Good replacements for 9005SI+ and 9005LL in projector lights in 2017 Ram

[corneileous]

Everyone does, and I used to until I was educated by this forum, Virgil, Alaric and Dan.

The simplest explanation I found: If you're driving over 40mph and see a deer running out in front of you in your fog beam, you've already hit it. You're less likely to see and avoid a deer up the road while driving over 40mph with your fogs on.

Too much foreground light keeps you from seeing things that matter up the road. You're over driving the depth of your vision.

You're right, the only deer that I've ever seen on the side of the road at night when I did have my fog lights on that they did illuminate, they were just standing there which makes it to where it doesn't even matter anyway because if they were coming full speed across the highway, fog lights on or not, I probably wouldn't see it anyway in time to slow down.

 

[corneileous]

The dealer might have them and may be fairly champing at the bit for a customer to pay their dealer prices for such a bulb.

I doubt they even go that far and probably only have just some cheap run-of-the-mill 9005 lightbulb. Although I do wish I would've kept the original lightbulbs just to have something to look at but since they were so bad and yes, whatever, those Sylvania ZXE's were worlds better over factory bulbs that I just tossed them in the trash. I had no need to keep them because they were that lousy and I even use that as argument on other Ram-based web forums for Facebook posts were somebody complains and says that the premium projector headlights in those fourth GEN ram trucks aren't worth a crap and I'll just simply ask is have you replaced the bulbs yet?… Lol. That's more than likely why you don't like them and before I bought my first bulb upgrade, I actually considered looking for a much better aftermarket pair of headlights. Kind of glad I didn't go that route.

Yep, if the LED in such a headlamp fails, it will require an entirely new lamp assembly. I won't say they're 'overengineered' but the lens of the lamp itself will degrade and ruin the lamp performance long before the LED(s) fail. Since the LED headlamps should not be considered a wear item, they may have a longer warranty and you'll at least have more leverage with the dealer ("One of the selling points of LEDs is that they never need replacement!").

Well that just makes even more of a reason to get some kind of a very extended or lifetime warranty whenever you buy one of these new vehicle's if all the sudden replacing a headlight bulb involves replacing the whole entire headlamp assembly.

For a given intensity of white light, white light that tends toward blue is more glaring than neutral white and even more so than white light tending toward yellow. And it's easy to equate the glaring effect of that blue-tinged light with "more light".

I'm pretty sure those Silverstar ultra's that I bought for my fog lights only have the blue tinge on the very end of the headlight bulb and at the base of the bulb but I cannot remember if the Silverstars that I had on an old 2004 dodge Dakota I once had and the Silverstar ultra's that I had in an old 2005 dodge stratus were clear, clear in the middle or if the whole bulb had blue tinge.

But we did not "pretty much say the same thing":

The myth is that "yellow light penetrates fog better than yellow light" or "breaks through fog". The myth is that it "doesn't reflect off fog light like the white light does". Light will reflect off fog regardless of the color.

The words pretty much are the operative words here. You said I pretty much said the same thing but we did not say the same thing. Again, you went into depth- I did not, even if I did say yellow lights actually penetrate the fog, I only said that, I guess out of ignorance, because all the times when I've used yellow lights during foggy conditions, it really did seem like I could see through the fog instead of having that super bright white reflecting off the fog right back in my face making it worse Which is why you also don't want to use your highbeams. I just said that yellow lights are better for fog and on one perspective, it doesn't really matter why they're better, it just matters that they are better. That's all I was saying.

And with a halogen bulb there's never ever EVER a need to "loosen set screws" to adjust the position of the filament relative to the base because it always ends up in the correct position every time.

Of course there's not. Even though this isn't the correct reason, it's kind of the same thing as the HIDs because you have light coming out all the way around the circumference of the bulb. On most of the LED upgrades I've seen, you only have light coming out of the top or the bottom or one side of the other.

HID capsules also lock into place in the lamp assembly by means of a notch on the edge of the base and a pin in the lamp socket, and so cannot rotate. The return wire is in the right place and stays in the right place.

No need to comment here as I've pretty much already covered it in the above quote.

Right, the diameter of the bulb *base*. The envelope (the glass part)) diameter isn't issue, it's the plastic base with the tabs and the O-ring. The "20" and "22" in P20d and P22d is the diameter in millimeters (the "P" stands for "prefocus", which means that the bulb will be at the correct focus without any adjustments necessary when correctly installed).

Gotcha.

 

[corneileous]

One thing I will say though is hopefully if these lights I ordered for my low beams and my highbeams work as well as all of you guys say they do, I sure hope they do put out a lot more light in such a way that I can hopefully go back to using my auto highbeam feature on my truck.

With the Sylvania ZXE's, it really wasn't all that noticeable but once I put those LEDs in my highbeams, they put out so much light that even the reflection from the delineator posts, those little reflective tabs they put on the sides of some bridges and especially speed limit signs would cause my highbeams to turn off and turn on all the time because they fooled the system into thinking there was an oncoming car so eventually I just got to the point to where I had to turn the feature off and go back to turning my highbeams on and off manually.

 

[-Virgil-]

Wow, that sounds like a fun game, with high beams "feeling triggered" all the time. I think you'll have less of that (hopefully none) once the high beam light is focused down the road instead of scattered.

 

[corneileous]

Wow, that sounds like a fun game, with high beams "feeling triggered" all the time. I think you'll have less of that (hopefully none) once the high beam light is focused down the road instead of scattered.

Man, I hope so. Ive never had that feature before on a vehicle but lemmie tell ya, once you get a vehicle that has it and you use it, it's pretty nice and makes for quite a nice safety feature because it hits your brights for you and shuts them off for an oncoming car or creeping up on a slower car preventing you from blinding someone.

 

[-Virgil-]

Yes, correct. Most people in North America don't use their high beams anywhere near as often as they should, and too many of those who do use them forget to dip back to low beam for other drivers. But it's surprising to hear your late-model truck has a system that's not smart enough to disregard its own (reflected) light...that was a problem back in the 1960s, and it was solved in at least one way back then!

 

[corneileous]

Yes, correct. Most people in North America don't use their high beams anywhere near as often as they should, and too many of those who do use them forget to dip back to low beam for other drivers. But it's surprising to hear your late-model truck has a system that's not smart enough to disregard its own (reflected) light...that was a problem back in the 1960s, and it was solved in at least one way back then!

I think the reason why it did that was because just like with everything else, the system was programmed and calibrated at the factory to work a certain way with those dim, cheesy light bulbs that came OEM in the headlights and even if that probably isn't necessarily the case, if you think about it, the system is supposed to respond to bright light in order for it to automatically dim the lights but not to the reflection of it's own lights from signs and whatever else that may be on the roadside so by adding much brighter lights to the headlights, how's the system supposed to know the difference? I've heard that the sensitivity of the sensor can be adjusted but I haven't ever called the dealer to see if that's possible.

It's just like say, if you have one of those Ram 1500 Rebels that comes from the factory with light truck, 10-ply off-road tires; the TPMS system has been calibrated differently from the other trucks that just come with street tires that require much less tire pressure. If say, somewhere down the road you decide to ditch those heavy, rough-riding off-road tires for some much softer street tires that require less pressure because you may not go off-road that much, your TPMS light would be giving you fits because the low-pressure threshold has been set higher for the tires it came with the factory with. That, could be reprogrammed probably from the dealer whereas the highbeam dimmer probably can't.

 

[-Virgil-]

the system is supposed to respond to bright light in order for it to automatically dim the lights but not to the reflection of it's own lights from signs and whatever else that may be on the roadside so by adding much brighter lights to the headlights, how's the system supposed to know the difference?

That 1960s solution I mentioned was to program the system so if the light it was reacting to dimmed at the exact same instant as the system itself dimmed its own lights, that was to be treated as a reflection and the system was to return its own lights to high beam immediately. Sounds like it would create an annoying flicker, but it happened so quickly that you really would have had to be paying close attention to notice it. There were other problems (false dimming in response to street lights) that got solved, too, but I don't know if the system with all the fixes was ever put into production.

As far as re-configuration goes: modern cars have a ton of configuratble parameters. Some of them are more accessable than others, by official or unofficial means...and some are not accessable at all/not intended to be changed once the vehicle leaves the factory.

 

[corneileous]

Well, I finally got my new bulbs in yesterday and got them installed. I really like those yellow fog light 9012s and I really like those 9011s in my highbeams but so far I'm not really all that sold about those same 9011's in my low beams. I mean, they work better than those Sylvania ZXE's but they just don't seem to be bright enough. I don't know, maybe I just need to get used to it because if that doesn't work, I'm almost tempted to just put those 9005 Silverstar ultra's in my lowbeams that I had originally bought to go on my fog lights .

Installation was OK I guess but they were a pain put in there because not only did I have to take my Dremel out with a sanding drum on it and file down on the top side of those three tabs(wiring connector side) but I also had the file down very carefully on the bulb end of the plastic part of the base that has the rubber O-ring on it because it almost seems like something is keeping those lightbulbs from going all the way down in the sockets of the headlights that allows you to turn them all the way freely. After my small amount of whittling, I got them to turn somewhat easy but they still are very hard to turn all the way and as a matter of fact, I think a couple of them, I don't have them turned all the way as far as they should just because they won't turn anymore.

But yeah, I can see a little bit about what you guys were talking about with having too much light in front of the truck that was making it hard to see the light from the high beams way down the road and not only are these lights brighter than the Silverstar ZxE's but I can now once again use my automatic highbeams and the road signs and all that don't make my highbeams turn on and off all the time so that's a good thing I.

 

[-Virgil-]

I'm not really all that sold about those same 9011's in my low beams. I mean, they work better than those Sylvania ZXE's but they just don't seem to be bright enough

Well, first of all: has the aim been properly checked and adjusted with an optical aiming machine? Even a small amount of misaim makes a HUGE difference in your ability to see.

Installation was OK I guess but they were a pain put in there because not only did I have to take my Dremel out with a sanding drum on it and file down on the top side of those three tabs(wiring connector side)

Wait...what? You should only have to shave one of the three locating lugs/tabs on the plastic base of the bulb; the other two lugs are identical between HIR1 and 9005. If you shaved all three lugs, it's possible the bulb isn't clocked correctly in the lamp. There should be no filing/shaving necessary in the wire connector area.

but I also had the file down very carefully on the bulb end of the plastic part of the base that has the rubber O-ring on it because it almost seems like something is keeping those lightbulbs from going all the way down in the sockets of the headlights that allows you to turn them all the way freely. After my small amount of whittling, I got them to turn somewhat easy but they still are very hard to turn all the way and as a matter of fact, I think a couple of them, I don't have them turned all the way as far as they should just because they won't turn anymore.

The round part with the O-ring is called the "shank". If it's too tight of a fit in the bulb hole, use some wet sand paper to smooth down the molding ridge sometimes present on the bulb hole in the headlamp. Or if there's no diametric interference (shank isn't too tight in the hole, but still can't turn the bulb all the way to the stop), with lamps that have a screwed-on ring around the bulb hole to engage the bulb lugs, you sometimes benefit to loosen the screws a small bit, just enough so the bulb's lugs don't bind on this plastic ring. Don't loosen too much; you still want the bulb held firmly in place. Usually it's best to loosen the ring, install the bulb until it's all the way in, then go back and retighten the ring so everything's snug.

I can see a little bit about what you guys were talking about with having too much light in front of a truck that was making it hard to see the light from the high beams way down the road and not only are these lights brighter but I can now once again use my automatic highbeams and the road signs and all that no costly make my highbeams turn on my phone so that's a good thing.

Let's hear it for lights that work!

 

[Mr. Merk]

Another tip I learned from the experts:

Turn your instrument lights down as far as you can while still being visible enough to read. Having too much light inside is just like having your fog lights on. Same thing goes for the dimming on your radio or phone if you're using it for navigation etc. Doing so, helps me see down road so much better.

 

[-Virgil-]

Big thumbs up for Mr. Merk's advice.

 

[corneileous]

Well, first of all: has the aim been properly checked and adjusted with an optical aiming machine? Even a small amount of misaim makes a HUGE difference in your ability to see.

The answer would be no because I don't even know where I would find anything like that around here and besides, the only adjustments my headlights has is up and down. There is no side to side. But being that I did put a suspension level on the front of the truck, I lowered my headlights about a turn on the adjustment screws to bring them close back to what stock was.

Wait...what? You should only have to shave one of the three locating lugs/tabs on the plastic base of the bulb; the other two lugs are identical between HIR1 and 9005. If you shaved all three lugs, it's possible the bulb isn't clocked correctly in the lamp. There should be no filing/shaving necessary in the wire connector area.

No, I had to whittle a little material down on the tops of the tabs because at first, you couldn't even turn the bulbs. It's like the tabs where too thick.

The round part with the O-ring is called the "shank". If it's too tight of a fit in the bulb hole, use some wet sand paper to smooth down the molding ridge sometimes present on the bulb hole in the headlamp. Or if there's no diametric interference (shank isn't too tight in the hole, but still can't turn the bulb all the way to the stop), with lamps that have a screwed-on ring around the bulb hole to engage the bulb lugs, you sometimes benefit to loosen the screws a small bit, just enough so the bulb's lugs don't bind on this plastic ring. Don't loosen too much; you still want the bulb held firmly in place. Usually it's best to loosen the ring, install the bulb until it's all the way in, then go back and retighten the ring so everything's snug.

I coulda done that with the lowbeam bulbs but the highbeam sockets were a different story. There's no screws that attach those like there is on the lowbeams.

But whittling away at the bulb end of the shank did do the trick. I was able to spin the highbeam bulbs all the way to where they were supposed to stop.

Let's hear it for lights that work!

As I said, I do like the highbeams- I wish they were a little brighter and I really wish the lowbeams were brighter.

But I will say, those 9011's are definitely brighter than the 9005 Silverstar Ultras.

 

[-Virgil-]

The answer would be no because I don't even know where I would find anything like that around here

The linked aim instruction site contains suggestions on how to go about finding something like that around there, wherever "there" is.

and besides, the only adjustments my headlights has is up and down. There is no side to side.

True...and the vertical aim (up/down) is _the_ single most important thing determining how well your headlamps work for you. You really need to step up and get this done correctly, it's not optional or "might be nice", it is critical.

I did put a suspension level on the front of the truck, I lowered my headlights about a turn on the adjustment screws to bring them close back to what stock was.

This really isn't enough. It has to be done right (measure and check); just randomly turning the screws doesn't get the job done -- I mean, good job thinking about it at all and trying to get it back where it was, but the odds are it wasn't set correctly in the first place. Automakers are only just recently beginning to pay some attention to how headlamps are aimed before new vehicles leave the factory.

 

[corneileous]

Thread revive-

Well, it hasn't exactly been a year but it's been close enough and so far I would have to say after aiming the headlights up just a little bit more, I'm actually pretty impressed with these bulbs I bought from Daniel Stern for my low beams but; I would sure like to find a little bit brighter bulb for my highbeams. Whenever my highbeams turn on, there really isn't much change. Of course, not noticing much of the change when the highbeams are turned on was pretty much the same also with the factory halogen bulbs and those Sylvania Silverstar ZxE's. The only time the highbeams were definitely noticeable when they were switched on was when they were LED and even at the same time when the low beams were HID.

Granted, even with these new bulbs, I still don't have the constant highbeam/low beam like I did before but I definitely think the highbeams are lacking. I know you guys won't like hearing this but I may look into some 9005 LEDs to go in my high beams that are around 3000 to 4000K that will match the color of the halogens in the low beams, but I need a little bit brighter light and dimming the interior lights doesn't seem to do anything.

 

[EJR]

Thread revive-

Well, it hasn't exactly been a year but it's been close enough and so far I would have to say after aiming the headlights up just a little bit more, I'm actually pretty impressed with these bulbs I bought from Daniel Stern for my low beams but; I would sure like to find a little bit brighter bulb for my highbeams. Whenever my highbeams turn on, there really isn't much change. Of course, not noticing much of the change when the highbeams are turned on was pretty much the same also with the factory halogen bulbs and those Sylvania Silverstar ZxE's. The only time the highbeams were definitely noticeable when they were switched on was when they were LED and even at the same time when the low beams were HID.

Granted, even with these new bulbs, I still don't have the constant highbeam/low beam like I did before but I definitely think the highbeams are lacking. I know you guys won't like hearing this but I may look into some 9005 LEDs to go in my high beams that are around 3000 to 4000K that will match the color of the halogens in the low beams, but I need a little bit brighter light and dimming the interior lights doesn't seem to do anything.

So in your communications with Daniel Stern did he not also recommend the 9011 for your high beam as well? It too has a 9005 bulb and there is NO better upgrade than the 9011.

 

[corneileous]

So in your communications with Daniel Stern did he not also recommend the 9011 for your high beam as well? It too has a 9005 bulb and there is NO better upgrade than the 9011.

Oh, he did. I have two pairs of those custom HR19011's in my headlights but like I said, I'm gonna have to find another alternative, even if it means going against the grain of the forum. Maybe it's in my reflectors, I don't know but I need more highbeam light down-range and these just aren't doing it. He recommended me an Osram 25" LED lightbar but I don't know where I would mount that. I don't have a custom front bumper and I don't have one of those bull-bar things and he recommended mounting it to the top of my front bumper and I was like, no….lol.

 

[John_Galt]

I mean... the 9011 is *The* upgrade from 9005. Optically compatible, significantly higher intensity and output from the same power draw if you want to explore some other options for adding reach to your highbeams, and you've already upgraded to 9011's, then you need to seriously consider auxiliary driving lights. They're well worth the hassle of mounting and wiring, I've had a set mounted on every single vehicle I've owned (and a few I've rented, with various cobbled together magnet and clamping arrangements).

Tacomaworld has an excellent thread with bith apples-to-apples comparisons from the thread author, and forum user added beamshots/realworld use pics if you want to consider some of the aftwrmarket lamps available.

See this link:SAE J581 aux light thread, Tacomaworld