H7 bulb suggestions?

Digital Corpus

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 14, 2008
Location
Ontario, California
TDI
'97 B4 w/ 236K mi body, 46K mi soul
I have Depo headlights that take H7 bulbs for highs and lows. I also happen to have a relayed wire harness from eurowires.net :)

Anyhow, this means I'm running my bulbs at about ~14.4V. Usuing a formula I'm found in my internet travels ((operating voltage/13.2)^(-13)*stated lifespan in hours) gives me about 113 hours out of the bulbs, or about 33% stated operating life. This happens to match up with the longest time it took for a low beam to burnout.

The bulb industry is plagued with blue bulbs everywhere and I really want to stay away from them. What brand/manufacturer are all of you using and how long are your bulbs lasting? Any suggestions for H7 +30 or +50 bulbs?

Thanks much!
 

Intech

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2005
Location
S. Central Pa USA
TDI
2003 Jetta GLS, 1999.5 Golf 2 dr
I have Depo headlights that take H7 bulbs for highs and lows. I also happen to have a relayed wire harness from eurowires.net :)

Anyhow, this means I'm running my bulbs at about ~14.4V. Usuing a formula I'm found in my internet travels ((operating voltage/13.2)^(-13)*stated lifespan in hours) gives me about 113 hours out of the bulbs, or about 33% stated operating life. This happens to match up with the longest time it took for a low beam to burnout.

The bulb industry is plagued with blue bulbs everywhere and I really want to stay away from them. What brand/manufacturer are all of you using and how long are your bulbs lasting? Any suggestions for H7 +30 or +50 bulbs?

Thanks much!
The man that you should speak with is Daniel Stern. He is by far the most knowledgable person on automotive lighting that I've ever spoken with. He feels the same way about "blue" lights that you do. If I remember correctly, he is a lighting Engineer and consultant for many corporations. Here's his link. Good luck
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/
 

JayT

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2004
Location
Pennsylvania
TDI
Golf, 2003, Silver Beetle, 2013, Moonrock
hey osram makes a 65w h7 clear bulb. I always liked them. Will be brighter particularly with wiring harness.

the most significant change for me that has effected bulb life is disabling the DRL's and adding the euroswitch. you can run the city lights for driving lights (I have LED's for my city lights).

Currently, I have h7 "ultra white" (or some crap name like that) 80w in my low beams and yeah they are "blue" in the sense that they do have a slight coating that makes them look "white", so the 80w does make up for the fact that the bulbs have a coating.

I've run 70w yellow h7's in my high beams for years and never changed them. (I have a harness that runs off the battery also)

I'm not advocating blue bulbs but the ones I have give the car a more updated appearance, and while the bulb is a higher wattage, the light is not scattered or menacing. They are not really significantly brighter than stock lights except the brightness gain you get with a rewired harness.

some things to think about. but I echo what has been said. Daniel Stern has a great website.
 
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