Want to upgrade your headlights the right way? Read here.
 

So I decided to contact the guys over at Daniel Stern Lighting (http://www.danielsternlighting.com/) regarding the headlight bulbs in the FR-S. I wanted an effective, and reasonably priced upgrade over stock as I do lots of night time highway driving. I also wanted to make sure that I wouldn't be blinding oncoming motorists, I know how frustrating that can be.

When asked about the H11 Low Beam he said the following
1350 Lumens to 2100! That's an increase of 55% in light output.
DIY Can be found here:
http://www.rx8club.com/do-yourself-f...socket-119161/

For the 9005 High Beam he said:
Once again, a very respectable increase in light output over stock at 48% more light.

I also asked about the retrofit kits available from The Retrofit Source and he said:

I will say that I'm in no way affiliated with Daniel Stern Lighting or The CandlePower Store, I'm just a very pleased customer.

TL:DR Version:

Buy a set of Phillips H9's for the low beam and trim the inside of the plug molded onto the bulb. 55% more light without blinding people. DIY Here:
http://www.rx8club.com/do-yourself-f...socket-119161/

Buy a set of 9011's for the high beam and do this (http://dastern.torque.net/Mods/HIRmod.html) 48% more light than stock with properly focused beam.

Total cost of ~$150.00 or less and significant improvement.

FYI if you're looking for ricer blue headlights that look "cool" this won't accomplish that.

I disagree with all of these points...but whatever. I did a projector retrofit myself (as have tens of thousands of others with other types of cars and headlights)

our car's projector as 4 screws that mount it to the headlight assembly. How can you f" 4 screw mounting points?

But if I don't blind people thats fewer people bitching about HIDs. First world problems.

I was surprised by this as well to be honest. That said, I've never done it before so I can't really comment one way or another.

Thanks for the info, but like aftermarket HID's, you still end up placing bulbs that were not designed for our housings, much like aftermarket HID's. I had my share of HID retrofit, I even build custom lenses for my 6th gen celica and I can say that if somebody wants to to a proper HID setup on the cheap, a 4000-5000 K aftermarket HID kit will work, and if you want to be really "good" to other drivers you can bend off the squirrel finders. (I'm talking about the stock FR-S headlights here).

Whichever way, you have to spend money and time thinkering with your headlights, but all theses solutions are good anyway.

From what I've read wrt to swapping bulbs, the main reason HID swaps are a problem is that the bulb itself is a different size & shape, not to mention that the light mainly comes from the ends of the bulb. With the alternatives suggested here this is not the case. The new bulbs are the same size and shape, with the filament in the same location. Theoretically they should have the exact same beam pattern and focus as stock.

When asked about the H11 Low Beam he said the following
Quote:
In your FR-S? Your low beams take a 1350-lumen H11 bulb. You can easily, safely, and effectively replace this with a 2100-lumen H9 bulb, which you ought to be able to find locally by seeking the high beam bulb for a 2008 Chevrolet Malibu. Use a good brand (GE, Philips, Osram-Sylvania) and stick to colorless clear bulbs, not any kind of "whiter light" bulb such as the Sylvania Silver Star scam. Can also get online, http://store.candlepower.com/h-9.html .You may need to shave a small ridge of plastic off the H9 bulb's connector so that the H11 socket will snap on. Other than that, it's a direct swap. The only disadvantage is shorter low beam bulb life — the H11 is optimised for very long life with relatively modest light output, while the H9 is optimised for very high output with relatively short life. Note that the H9 swap is not universal; it works well in projector-type low beams but is not safe in most reflector-type low beams or in fog lamps of any type.
1350 Lumens to 2100! That's an increase of 55% in light output.
DIY Can be found here:
http://www.rx8club.com/do-yourself-f...socket-119161/

The DIY link details the cutting of more than the "small ridge of plastic..." Does this need to be done for the FRS fitment?

$150? MUCH less lol, my amazon cart right now is like $48 for 4 bulbs.

I noticed that, and googled for other tutorials. Apparently some people don't bother with that. See here:

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show....php?t=2083911

He didn't do the front cover mod and doesn't seem to have run into any problems. Also, he has temperature data between the two lights!

Daniel Stern is widely regarded as an authority on automotive lighting. As for why HID kits and projectors are usually a terrible idea, look here: Thinking of converting to HID? - It's due to many factors, like bulb shape and housing design.

Anyone have comparison pics? I'll do it with pics if anyone is interested.

FWIW, h9 was design to use for high beams... it uses more heat and energy, hence why it has low life span as compare to h11... just like back in the days, where 9006.9005 was popular.. people would modify high beam bulbs (9005) to fit in place of 9006...
if you do lots of night driving, will this extra heat be okay to the housing/wiring?

H9 bulbs on sale on Amazon
 

"Ingen" - thanks for the link to the other write-up. The temperature information was very informative; nice to know there is no significant heat build-up. Deeper into the thread, lots of good reports from users.

$7.03 and if you order $25+ (order 4), free standard shipping.
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Philips-Standard-Headlight-Bulb-Pack/dp/B00480KOP4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358307791&sr=8-1&keywords=phillips+h9"]Philips H9 Standard Headlight Bulb, Pack of 1 : Amazon.com : Automotive[/ame]


For comparison, Autozone is asking $14 and change for 1 bulb.

all 3 degrees?

Yep. Should be fine. The link I posted has a second DIY where a guy only encountered a slight heat build up issue over 10 minutes with lights on and car not moving.

Theoretically some of the OP's / Daniel post may be accurate, but I disagree with the TRS diatribe. Practically, the visible end result is more valuable. I went the TRS route, with projectors and proper cutoffs. The product was well made, there is only one way to mount the lens and it is VERY secure (center of gravity.....please).

What I experience is MUCH better lighting than stock. No bulb vibration (impossible with the screws holding the lens in place), no gaseous interference from silicon (used factory adhesive) etc, etc, etc.

I think he is referring to people that just use TRS projectors and not the proper housings, the mini H1 kit designed for our cars, and the H1 kit in general, is a well designed housing and kit..

http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/forum.php

Great forum with everything you could think of about hid kits, from the cheaper ones we use to very expensive high end kits

Ahhhhh. Apologies.

He could be talking about our kits... Idk... But there is no cutting or painting, that's what makes me think he means projector only and not housings.. But he does have a point with the high and lows lol.. I'm still working on getting them perfect

yes from his response, sounds like he's talking about normal retrofit which, putting a HID projectors into a reflector housing, hence cutting.. I don't have the TRS kit, but looking installation pix, it looks pretty sturdy to me, as sturdy as stock projectors...

Nothing in that article discusses replaces a halogen projector with a HID calibrated projector using the factory mounts. I have read that article many times, it is why I went the route I did - which is a proper retrofit

OK, in a mad dash to pull this thread back on topic...

Do you guys think that upgrading the low beams (h11 to h9) would be beneficial enough to skip the high beam bulbs, or should I do it all at once? Since it is all halogen I would not think I would have a color difference, but I am unsure of that.

Has anyone done the upgrade yet, or will I be the one making the thread?

Great mod!
 

I just did the H9 mod last night and IMHO it puts out so much light that I'm going to stay with stock Hi-beams for the time being. $7 a bulb... what a great (and value-based) mod!

Did some research and found "opinions" that H9 bulbs should last approximately 500 hours. So... do the math.. figure out an average amount of time you drive with headlights and you'll have an approximate projection of when you'll need to replace the bulb.

Example: 30 minute commute each way in the dark each work day... 1 hr... 500 hour expected life... 500 days... plan on the bulbs lasting at least a year. (Longer commutes and weekend driving routines... factor that in too.)

To put this in context of other types of hi-output bulbs... I put Silverstars (about $17 ea on Amazon) in my wifes SUV and they only last about 1.5 year (based on her driving routine).

So... I'll be keeping a spare set (maybe the OEM H11s...) on-board after I've run these H9s for over a year. I ordered 4 bulbs on Amazon (to get the free shipping) so the next set is already modded and ready-to-go.

As always... YMMV

Agreed. Below the cutoffs, the beam of the high beams is invisible. The low-beam... beam... sort of eats it up. So when the highs are on it just looks like you moved the low beam cutoff upwards, IMO.

Also, THIS WAS SO EASY, and it's so good. I love it.

Aha, good to know I can use that extra pair of H9 bulbs I have laying around. I did the same conversion on my '10 wrx (shares same H11 lowbeam) and it was a pretty solid improvement. I originally bought two pairs of H9's because of the reported short lifespan.. funny enough they lasted a little over a 18 months before one burned out. For what they cost a year n half or so worth of use is reasonable.

So far I've found the FRS headlights to be ok with the factory bulbs but more output is always desirable. I think after work this evening I'm going to try this out n maybe gets some pics.

K so here are the pics. Driver side is H9.. passenger is factory H11.

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h1...k/SAM_0516.jpg

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h1...k/SAM_0515.jpg

You can see that the H9 is a little whiter and the pattern looks a little more full especially toward the middle and bottom of the hot spot. The cutoff is unchanged so no worry about blinding oncoming drivers.

Driving impression;

As mentioned, it was a little whiter and the pattern out to the sides and front is filled in better. There aren't any deep shadows like before in the foreground and the lights do seem to reach out better than before. Over all not a huge improvement but probably one that will show up better in bad weather where light output seems at its worst.

Philips H11 X-Treme Vision
 

Hi guys, I'm curious to know how this would compare against the H9 in terms of lumens output? I've used these before in another vehicle with pretty good results, plus its a direct fit no need to trim anything.

I know the H9 would be awesome in terms of light output, but I don't really want to go with that coz of the extra fiddling around, extra heat, and reduced lifespan. Not going to bother with cheapo eBay HID kits either, been there done that....can't be stuffed doing that again.

From my reading... my guess is that the H11 "Extreme" or " ultra" bulb will be "whiter" but not as many lumens as the H9. And since they cost almost twice as much as the H9 and might only last about 250-300 hours... The H9 option is a better value in addition to the higher output. My other rig has factory HIDs and for giggles I drove it this evening and the H9 in the FRS is just about as bright -- IMHO. Doing the H9 bulb mod is a minor thing... I have to left thumbs and even I didn't mess it up. Note: you do have to take the short tab down all the way to the base for the bulb to securely fit onto the hookup (plug) so have a small (thin) file handy to get deep into the socket.

Color does not equate to lumens... the good news is that as one tinkers with possible options, the cost is relatively nominal.

Cheers mate. But I think you may have mistaken the Philips Xtreme Vision range with their other "crystal vision" or "diamond vision" range. The later two have a higher kelvin rating giving them a whitish appearance. But these generally have lower lumen output than even the oem bulbs (not sure by how much though).

But the Xtreme Vision range claims to be "+100% brighter and +35m longer beam" than standard bulbs. The kelvin rating is similar to oem therefore colour wise looks stock. But I was curious to know how many lumens it actually produces.

Just wanted some comparison against the H9 bulbs in terms of lumen output....not saying either is better or worse than the other :)

Update... 2 years later...
 

Tried this H9 "conversion" mod back when I first got the car in Jan 2013. I've gone over two years and 30K miles w/o an issue. I've got brighter (although not "whiter") illumination than OEM H11 bulbs.

Anyway, ordered two more bulbs off of eBay for about $15... spent about 5 min. per bulb to use an Exacto Knife to shave down the smaller plastic guide... and about 20 seconds to trim off the little bit of the metal from the larger of the three mounting tabs.... and I've changed out to some new bulbs... a proactive change "just b/c" I'll have some peace-of-mind that I shouldn't loose a bulb in the near-future.

All this said, I am looking at some options for LED 9005 and H11... to get the massive illumination and higher-temp color. We'll see how much that ends up costing... or... I'll just leave well-enough alone and save some $$.

Thanks again to OP for a great low-cost mod.

Has anyone here installed the OEM 10SERIES/MONOGRAM LED headlights by actually doing what's necessary to install it? I know some people bought the plug n play harness that were being sold in the forum for some time, but wanted to see if people actually have done the conversion without that adapter and if it's even safe in terms of the car running under normal condition without running into any electrical issues or for the car to start acting up.