Light it up in 2008
I posted a story a little while ago that was translated by my mate Ivan in Hungary (thanks again!). I had to do with a conversion done by a friend of his there, on his Saab 900, from regular bulbs to HID Xenon lamps. The results were quite effective, but the Xenon conversion is a reasonable-sized undertaking.
The good news is that you don’t necessarily need to go such trouble to really improve your lighting. I don’t have before or after photos, but I changed the bulbs in my Viggen early in 2007 and the difference was quite noticeable.
I’ve had a link in the sidebar for some time now for a place called Motorbulbs. Motorbulbs don’t do HID kits as seen in the Hungarian conversion story, but they do sell replacement HID bulbs if you need them.
Motorbulbs sent me the bulbs I put into my Viggen, but that’s not why I’m mentioning them here. The reason I’m mentioning them is that the replacement ones they sent - Phillips X-Treme H4s - are first class and I’ve therefore got no hesitation in recommending them.
After the HID story I wrote to Motorbulbs about Xenon kits etc. As mentioned above, they don’t sell them due to the flood of products from China etc. They just do the replacement bulbs for existing Xenon owners, if needed. They also sent me the following recommendations for non HID equipped cars.
We do other bulbs for non-HID cars, of those I would recommend:
Osram Nightbreaker +90%
Osram Silverstar +50%Philips X-treme +80%
Philips Vision Plus +50%These bulbs are E-coded (i.e. they’re legal for use in Europe - other markets I am not sure) and are standard wattage so they give increased light output without the risk of overloading relays or fuses.
I got the Phillips X-Tremes for use in my Viggen, and they are brilliant. If your lighting is looking a little tired, these babies will definitely light up your life.
——
THE DEAL
Motorbulbs do free worldwide shipping (yes, FREE) and readers of Trollhattan Saab can enter the coupon code ‘trollhattansaab’ at the checkout to get a discount on their purchase.
So if you’re thinking that some new lighting might be in order, I can recommend Motorbulbs, and the Philips X-Tremes in particular, without hesitation.
——
Upon re-reading this, I realised that this my look like a product placement or some such for Motorbulbs. It’s not. This is not a paid ad for which I get anything in return. I don’t do advertorials.
The bulbs are very good and are an underrated safety enhancement, improving illumination and visibility.
That’s all.
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A conversion to Xenon may also be illegal. In Sweden (and Europe?) the xenon light must be complemented with automatic adjustment of the front end lights. They are way to strong to have right up in the others drivers eyes.
But good xenon lights are wonderful when driving for hours in complete darkness. And that’s a fact
!
Yep, the legal question was mentioned in the original article from Hungary. The bulbs mentioned in this article are all OK, apparently.
OK, sorry about that.
Do you know why the bulbs give better lightning with the same effect?
According to my reading this is do to better accuracy when producing the bulbs. (i e the source of the light within the bulbs is fixed with better precision)
Oh, and by the way, there will be an press event tomorrow at 12:00 open for the public in Stockholm where the 2008 sales statistics and especially the greeen cars is presented in the centre of the town.
Interesting post this. So are you saying that these bulbs improve over the ones in a new Saab? I am thinking of buying a replacement bulb set - I always have them handy in the car just in case.
Kind regards.
P
P,
Best contact Motorbulbs and ask with regards to new cars.
My Viggen’s a 1999 model - not old technology - and the Philips X-Treme were a vast improvement.
Call me a light-nut, but changing the bulbs on a Saab does make a big difference in functionality and appearance. I have the 60th Anny 9-3, with H7 bulbs, and I have tried some PIAA Extreme Whites, and they do throw quite more light than OEM. They are rated to output 110Watts from a 55Watt source. Probably as good as the ones mentioned above and they are US legal.
But what gets me is that I see a lot of Bimmers, Acuras, and Lexus that are in the same luxury bucket, but the look of their HID are amazing. Even with the PIAAs, they do not look as luxury or high class during night driving as Saab’s competitors. Thus, I sacrificed a little functionality, with the HID “look” with some Luminics Krypton Titanium Bulbs.
Even though the bulbs now look unique and high performance, they still do not throw the amount of light as real HID. To supplement that, I upgraded the Fog Lights with the high output PIAAs and it works Great! The PIAAs unfortunately do not match the blue-tinged Luminics, but they still are true fog lights and not yellow-dimmed accent lighting.
I plan to upgrade to real Saab HID later this year. Hopefully my dealership can do it. Any word if this is possible as a non-factory installed upgrade?
Also, I change the parking lights with HID LEDs, making it look unique and aggressive. I can send some pictures of some before and after later this week if you want Swade.
Swade,
Thanks for this. I just had a little look on their site and it appears they only list 9-3s up to 2002 at this moment in time. I know this might not mean that none of these bulbs fit, but I’ll better find out. It might also be worthwhile finding out if I should replace the bulbs in my 9-month old (non HID) car right away, as the Philips or Osrams might be better from the bat. I was simply planning on walking into a Halfords etc and buying a bulb kit, but this bulb improvement stuff got me thinking now.
Thanks again - I shall give an update if I find out anything more.