Aftermarket headlights

[Morpheus]

I'm afraid the bulbs you got are basic standard Halogen light bulbs. Even basic Halogen Sylvania bulbs can be had for $6-$8 a piece. The Silverstars are brighter and whiter light, hence the higher pricetag. If you look at the second and third pictures Mark posted above you can see the difference.

[dn010]

I figured as much. I guess these wagner lights will be better than blown lights in my case.

I'm afraid the bulbs you got are basic standard Halogen light bulbs. Even basic Halogen Sylvania bulbs can be had for $6-$8 a piece. The Silverstars are brighter and whiter light, hence the higher pricetag. If you look at the second and third pictures Mark posted above you can see the difference.

[Trstno1]

has anyone installed a set of these? im sort of interested in the white surround LED DRL's. I would love to see a picture of a set installed on a D. Do these sort of headlights burn hotter than stock? Which ever headlight I choose, I really don't want to invite back the facia brows.

[AugustneverEnds]

A few days ago I ended up ordering Halogen lights for my car. Silverstars are halogen but costly so I looked for an alternative. I found lights and ironically they're with almost identical part numbers (H4656/H4651) but with different end numbers and are made by "Wagner" but they are also halogen lights. At less than $6.00 per light, I was willing to give them a shot.

Has anyone else tried these halogen lights by Wagner? I wonder how they compare to the Silverstars. I'll have them installed this weekend.

The previous owner of my car was running Wagners when I bought 10287 from him in 2012. I am 29 with decent eyesight and I struggled to see at night with the Wagners. I can't be certain that the low beams were aimed properly however but I switched to Silverstars in 2013 and have found them to be a massive improvement over what I had. I don't remember the Silverstars being horribly expensive, around $26 on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/SYLVANIA-Silve...nia+silverstar

[dn010]

Thanks for the heads up, you get what you pay for. I definitely don't want to make matters worse with seeing at night. I wish I would have come across this thread before ordering those bulbs but luckily it is less than $30 so I'm not out much.

The previous owner of my car was running Wagners when I bought 10287 from him in 2012. I am 29 with decent eyesight and I struggled to see at night with the Wagners. I can't be certain that the low beams were aimed properly however but I switched to Silverstars in 2013 and have found them to be a massive improvement over what I had. I don't remember the Silverstars being horribly expensive, around $26 on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/SYLVANIA-Silve...nia+silverstar

[DMCVegas]

has anyone installed a set of these? im sort of interested in the white surround LED DRL's. I would love to see a picture of a set installed on a D. Do these sort of headlights burn hotter than stock? Which ever headlight I choose, I really don't want to invite back the facia brows.

If you don't want eyebrows on your front fascia, you really need to install some brackets to prevent them from forming in the first place. Headlights definitely contribute to the problem, but they're not the only cause. Even desert heat can make them more pliable.

[Chris 16409]

A Friend of Mine bought these units from Hella:
http://m.summitracing.com/parts/hla-003177801

You can get screw in Silversar bulbs for them. He said they were all glass contraction

[DMCMW Dave]

Please avoid the plastic Chinese kits that seem to be for sale all over the place. They are miserable quality. Also avoid the LED lights that appear to be an array of single LEDs. They just blind people.

I agree that the glass Hellas mentioned are probably the way to go for a good conversion. you will need to modify the wiring a bit and find the correct bulbs so that the outers are two-element and the inners are single.

Silverstar sealed beams are much better than plain old style sealed beams, but the life of the bulbs is very short compared to standard sealed beams. That's the trade-off for higher brightness at the same power (watts).

[Chris4099]

has anyone installed a set of these? im sort of interested in the white surround LED DRL's. I would love to see a picture of a set installed on a D. Do these sort of headlights burn hotter than stock? Which ever headlight I choose, I really don't want to invite back the facia brows.

I'm installing a similar set now. I don't have a good picture as I'm still installing mine. Keep in mind that you will have to modify the headlight buckets by making the hole bigger. I would also recommend getting a unit that has the DRL wiring either come out the back or via a low profile wire on the side. Some have a large socket on the side that may require you to cut yet another hole into the bucket to fit. Heat should only be an issue if you use a H4 bulb that uses a lot more power then standard (such as the 100w bulbs out there). Here's the unit I'm currently working with:
http://www.jegs.com/i/ORACLE-Lightin...9-001/10002/-1

A local owner has them but in green and they look good. Very bright DRLs too. Here's a quick pic of mine running while I test the heat and beam pattern:
20160130_173942.jpg

I'll be making a full write up later after I get them installed and some drive time done.

[Mark D]

A Friend of Mine bought these units from Hella:
http://m.summitracing.com/parts/hla-003177801

You can get screw in Silversar bulbs for them. He said they were all glass contraction

These Hella H4 housings look like they are good quality and similar in appearance to a halogen/silverstar. At 200 bucks for a set of 4 plus the price of the H4 bulbs it's a little steep, but I may look at going this route in the future. As Dave mentioned the silverstars tend to burn out faster than a regular bulb so in the long term these may actually save you money.

Another thing to note is that these Hella housings are not DOT approved (illegal in the US) because of the ECE beam pattern. That being said, I have done an H4 conversion on my Jeep with Cibie ECE beam housings and I actually prefer the euro beam pattern to the DOT spec housings.

The main difference is that with a DOT housing there is some amount of beam that is intentionally scattered upward to illuminate road signs. This can also produce glare under certain conditions since there is a soft cutoff point for the beam. The ECE beam pattern has a much sharper horizontal cutoff with an angled wedge section of the beam that points up and to the right to illuminate signs.

With the ECE beam housings on my Jeep I can run a higher wattage/brighter H4 bulb and not blind anyone on the road due to the crisper cutoff. If you go this route you just need to ensure the lights are aimed properly and you wont' have any issues. I'm currently running 80/100 H4's in my jeep and the difference between the stock halogens is unbelievable. I also built a completely new wiring harness to handle the extra power. I'm not sure what the stock DeLorean wiring can handle, but I'd probably upgrade it if I go to an H4 conversion. On my jeep I ran 12 awg wire that was direct to battery with relays triggered by the stock harness connectors. This way it required no modifications to the stock wiring harness. If anyone is interested I can post the schematic.

I do very little night driving in the DeLorean, so at this point the silverstars have been good enough, but now seeing those stock looking H4 housings is making me reconsider.