12 ·
I had to trim away the base of the bulb. Without doing it, the bulb did not sit tight.
Even if after the base trimming, I still had to loosen two screws to get this thing to be installed. Do you guys have 2005-2007 model? Mine is 2009 and 2008-2009 has different headlight housing than 2005-2007.

Anyway, I did some driving in the night. The result was somewhat disappointing. Honestly, I don't see much improvement in terms of brightness.
9006 - 1000 lumens
9012 - 1870 lumens.
It is supposed to be about twice brighter but some how I don't see much difference.

I know some people put 9011 for low beam got a lot better result. But that I don't want to do because it's illegal.

OK, so was this worth $60 for me???
No. I should have saved it for HID retrofit project.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Just installed some Phillips 9012LL "standard" bulbs http://www.amazon.com/Philips-9012-Standard-Halogen-Headlight/dp/B00480N18G $24/each on amazon and WOW what a difference! Honestly id say theyre just as good as the LED headlights on our i3 now haha. Trimmed the tabs easily with some nail clippers and the base was actually thinner. I was worried about it being loose but once you plug it in, the socket will hold it in place.
Original bulb on left/drivers side



Regular beams/bith bulbs swapped

Original High beams
 
#17 · (Edited)
I'm surprised more Gen 3 owners don't use these. We've got them on our 1998 Accord, and we think highly of HIR bulbs. Subjectively, I think they do about 75% of what a mini-D2S projector retrofit does in terms of output, and HIR bulbs have better light throw than mini-D2S projectors.

These HIR bulbs are easily better than any PnP HID kit in terms of light thrown down the road because they use the stock reflector well due to identically placed filament, minimal back-blinding foreground lighting, and solid full-spectrum white lighting that doesn't favor blue wavelengths.

This could be a stickie: 2005-2010 Gen 3 Headlight Upgrade.

The forum gets a number of queries on how to make the Gen 3 Odyssey lighting “better”.

By “better”, I think we’re all looking for similar deliverable results:

1. More lumens, i.e., brighter light output…but with decent bulb lifespan
2. DOT legal beam pattern per FMVSS 108 and your own state’s laws
3. White light to assist your own vision in detecting color contrast
4. Keep heat output to acceptable levels, similar wattage for stock wiring
5. Ease of installation

First, a little about your stock bulbs.

This is your low beam, which is a halogen 55-watt 9006 (HB4) bulb with an axial filament exactly where it needs to be for your stock reflector, and it produces about 1,000 lumens:

White Automotive lighting Lighting Yellow Automotive light bulb


This is your high beam, a halogen 65-watt 9005 (HB3) bulb also with axial filament construction paired to your stock reflector, and it produces perhaps about 1,700 lumens:

Automotive lighting Product Light Lighting Automotive light bulb


These bulbs shown above meet and surpass minimum federal standards for illumination. However, more lighting within the current SAE-compliant beam pattern your van came with would be best.

You definitely want the entire visible color spectrum (white lighting) because it helps you visually identify items on dark roadways you don’t wish to hit (pedestrians, wildlife, other cars, cargo that fell off the truck in front of you, etc.).

So, “blue” bulbs are out, since they reduce your photopic vision’s ability to sort out separate colors in your visual field.

Auto part Product


At a car show on a vehicle that is moved in a carrier? Fine. For road use? No way, blue bulbs are pretty worthless.

You want blue light? You can only achieve that by filtering out usable elements of the longer wavelengths in the visible spectrum to get a blue light from a tungsten filament bulb, thus reducing total output of lumens.

Again. A bulb with a blue quartz or glass envelope covering a given filament can never have the lumen output of a bulb with an identical filament inside a clear envelope (white lighting). Never.

To achieve the same lumens output in a blue bulb requires more power to the filament, with a serious reduction in bulb lifespan. No free lunch.

Also, blue is miserable for preserving dark-adapted vision (yours!) and blue light causes your distance estimation and depth perception suffers at night, where you need it most; however, you “feel” like you are seeing more, when in fact you are not.

So far, some of concerns I’ve read about on this and other forums, especially with PnP HID kits:

1. Too much light close to the bumper (severely degrades your distance vision)
2. Traffic citations
3. Wasn’t this supposed to come with a relay? Relays? (it’s cheap for a reason)
4. Why does the wiring have so few strands? (really cheap wiring)
5. Why is the wiring insulation so soft? (really cheap wiring x2)
6. Why the long, energized wiring runs without fusing? (really cheap wiring x3)
7. No schematic included. Can’t get one. Iffy customer support.
8. I can maybe file a piece of plastic. Install a kit? Not sure about that.

If we don’t want to upgrade the stock wiring or install any sort of kit, and if we want to keep the stock components and wiring and get appreciably more light output from the bone-stock headlight housing, here’s a solution like eneka1 found:

Yellow Auto part Automotive lighting
Auto part Automotive lighting Spark plug


9012 and 9011 bulbs with more output. Originally, GE patented the HIR technology where a coating that is transparent to visible wavelengths, but reflects only IR wavelengths, will reflect some of the IR radiation back to a seriously overbuilt filament, causing it to burn hotter and brighter. Since the power input is the same, the overall heat rejection measured against time is the same...in short, you will not cook anything using these bulbs.

Toshiba was licensed to manufacture these, and did sell these bulbs with a globe-shaped envelope for a number of years:

Automotive lighting Auto part
Product Room


As far as I know, currently only Philips is licensed to produce these. These newer Philips HIR bulbs use a conventional tubular quartz envelope with no IR reflective coating like the older Toshiba bulbs, but use an even better filament and halogen gas mixture to achieve better photometric performance.

The 9012 (HIR 2, low beam) bulb uses 55 watts, and it can replace the Gen 3 Odyssey 9006 low beam. The filament length, orientation, and positioning are identical to the OEM 9006. The only difference is one tab on the base (more on this later). This Philips low beam HIR bulb produces about 1,800+ lumens, about an 80% increase in light output over the stock 9006 bulb.

That’s right, 1,800+ lumens. That’s more lumens from a 55-watt HIR bulb than the stock high beam bulb.

We installed a set of 9012 and 9011 bulbs in our 1998 Accord in the summer of 2012, and although we have not objectively measured for an 80% increase in light, the much better light throw in all areas of the beam pattern is very noticeable. Over 3 years of use and they are still working very well.

The 9011 (HIR 1, high beam) bulb uses 65 watts, and it can replace the Gen 3 Odyssey 9005 high beam. The filament length, orientation, and positioning are identical to the OEM 9005. The only difference is one tab on the base (more on this later). This Philips high beam HIR bulb produces about 2,300+ lumens, or about a third more lumens than the stock 9005 bulb.

To me, the single most cost-effective upgrade is changing the pair of regular 9006 low beam bulbs to 9012 bulbs. But, I did say there is the matter of the one tab on the base. The 9012 and 9011 bulbs will not replace their respective 9006 and 9005 brethren unless you do one slight modification to this specific top-oriented mounting tab. Here it is:

Text Diagram Line Font Parallel


I know what you're thinking. jangelj wanted to know if the much, much higher output 9011 (HIR 1, high beam) bulb can fit in our 9006 low beam socket. Let's see.

First, that tab can be trimmed to match a 9006 low beam architecture, but the problem is the bulb housing diameter. It's smaller, the O-ring will not seal, and therefore it is not weatherproof.

Can I make it weatherproof? Maybe. I measured these with a micrometer, and an O-ring that is 1-mm bigger in cross-sectional dimension should make the 9011 (HIR1, high beam) bulb fit snugly in the Gen 3 Odyssey low beam socket. The Odyssey has a shield to prevent blinding, the 9011 bulb is also an axial filament in the same location as the stock 9006 low beam bulb, so it has great odds of working, with an SAE-legal beam pattern.

CONTINUED, NEXT POST.
 
#18 ·
...CONTINUED FROM ABOVE.

By the way, some pics of untrimmed HIR bulb tab versus a stock tab. First, 9006 (your stock low beam) on the left, and an untrimmed 9012 (HIR2, low beam) on the right:



Now, the 9011 (HIR1, high beam) before trimming, on the left, and a stock 9005 high beam bulb on the right:

Product Footwear Shoe Silver


Again, here's the thumbnail on how to trim HIR2 or HIR1 bulbs to fit the respective 9006 or 9005 socket:

Text Diagram Line Font Parallel


Remember, trim the grey areas. Remove ONLY the grey areas. You KEEP the black areas of that tab. These are pics with you, the user, holding the bulb in front of you, and looking at the back end of the bulb (pins side). The glass envelope is facing away from you.

One important item: you will never see this increase in light through cloudy headlamp housings. If your headlight housings look almost opaque, you will barely notice an increase in illumination. There are numerous products out there to re-vitalize cloudy headlamp housings.

Just a note: PnP headlights have gained the attention of western states, and they’ve enacted the following wording (Oregon here is an example): “There shall be a lowermost distribution of light, or composite beam, so aimed and of sufficient intensity to reveal persons and vehicles at a distance of 150 feet ahead; and on a straight level road under any conditions of loading none of the high intensity portion of the beam shall be directed to strike the eyes of an approaching driver.”

California, IIRC, was first with this type of legal wording, and it has spread to virtually every state in the union. Even Oklahoma, amazingly.

What does that mean? If you have a low-rider, adjust the hydraulics to push up the nose of the vehicle and your headlights are on, automatic expensive ticket. If you have a truck with a ton of soil in the back, and the headlights are hiked up into someone’s eyes, automatic expensive ticket. If you have a PnP HID set with unavoidable glare, automatic expensive ticket.

Really, the only PnP HID maker out there that actually has an engineered solution (precisely constructed shield) that limits light to the reflector and shapes the beam is DDM.

Almost all states have inserted that type of legal wording into their vehicle codes recently, which means the days of PnP HID in a free-form halogen reflector headlight housing are almost over with. It’s only a matter of time, as a lot of jurisdictions see this as a means of generating a lot of revenue.

Hope this helps our Gen 3 brethren in the quest for better and safer headlights.

OF
 
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#19 ·
For those who are not "all that" with home computers:

If you hold down the CTRL key and left-click your mouse onto each of the above thumbnails, you get the pics in their full-sized glory in a different browser tab, a tab for each pic.

Cheers.

OF
 
#20 ·
great write up 0dyfamily!

My biggest pet peve is when people stick PnP HIDs in halogen reflectors. I was planning on doing a retrofit with Lexus LS430 projectors but just didn't have the time, and then one of the bulbs went out. Since we'll be doing some l long distance driving over christmas, I decided for a "quick" fix. Easily the best $50 I've spent. I'm going to resurface the headlights again today since they are slightly cloudy again now.
 
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#23 ·
Thanks, guys. I've been on a quest for better lighting "the right way" for some time with my Gen 2 Odyssey. Not a lot of options for Gen 2 guys, since the headlights are H4 dual-filament bulbs,. Also, regarding height, they are a number of inches lower than those on the Gen 3 Odys...which means a Gen 3 Ody with good bulbs can really throw light further down the road further than any Gen 2 Ody can.

Luckily, Philips makes a good X-Treme Vision H4 bulb, which we use in the wife's 2002 EX. My TRS mini-D2S projectors in my 2003 EX are not a significant improvement over those top-drawer Philips halogen bulbs.

You Gen 3 drivers can use the very excellent HIR bulbs with little difficulty, something I wish I could do. I did all of the above research while looking for bulbs for our 1998 Accord, which also uses the 9006 Low / 9005 High setup in each headlamp.

Man, the results are so noticeably better, even when measuring the HIR2 Low / HIR1 High bulbs against a spankin' brand-new set of OEM 9006 Low /9005 High bulbs.

I just checked modifiedlife.com's bulb guide, and sure enough, the entire 2005-2010 lineup uses OEM 9006/9005. That means, if you're so inclined, you can also install the HIR1 bulbs (after trimming that tab on each one) into the headlamp's high beam sockets, and get a super bright (but still legal) halogen high beam solution.

Enjoy the light, citizens! :cool:

OF
 
#25 ·
I had installed HID kit from one of our members. Stock housings. Lately I have been getting some folks flickering the headlights. Does not happen all the time but on lower cars like the older honda civic or like. Light output is great but wonder if there is leak or glare. I might have to check this out. If thats the case, I would not mind swapping to HIRs, as we do use the van for road trips.

OF, one question. I remember trying some EuroDesign bulbs and going back to stock 3 yrs back before my minivan. I can use the HIR bulbs into regular housings of our other sedans like camry, etc. Right?
 
#26 ·
Sir, if your other vehicles use 9006 type halogen bulbs for low beam, and 9005 type halogen bulbs for high beam, then you can use HIR2 (9012) and HIR1 (9011) bulbs respectively. This is for any vehicle that uses 9006 or 9005 as OEM equipment.

PNP HID in any 2005-2010 Odyssey stock housing has two problems. That small amount of light engineered to light up overhead road signs gets magnified to punishing levels for oncoming drivers when a re-based HID capsule is fitted to a stock halogen reflector housing.

As well, you get a ton of foreground light with PNP in a stock reflector housing, which is hurtful to your night distance vision.

In essence, with most any PNP HID setup, a lot of light is wasted in places where you don't need it. That's why the HIR type bulbs are so good for 2005-2010 Odysseys (and my 1998 Accord...and my son's 2012 Civic)...they are identical in filament placement, so all you are doing is amplifying a correctly located and sized light source.

Personally, I think just changing the 9006 low beam bulbs for a pair of HIR 2 (9012) low beam bulbs is sufficient for most people, since those are the lights you use 99% of the time anyways at night. That's what we did with the 2012 Civic.

OF
 
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