Hi,

I have a 90 300D and one of my headlights burnt out. What is the recommended replacement bulb? Is it the H5 (9004) Halogen bulb OR would you recommend the Silverstar Xenon bulb?

I am concerned with replacing the bulb with another bulb that runs hotter since it will distort the plastic headlight assembly. My current headlights seem to not light the road very well and I am thinking of upgrading.

Do the Xenon bulbs runner hotter than the traditional Halogen bulb? I appreciate any recommendations. Thanks.

Silverstar bulbs are BS. All they do is change the color not the output. An easy upgrade is installing 9007 bulbs with a modified socket. Theres a lot of how to guides online. If you want a lot more light get a hid kit.

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Silverstar Ultras worked well for me.

If you want to get the Silverstars, make sure they are made by OSRAM, and not Sylvania.

But if it were me I'd ditch the whole NAM setup and go with Euros, then drop in a set of respectable H4's. Personally I use OSRAM Night Breaker Plus in my 190E and they got superseded so they are now Unlimited, I have them on my 300D.

Old Nightbreaker "Plus" in my 300D - notice the faded blue coating. New ones obviously have unfaded blue coating similar to old one. Low beam has NO tint (clear band). High beam has the blue coating.

"Plus" (old)


"Unlimited" (new)


"Made in Germany"


But that's just me

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x2 and x2. Silverstar Ultras made a big improvement in our Caravan without any blue or rainbow or any color tint. Just light that's whiter and brighter than regular halogens. Don't bother with more expensive bulbs for DOT headlights. With Euro headlights, even Depo, basic 55-watt bulbs will give you all the light you need. IMO, TYC headlights are poorly made.

Sixto
87 300D

Hi All,

Thanks for the recommendations. If I go with the Silverstar Ultra bulb, will they run hotter than the traditional Halogen bulb?

I have heard of headlight assemblies(plastic) getting distorted because of more powerful bulbs being installed and running too hot for the original specifications of the headlight assembly.

Would this be an issue if I install the Silverstar Ultra bulbs instead of the standards H5 bulb? Thanks.

Best Regards,
Louis

If you put a super high wattage bulb in stock sockets on stock wiring you can certainly start to melt stuff. Stock bulbs are like what 35/55w? When you melt stuff are eBay 70/100w bulbs.

Get euro headlights if you don't have headlamp inspections where you live. Get DEPOs on eBay for like $150. They look fantastic and the difference in light output is huge. OEM is certainly the best but price and availability has steered me to DEPO on a couple occasions. I've had depos on my 87 sedan for three years and I haven't had a rusty reflector or anything some warn of. I have depos on the sedan and real euros on my 87 wagon and the output is similar.

I played with sylvania standard, xtra vision, and silverstars on my dodge Dakota when I was in high school. They do get progressively brighter but I think silverstars are expensive for what you get.

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68 280SL - 70 280SL - 70 300SEL 3.5 - 72 350SL - 72 280SEL 4.5 - 72 220 - 72 220D - 73 450SL - 84 230GE - 87 200TD - 90 190E 2.0 - 03 G500

Nissan GTR - Nissan Skyline GTS25T - Toyota GTFour - Rover Mini - Toyota Land Cruiser HJ60 - Cadillac Eldorado - BMW E30 - BMW 135i

The stock w124 NAMs use 45W/65W bulbs. 45W is for low beam. The stock w124 Euro lights use 55W/65W bulbs. There is a 10W difference between the two. Combine that with the superior lens of the Euro beam pattern, and you'll see why a lot of folks convert to these Euro assemblies.

I too tried the XtraVision bulbs before with sealed beams on my w123 before I switched to Euros, and I kept adjusting the beam because I could find a suitable setting. Now with the Euros I just adjust it properly and be done with it.



Additionally, and this is from my observation so far, I notice that the W124 and W201 (I don't have a W126 to observe) NAM lights, the bulb plug has insulation material. What I've seen so far is this insulation material degrades over time and causes the plastic to melt or burn, leaving you with no low beams but with high beams (or vice versa, but having low beams only is better than high beams only). My sister's 190E had this problem and we had our mechanic solder in a new plug/socket to get her lights working again.

Melted headlight plug on W124

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Nope, they're just painted blue. The paint filters out the non blue parts of the spectrum so it tricks your brain into believing its brighter when in fact you just reduced the color spectrum and your vision. Marketing is a beautiful thing. The only way to increase the amount of light is through higher wattage bulbs or hids.

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Hi All,

Thanks for the great insights! It sounds like the XtraVision or Silverstar may help with more light and it will NOT damage the plastic on the headlight assembly since the temperature of the bulbs are the same since they are all the same watts. Is that correct?

Any recommendations on how best to replace them? I plan on wearing gloves so that I don't damage the bulbs. Any other things I should watch out for? Thanks.

Best Regards,
Louis

XtraVision is what I would replace them with. Not the Cool Blue, not the SilverStars. Little bit better than stock.

The SilverStars will have the shortest life. Stock is longest, but XtraVision has slightly more light but won't have significant lifespan shortening compared to SS.

I use gloves, and a dry, clean towel for wiping down the glass immediately prior to installation.

Remember the 9004 bulbs used for these cars have an "L" shape so try to put it in without touching the housing. The bulbs are pretty robust but I'd like to maintain the long life designed into them by installing properly.

Inspect the plugs/sockets too, if they're slightly burnt/dark, start looking for a replacement to be soldered in.

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Thanks for the recommendations. I will order the XtraVision to replace my stock headlight bulbs. I will also ensure to install them properly.

Do you know how to adjust the positioning of the headlights on a W124 so that they are highlighting more of the road? Is there a way to adjust up/down and left/right so that they are working more effectively? Thanks.

Did you figure it out in 2+ months
There should be three adjusting knobs at the back of the headlight assembly. One for the fog lights and two for the headlights. The adjusters could be rusted and fragile so use wd-40 and caution.
-Cheers

Give Daniel Stern a call.

Avoid Silverstars and ESPECIALLY avoid HID kits. Actual lumen measurements by integrating sphere have shown Silverstars to have the least lumens of Sylvania's lineup, lower than stock even. The physics are simple, you can not increase brightness by adding a filter to a bulb that removes light. They also have the highest cost and the lowest lifespan. They at least maintain beam pattern, which can not be said for HID kits. There are ways to legally and safely retrofit HID headlights onto a vehicle, stuffing an HID capsule in a housing designed for a halogen bulb is not it.

Seriously, give Daniel Stern a call. danielsternlighting.com

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617 swapped Toyota Pickup, 22-24 MPG, 50k miles on swap