Hello to all (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

There are many, many topics on this forum about headlights, HID lights, fog lights, different ways of modifying running lights, brake lights, and more!

There are discussions about what is legal to use, and, what will simply upset all oncoming cars. This is about my search for more light, that is either completely legal, or, if not legal, it is impossible to tell it is not legal. I do not want to modify my wiring to do it, nor do I wish to risk melting any wiring either.

Many people have differing opinions about what is best. My best is simple, not too spendy, legal enough to never get stopped in Ohio, easy to do, and will not upset anyone when it's time to sell it.

The car is an 06 Tucson GLS 2.7L 2 wheel drive in the stock silver color. Stock wheels, and nothing special to look at.

My reason for different / better lighting is not so much about looks, but rather helping the guy behind the wheel to see better at night, and during poor weather.

Some basics you need to know before you start.

What size/type bulbs you have. What works on my Tucson, may not work on your Veracruz - you need to confirm before buying! Your Owner's Manual will give you some info, but this page will teach you everything! Philips bulb selector site

OR this Sylvania site Sylvania bulb selector site

The key is to determine the 'size' or 'type' of bulb in each position you wish to change out.

I wished to change:
My headlights - brightest, legal bulb I could.
My foglights - from clear to yellow, and brighter if possible
My front 'parking lights' - from clear to AMBER (who ever heard of white parking lights?! - YUCK!!), and, if possible, brighter

My headlights are 9003, also known as 'H4' bulbs, and also as "HB2" - generally, get one of the comman names and you'll be safe.
My foglights are "881", and my front 'parking lights' are "168".

Using your favorite search engine, and by putting in a search string like " 168 bulb yellow" - you will find many different brands and styles to choose from! Be careful because, many sites will tell you that the 168 and 194 are the same bulb - sadly, not quite true! The '168' tip is straight, but some of the other bulbs have a 90 degree bend in the tip, or may be a different wattage!

Speaking of wattage... Two important factors here, generally more 'watts' means more light, AND, more heat, and more current draw through your wiring. So, unless you know what you are doing, or like to roll the dice, swapping out a stock bulb for a higher wattage bulb *can* be a risk! This is something to consider - many people tell you that you can double (the wattage) safely, or you simply need to put in a higher rated fuse - OK?! True, most of the wiring in my car is tougher than it needs to be for the stock bulbs - but *I* think it is because they (the car maker) want it to live a long and trouble-free life - and, who am I to mess with that?

I did go up slightly on my foglights however - but, they are not on all the time, they are on their own circuit, and not many will be able to tell they are not DOT legal for on-road use - as the Owner of the car, I choose to roll the dice on this one.

The headlights '9003' bulb stock is 55 watts lowbeam, and 60 watts highbeam, or 55/60W. There are many aftermarket bulbs that stay with the stock wattage. Some have different shades of white, some go to a bluish-white, but many say something like "+50%" or "+80%" meaning they provide 50% or 80% more light for the same watts used. This is LEGAL!!! And it will say right on the bulb case if they are "DOT approved" or not for on-road use, or off-road use only.

The Sylvania "SilverStar" is a well known and popular bulb (9003ST) and the "SilverStar Ultra" (newer and whiter) is 9003SU - these are what I have used in the past.

Recently I have found out about the Philips "X-treme Power" bulb.

This bulb strikes me as the current best of show, and I ordered a set back on 08-28-09 and they just arrived today!

Whenever I can, I try to buy my stuff on Amazon (as I like shopping there), but I find I can't always get exactly what I want on Amazon, so then I need to find an outside vendor like the one above. Good knowledge on the site, great prices and selection, horrid shipping! No tracking to speak of - you get it when you get it...PERIOD!

For the front parking lights I bought some cheap $2.99 special no-name bulbs at my favorite auto-store. But, being me, I had to see if there is anything better, so for roughly $13 bucks, I got the PIAA bulbs - we shall see how different they are from the $2.99 specials...

For the foglights, I did go through Amazon, but from a different vendor that sells through Amazon - still, shipping not as good as Amazon themselves, but better than SUVlights!

Headlights - $39.99 plus $4.95 shipping - 11 days bulb
Foglights - $28.00 plus $4.25 shipping - 8 days bulb
PIAA front parking lights $12.85 plus free shipping - 3 days bulb
no-name front parking lights $2.99 locally.

Your Hyundai Owner's manual will tell you how to replace these bulbs, and, if desired, the proper way to aim them - the biggest caution I'd point out - DO NOT TOUCH the glass part of the bulb - you *may* put enough oils on it to shorten the life (I also wash my hands after taking everything apart, and prior to installing the new bulbs).

Personally, I believe yellow (amber) foglights do a better job than clear ones. I read a paper recently that stated otherwise. I have also read many old papers that agreed to having a yellowish tint providing better light in poor weather conditions. Only you can decide for yourself! Also, the *cool* factor of NOT having what every other Tucson Owner has is for me (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Same reason for the amber front parking lights - it makes zero difference driving at night, but makes a GREAT difference (to me) sitting in a parking lot - same thing, makes mine a bit different.

One point to remember? "+%" type bulbs will have a shorter life than the standard bulb. How short really depends on how much you use your lights? In the past, I normally get 8-14 months before losing one, and as most all bulbs dim with age, I always replace in pairs.

One last point if I may? Generally speaking, most ALL automotive lighting is made by either Philips, or Sylvania - even HELLA does not make though own bulbs! So, buying a 'brand' doesn't really do too much for you in my book - the brand *might* SPEC out the bulb slightly different than the version sold by Philips or Sylvania - but it beats the no-name stuff all to ****! So, be careful of where or whom you buy your lights from!

I don't really consider this a 'mod' - but whatever, it's a nice safe, fairly easy change that can bring you great satisfaction if you drive a lot at night or in poor weather.

Below are a few images of the bulbs.
 PIAA_168.jpg ( 12.11K ) Number of downloads: 3
 Philips_9003_X_Treme_Power.jpg ( 177.17K ) Number of downloads: 9
 Luminics_JDM_Yellow_881_fog_light.jpg ( 19.54K ) Number of downloads: 2

The 168 -front parking light / The 9003 headlight / The 881 fog light

A bit more info if desired:

Two other types of measure when dealing with lighting besides the wattage of the bulb, is the " Lumen " - as in how many 'lumens; does this bulb put out? I simply say that the 'lumens' of a bulb is a rating of how much light it puts out. More = Better!

The other is the 'color tempature' or " Kelvin " - as in what is the color tempature of the bulb? At the bottom is a chart I found on the web that I like very much. Basically, you want to decide what color you want? Yellow, white, bright white, blushish-white, and so on.

My foglights are rated as 1800K, and my headlights are about 4100K.

Also, here is another bulb look-up page.

HTH

 Color_temp_Large.jpg ( 219.88K ) Number of downloads: 6

Hello all (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I now have all the lights in. I have not re-adjusted them yet, but am not yet sure that I need to do so.

It is my conclusion that the new Philips "X-treme Power" is brighter, whiter, and has a slighter better pattern than the Sylvania "SilverStar Ultra" bulbs that I have been using! Of course, we have no data yet on life-span.

For those that have never replaced headlights on a Tucson (I suspect it is very similar on other Hyundais), I have added some photos that may help you to understand the process.

A headlight 'bucket' holds the headlight, parking light, and turn signal - one bucket per side. 2 10mm bolts hold the bucket in place, and one plug-in wiring loom powers everything in the bucket.

Then it is a matter of (no tools at this point) of unscrewing covers, and removing the desired bulb, placing the new one in, replacing the covers, snapping the plug back on, and bolting the bucket back in place.

I have also added some photos showing the lights different ways (am lousy with a camera - it's great, I am not).

 1_headlight.JPG ( 142.9K ) Number of downloads: 11
 2_Bucket_hole.JPG ( 157.98K ) Number of downloads: 7
 3_headlight_back.JPG ( 142.06K ) Number of downloads: 8
 4_parking_light_out.JPG ( 132.15K ) Number of downloads: 9
 5_headlight_bulb_back.JPG ( 117.67K ) Number of downloads: 7
 6_amber_foglights.JPG ( 139.28K ) Number of downloads: 11
 7_new_headlights_close_pattern.JPG ( 114.19K ) Number of downloads: 11
 8_P_lights_before_after.JPG ( 155.55K ) Number of downloads: 8
 9_headlights_5ft_out_pattern_.JPG ( 156.34K ) Number of downloads: 13
 10_new_headlights_15ft_out.JPG ( 148.97K ) Number of downloads: 7
 11_all_lights_on.JPG ( 150.53K ) Number of downloads: 8
 12_all_lights_10ft_out_facing.JPG ( 149.01K ) Number of downloads: 10
 13_all_lights_15ft_angle.JPG ( 120.9K ) Number of downloads: 4
 14_headlights_20ft_out_facing.JPG ( 145.68K ) Number of downloads: 5
 15_P_lights_10ft_out.JPG ( 115.01K ) Number of downloads: 6
 16_new_headlights_500ft_from_house.JPG ( 143.69K ) Number of downloads: 6


Will edit later and add comments to the photos.

they certainly look whiter than stock halogens..

sounds a bit easier to remove the housing on the Tucson than on the Sonata.. (there are 3 bolts on the Sonata, and one is EXTREMELY hard to get to).. are both bolts easy to get to? because the rest seems very easy.... thanks for the quick write-up

yes they are! 10mm socket with or without an extension, one on top in plain view, and one in front coming out level to the ground - plain view... like it only takes me 1-2 minutes to pop either side out - total cake...

Fog lights a touch harder (plastic cover with two philips screws first) then four 10mm bolts - and done, hardest part is the plastic cover (it has four tabs that you need to be careful aboul or they'll tear).

Again, headlight bucket does the headlight, front parking light, and front turn signal - all in one bucket - very simple.

HTH
[edit for spelling]

This post has been edited by PeterC: Sep 13 2009, 04:37 PM

A fast note!
Now that I've been using the Philips X-treme headlight bulbs for a while I can say completely that they are much, much nicer than the Sylvania SilverStar Ultra bulbs!

They are brighter, have a better pattern, AND, the high beam pattern is wonderful!! It's like having both the low and high beams on at the same time!

I am completely sold on this new bulb, even if the life-span ends up being shorter (time will tell)

I am so very satisfied with this change!

NOTE: where can I post about these lights so that all Owners can read bout them, rather than just Tucson owners? But - wouldn't that be double-posting? = Not good? I hope a Moderator would be so kind as to reply?

well peter that's quite an impressive topic you have started and you have put alot of your time writting it all up for the forums, well done.

l can well see your point but you can't post it in all the other forums for obvious reasons.

may l suggest you copy the sections of your postings you want to display for other members and then paste them under a new topic in the 'car audio & electronics' forum (IMG:style_emoticons/default/liebe011.gif)

l have also pinned this topic for you

Thank you for both the reply and the pinning (?) of this thread! I will create a post in the 'car audio & electronics' forum as you suggest.

This being such a simple low cost (and legal) upgrade/mod - I would think that most anyone would want to do this once they realize how simple to do it is.

'pinning' means that your topic will always stay at the top of the forum it was started on instead of moving its way down the forum as time goes by. that way members can see it straight away as they log on to that forum