Silverstar burning out ?? any suggestions ?
 

Hello,

I bought a pair of Sylvania, Silverstars it's for a 97 4runner sr5. I noticed something funny. The passenger side was brighter. After 2 weeks it burnt out. Any suggestions?

Try 4crawlers upgraded wiring harness for the lights. From what I've read here, the Silverstars require a certain amount of voltage to get longer life. The upgraded harness tends to improve the wattage to the bulbs for brighter lights. Just go to 4crawler's website and read up.

My guess would be that either the voltage at the passenger side headlight is higher than the other or that you had a defective bulb.

Wow that was fast thanks for the assist

the passenger side is brighter on my truck too.... And I have silverstars.....hmmmm

Sliverstars have been known to go out really fast. Try sending them back to Sylvania for a replacement set if you still have the receipt. I've had mine for over 2 years now with no problems (knock on wood).

Getting proper operating voltage is the best way to get the rated life out of the bulbs:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...l#Installation

With halogen lamps, if they are run even 10% under rated voltage, they lose the "halogen" effect and turn into plain old incandescent bulbs. Since the filaments in halogen lamps are usually made thinner (since with proper redeposition of tungsten by the halogen effect, you don't need to make them as heavy) they tend to burn out very fast when run at too low a voltage.

You may have also had a defective bulb, possibly a defect in the filament that cused it to burn too bright and burn out in short order (like a flash bulb).

ive had the pair of silverstars that are in my 4runner now for over 3 years. I had them in my pathfinder and when i sold it i took them out. I traded in the pathfinder with cheap a$$ bulbs. Ive never had a problem with them.

When installing them, did you happen to touch the bulb lense with your skin?

That's the most common reason for early bulb failure. Be very careful not to touch the bulb with your hands!

I've had my Silverstars for 2+ years, and they work great. No problems at all.

Did I mention: I hate sylvania silverstars? I can never get them to last any longer than 6 months.

Yeah, fer cryin' out loud people, just leave your headlight bulbs alone! What's the best case scenario?...you gain a couple of lumens of light for an extra $30? Give me a break! Spend the $30 towards anything else...Get over it people, your lights don't matter! OE lights will light up any trail any time as long as you need them to. Let's not all give way to these retail traps just because they're reasonably affordable! It's called self control people, let's take the time out to be reasonable about headlights and not ˟˟˟˟˟˟ with' 'em.

My Silverstars are quite a noticeable improvement over OEM Sylvania replacements and I did a comparo using my mom's '99 side by side. I just don't know why some people have such variances in life of them especially people that are getting 6 months out of them. If you have DRLs than they definetly aren't worth the trouble but I've had two sets and the ones in my '97 lasted over 18 months and the ones in my '99 are over a year old.

You can do quite a bit to improve the lights that are on there in stock form. Adding a relay wiring kit will likely double the light you are getting out of whatever lights you have now if running the tired factory wiring. I know it did on my '85 and the difference was dramatic, like night and day (sorry for the pun). And that is like 400-500 more lumens per lamp.
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...l#Installation

One advantage the H4 lamps have over the stock 6054 sealed beams is that is is easier to carry a spare bulb instead of a whole new headlight and the cost for new bulbs is reasonable. Also, the better reflector and sharp low beam cutoff really helps on a lifted truck. With the stock headlights, I used to get flashed a lot more and now, lifted higher I never get flashed with the Hella Vision Plus headlights on low beam. ANd on high beam with a higher wattage bulb, I get plenty of light for off-road use and that saves me the hassle and expense of adding additional off-road lights. I just run headlights and fog lights and that works for every condition I have encountered.

I apologize for my rant. I, too, enjoy the whiter light that some aftermarket bulbs emit. I think that my frustration is with the petty nature of some cosmetic improvements that are available. As with any upgrade, there is a correct and incorrect way to do it and a high and low quality product with which to do it. Perhaps the Silverstars, being mass produced as they are, have a particularly high defect rate? Or perhaps the manufacturing of them is outsourced by Sylvania to misc. low bidding off shore manufacturers? At any rate, their longevity appears to be questionable at best, maybe a 50/50 chance of having them work successfully.

I don't go for any of the name brand headlight bulbs, at least the ones where you have to pay extra for the name. I find the generic H4 bulbs last about as long as the ones that are 2-10 times the price. I've had to replace one 55/100W bulb in about 4 years use. That is one advantage of the H4 setup you have a choice of housing and bulbs and can mix-n-match as you see fit. I have had the Hella housings I run on my 4Runner for 10-12 years now and they have been on 3 different vehicles in that time.

I'll have to read up at your site....which, by the way, I always learn something from when I visit it.

Check out the information there as well as test your own headlight voltage. It seems Toyotas will either measure 1/2 volt drop to the headlights or they will have 2 or more volts of drop. If your vehicle is the former, you are good to go, but if it is the latter, gettting rid of as much voltage drop as feasible is a good idea, no matter what headlights you have. On my other vehicle, I was thinking of upgrading the headlights, but dropped in the relay harness and saw such a huge improvement that I kept the old lights.

You can also read the even nore detailed information on the Daniel Stern site which I supply a link to on the page. Most of the information on my page is sort of a condensed and simplified version of the Daniel's info.