Hey there!

First thing you will need is an upgraded wiring harness. The factory harness simply isn't strong enough to give the bulbs the full amount of power they are designed for. See the thread in my signature on upgrading the headlight wiring harness.

Once you have a good understanding of what you're doing there, grab some Sylvania XtraVision bulbs. They're basically Silverstars without the blue coating on the bulb, which technically makes them a bit brighter. Once you have that combination, I guarantee you will be not just pleased, but impressed, especially considering it's a perfectly legal way to improve your lighting (HID retrofit bulbs/kits are not legal regardless of color and NHTSA is actually cracking down pretty hard on it).

 

The wire harness upgrade will give you the closest to HID as you can get plus it's cheaper then any HID knock off kit. Was my first time ever messing with a wire harness and xtremes write up made it look easy. Probably the trickiest thing is determining where you want to run the wires to hide them the best. I upgraded my bulbs the philips xtreme power but may downgrade to the xtravisions if bulb life ends up being less then a year.

Also make sure you re-aim your headlights. Even from stock they are aimed a bit low. This also helps a great deal.

 

Sweet! Thanks guys, much appreciated!

 

Something I noticed about the XtraVisions is that the lighting to the side is abysmal. When one of them burned out after 6 months, I put in a regular Philips H13/9008. The lighting to the side improved dramatically with no loss of downrange throw. I can't tell the difference in color between either bulb. When my other bulb burns out, another regular Philips bulb is going in its place to improve the lighting to the sides of the car. $13 at CarQuest.

Other people have logged similar complaints about the XV's in other bulb types, too. Food for thought.

 

When you say regular Phillips, do you mean a Phillips that is no brighter than stock or equivalent to the XVs? Like I have said, I don't want the crazy blue, i just want nice and bright bulbs that will light the way on these Ohio country roads :signs015:

 

I think sciphi means Philips bulbs that are pretty much comparable to the ones that came stock. I have been running the XtraVisions with the harness for about 2 months now. I have the stock set in the glovebox so I'll pop those back in when one blows and see f I can spot a difference.

 

The Philips Xtreme Power now called Xtreme Vision are not blue at all. When upgraded with the wiring harness they are pure white. I took pictures and posted in the how to upgrade your wiring harness thread but will post one here too.

The only thing I don't know is what bulb life will be since the bulbs run hotter with the beefier harness. But for 32 bucks for a set I will stick with them if they last a year.

 

No, the bulb I used is a step up from stock. The stock bulbs are long life bulbs. Those are just barely in specification for lighting. The bulb I used is a non-long-life bulb, or designed to be right in the middle of the road for lighting. The XV's and Xtreme Power/Vision bulbs are at the higher end of the specification for lighting output. That doesn't say anything about aim, though. I found out that the regular Philips bulb was superior in aim, and in providing even light across all of the visible area.

Kind of funny how a "performance" bulb throws lots of light downroad, but little to the sides.

 

I'm not sure about the XV's but with my Xtreme Power I get very good throw off to the sides. Much more then stock. However since I upgraded both the harness and bulbs at the same time I'm not sure if it is the combination of both or more so the harness. But either way it is way better then stock.