Custom Headlights

I have to assume these are pieces of crap...does anyone know anything about them?

 

Yes, and no, they are good replacements, but aren't as good as the HIDs, I used one a while back on my Mazda 5, it was a bit brighter than the stock

 

I'm personally not a fan of the blue lights. Just go to your local autoparts store and look at the different replacement bulbs you can buy. Sylvania has several of them.

 

I personally think if ur gonna replace em, just get HIDs

 

well, the HID's i looked at were almost 200 dollars, and these are 10.....how can they be close to good?

 

They are regular halogens, tinted blue to "fake" the "HID look" as far as replacements go, I guess they're as good as any $10 halogen bulb you can find out there. ( Keep in mind true quatity halogens run for more than ten bucks, but you can find almost anything in ebay for cheap)

 

They work well while they last, but those type bulbs wear out very fast. On one of my previous cars I changed them 3 times in about 1.5 years. On the RX-8 that can be a little of a pain. I would steer clear of those and opt for a piaa, silverstar, hoen, etc.. Those lights I just mentioned will give you the same look with a more enduring bulb (they should all last well over a year, still they tend to have shorter life spans) .

 

Blue coated bulbs of the same wattage as a non-coated (stock) bulb are always going to be dimmer. The more blue coating, the higher the Kelvin rating, the lower the light output. By coating the bulb you are blocking usable light. The only way to get more light from a coated bulb is to go with a higher wattage which will produce more heat and may damage your wiring, the light housing or both.

Having said that, if you only drive in well lit areas at night (urban) and just want a bluer bulb for looks, go for it. I run blue coated bulbs in my (useless) fog lights just for looks, but I don't expect them to light the road for me (I have HID headlights). These are 8500K and look very blue, I would guess that if you used these you would find it very hard to see at night in a non-lit area.

 

The problem I have with these types of bulbs is you reduce the amount of light that is thrown out. To get that blue look you are filtering the yellow band of the spectrum. So you end up with less light output for the Watt.

 

Go with PIAA or HOEN.