HIR 9011 and 9012 Questions

I want to upgrade my 97 Buick Park Ave 9005 high-beams to the brightest stock(ish) wattage bulbs I can getwithout damaging plastic lamp housings. Are 9011 bulbs a safe and effective way to upgrade? If so, what is the brightest 9011 bulb I can use? I would like to hear angels sing when I turn on my high-beams.

I suspect Vosla HIR1 9011 may be the brightest 9011. How about Philips or Sylvania? What is the best way for me to get-er-done? Brightness and good focused light are my main priorities (and not damaging plastic housings). Bulb life is not a concern because I don't drive much.

My Buick has stock wiring and daytime running lights that use the high-beams at a low voltage. Is that a problem with HIR1 9011 bulbs?

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I want to upgrade my 9006 low-beams, but as far as I know all 9012 bulbs have a clear tip (no glare shield). My lamp housings have no glare shield either. Is there a brand of HIR2 9012 bulb that has a glare shield on the tip of the bulb?

Moderator Edit
The color tagging does not convey useful information, please stop. Especially do not put the color tagging back in after it'd been removed by a moderator.

--Alaric D

Charley3 said:

I want to upgrade my 97 Buick Park Ave 9005 high-beams to the brightest stock wattage bulbs I can get without damaging my plastic lamp housings. I assume that 9011 bulbs would be a safe and effective way to go?

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Yes, you assume that the 9011 is a safe and effective way to go. Your assumption is correct; the HIR1 (9011) is electrically and thermally the same as the HB3 (9005), it's just heaps more intense.

If so, I want the brightest 9011 bulb that won't damage my plastic lamp housings?

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Yes, you do want the brightest HIR1 bulb. That would be this.

I want to upgrade my 9006 low beams, but as far as I know all 9012 bulbs have a clear tip (no glare shield). My lamp housings have no glare shield either. Is there a brand of HIR2 9012 bulb that has a glare shield on the tip of the bulb?

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No. That's not to say you can't upgrade, but you'll be upgrading to a higher-performance HB4 (9006): This.

Regarding HIR1 9011: Are Vosla brigther than Philips or ACDelco? Are the ACDelco HIR1 9011 bulbs at that Amazon link Philips or Vosla? I heard a rumor that in the past ACDelco HIR1 was Philips long life bulbs, and the current ACDelco HIR1 are Vosla. Is there any truth to those rumors? I also heard Philips HIR1 aren't as bright because they're long life bulbs. Is that correct?

Is it OK to use HIR1 9011 bulbs in a 97 Buick's with daytime running lights that would run the HIR1 9011 bulbs during the day at a lower voltage?

http://www.rallylights.com/vosla-9011-hir1-9005-65w-halogen-infrared-bulb.html

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Regarding HIR2 9012: RallyLights.com shows a chrome tipped 9006 bulb for their alleged pic of 9012 HIR2 Vosla. i.e. - the 9012 Vosla isn't suitable for low-beam upgrades in housings with no glare shield. Same as any other brand HIR2 9012.

My backup plan if HIR1 9012 wasn't a good idea was to use Philips Xtreme-Vision +100 because I know I like them since that's what I had in the past.

Charley3 said:

Are the ACDelco HIR1 9011 bulbs at that Amazon link Philips or Vosla?

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Toshiba.

Is it OK to use HIR1 9011 bulbs in a 97 Buick's with daytime running lights that would run the HIR1 9011 bulbs during the day at a lower voltage?

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Yes, but it's not extremely good for the bulbs (they don't do the halogen cycle quite as effectively. It doesn't shorten the life that much but it does degrade the filament and affects focus). I'd use the DRL-1 to move the DRL function to the front turn signals.

Alaric Darconville said:

Toshiba.

Yes, but it's not extremely good for the bulbs (they don't do the halogen cycle quite as effectively. It doesn't shorten the life that much but it does degrade the filament and affects focus). I'd use the DRL-1 to move the DRL function to the front turn signals.

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Does that apply to recent models/brands of HIR1 that don't have infared reflective coating?

I've heard the Philips and Vosla HIR don't have that coating, but maybe that was in regard to their HIR2 bulbs. I don't recall.

BTW, I previously purchased ACDelco 9012 and 9011 from that same Amazon link (on Stern's recommendation). They're dim. I can barely see. I was better off with my 4 or 5 year old worn-out Xtreme-Vision bulbs that were due for replacement.

Stern said he'd help me diagnose the issue(s) to solve them. I trust him and I'm sure he will help me. So I'm not griping about Stern. I'm griping about that Amazon ACDelco product.

Here's the things I noticed. The HIR2 9012 and 9011 I bought from that Amazon link are WEAK. That leads me to suspect they aren't legit HIR bulbs. Maybe counterfeits? But I don't know for sure as I haven't yet worked with Stern to diagnose the problem.

I read some of the reviews of those bulbs at Amazon. The earlier Amazon customer reviews/ratings are excellent, but the the later reviews/ratings are BAD.

Since the earlier customer reviews are good and the later ones are BAD it seems likely to me that seller was selling legit product in the past, but perhaps is now selling counterfeits; or perhaps ACDelco used to use better bulbs but later switched to something less good? Something is wrong.

I've only had them in for a few weeks and they have been terrible from night one. It was an instant downgrade from my old worn-out Xtreme-Vision 9005 & 9006 bulbs.

I avoid driving at night because it's very unsafe. I almost crashed the first night. I was MUCH better off with old worn out Xtreme-Vision 9006-9005 bulbs. My eyes are admittedly poor, but my cousin has perfect eyesight and he can barely see when he's driving my car at nigh. He used to compliment me on my Xtreme-Vision 9006-9005 bulbs. He hates these 9012 an 9011 bulbs as much as I do. It seems likely they're counterfeits. My headlamp housings are probably a bit hazy, but that doesn't explain this because my old PXV100 bulbs were much better.

I will add my 2 cents. The 9011 bulbs that ship from GM parts direct. com are Vosla HIR 9011 and in the rally lights link above, the output for the Vosla 9011 is listed at 3000 lumens, which seems bogus. Should be in the ballpark of 2350 lumens.

Charley3 said:

Regarding HIR2 9012: RallyLights.com shows outdated pics of Vosla HIR2 9012 bulbs with chrome tip glare shield. I emailed them about this and learned that the Vosla HIR2 9012 originally had a chrome tip for a glare shield, but it wasn't required by law so they stopped chroming the tip.

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LOL! That's another fairytale like these others (post #3). The Vosla HIR2 never had an obscuration cap (what you are calling "glare shield"), chrome or any other. Rallylights just used the wrong picture for awhile, that's all.

At Vosla's website their pics show their HIR2 9012 bulbs are clear with no glare shield.

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That's the only way they've ever been made.

There is no advantage to the Vosla 9011 vs. the Philips or the Sylvania. There's also no reality behind this persistent myth about how bulbs without the infrared-reflective coating aren't "real" (or however it's phrased).

Charley3 said:

BTW, I previously purchased ACDelco 9012 and 9011 from that same Amazon link (on Stern's recommendation). They're crap. I can barely see. I was better off with my 4 or 5 year old worn-out Xtreme-Vision bulbs that were due for replacement.

The HIR2 9012 and 9011 I bought from that Amazon link are WEAK. That leads me to suspect they aren't legit HIR bulbs. Maybe counterfeits?

I've only had them in for a few weeks and they have been terrible from night one. It was an instant downgrade from my old worn-out Xtreme-Vision 9005 & 9006 bulbs.

I avoid driving at night because it's very unsafe. My eyes are admittedly poor, but my cousin has perfect eyesight and he can barely see when he's driving my car at nigh. He used to compliment me on my Xtreme-Vision 9006-9005 bulbs. He hates these 9012 an 9011 bulbs as much as I do. It seems likely they're counterfeits. My headlamp housings are probably a bit hazy, but that doesn't explain this because my old PXV100 bulbs were much better.

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You should do a voltage check (and do it properly-- seriously, do not just meter across an empty socket, take the time to do it correctly), make sure the sockets themselves are in good condition (maybe they're corroded and cracked or the wiring got frayed or any other number of reasons that the full voltage is not reaching the bulb), and check the base trim-- the bulbs could be inserted at angles so they don't focus properly, or maybe they're not able to be inserted all the way in the lamp, which will also affect the focus (like twisting a Maglite).

If you ordinarily do a lot of night driving, "4 or 5 years" is a LONG life for an Xtreme Vision bulb. Something's wrong.

Yeah, something is just not squaring up here. In order to get 4 to 5 years out of Xtreme Vision or similar bulbs, you'd have to either basically never use the headlamps, or they'd have to be severely under-fed (low voltage to the lamps). And your headlamps are probably a whole lot worse than "probably a bit hazy". They're 20 years old! Unless this car is grandma's cream puff (garaged, only ever driven to church on Sunday, etc) the headlamps are probably toast/need to be replaced with new OE lamps passenger side driver side, or you will not be able to see well (or even have basically adequate safety) no matter how much bulb-swapping you do. Remember, it's not just the lenses that gradually degrade, it's also the reflectors -- and they lose a big chunk of their efficiency before they even begin to look less than perfect to the naked eye. Yes, the new lamps are expensive...that's life.

As for bulbs: again, something's wrong if it looks to you like you got better seeing with 9005 and 9006 (any variety) than with the AC Delco 9011 and 9012. I doubt if you got counterfeit bulbs, I think your car and your headlamps have issues that need to be solved.

(PS: As Alaric asked, please stop putting a bunch of formatting cruft in your posts. Boldface type, different font colors and sizes, etc. It makes your posts harder to read and a lot harder to respond to neatly. We can all read the English language just fine and figure out on our own which parts of the question are important, without all the fancy formatting. Thanks.)

Alaric Darconville said:

You should do a voltage check (and do it properly-- seriously, do not just meter across an empty socket, take the time to do it correctly), make sure the sockets themselves are in good condition (maybe they're corroded and cracked or the wiring got frayed or any other number of reasons that the full voltage is not reaching the bulb), and check the base trim-- the bulbs could be inserted at angles so they don't focus properly, or maybe they're not able to be inserted all the way in the lamp, which will also affect the focus (like twisting a Maglite).

If you ordinarily do a lot of night driving, "4 or 5 years" is a LONG life for an Xtreme Vision bulb. Something's wrong.

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I don't do much driving because I work from home to the extent that I still work. I'm disabled and semi-retired. I probably only drive at most one hour per week at night. Usually less than that. So that's probably why my Xtreme-Vision bulbs lasted about 4 years before they lost some brightness. To Philips credit they never burned out. The 4th year they got dimmer until they were about like stock 9006 & 9005.

I will work on following your diagnosis advice and I guess I'll have to pony up $400 for some new OEM headlamps for the Buick. It's cheaper than getting in a crash.

I didn't know my text formatting was bothering anyone. Sorry about that.

The AC Delco HIR1's are not necessarily Toshibas. They can be vosla as well.

Charley3 said:

So that's probably why my Xtreme-Vision bulbs lasted about 4 years before they lost some brightness. To Philips credit they never burned out. The 4th year they got dimmer until they were about like stock 9006 & 9005.

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The "+80" and higher bulbs, such as the Philips X-Treme Power/X-Treme Vision, typically blow before they have noticeable loss in lumen maintenance. If that's not happening, they're underfed.