Headlight burn-out bug and upgrade

I've got an Opt7 35w AC kit in my Camry with a dual relay setup.

The 2011 Prius has a different kit, but also setup with a dual relay HID harness. No problems whatsoever so far.

Why the dual relay? On a one relay harness, if the relay goes bad, both lights don't work. On a dual relay setup, if a relay goes bad, one headlight remains lit.

I didn't care for the Opt7 5000k color temp, too blue for me, so I got these in 4300K:



I have them in both cars and they're great. Better quality bulbs. If you order from them, make sure you tell them you need the H11 bulbs with the ground wire opposite the large tab on the base or they'll send you a bulb that will give you ground shadows.

One last thing, why 55w? 35w is plenty bright, it's about 3x brighter than the oem halogens. Going with 55w will put out a lot of foreground glare right in front of the vehicle, which will constrict your irises and decrease your night vision. The same reason why you don't use highbeams in fog, the light will glare off the fog and blind you or decrease your vision. Also, I don't think you'll be blocking your squirrel finder cutouts? Leaving them unblocked will allow even more glare with the 55w ballasts for other people to deal with.

Here is a link to the dual relay HID harness I have in the Prius:

DDM HID Xenon Conversion Kit Dual Relay Harness Dual In Dual Out, Fit All Bulbs | eBay

 

For those following along at home, Sylvania Ultra is one of the "premium" bulbs designed for higher-than-spec light output at the expense of lower-than-spec life (accomplished by designing for a slightly-lower-than-spec voltage; essentially, these bulbs are constantly overvolted in use).

The Prius has a pretty steady system voltage near the high end of what would be considered normal. There may be some Prii with a wire-harness issue compounding the problem (the subject of T-SB-0204-12), but it's probably the case that just about any "premium" incandescent will be eaten pretty fast in just about any Prius.

Sylvania makes standard bulbs too, which will last longer. They're just usually on the lowest row of shelf hooks, down by your ankles, where the store owner hopes you won't see them.

-Chap

 

Well? The design life for a standard Sylvania Basic H11 is 270 hours. Same figure for the Ultra H11 is 150 hours:



Both of those figures assume 12.8 volts at the bulb. I measured 13.82 at the bulb in my Gen 3 ... figure in the roughly thirteenth-power inverse relationship of life to voltage, and the Basic is doing well to last about 100 hours; the Ultra is already on borrowed time at 57.

-Chap

 

I have them mounted under the metal bumper structure, so they're not in the hot engine bay, and in front of and away from the radiator.

I use extensions like these to mount the ballasts.

2 pcs 36" 3 ft HID Extension Wire For 35W & 55W Ballast and Xenon Bulbs | eBay

There are also extensions available if you need to extend the H11 to H11 connector to the ballast too.