what....PIAAs suck???? feedback please

Stonewall · 02-08-2007, 10:44 PM

About a month ago Taz wrote the following in another thread:

"Go to Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply and DON'T buy the PIAA but buy the OSRAM, Narva, etc. Euro bulbs and get better lights for less money. Want an even better option go there but get the 70/65W bulbs for more light output but to get the best out of the lights you might want to upgrade the wiring harness but if you do...its well worth the effort.

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In the origional thread, no one really responded to this post.

I know that a lot of people on this forum seemed to be pleased with their PIAA replacement bulbs.... But the information in the above link makes a compelling aguement for their suckiness

So what do you guys think about that web site... is the info accurate???

Savvyav · 02-08-2007, 10:52 PM

Piaa bulbs (smaller bulbs at least) are merely coated blue to change color temp there for "seem" brighter.

5150 Cruiser · 02-08-2007, 11:00 PM

Well I'm using Piaa 520 series fog lights, with Silviana silverstar headlight bulbs. Much clearer,and a bit brighter than stock. Just as good as the Piaa bulbs for half the cost.

big-boi · 02-08-2007, 11:06 PM

Dude, piaa's are awsome.. i changed everything to piaa's..

Noisycow · 02-08-2007, 11:10 PM

I love my PIAAs. Changed everything. Whiter, Brighter. I find it very unlikely that the only difference is a blue coating ..... However ... Taz is a knowledgeable guy, so maybe you should consult him on options.

Taz · 02-08-2007, 11:18 PM

I never said PIAA's suck. I suggested alternatives that are better values AND have better performance. PIAA's will be a step up from the stock lights. If you go to bulbs that pull more amperage, you will NEED to upgrade your wiring to get maximum beneft. Check the voltage drop and see for yourself.

Keep in mind that any tinting will reduce light output. The higher efficiency bulbs can offset some of this. There is no such thing as a free lunch in lighting. I also used to be a big fan of PIAA lights. They are generally high quality BUT that doesn't mean there aren't better values for the money AND better performance. You can be 2 complete sets of bulbs from Daniel Stern and get very high quality European bulbs manufactured to strict standards for the price of one set of PIAA.

blu3*Ox · 02-08-2007, 11:19 PM

I like my PIAA's, they make me warm and fuzzy all over, and brighter!
and I use them to temporarily blind the poor orphan children crossing the road...

Savvyav · 02-08-2007, 11:23 PM

Incandescent bulbs are the same, same size filament (power draw the same) merely a color temp change or high Kelvin. A 30% cyan gel would do the same. Not knocking them ( I have piaa bulbs as well) but I kept the stock bulbs for the interior as it maintain a over all higher light output.

UHH yeah what he said!

Taz · 02-08-2007, 11:24 PM

Forgot to add something, poke around Daniel Sterns website as there is a lot of useful info. It is sort of like Mythbusters but for lights.

Taz · 02-08-2007, 11:43 PM

Keep in mind too that light output does not decrease or increae in a linear fashion. So even a small voltage drop at the bulbs can have a significant impact on your light output. So you can go buy your super bulbs only to see the stock bulbs in another truck outperform yours because those bulbs got the full voltage there were supposed to.

For example a 5% drop in voltage can cause a respective drop of about 17% in actual light output (typically measure in lumens). This would be the difference in a drop of about 13V to 12.4V. That is only a little over a half volt drop. Not to hard to occur if there is even a little corrosion or a long wire run. Since many cars have crappy wires to the headlights, just upgrading the wires and a good relay, you can see big improvements.

On my stock FJ, I was about 0.7V drop while the truck was running. The effect was bigger than the difference between the DRLs and when the normal lights were on. So think of how much brighter your normal lights are than the DRLs. That is how much brighter my STOCK lights became when I just put in better wires and relays. On tope of that I went with even better bulbs. Then I went one more step and went to higher wattage now that my wires weren't eating up the energy and turning it in to heat but I was still conservative. I went with 70/65W bulbs; the Osram Ralleye.

I could have gone higher as my wires will support it. I didn't want to go too high until I see the effects of the bulbs on the reflectors. Sometimes too high of output can have issues with the stock lenses and reflectors. If this becomes an issue then I will swap out the stock headlight assemblies but so far all looks great AND my lights rock! Definitely lessened the need for aux lighting. I still need to install my fogs but so far I am pretty good and won't be outrunning my headlights anytime soon under most conditions.