Has anyone ever tried that 9006 to 9005 mod?

cdoyle · Feb 27, 2004

Hi,
Just curious if anyone here has tried that mod, where you take a 9005 (highbeam) headlight bulb, and modify it to fit the 9006 (low beam) connector on their 4th gen? Its suppose to be a little brighter, but not blinding to others.

I was thinking about replacing my bulbs with Silverstars (pepboys has them on sale) and then I heard about this mod. The 9005 for the silverstar is 65 watts I believe. I think our current 9006's are 55watts. Does anyone know if the extra 10 watts is going to be OK for our harnesses and wiring?

Here is one of the sites I found regarding the conversion
http://www.bmwe34.net/E34main/Upgrade/More_light.htm

I've seen it a couple other places, but they all seem to pretty much just copy this guys text, they just replaced the word BMW with whatever car they have.

Just wondering if anyone has tried this, and how were the results? Is it worth doing? Just want to make sure its safe for the Runner before I try it.

Thanks
Chris.

momo.75 · Feb 27, 2004

I don't know about that mod, but the Silverstars are fine by themselves.

NoDak · Feb 27, 2004

i went from the oem low beams to the silverstar low beams and just the difference in the K of the bulbs made a distinct difference.

also i changed my oem high beams with 100w high beams and there is no difference that i can tell on dark country 2 lane roads at nite. im going to swap out the 100w high beams and convert them over to the silverstar high beams and see if that makes a difference when the weather gets a bit better around here so i can slide under the truck. all this snow melting and creating slush makes it kinda hard to get under the truck w/o getting drenched.

jharris2 · Feb 27, 2004

NoDak said:
when the weather gets a bit better around here so i can slide under the truck. all this snow melting and creating slush makes it kinda hard to get under the truck w/o getting drenched.

I always change the headlight bulbs from above....just open the hood and they are there. Foglights (which I don't have) would need to be done from underneath.

Did I miss something?

snowjay · Feb 27, 2004

jharris2 said:
I always change the headlight bulbs from above....just open the hood and they are there. Foglights (which I don't have) would need to be done from underneath.

Did I miss something?

Got me... I always change headlights from under the hood on every car I've worked on. Maybe he has a Canadian model?

NoDak · Feb 27, 2004

sorry, you are correct. the main bulbs are changed from the topside and the fogs are done from below. just had a brain fart for some reason. guess its old age setting in.

i guess since i had to lay down towels and wear goggles to change out the fogs and got drenched changing out the fogs, i just remember the very bad part of changing out the bulbs.

cdoyle · Feb 27, 2004

I've replaced the low beam silverstars on several other cars, and there really isn't much difference in the amount of light on the road. It just looks brighter when looking at the car, that's why I thought that maybe doing this MOD will help actually put a little more light on the road. Does anyone know how much more current draw and heat produced compared from the 55 watt bulb, and the 65 Watt bulb?

On my other car, I have some 80/100 watt H4's and the high beams really make a difference on those dark back roads, but I had to rewire everything (because of the extra current draw) to use them, and sure don't want to do that with the Runner.

NoDak · Feb 28, 2004

you could try piaa xtra white bulbs, they have a 65w input and 110w output on them, but they are kinda spendy, about $80 a pair. on the 4th gen runners, since the low/high beams bulbs have the same back plane housing, you really cant aim the low/high beams seperate like the older gens from what i can tell. so if you aim your high beam pattern lower, you also lower you low beam pattern.

since there is no way around this atm, im trying to adjust to the new beam pattern compared to my 98 runner, which i had 65w lows and 100w highs.

cdoyle · Feb 28, 2004

grr,
Went to Pep Boys, to get the 9005's and they were out. So I have to wait for them to get more. They were a good price 22.99 for the pair with the mail in rebate.

PIAA's are really way to expensive, plus I don't trust that 110w output stuff they say on all their bulbs.

I guess I'll just have to wait for them to get more the 9005's in.

Do you think the 65 watt bulb will be OK with the lowbeam wiring. I noticed that toyota uses a thiner wiring for the lowbeams, so I'm not sure.

Chris.

bryancos · Mar 1, 2004

I will personally attest that PIAA bulbs (Superwhites at least) are grossly overrated and overpriced... Had them and liked them, but waste of money. Save your money and just get the Sylvania Silverstars... The Superwhites are rated at 3800K -- (PIAA extreme whites are rated at 4150K -- slightly bluer than true HID which is 4100K) SilverStars are 4000K and considerably cheaper!

darktiger · Mar 2, 2004

I say just get Silverstars, that 10watts difference in the mods are prob not going to make a difference.

cdoyle · Mar 3, 2004

I found a guy on another board who did this mod, but he just regular 9005 bulbs and switched out his fogs.

He said it made a big difference compared to the 9006. I'm still just waiting for pep boys to get the stupid 9005's in. Once I do it, I'll let you know how it looks, and if it lights the road up better.

NoRaSS411 · Oct 9, 2004

My motto is, if the lights arent bright enough, just add more! haha

cdoyle · Oct 10, 2004

I did end up doing this mod and it helps some. I think it's worth it since the 9005 cost the same as the 9006. So more brigtness for the buck

Has anyone ever tried that 9006 to 9005 mod?

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