Osram Silverstars

[ULP]

Anybody else not happy with the life of them?

I fitted a pair last November only to discover yesterday that my nearside dipped bulb has gone - considering my car has been off the road for 9 weeks I hardly think a 10-month life is anything to crow about; I've only ever had one dipped bulb go on me before (after 3 years).

Anyway, rather than order a pair of different bulbs I've gone for the Osram's again and put this down to a freak occurance. Does anybody else have a similar experience? If I loose the other one soon then I'll have a spare Osram but I'll be trying something different.

So if you see a silver A2 with a blown dipped bulb and fog lights on then you know who it is (at least the fog lights have some use...).

I'm already getting waves from Saxo drivers...

[alanm]

I've had a similar experience with Osram Silverstars. Fitted them to my Smart and my wife's Toyo 'rolla. A dipped beam bulb blew in each car after about a year. I replaced the ones in the 'rolla with Halfords Brilliance +50% and the Smarts with the new Philips Extreme +80%. The latter have now been transferred to my 'new' A2 and replaced with Halfords Brilliance +50%

Just in case you and I have not just been unlucky, I'd recommend going for either the new Ring +90% bulbs or Philips +80%.

[Skipton01]

The trouble with all these +??% bulbs (including Silverstars) is that to get more power out of the bulb, they have to make the filament burn hotter, hence brighter.

Doing this will shorten the life of the bulb. Thermal shock is also the other main cause of bulb failure. If you can, turn on the lights part way through the journey (impossible I know in many cases), as they'll be a little warmer and will be less stressed.

Cheers,

Mike

[richard-]

My last dipped headlight lasted 3 months

[humps]

My philips Bluevision has surprisingly lasted for over a year! much better than the Bosch super white sold in halfords. But when my bulbs go, I'll be tempted with the new Osram Nightbreaker which has some pretty good review about brightness (not sure about product life though) or go straight to HID.

one side note, I've been getting many responses that diy HIDs passes MOT without problem as long as the cut off and alignment are correctly calibrated!

[tdiman]

The H7 lamp is notorious for it's short life I'm affraid to say, 10 months seems to be a good result from my experiences, I've tried many different manufacturers and the philips do seem to las a bit longer, having said that mine are currently on their 18th month (musn't go out much in the dark!)
Mike