Help me with my headlights (MTEC bulbs)

[nismodrifter]

I decided to try out some new bulbs after hearing good things about MTEC's. I was running Silverstars since April and I was impressed....they are quite bright...and a bit whiter...but they weren't THAT great imo. Picked up some MTEC 4350k bulbs from CustomAuto last week and put them in...DAMN these things are AWESOME.
The light is PURE white, not ricey blue, this is what I really wanted when I bought Silverstars.

So today I had to travel back to Saskatoon, as the sun went down the problems began.

I never noticed this in city driving but once darkness came on the rural highway I realized that something was seriously weird with these new bulbs.
When I am running the low beams......it seriously feels like they are actually the highbeams, and when I run the high beams it feels like they should be the low beams. This is not 100% the way they should be as there are flaws with each. My main concern is why the highbeams suck so bad.

With the low beams on, I can see CRAZY far. The amount of light on the road is just NUTS. When I first switched on the lights I was just amazed at how great they are on the highway.
When I switched to high beams I realized that something is seriously wrong. I cannot see far AT ALL. The light totally SUCKS. I am not sure why this is happening. Close to the car, the light is quite bright. But the point of high beams is to be able to see a fair distance away from the car.....this is not happening. I can't see shit all in the distance. On a rural highway this is actually quite dangerous as there were quite a few deer out tonight. The light put out by the highbeams seems to be actually WORSE than what a low beam should put out and its quite close to the car.

So basically, the low beams are unusually bright (not a bad thing for me...the light is amazing) but the highbeams are TOTALLY useless.

Any idea why this would be happening?? WTF is going on?

First pic: Out of sunroof
http://members.shaw.ca/nismodrifter/lights1.jpg

Second pic: Taken inside of car. You can really see the problem in this picture.
http://members.shaw.ca/nismodrifter/lights2.jpg

Let me know what you guys think could be going on.

[stevieo]

yeah i'd like to know too.

i have silverstars in my car and without high beam i can see GREAT!, but once i try to flick on the high beam i lose like ALL lighting like nismo and i see shit all, high beam fucking sucks haha. let me try to snap some pics tomorrow night.

[seer_claw]

They look like they are aimed too low, is there any way for you to adjust the beams in an upward direction? Only the high beams without adjusting the low beams. Worth looking into.

I have PIAA's in my high beams and Silverstars in my low. I really hate driving without my highbeams on because the PIAA's are so much brighter.

[nismodrifter]

High beam and low beam is in the same bulb so that would not be possible without screwing up the low beam aim (raising it to the point where I would blind other drivers).

[seer_claw]

Thats sort of what I figured. Damn one piece housings. Is there any way of adjusting the actual bulb without unsealing it from the housing?

[Police]

probably the design/manufacture of the bulbs are shitty, they are made in china/taiwan and definately not OE. Are these H4's? how much did u pay for these btw?

[nismodrifter]

Do a search for MTEC on google....every single person has nothing but good things to say about them. I just don't understand why they are not working right for me...no make no sense.
They are 9007's....cost $50.

[Police]

yeah right these are nothing but ricer bulbs of course ricer boys will yield some awsome feedbacks, they're all the same shit with a blue coating to dim output and excite the cones and rods in your eyeballs.

I can't see it being your headlight or harness so the only logical explanation for this is the bulbs are shit.

and the VERDICT?

:dunno:

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by Police
probably the design/manufacture of the bulbs are shitty, they are made in china/taiwan and definately not OE. Are these H4's? how much did u pay for these btw?

True, I'd also suspect Taiwan bulbs to not be manufactured properly, as in, if the filament is placed even 1 mm off, it'll throw off your beam pattern completely.



Originally posted by nismodrifter
every single person has nothing but good things to say about them. I just don't understand why they are not working right for me...no make no sense.

It makes perfect sense. 99% of the ricers out there with ricer bulbs rarely ever drive out onto the open highway at night with no other lighting. Anyway, to get to answering your question, I believe that the reason you are experiencing poor visibility is due to a combination of high colour temperature and dark pavement. As we all know, high colour temperature (in kelvins) is no good. Most people recommend 4300k for HIDs, but the only reason HIDs can get away with that colour temp is because they make up for it in utter brightness. In your situation, you have the worst of both worlds...high colour temp and low brightness because they're halogens. Couple that with dark pavement, which pretty much sucks up white light, and the fact that your high beam disperses the light around, and you've got shitty illumination. Your low beams just look nice because the light is all concentrated in one place. Actually, you'll notice that if you ever encounter wet roads at night, your MTEC bulbs will be 100% useless. Like, so bad that you might as well turn them off. HIDs are like that too.

If you want bright headlights without any hassles, switch to Sylvania XtraVisions (which are Silverstars minus the blue tint coating.) The only thing you'll lose is the look.

Or if you want to get insane about it, upgrade your headlight wiring, then run UBER high wattage Hella Yellowstars. 2500k and high wattage, so you get the right colour temp AND it's insanely bright.

[nismodrifter]

Shat. Switch back to Silverstars I guess. :(

Thx for the info Jeff.

[Goblin]

5-6k h.i.ds loss of light is ever so tiny tho jeff.

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by nismodrifter
Shat. Switch back to Silverstars I guess. :(

Thx for the info Jeff. I think you should either go with XtraVisions if want brightness for cheap, or do upgraded wiring+uber wattage Yellowstars if you want performance AND a different look.

I'm currently using Silverstars and I can't wait to switch to Yellowstars, simply cuz the the whiteness is terrible on wet roads. Now if only they'd burn out!!!

[Xtrema]

Don't believe the hype. MTEC is ok but not as great as advertised.

[alloroc]

It is the bulbs themselves. I think the filement location/length within the bulbs is placed in a way that gives advantage to the lowbeam reflectors at a cost of the highbeams... and because headlamps vary from car to car there are those who won't have a problem when there is a deviation from 'standard' and others who will. When I tried silverstars in one of my cars and I noticed the cutoff was actually higher on lowbeam enought that I had to adjust the headlights down.

[alloroc]

Originally posted by Goblin
5-6k h.i.ds loss of light is ever so tiny tho jeff.

But Jeff wasn't discussing hids he was talking about tinted halogen bulbs. Silverstars aren't too bad because after a month or two the blue coating fades a bit and the bulbs move away from the blue. Some of those other ricer bulbs are absolute crap.

Funny how nearly everyone in the world knows to buy yellow tinted sunglasses to block out blue light because the human eye has a hard time focusing on blue and the yellow increases contrast and reduces eye fatigue. Then every ricer in the world goes and installs blue tint headlamps because 'yellow is no good' :banghead:

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by alloroc
Funny how nearly everyone in the world knows to buy yellow tinted sunglasses to block out blue light because the human eye has a hard time focusing on blue and the yellow increases contrast and reduces eye fatigue. Then every ricer in the world goes and installs blue tint headlamps because 'yellow is no good' :banghead: Good point...same for yellow street lamps, yellow fog lights....

[seer_claw]

Originally posted by GTS Jeff
Good point...same for yellow street lamps, yellow fog lights....

Not the same for street lamps, street lamp are sodium vapour lights, they are the cheapest to run thats why street lights are yellow not because they help you see better. Its all about economics. ;)

[arian_ma]

Do you really use your highbeams that often though?
I got M-Tec bulbs, and my highbeams and low beams are pretty much the exact same, except that when I turn on the high beams I get a little more brightness on the left side...
but yea, i think they look great at least.

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by seer_claw


Not the same for street lamps, street lamp are sodium vapour lights, they are the cheapest to run thats why street lights are yellow not because they help you see better. Its all about economics. ;) What about the old school greenish white street lamps?

[Police]

Originally posted by seer_claw


Not the same for street lamps, street lamp are sodium vapour lights, they are the cheapest to run thats why street lights are yellow not because they help you see better. Its all about economics. ;)

Well this theory would apply to halogens too then, they are cheaper than HID's but halogens also perform better in poor conditions...hmm

[handsomebassman]

I wanted to try these mtec bulbs too for a while, but i think im going to stick with my silverstars after readin all of this. I was considering HID's, but i dont want the blue ass look. Nothing i hate more than like a super blue colour to my lights. I just want pure bright white light. I dont mind dishing out the 6 or $700 for increase in visibility and safety.

Those results (the pics) are brutal though. What are you going to do? just pop your olds back in?

[alloroc]

If you ever wondered why yellow works better than white or blue light here is a published study.

Note .. not an 'easy read'

http://www.lightingresearch.org/programs/transportation/pdf/SAE/2001-01-0320.pdf

This page sort of explains it in terms most can understand
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/light_color/light_color.html

[nismodrifter]

Originally posted by handsomebassman
Those results (the pics) are brutal though. What are you going to do? just pop your olds back in?

Yeah I'm just going to put my Silverstars back in. Not impressed at all with these things....wasted my time installing them.

If I had a choice....I would be rockin some yellow HID's (3000k) ala Le Mans style...couple people on Vortex are running them...so illegal but so hot :love: