hello sages- i have a question which i dont think has been dealt with before unless i missed it. for years cars had sealed beam headlights. when one or both filaments burned out you plugged in a new one. they didnt last for the life of the vehicle so you never had to worry about the reflector box losing its ability to transmit a beam. even when they went to square sealed beams it wasnt a problem. now we have these plastic headlight boxes. in the back is a turn and pull socket with a special $$$ bulb in it. i never thought these projected the light of the old sealed beam even when new. now the problemis that the clear plastic in the front of the box, gets dull cloudy or yellowed and significantly reduces light projection. have noticed some shyster garages and clip joints generously offering to clean buff and otherwise transmogrify the faces of these boxes with a secret potion they wont show you for only $50 .despite his occassional rants poehler was right years ago when he criticized the demise of the sealed beam in favor of less effective lights for streamlining goals. bottom line, is there a special procedure or chemical cleaner one should use to correct this money suck. bet dan or di is a specialist with a silver bullet for this anomaly. thanks bob f

I'm waiting for Dan to weigh in on this one...

Poehler was ignorant of what he was ranting about, but he didn't let that stop him. Most of his headlamp rant was baseless, though there was a crumb or two of reality strewn here and there in it. I could lecture at hardback-book length on these subjects you've raised, but I will try hard (and still fail) to keep it short.

The American-type sealed beam headlamp was introduced in 1940, and was an enormous improvement in every respect over what had gone before — all kinds of non-standardized bulbs in silvered reflectors that began tarnishing immediately after the frequent polishing they required, all in non-weatherproof enclosures with only the crudest of lenses, which were also non-standardized. The sealed beam went right down the list and fixed every single one of those problems: it was not just weather-resistant but weatherproof (sealed construction has a lot to recommend it at the front of an automobile), prefocused, never needed maintenance beyond aiming (and in time the beam units were improved to standardize how that was accomplished). And — this is a biggie — the sealed beam itself was standardized. One size, one shape, one headlamp fits all vehicles. This has many large advantages: anyone who needs one can get a headlamp quickly, easily, and inexpensively, close to just about everywhere he might happen to be.

The sealed beam system evolved over the years with an eventual additional ten shapes and sizes, halogen inner burners, and filament/burner and optical changes as factors pushed and pulled on the industry, such as advancing technology, automaker priorities for low cost rather than high performance, economy of production, etc. Their performance was never really excellent, but it was in almost all cases reasonably adequate. Another aspect of the standardisation benefit is that when the guy with the 1955 Dodge needed a new headlamp in 1977, he got a new 1977 headlamp incorporating 22 years' worth of innovations and improvements, thus his roadway safety at night kept up in this respect with everyone else's. The catch here is that this benefit depends on the replacement beam units getting progressively better, not worse. In general, they got steadily better through the '50s, '60s, and '70s, then took a sharp turn downward and started generally getting progressively worse. (this is still just talking about round headlamps. There's nothing the matter with a rectangular reflector, but the quad rectangulars were physically too small and inefficient, and the rectangulars didn't go well with the transverse filaments used in all American sealed beams at the time.)


Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world the composite headlamps evolved significantly, as well. The reflector-tarnish problem was licked by shifting to overcoated vacuum-deposited aluminum for the shiny stuff. Lens, reflector, and bulb precision all improved at a blazing rate compared to the pace of evolution in the American sealed-beam industry. The first halogen headlamp became available in Europe in 1962, and the first halogen dual-filament high/low beam headlamp in Europe in 1971, but not in America until 1979, and with most of the advantages of halogen technology utterly wasted in the American implementation. On low beam, the halogen sealed beams often put out equal or less light than the non-halogen units, only rarely more, and in every case with much poorer beam focus and a great deal more upward stray light to cause backdazzle in bad weather. Presently, there is so little money to be made in sealed beams that almost all of them on the market are junk, made sloppily on worn-out tooling. There are tough challenges in making glass reflectors accurately, and it's completely hopeless to get any better than minimum-allowable seeing light + maximum-allowable glare light with worn-out tooling. The only sealed beams worth buying are the GE Night Hawk units. They're not great headlamps, but they're definitely the pick of an otherwise-bad bunch. They have new optics (=new tooling), axial filaments in the rectangular lamps, and produce better-formed, better-focused beams than any other sealed beams presently on the market.

So by the time replaceable bulbs came back to America, the interchangeability aspect of the sealed beam had been diluted to near-death, the steady-improvement trend had worsened, and the state of the art had advanced far beyond the sealed beam.

In the early 1980s, Ford lobbied NHTSA to allow replaceable-bulb headlamps of any shape or size. Not the kind developed and refined in Europe and adopted by most of the rest of the world, but a new type with priority placed on cheap construction and aesthetics. No attempt was made in this Ford system to improve or refine headlamp performance relative to the previous sealed-beam system, and in several big ways the new system was grossly inferior to the sealed beams. But it was cheap to make and removed a longstanding restriction on styling, and the PR value was terrific: Look at the American Ford company, on the cutting edge of vehicle technology with the world's newest headlamp system!

And that system (a 9004 twin-transverse-filament bulb in a basic parabolic reflector, with an optic lens often moulded of polycarbonate plastic and usually not replaceable separately) took the American market by storm. Within a couple years of the 1984 debut, almost all new car and truck makes and models had the new Ford-type headlamps. Any size, any shape allowed. Left different from right, next year different from this year — all okay under the Ford system adopted by NHTSA. That adoption put us almost right where we started in 1939: a huge proliferation of model-specific headlamps with different servicing techniques, and although reflectors were no longer tarnishing, the plastic lenses — optically inferior to glass even when new — were progressively deteriorating. Weathersealing was once again a significant challenge, too, and the price of replacement headlamp assemblies zoomed upward.

It was that 9004 system that spurred American headlamp research and development back to its 1960s levels or so, with additional bulb types (9005/9006, 9007) and eventually the approval of bulb types developed overseas (H1 and H3 thirty-some years after they were released, a slightly modified H4 twenty-one years after its released, H7, etc). By and by, new kinds of light sources (HID, now LED) were allowed at more or less the same time as the rest of the world, though always with technical regulations substantially different from those used in the whole rest of the world. That situation continues today: the whole world uses the European headlamp technical regulations (governing performance, design, construction, durability, etc.), except the U.S. which uses its own unique standards, generally not better and in some ways a lot poorer than the Euro/world standard. The takeaway point here is that while the American headlamp system has evolved significantly since 1983, the 9004 system was a very poor basis for that evolution.

The situation today is that while the details of headlamp performance (seeing, glare, beam formation, width and reach, backdazzle, SPD) in America have changed, the average low-beam performance is roughly the same as it was forty years ago. The spread of performance among different headlamps is much, much wider than it was, and unlike thirty years ago, today you are generally stuck with whatever the automaker provided at the time your car was built, and that is the one and only kind of headlamp you will ever be able to buy for the car, until that headlamp goes obsolete and is no longer manufactured, and then you are out of luck unless you can get a low-quality copycat aftermarket headlamp from Taiwan or China. If you have a very popular European or Japanese model or an expensive American car there might be upgrade headlamps offered by the maker or a reputable aftermarket firm, but usually not.

The lens-deterioration issue is real…and really dumb. It didn't have to be this way, but again, the American automakers' push for priority on cheapness of construction means a lax test for headlamp lens plastics and coatings. It is also a very slow test, taking a minimum of three years. So the newest plastics and coatings allowed on American roads are, at minimum, three years behind the state of the art. The ECE (Euro/rest-of-world) test is much faster (days rather than years) and slightly stricter in some ways than the American test for UV degradation of the lenses, but plastic lenses get cataracts (go cloudy and yellow) under the ECE system, too. And because healdamp assemblies keep getting more and more costly, and even those few states who go thru the motions of periodic vehicle inspection any more don't do any meaningful aiming checks, we have more and more vehicles on the road with defective headlamps. That's not to mention more and more poor-quality aftermarket replacements.

There are several solutions: use toughened hardglass lenses (manufacturers don't like because glass is heavy) or replaceable glass or polycarbonate lenses (manufacturers don't like because it means having to spend for a more durable reflector and upgraded weathersealing and breathing in the headlamp housing).

So…yeah. Headlamps have gotten both worse and better in the last few decades in America. If you want more info, please see This Motive Magazine article, this Wikipedia article and this one, and this one.

If you're trying to polish and rejuvenate cloudy plastic headlamp lenses, and you want the results to last a reasonable length of time, the one and only kit worth buying is this one.

Headlamps still need to be aimed correctly and carefully, per http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/aim/aim.html

_________________
一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

hello dan- thanks tons for an excellent essay on the history of these things. did not realize that sealed beam development had gone to hell since the 60s. the cheapest sealed beam replacement lamp i have used does a better job- throws more light to see down the road, than these bulb and box jobs. bulb and box herein is from an 88 buick lesabre. have to be extra careful driving at night. remember a driver education lesson from the 60s- dont overdrive your headlights- to wit drive at a speed at night wherein you can stop safely inthe light distance projected by your headlights. old fuds from 66 ought to remember that one. will try the product you recommend if this blue magic doesnt work. regards bob f

Okay, well, you're actually starting out with relatively decent optics in an '88 LeSabre. Other GM models of that era had some hideously bad, ridiculously dumb headlamp setups. But…plastic lenses? I thought the '88 LeSabre still had glass lenses. Anyhow, here's more detailed information on how to get good seeing at night in your LeSabre.

Make sure the lamps are in as-new condition, which means the lenses must be nice and clear, not clouded or pitted or fogged, and the reflectors must be bright and shiny. If the plastic lenses are dull, foggy, cloudy or yellowed on the outside, polish and re-coat them with this kit . If the lenses (glass or plastic) are visibly pitted or otherwise cannot be returned to clarity, you'll need to replace the headlamps. If this becomes necessary, buy genuine factory parts, not aftermarket items. The DJAuto, Depo, TYC, Genera, and other
aftermarket units that are all over the internet are copycate made rather
badly in Taiwan or China. The low price is attractive, but the quality,
performance, and durability are all significantly inferior to the genuine
items, even if the genuine items themselves are not very good.

All of these copycat lamps start out with physical copies of the lens, and
the results are photometrically pathetic...one might as well make a mould
of your eyeglasses lenses and expect to be able to cast new working
eyeglass lenses from the mould. Bzzt, not going to happen. The level of
shape precision required to accurately focus the beam can only be achieved
with optical engineering from scratch. Copies don't even begin to get in
the ballpark. Usually the ECE type approval ("E-code") or DOT/SAE certifications are fraudulent/counterfeit, too.

"Perfect OE fit and performance" is often promised in the ads for the
copycat lamps. This is an out-and-out lie. Take a look at
this test report, which is the result on a large government-sponsored test of OE vs. aftermarket versions of various American-market headlamps. Epic fail for the aftermarket units (see page 21 and 30 if you don't have time to read the whole report).

If the reflectors are other than new-mirror perfect (if they're peeling, flaking, corroded, dark, etc.) the headlamps need replacing. If they're filmy/foggy, which they certainly will be after 20 years of service, clean them:

Work with one lamp at a time. Remove the bulbs. Fill the lamp about 1/2 full of warm-to-hot distilled(!) water, then pour in a goodly splash of "Multi-Surface" Windex.

Cover the bulb hole. Depending on the lamp design, this may best be
accomplished by reinstalling the bulb, installing the bulb hole cover cap,
and/or just using your clean finger or palm to cover the hole.

Vigourously shake/slosh/swirl the lamp to agitate the hot soapy water. Do
this over a sink, and hold on with both hands so the lamp doesn't slip
from your grip, fall and break. Then, remove the bulb, turn the lamp
bulb-hole-down, and swirl the lamp to cause the water to drain from it in
a circular fashion. Repeat this cleaning step, then rinse the lamp
repeatedly with warm-to-hot distilled or filtered(!) water until all
traces of soapsuds are gone. Hold the lamp firmly with lens facing you and
shake/snap vertically to force out more loose water.

To dry the lamps, place them lens-down in your clean kitchen oven, on the
rack about 1/2 to 3/4 of the oven's height up from the lower element.
Close the oven door. Turn the oven to Bake/350 for 3 minutes, then turn
the oven off and leave the door closed. In about an hour, your lamps
should be thoroughly dry with minimal or no watter spotting.

If the reflectors won't come up to new condition this way, or if the shiny stuff washes down the drain, then they were dead anyhow (substantial optical degradation sets in long before you can see it with your eyes).

The wiring feeding your headlamps was marginal when new, and it has not improved with age. Small voltage drops take large bites out of headlamp performance. Install relays and heavy-gauge wiring to bring full power to the bulbs per this article. When you do this, you'll want to install the relays and wiring such that the low beams remain lit when you turn on the high beams. Most GM 9005/9006 systems shut off the low beams when you switch to high beam. It's not safe to have the lows + highs on at the same time in a double-filament/single-bulb system (one sealed beam per side, or 9004/9007/H13/H4/9003 bulb), but where the low and high beams are produced by separate bulbs (9005/9006, H1, H3, H7, H11/H9, etc.) there's no such safety issue.

And that brings us to the bulbs. There are lots of options in replacement bulbs. Standard, long-life, "extra white", etc…it's very difficult for the average buyer to know what's going to help and what's not. The Consumer Reports headlight bulb "test" of a few years was way off base; their test method, assumptions, and conclusions were fatally flawed.

For reference, here's manufacturer data for output and lifespan at 13.2v for standard-wattage H1 bulbs. The numbers here are a composite of values applicable to the products of the big three makers (Osram-Sylvania, Philips-Narva, Tungsram-GE). Each manufacturer's product in each category is slightly different but not significantly so.  I picked H1-type bulbs for this comparison, and while the absolute numbers differ with different bulb types, the relative comparison patterns hold good for whatever bulb type we consider (H4, 9006, whatever). Lifespan is given as Tc, the hour figure at which 63.2 percent of the bulbs have failed.

H1 (regular normal):

1550 lumens, 650 hours

Long Life (or "HalogenPlus+")

1460 lumens, 1200 hours

Ultra Long Life (or "DayLight")

1430 lumens, 3000 hours

Plus-30 High Efficacy (CPI BrightLight, Osram Super, Sylvania Xtravision, Narva Rangepower, Tungsram High Output, Philips Premium):

1700 lumens, 350 hours

Plus-50 Ultra High Efficacy (CPI Super Bright Light, Philips VisionPlus, Osram Silverstar, Narva Rangepower+50, Tungsram Megalicht, but not Sylvania Silverstar): 

1750 lumens, 350 hours

Plus-80/90 Mega High Efficacy (Philips Xtreme Power, Osram Night Breaker):

1780 lumens, 340 hours

Blue coated 'extra white' (CPI Bright Light Blue, Osram CoolBlue, Narva Rangepower Blue, Philips BlueVision or CrystalVision, Tungsram Super Blue or EuroBlue, Sylvania Silverstar or Silverstar Ultra, also PIAA, Hoen, Nokya, Polarg, etc…everything advertised as putting out "whiter" light):

1380 lumens, 250 hours

So that's the pattern for how lifespan and light output are related. It's worth noting that the lumen differences are not the extent of the performance differences. The filament changes required to make a long-life bulb tend to reduce the beam focus, which shortens seeing distance. And, the light color is less white and more brown. But lifespan is lengthened. The opposite filament changes are made to create the "Plus" (+30, +50, +80, +90) or Osram "Hyper" type bulbs: Lifespan is reduced, but the beam focus is better so seeing distance is longer. Light color is whiter and less brown. The takeaway message here is that even if all the filaments put out exactly the same amount of light — the same lumens from a long life, a +30, a +50, a regular, an ultralong-life, etc. — the headlamp performance and appearance with the long-life bulb would still be inferior compared to the same headlamp performance and appearance with a regular, or +30, or +50, or +80, or Hyper bulb.

However, because of the particular kind of headlight system you have, there's a much more effective and cost-effective option than any of the bulb types listed above. Your best upgrade path is to replace the existing 9005/HB3 (high beam) and/or 9006/HB4 (low beam) bulbs with Toshiba 9011 and 9012 bulbs . The new bulbs are not some tinted or overwattage version of 9005 and 9006, but rather employ a technology called HIR, Halogen Infrared Reflection. The mechanical dimensions of the bulb are all identical to the 9005 and 9006 bulbs, but the bulb glass is spherical instead of tubular, with the sphere centered around the filament. There is a multilayer coating on the bulb glass, which is transparent to visible light but reflective to infrared. Infrared = heat, so the coating causes heat to be reflected back to the filament at the center of the sphere. This causes the filament to become much hotter (producing more light) than it can by passing electricity through it, without the shorter life, poorer beam focus, or greater heat production that comes with overwattage bulbs.

Here's the comparison of these bulbs to standard and high-performance 9005 and 9006 bulbs. A "+50" would be a Philips Vision Plus or GE Night Hawk. A "+80" would be a Philips Xtreme Power.:

Low beam stock: 9006, 12.8V, 55W, 1000 lumens, 875 hours
Low beam compare: 9006+50, 12.8V, 55W, 1090 lumens, 300 hours
Low beam compare: 9006+80, 12.8V, 55W, 1120 lumens, 275 hours
Low beam new: HIR2, 12.8V, 55W, 1875 lumens, 875 hours

High beam stock: 9005, 12.8V, 65W, 1700 lumens, 320 hours
High beam compare: 9005+50, 12.8V, 55W, 1830 lumens, 175 hours
High beam new: HIR1, 12.8V, 65W, 2530 lumens, 320 hours

So, compared to standard bulbs, you're looking at 88 percent more light
from the low beams and a grand total of 137% more light in high beam mode
(49% of which from the high beam units, 88% of which from the low beams). The beam pattern will not change, but there will be considerably more light within the beam pattern.

Of course, your headlamps must be aimed carefully and correctly with any bulbs
especially with these high-output bulbs.

These bulbs are expensive as bulbs go - $22.71/ea - but they are very
cost-effective compared to a tarted-up 9005 or 9006 with blue colored
glass (PIAA and Sylvania Silverstar come to mind) that doesn't produce
more light and has a very short lifespan.

The HIR bulbs have a double-wide top ear on the plastic bulb base, to
comply with the law requiring different bulbs to have different bases. The
extra-wide plastic top ear is easily trimmed or filed to make the bulb fit
your headlamp's bulb receptacle. Once that's done, they go directly into
the headlamp, and the existing sockets snap on.

You can (and should) get them from Candlepower.

_________________
一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

hi dan - thank you for your excellent 2d essay. read it carefully. the lenses on the boxes of my 88 lesabre are glass not plastic. i think i have cleaned them successfully with the blue magic. will try to get a toshiba bulb you recommend for more light output at least for the right light which is the weakest. heres a good one- checked the boxes on my 01 saturn and they are plastic lenses not glass, recalling what you said. the left one is foggy and a little yellowed. worked it over with blue magic and it didnt do any good. will try it again. if stinko result will get the doublehorn kit . will keep you posted. thanks tons. bob f

Just bought a new lowbeam Sylvania Halogen for the quad on my 79 van. The old bulb was working just got a water leak. I sealed the new one with black RTV.

I have halogens in the Duster right now with no system up grades. So far.

Do your fingers hurt from all that typing Dan?

Time for work and read this tonight!

_________________
'72 Duster 198 stock cam, 3:23's Hookers on jack stands for 8 years in the driveway
'79 Maxivan 360 Offy Qjet Comp RV cam/rusting in the driveway.
93 D350 160HP Cummins Auto Dually Clubcab needs a injector pump
2005 Golden Couch Buick

Sylvania's headlights are the worst of a very bad bunch.
The new one was already sealed. What did you seal?

_________________
一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Hmmmm.....Maybe this ought to have the responses edited and put into the articles section.

Roger