My 2007 Saab 93 low beam headlights are about the worst factory stock headlights I have ever had. The PO put standard cheep bulbs in it H7 55 wat. I have found H770w by hella. This is a 15 watt increase over stock. Obviously the H7100w are way to much and would at a minimum require me to add relays and even then I would be worried about melting the housings. So what say you all is a 15 watt upgrade safe with factory wiring and reflectors?
I'd upgrade the factory wiring, as it likely has significant voltage drop with the stock bulbs (limiting them to less than full brightness). The housings will probably be fine at 70W though.
Im running the 100s in my e39 lowbeams. Only been a few weeks, but didn't seem to be too much better than the cheapie bulbs.
What about a projector and hid retro?
Do like everyone else and throw in some led bulbs .. don't worries about blinding oncoming traffic, it's standard operating procedure now !
In reply to dean1484 :
H7 is a recent spec bulb so it shouldn't be that bad. The best overall H7 I found are Osram nightbreaker silver (aka silverstars )shipped from europe.
If you want to go one spec higher, Nightbreaker lasers would be the top bulb. I also have the headlights relayed to minimize the voltage drop. My headlights on my old mk3 golf with ecodes is excellent.
Does anyone make projectors that replace a plain 5 1/4" round sealed beam?
I've used Sylvania Silverstar Ultra bulbs and are happy with them
In reply to snailmont5oh :
I used the hella lights (projector low beam, capsule high) from a late 80s e30 to swap my 64 el Camino lights. Worked perfectly
The Saab has projector low beams and reflector high beams. Both use H755W. I am thinking the I should be considering a new set of housings that include the projectors. They are not expensive at all as I think people want to dump stock. Then go with the H770W bulbs and see how that works.
All of that will cost me less than $200. The new OE headlight assemblies are only $180 for the pair. The Hela H770W I found for less than $3 each.
dean1484 said:The Saab has projector low beams and reflector high beams. Both use H755W. I am thinking the I should be considering a new set of housings that include the projectors. They are not expensive at all as I think people want to dump stock. Then go with the H770W bulbs and see how that works.
All of that will cost me less than $200. The new OE headlight assemblies are only $180 for the pair. The Hela H770W I found for less than $3 each.
for a pair of new headlights thats not that bad.
Dean: since you already have low beam projectors, try a set of 55w hid drop in bulbs. Made a dramatic differencein the wifes minivan, and not annoying to other drivers. Weve been running xentec from ebay with really good life.
At least the mazda projector housings have a sharp cutoff line to make this work. How is the cutoff on the saab?
My 2007 Saab 93 burned through bulbs about every 9 months or so. It was a common Saab thing. Likely the reason for the elcheepo bulbs in there because the the PO was tired of replacing bulbs. I wouldn't spend much on fancy bulbs.
I read somewhere that Saab did some funky stuff with the headlights to Extend the service life, must have been super bad before that. People also had loads of grief trying to retrofit HID in the non-hid circuit because of this too. Lots of strobing and whatnot.
I'm about to stab these in my Fordza Branger and see how bad they are. They went on super sale for $29.99 so I thought I'd give them a try.
Gotta sand and polish my yellow headlight lenses first. I figure if they suck I can poke them in some housings as bright backup lights
In reply to Curtis :
I have similar ones from Beamtech in my motorcycle. In a reflector housing they aren’t as bad as HID but they don’t mimic a halogen beam pattern. It might be close enough to work without blinding people but I’m thinking it’s a case by case thing.
I have the Beamtech LED's in my Mazda 3 with the stock halogen projectors. These actually try to mimic the light output pattern of a stock bulb, unlike the HID bulbs they sell, so you actually get a focused pattern out of the light. They work better than stock, and they haven't blinded anyone yet, but YMMV. Still, I wish they could be better.
I actually just bought some 9005's for my high beams, because the cheapo blue tint bulbs I bought last winter leave a lot to be desired. Those are in reflector housings, but since I don't use them all the time, it should be ok.
As just a guess, you probably have the "standard" Euro car headlamp voltage drop. Make or buy a headlight relay kit to allow full voltage to get to the bulbs.
Dusterbd13 said:In reply to snailmont5oh :
I used the hella lights (projector low beam, capsule high) from a late 80s e30 to swap my 64 el Camino lights. Worked perfectly
Genius!
Aspen said:My 2007 Saab 93 burned through bulbs about every 9 months or so. It was a common Saab thing. Likely the reason for the elcheepo bulbs in there because the the PO was tired of replacing bulbs. I wouldn't spend much on fancy bulbs.
I read somewhere that Saab did some funky stuff with the headlights to Extend the service life, must have been super bad before that. People also had loads of grief trying to retrofit HID in the non-hid circuit because of this too. Lots of strobing and whatnot.
I think Saab had lots of daytime running light stuff that was undefeatable (even on my 99 9-3 you had to pull a fuse if you didn't want DRL). They might have been doing lower duty cycle for DRLs or other sillyness and heating/cooling the bulbs and filaments more than usual. Maybe that was leading to the shorter life cycle?
Robbie said:Aspen said:My 2007 Saab 93 burned through bulbs about every 9 months or so. It was a common Saab thing. Likely the reason for the elcheepo bulbs in there because the the PO was tired of replacing bulbs. I wouldn't spend much on fancy bulbs.
I read somewhere that Saab did some funky stuff with the headlights to Extend the service life, must have been super bad before that. People also had loads of grief trying to retrofit HID in the non-hid circuit because of this too. Lots of strobing and whatnot.
I think Saab had lots of daytime running light stuff that was undefeatable (even on my 99 9-3 you had to pull a fuse if you didn't want DRL). They might have been doing lower duty cycle for DRLs or other sillyness and heating/cooling the bulbs and filaments more than usual. Maybe that was leading to the shorter life cycle?
That is my guess as well. My dad gave us his old 2005 9-3 vert and in the US the lights are on all the time. I have read that someone with a TechII can turn the DRLs off and have the light switch actually do something.
Curtis said:I'm about to stab these in my Fordza Branger and see how bad they are. They went on super sale for $29.99 so I thought I'd give them a try.
Gotta sand and polish my yellow headlight lenses first. I figure if they suck I can poke them in some housings as bright backup lights
Let me know how that works out. I've been thinking of LEDs instead of making the HIDs I have work.
Aaron_King said:Robbie said:Aspen said:My 2007 Saab 93 burned through bulbs about every 9 months or so. It was a common Saab thing. Likely the reason for the elcheepo bulbs in there because the the PO was tired of replacing bulbs. I wouldn't spend much on fancy bulbs.
I read somewhere that Saab did some funky stuff with the headlights to Extend the service life, must have been super bad before that. People also had loads of grief trying to retrofit HID in the non-hid circuit because of this too. Lots of strobing and whatnot.
I think Saab had lots of daytime running light stuff that was undefeatable (even on my 99 9-3 you had to pull a fuse if you didn't want DRL). They might have been doing lower duty cycle for DRLs or other sillyness and heating/cooling the bulbs and filaments more than usual. Maybe that was leading to the shorter life cycle?
That is my guess as well. My dad gave us his old 2005 9-3 vert and in the US the lights are on all the time. I have read that someone with a TechII can turn the DRLs off and have the light switch actually do something.
I need to look at this. Because the headlight switch does nothing in my car. I am now thinking that the car is in perminant DRL mode.
Dusterbd13 said:In reply to snailmont5oh :
I used the hella lights (projector low beam, capsule high) from a late 80s e30 to swap my 64 el Camino lights. Worked perfectly
Please tell me more about this, maybe even in a PM!
In reply to snailmont5oh :
Take a look in the drivabeater 2.0 thread, i think i documented in there.
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