I'm confused (Another Bulb Question)
 

I was going to buy the Sylvania Silver Star lights, but as I was checking their web site, they listed the 9004 bulb with a Max. wattage of 50/70. The OEM bulbs from Mercedes are 55/60 so does that mean I will blow out these Silver Stars? Also, I called Performance Products and they said that my car uses an H5 bulb which is also known as a 9007 bulb. In previous posts, other members have stated that my bulb is a 9004 so is Performance Products wrong? The 9007 bulb is also available in the Silver Star with a Max. wattage of 60/70. So which bulb can/should I be using? Please forgive my ignorance, I'm just a bit confused.

http://www.sylvania.com/auto/silverstar.htm

Brian

Pull the bulb. it should have a type on it.

the wattage I would think should be fine. thats the light output. the bulb is still a 12 volt bulb I believe.

Alon

Alon's Right...
 

The wattage is the light output rating of the bulb. The voltage and current draw should be the same.

The 9004, H5, and 9007 are all three different bulbs.

Sylvania has a website where they list their bulbs by car model:

http://www.sylvania.com/auto/carapp/

According to them, your car calls for 9004's.

The main reason that the wattage is higher on these bulbs is because Cool Blue and Silver Star are coated Halogen bulbs. The coating does two things: Filters out the yellow from the Halogen to make it appear to be "whiter". And diminishes the amount of output from the bulb, so they have to increase the wattage to compensate for the diminished "brightness".

Thanks for the replys Alon and Scott. So just to clarify things, the light output of the Silver Star (Max. Watts 50/70) isn't as good as the OEM bulb (Max. Watts 55/60)?

Yes, And No...
 

What I'm stating is that it is about equal. The higher wattage is to compensate for a loss of brightness from the coating on the bulb. It is about the same brightness, just whiter, and different. When I changed over a vehicle to these recently, I had to take time to get used to the color change in the headlights. I also had to re-aim my headlamps, but that was on my minivan...

The color frequency, or "temperature" of the lamp more closely approximates sunlight than Halogen does, so you will hardly see them during daylight hours, even when it's cloudy and raining. You also won't see as well in areas that have mercury-vapor lamps and other brightly lit city street lighting. But you will see more dramatic of a difference on dark country roads.