GE Nighthawk Headlight Bulbs
December 23rd, 2007 by PotatoMy latest car repair/upgrade was my headlights. I do a ton of night driving, often driving between London and Toronto in the middle of the night with few others on the road. Lately I’ve found though that it’s been far too easy to over-drive my headlights, and I haven’t been quite as confident driving out there on my own, at least not above 90 km/h or so. While both of my headlights were still working, I know that the passenger side one was last replaced about 4 years ago, and the driver’s side one could be original to the car for all I know (5+ years). When the passenger’s side one burned out and was replaced, it was noticeably brighter than the driver’s side one for a while, but now both have dimmed to the point where, well, they’re both dim. I know that halogen lights dim over time, and should generally be replaced before they actually burn out completely, so that’s what I did.
I chose GE Nighthawk bulbs, which (should be) are compatible with my headlights. They’re supposed to be brighter than typical car headlights, and I had read a lot more good reviews about them than some of the other options (the Sylvania Silverstars, for instance, get mixed reviews about light output, and mostly just seem to be obnoxious blue). With a $10 mail in rebate, I decided to take the plunge and get a pair this week. I was expecting an improvement, a substantial improvement (I figured generic halogens would be an improvement), but not necessarily something as bright as my parents’ HIDs.
After doing a little bit of driving, I’m not hugely impressed. They’re only a touch “whiter” than regular halogens, which I’m fine with. I was hoping for brighter, with a longer viewing distance, and while they are an improvement over the old, worn out bulbs, it’s a surprisingly marginal difference. I think the point at which I risk overdriving them is about 100-110 km/h, which is a bit of an improvement. Interestingly, the bias to the right for the illumination seems a lot more pronounced than before, so I’ll have to figure out how to check my headlight alignment (if it can be adjusted easily at all). I actually found it a little distracting, since the shoulder was lit up better than my lane was, it almost made me want to pull off towards the right.
Despite the slight improvement, I still found that whenever another car would pull up beside me, their light output would almost always put mine to shame :(
December 28th, 2007 at 3:05 am
Ok, my headlight alignment was off by a fair bit. I’ve only had time to touch up the passenger side pointing a bit, and even that has made a huge difference. The drivers’ side is supposed to be dipped a little further down so it doesn’t blind oncoming drivers, but my passenger one was lower, pointing down at about 20 degrees (it should be, IIRC, about 5 degrees or less down; just a bit below the level), so it was really just sucking. While I still think it’s pointed a little too far to the right, and that the drivers’ side is still a bit too low, it is a really nice improvement. I can’t believe I didn’t check that sooner!