03+ sunfires: swapping H11 with H9 for more light! - Exterior Forum

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03+ sunfires: swapping H11 with H9 for more light!
Thursday, January 04, 2007 1:11 AM
I didn't search to see if this question has been brought up before, if it has... well bite my ass...anyhow, lol...

Anyhow I came upon this tidbit of info:

H11 bulbs
These new single-filament 55w bulbs are quickly supplanting HB4/9006 in new low-beam headlamp and fog lamp designs. (They are not physically interchangeable with any 9000-series bulb!) As is the case with other bulb families—such as 9004/9007, 9005/9006, etc.—the H11 has different base keys than its H9 high-beam and H8 fog lamp counterparts. Somebody goofed on the spec, though, for the difference between H11 and H9 base keys is insufficient; it's too easy to install an H9 bulb where an H11 belongs. The difference in light output between these two designs is enormous (1350 lumens from the H11, 2100 from the H9), so putting an H9 in place of an H11 will obviously cause the lamp to produce a lot more light. Some lamps are designed such that the optics would handle the extra light well, without creating excessive glare for other road users. Many, however, are not. As with H8 and H9, H11 bulbs are not widely available in the aftermarket.


55w Narva or Osram: $13.50


So....basically, all someone needs to do it install the H9 bulbs in the H11 housing and see if there is any unwanted glare, and get rewarded with a lot brighter light output without higher amperage/wattage.

I already have HID's so I'm not interested in this, but any fire owners done this? If not, someone want to try it and let us know if it works...i think it should work well because our housings already have scatter shields around the bulbs to cut off unwanted housing glare.

Info above from: http://www.danielsternlighting.com/products/products.html




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Re: 03+ sunfires: swapping H11 with H9 for more light!
Thursday, January 04, 2007 6:44 AM
So basically you're saying an H9 bulb will fit in the same socket as the H11 bulbs?


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Re: 03+ sunfires: swapping H11 with H9 for more light!
Thursday, January 04, 2007 7:38 AM
So you would basically have a bright in ur low socket. Hmm.. wonder how that'd work.
Don't our cars come with H9 and H11. If so, it wouldn't be too big of a deal to just switch um over and see what happens.

-Seth



Re: 03+ sunfires: swapping H11 with H9 for more light!
Thursday, January 04, 2007 10:37 AM
wizkiddrummer wrote:Don't our cars come with H9 and H11.


Umm..yeah, that's why I posted this. the H9 and H11 from what I remember are almost identical just differences in the bulb filiment, it would be easy to swap them....someone try this and post their findings!



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Re: 03+ sunfires: swapping H11 with H9 for more light!
Thursday, January 04, 2007 11:11 AM
i say, take a shot at it. the only thing i see that may be bad is the fact that the lowbeams have the tip of it blacked out to help prevent oncoming traffic from becoming blind. so if you put the highbeam bulbs in there, that spot that is blacked out may blind others. but i really dont know. so check it out bud, and let us know how it turns out.

good luck man!




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Re: 03+ sunfires: swapping H11 with H9 for more light!
Thursday, January 04, 2007 6:58 PM
Yeah, I have seen guys modding the small lip off of the bulbs so they can run high beams in their high and low sockets on their corvettes. I think the position in the reflector may help keep the beam lower. Too bad it doesn't help any of us single bulb users.



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Re: 03+ sunfires: swapping H11 with H9 for more light!
Sunday, January 21, 2007 11:47 AM
Rob wrote:Yeah, I have seen guys modding the small lip off of the bulbs so they can run high beams in their high and low sockets on their corvettes. I think the position in the reflector may help keep the beam lower. Too bad it doesn't help any of us single bulb users.


Would the wires be ok doing this?


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Re: 03+ sunfires: swapping H11 with H9 for more light!
Sunday, January 21, 2007 1:56 PM
Same voltage, come on someone do this already!! I have hid's otherwise I would do it to mine.



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Re: 03+ sunfires: swapping H11 with H9 for more light!
Sunday, January 21, 2007 4:27 PM
FastFireTwoTwo wrote:Same voltage, come on someone do this already!! I have hid's otherwise I would do it to mine.



I think I might give this a shot this week for the hell of it. I'm working two jobs 79 hours a week at the moment so I'll try to not forget, lol... I thought that the H9's were usually higher wattage than the H11's though.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Sunday, January 21, 2007 4:28 PM

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Re: 03+ sunfires: swapping H11 with H9 for more light!
Tuesday, January 23, 2007 9:03 AM
i did it before i got HIDs , glare is about the same, a crisper cutoff, and a hell of a lot better output, about hte same as PIAA superwhite H11s, its worth the 20 bucks haha

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Re: 03+ sunfires: swapping H11 with H9 for more light!
Thursday, January 25, 2007 5:15 PM
so basically for best results youd just use 2 H9 lamps right?



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Re: 03+ sunfires: swapping H11 with H9 for more light!
Sunday, January 28, 2007 9:36 AM
Matt Bray wrote:i did it before i got HIDs , glare is about the same, a crisper cutoff, and a hell of a lot better output, about hte same as PIAA superwhite H11s, its worth the 20 bucks haha


I just did this this weekend while here at work last night. I dremelled out the plastic piece inside the connector part of the H9 bulb So it would fit in the H11 socket. It's definitely brighter, and it seems slightly whiter because of the difference in brightness, but the glare isn't blinding like the H9's in the high beam lens. I tried looking at them from every angle with one H9 in one lamp and the other with the stock H11 bulb in it and it's no harder on the eyes than the stock H11. Like he said... pretty cool for $20.00, lol. I'll take pics this week when I get back home from NYC.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Sunday, January 28, 2007 9:36 AM

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Re: 03+ sunfires: swapping H11 with H9 for more light!
Sunday, January 28, 2007 11:48 AM
Right, glad some people tried it and it works!! Nice cheap mod!



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Re: 03+ sunfires: swapping H11 with H9 for more light!
Sunday, January 28, 2007 1:49 PM
I just did that swap on my 06 Chev Uplander. Used a set of H9's from Litech-Xenon. Nice crisp white light. Cant wait to take a drive tonight so I can really see the difference. The Uplander uses 4 bulbs so the total cost was $40.00 cdn plus tax. Picked them up at Automotive Warehouse just outside of Niagara Falls off the QEW. Nice place to deal with.

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Re: 03+ sunfires: swapping H11 with H9 for more light!
Thursday, January 17, 2008 7:28 PM
I was annoyed by the brightness of my lights. I already find it hard to see during night time and with bulbs that arent bright it made it alot more difficult to see. So i read this thread and said "im going to do that" So i went and picked up the bulbs (GE OE replacement) and did the modification to them..they fit right in and wow. Its honestly a lot better. I could notice a difference right away.


I had the H9 bulb in on the left and the H11 on the right and i called my mom outside to see the difference (im only 17 its okay for me to be living at home) and she agreed that it was a lot better (my mom is very stubborn and would find this to be a waste of money) but she was convinced that it was a good idea. So needless to say i very happy with this mod to my headlights and im hoping that perhaps a brighter aftermarket bulb will come out.
Re: 03+ sunfires: swapping H11 with H9 for more light!
Friday, January 18, 2008 7:15 AM
I'll try this out, cause I can't see $h!t at night especially when there is oncoming traffic and they just have their low beams on, I still can't see a thing, I think the stock output on our lights is much less than many cars driving on the road.
Re: 03+ sunfires: swapping H11 with H9 for more light!
Friday, January 18, 2008 1:24 PM
Post pics please!! I hate how dim my lights look and the lack of projection they give. I'm use to my truck headlights (silverstars) and 55watt foglight bulbs too. Are there any bulb upgrades for the stock fire foglamps???
Re: 03+ sunfires: swapping H11 with H9 for more light!
Friday, January 18, 2008 5:12 PM
Re: 03+ sunfires: swapping H11 with H9 for more light!
Friday, January 18, 2008 6:49 PM
Cool! My HID's are all @!#$ up now, so I think I will do this until I find a better kit to install.



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