2002-2006 Camry headlamp upgrade

[-Virgil-]

You probably have Eiko in mind.

Yes, among others. I bought some Eiko 9006 bulbs (with H7-style burner design), and they very obviously degraded the beam focus and performance of the headlamps I popped them into, compared to any of the namebrand 9006 or HIR2 bulbs. So much so that I didn't even bother going to the effort of setting up any formal tests.

the computer catalog I used informed me that the Eiko bulbs didn't last as long as Sylvania basics, and also rather curiously stated that the output of the Eiko D2S HID bulbs was only 2800 lumens, while the Sylvanias were 3050 or something (can't exactly remember).

Dollars to donuts there is no real basis for those claims, just purely a marketing "buy the more expensive bulb" effort.

could one safely swap the post-facelift headlamp's turn signal bulb (4157) for a 3457? Could one safely swap all the 3057s and 3157s on the Camry for 3457s?

Yes.

Finally, did Candlepower Inc. ever get around to releasing the 35-watt, 792 version of a 3457? I'm going to take a guess and say "no," because the last time it was mentioned was over a decade ago.

I had to do some searching on that one...! Finally found it in this old post. Which looks like it contains an error of inattention (maybe I was trying to multitask or something), because the subject of that thread is brighter 3057 bulbs, and 3057 is a 2-filament design -- as is 3157, 3357/3457, etc. The proposed 792-lumen 35-watt version would have had to have been a wedge-base version of our old friend the 796 bulb, which is a single-filament type (so it would be an upgrade for 3156). As far as I'm aware it never entered production.

 

[Alaric Darconville]

Finally, did Candlepower Inc. ever get around to releasing the 35-watt, 792 version of a 3457? I'm going to take a guess and say "no," because the last time it was mentioned was over a decade ago.

I had to do some searching on that one...! Finally found it in this old post.

Ls400, If you were referring to that specific thread in your post, maybe you should have linked it to save us some searching

 

[Ls400]

Ah, yes, my bad, I should have linked to the original post.

Anyway, I'm curious: how does the flashing inboard turn signal + flashing side marker compare to the pre-facelift's outboard turn signal? Would you rank one solution above the other? The front side markers have been replaced with Zevo 194 LEDs, if that makes a difference.