HIR automotive bulbs

[Bob Snow]

I just received a pair of 9011 HIR1 bulbs from the following link on eBay:

link = http://motors.search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZeurobix

The bulbs that came are marked:

Toshiba
Japan
12V65W
HIR1

DOT 9011
PAT.U.S
4500946

They have a bulge in the center and have an iridescent coating in a band around the bulge. I replaced a pair of 9005 bulbs and they are significantly brighter even though they are the same wattage. Pretty neat trick. GE developed HIR or Halogen Infra-red and a coating on the bulb reflects IR radiation back at the filament causing it to burn hotter and brighter. The color of the light is just a bit less yellow than a standard Halogen bulb, but not as noticeable as the difference between quartz halogen and regular incandescent. These bulbs are not a direct replacement for any other bulb, but can be easily modified to fit in a housing designed for 9005 bulbs by making one of the tabs smaller. This makes their use technically illegal, since the housing and the bulb are not designed to work as a unit. The good news is that the wattage is the same and the filament is in the same position. What you get is the same beam pattern, but brighter. The light that spills into oncoming traffic is produced in the same pattern, but at an increased lighting level, so the glare is potentially brighter than allowed in the US lighting standard for low beams. For high beams, I see no real problem. There is no cap on the end of the 9012 bulb, so the headlight must have an internal bulb shield. Dodge Vipers have been coming with HIR high beams for a while and they are used by some other cars as well. I do not like tinted bulbs, because the light output is reduced by the coating. The less yellow light looks nice, but probably makes no real world difference. These HIR bulbs do make a difference in total output and start to narrow the gap with HID lights.

link = http://www.danielsternlighting.com/home.html

9006 - 55 watts - 1000 lumens
9005 - 65 watts - 1700 lumens

9012 - 55 watts - 1870 lumens
9011 - 65 watts - 2350 lumens

D2R HID capsule - 35 watts - 2800 lumens

It is very unlikely that your car is designed for these new bulbs. With minor modification the 9011 substitutes for a 9005 high beam and 9012 substitutes for 9006 low beam. It is of course possible to fit the 9011 in the low beam location, just like you can put a 9005 into the low beam location with a little modification and new thicker o-ring.

[rycen]

How is the beam pattern compared to the stock bulbs?

[Bob Snow]

The beam pattern is pretty much the same, because the filament in the 9011/9012 bulbs is in the same orientation and position as in a 9005/9006 bulb. Since the lumen output is higher, the low beam light that spills into oncoming traffic will be brighter and could cause unacceptable glare if the headlamp does not have a sharp cutoff. I suspect these are best used in ellipsoid headlamps, but at any rate are not legal and MAY cause unacceptable glare in reflectors designed for 9005/9006 bulbs. By the way, dirty lenses cause glare as well as bad headlight aim. Another glare factor is the height of the headlamp above the ground. SUVs tend to have higher headlight mounting and can cause more glare to oncoming traffic. Cars which have a lower seating height are more susceptible to glare. If you put brighter bulbs in a truck with the headlights mounted high off the ground, you may be causing much discomfort to oncoming cars. Also, people who use foglights when the weather is clear cause significant glare to oncoming traffic.

The simple explaination as to why the newer HID lights seem to be a problem for oncoming traffic is the higher lumen output. While they have better beam pattern and sharper cut-off, when they do shine into oncoming traffic, they are simply brighter. Auto-leveling is required for HID in Europe to keep vehicle load from causing this. Also, when the road is not flat, there are times when the beams will shine into oncoming traffic. A curve in the road can do the same thing.

[greg_in_canada]

Anyone want to build a flashlight around these? [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Greg

[Bob Snow]

There are no HIR bulbs yet in the H3 size that is popular in rechargeable lanterns. The bulge in the bulb might be a size issue. They do make some 110V PAR lamps in HIR, but I think that is about it for the time being.