Hi,
I live in the US and have a 2011 Subaru Outback. The car uses incandesce bulbs. The front light uses a 9005 highbeam in a reflector housing, and a H7 low-beam in a projector housing. As the lights burn out, I have been slowly trying to replace them with better lights.
I have just replaced the tail light with some Sylvania LED, which appears to be legal in my state. I wanted to replace the front light, but is not sure what to do.
One characteristic of Subaru is that their low beam are very difficult to change, there is a dust cap with little or no clearance and have to be change by removing the light or snaking your hand through the wheel well. The second issue is that the daytime driving light is aggressive and cause bulb to burn out . Subaru at some point replace the original bulb that burned out with a stronger filament version that appears to emit the amount of light but have a longer life. The old OEM bulb may burn out in 1/2 a year in 10K annual driving.
Because of the hard to change bulb, my priority would be:
1. find something that generate at least as much light as the original but last as long as possible.
2. Find something brighter. They are dim compare to my other car.
3. Would be nice to have a whiter light because it looks better to my eye, but I rather not have tinting on the lens that reduces output.
I thought about installing LED, because they have long life, but I have conflicting info on whether this will work or not. I am pretty sure that nothing will fit in the low beam without removing the dust cap, which will probably be a bad idea and result in the housing filling up with dirt and moisture. It's also not clear if LED will project properly in the headlight.
I thought about HID upgrade. The low beam does use a projector housing, but HID would have the same problem with the dust cap.
The most viable solution so far is getting a better Halogen, but better means trade-off. I have put brighter lights in the car, but then they burn out too quickly. I notice that they have a technology call HIR that's supposed to have brighter light without sacrificing life, but I don't see them sold in H7 or 9005 bulb type, only 9012 type. Philip Ecovision appears to generate the same amount of light with a longer life, but I am not sure if it's better than the OEM Subaru bulb.
I hope there are Subaru outback owners who can chime in. Thanks.
Paul
I live in the US and have a 2011 Subaru Outback. The car uses incandesce bulbs. The front light uses a 9005 highbeam in a reflector housing, and a H7 low-beam in a projector housing. As the lights burn out, I have been slowly trying to replace them with better lights.
I have just replaced the tail light with some Sylvania LED, which appears to be legal in my state. I wanted to replace the front light, but is not sure what to do.
One characteristic of Subaru is that their low beam are very difficult to change, there is a dust cap with little or no clearance and have to be change by removing the light or snaking your hand through the wheel well. The second issue is that the daytime driving light is aggressive and cause bulb to burn out . Subaru at some point replace the original bulb that burned out with a stronger filament version that appears to emit the amount of light but have a longer life. The old OEM bulb may burn out in 1/2 a year in 10K annual driving.
Because of the hard to change bulb, my priority would be:
1. find something that generate at least as much light as the original but last as long as possible.
2. Find something brighter. They are dim compare to my other car.
3. Would be nice to have a whiter light because it looks better to my eye, but I rather not have tinting on the lens that reduces output.
I thought about installing LED, because they have long life, but I have conflicting info on whether this will work or not. I am pretty sure that nothing will fit in the low beam without removing the dust cap, which will probably be a bad idea and result in the housing filling up with dirt and moisture. It's also not clear if LED will project properly in the headlight.
I thought about HID upgrade. The low beam does use a projector housing, but HID would have the same problem with the dust cap.
The most viable solution so far is getting a better Halogen, but better means trade-off. I have put brighter lights in the car, but then they burn out too quickly. I notice that they have a technology call HIR that's supposed to have brighter light without sacrificing life, but I don't see them sold in H7 or 9005 bulb type, only 9012 type. Philip Ecovision appears to generate the same amount of light with a longer life, but I am not sure if it's better than the OEM Subaru bulb.
I hope there are Subaru outback owners who can chime in. Thanks.
Paul