Sylvania/Osram Silver Star Bulbs

[jtb]

About a year ago I replaced the stock low beam bulbs on my 05-RT with the Syvania Silver Star bulbs. Last week I noticed a funny icon on my dash, after looking it up in my owners manual, I discovered one of the bulbs was out. I replaced it with another Silver Star. Just today on the way home from work I noticed the icon again. The other bulb is out now (the one I did not change). My question is this, have any of you had similar experience with these bulbs? Is it normal for the bulbs to last ony one year?

[NoHeat]

You can find lots of internet posts on various sites complaining of early failure for Sylvania Silverstar, PIAA, and other halogen bulbs that are advertised as being brighter.

 

The main reason they are brighter, and whiter, is the filament is operated at a higher temperature. So the lifetime is reduced.

 

What you can control is cleanliness of the bulb when installing it. Finger oil or other contaminants absorb light, raising the temperature and thereby reducing the lifetime, so don't touch the quartz envelope.

[FrankBrown]

My stock bulbs lasted 26k miles (10 months) and I replaced with Silver Stars and they only lasted 8k miles or less than three months. I was not happy. I replaced with standard H7's and will stay with the standards. I didn't notice a difference with the Silver Stars anyway.

[Limecreek]

On your next bulb refresh I'd choose the Philips Vision Plus as a replacement. They have more than a couple of years of life of average hours and a decent improvement over the stock lamps.

[keithb]

Greg

I just had the left side low beam bulb go out on my 05 RT on Sunday. I replaced it with a Sylvania standard H7 from Auto Zone. Do you know how that bulb stacks up against the Philips you referred to in terms of bulb life.

[Jon_M]

It is important to note that the Sylvania and Osram Silverstar bulbs are not the same thing. There is a pretty broad consensus that the Osrams are good, but the Sylvanias are junk. I have had Osrams in my '05 RT for nearly two years and so far, so good. I had the Phillips bulbs in a K11LT and was satisfied with them as well.

[GelStra]

+1. I got the Euro specs Osrams which are Xenon filled. 1 year, no issues. YMMV

[CraigT]

What you can control is cleanliness of the bulb when installing it. Finger oil or other contaminants absorb light, raising the temperature and thereby reducing the lifetime, so don't touch the quartz envelope.

 

Yep very common problem the old fingers on lamp when fitting, but I do understand the problem being that the glass on the lamp is actaully a high temperature (maybe bora silicate?) and it becomes porous when the natural grease from your fingers come into contact with it. Once porous the halogen gas escapes thus not permitting the self regenerative tungsten process.

 

Very common complaint on household and automotive applications.

 

Besides, it's a guy thing not to need or read instructions until after the event, is it not?

[Mike05]

Check out Phillips "MotoVision" bulbs. Supposedly designed specifically for the Motorcycle community to increase rider visability.

 

Had them about six months without any trouble (probably too short a time to mean anything). Increased brightness for me (claimed 40%) and other riders tell me improved visability without burning out their retinas.

 

Mike05

[Limecreek]

I have no idea how the Philips brand stacks up agains the Sylvania brand in terms of life expectancy. I can tell you they were buring bright when I sold my 1150RT and they were at least 2 years old and 30K+ miles.

 

I have them on my new RT and think they are great.

[JustKrusen]

The silver stars only last about a year (20,000 mies) on my Wing. The Sylvania last about the same.

[Mike]

I've actually had good luck with Osram Sylvania Silverstar bulbs, but have experienced short bulb life with PIAA products. There's a new version from Osram Sylvania, marketed as the Silverstar Ultra that is claimed to be about 25% brighter and last 30% longer than the Silverstar. By the way, I've seen conflicting information about whether the Silverstar bulb sold in Europe is any different than that sold in the U.S. Regardless, the Ultra is touted as being brighter and lasting longer than the standard Silverstar.