Gerbilo

Well, I've mooched so much info from Honda-Tech I figured I should atleast try to give something back. I know there are guides on this and explanations but I had my camera(it's getting old and shitty so sorry for the pics hah) handy so I figured I'd make a lil writeup since so many people are asking about this. I was bored today and was in Autozone to pick up some new wiper blades and I figured that I should try out the 9005 conversion. I picked up some Silverstars because I liked the ones that I had in my old Civic.


Cost: $30-$40 depending on how cheap you can get a pair of Silverstars.
Time: 30 mins if you have no clue what you are doing and you can't find tools. 10 mins if you know what you are doing and have tools handy.
Difficulty: Easy
Tools: Needle nose pliers, wire cutter, file. Those are what I used, it was kind of a pain, but I got it done, a soldering iron can also be used.



A quick warning, make sure not to touch the bulb itself. The oils and dirt from your hands can cause the bulb to burn out very quickly.


Why to do this? More light. The 9005 is 65w vs the 9006 which is 55w. The 9006 also has a capped end and the 9005 does not. 9006 bulbs put out 1000 lumens while the 9005 puts out 1700. Is this an HID replacement? Not really, HIDs put out 3200 lumens. This is however much cheaper and legal.


The bulbs that I had in for the low beams I believe are the stock 9006 bulbs. I have a few pictures here of them side by side further down the page. As you can see the 9006 bulb has a cap on the top of the actual bulb. Also, on the inside of the socket you can see two guides instead of the 1 for the 9006 bulb. The final difference is the plastic notch at the top of the bulb, it's slightly to the opposite side that the notch on the 9006 bulb is.


Now the process

Start off by removing the 9005s from the packaging. Look on the inside of the socket, see the two guides at the top on the inside? Those need to be removed. I used the needle nose pliers and the wire cutter to remove them. It took a little while but with enough effort they'll break off. Try not to bend the metal prongs though. They may be bent slightly and you can bend them back in place with your pliers. I used a file to help smooth it out and get a little bit of the stubborn plastic off.

Here is a picture of the 9006(1 guide) socket on the left compared to the 9005(2 guides) on the right.



Once the inside of the socket is set you can start to work on the outside portion. Turn the bulb so that the top of it is facing you and the socket is pointed downwards. See the top notch? You will have to alter that. On the right hand side of the notch, use wire cutters to cut about 1/3 of it away. I then squared off the corner and smoothed it out with my file.

Here is the 9006 on the left and the 9005 on the right, notice the cap on the 9006, as well as the slightly different top notch position.


Here is the 9005 with the modified top notch.



Now that these two steps have been completely you are ready to install the modified 9005 bulbs! First you must remove the old bulbs though.

To disconnect the bulb from the harness, push on the end of the lock tap to release the connector, then pull the harness away from the bulb. It might take a little wiggling. Turn the bulb about 1/8th turn counter clockwise to unlock it. Once done you can pull the bulb out freely.

Here you can see the harness that attaches to the bulb


Here you can see the headlight assembly



With the new 9005 bulb, if the top notch was cut properly, you should be able to push it into the headlight assembly. Once done turn the bulb clockwise to lock it in place. Now reattach the harness to the bulb socket. It will lock in place if you have properly removed the two guides in the socket.

Now that you have this done, you are good to go! Check to make sure the bulbs are lit up.

As far as my results and opinion on this conversion. Well, I'd say the light is brighter, it's not a replacement for expensive HIDs and the change isn't like night and day, but you can tell the difference. I'd have to say it was worth it so far

I have some comparison pictures here for you, but they aren't very good. ***My camera isn't all that good and really turned the white light yellow.***
***The pictures don't do the color justice***





9006


9005


A scaled comparo. The two on the left are 9006 and the two on the right are 9005


Well, that's what I've got
Enjoy and hopefully it'll help you out.
Mind you, this is how I did this and it works fine for now. If you managed another way, that's good.

iixerOii

Nice write up man

simon98h22

Good write up

crawdad689

nice to see, man.

How To Write-Ups = Best thing on h-t

spark plugs.

question: why don't people just change the sockets? isn't it easier that way? it's like 6 bucks for both.

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

nice write-up, but I've had a how-to linked in my sig for like 2 years now because everybody was asking me how I did it way back when

racinjason

Nice write up, I have been debating this for my car. Is there any problems associated with running the increased wattage bulbs? Have any idea how long they last?

darkcvc

very nice write up

4DooRGiSzer

Next Mod for my car! i found out about hella supertone horn kit here, that was yesterdays mod, the horns are sooo loud its tight! best mod yet! very nice write up about the bulbs! thanks!

Gerbilo

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PatrickGSR94 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">nice write-up, but I've had a how-to linked in my sig for like 2 years now because everybody was asking me how I did it way back when </TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, that's where I got some information from. I figured H-T needed their own guide and hopefully it's a little more complete

racingjason, From what I've heard, as long as you use the 65w bulbs you are fine. They will burn out quicker though, but from what I've seen people have had them go 2 years without problems.

RidinStock

nice write-up, and from the looks of it, hopefully we'll see some more. few people make them that detailed and easy to understand. hell, i might even do this now, just from seeing this thread

spender1326

Awesome writeup. I have heard UNconfirmed reports that this will strain your electrical system. Have you had this problem? 10 extra watts, is that significant enough to overload the system. I would love to do this project but I'm afraid that it will short out my system.

Thx for the info

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by spender1326 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Awesome writeup. I have heard UNconfirmed reports that this will strain your electrical system. Have you had this problem? 10 extra watts, is that significant enough to overload the system. I would love to do this project but I'm afraid that it will short out my system.

Thx for the info</TD></TR></TABLE>

It will not do any harm. 9005 bulbs are actually rated as 60W, 9006 is 51W (look on the bulb base itself and you'll see). That extra 9 watts is only 0.75 extra amps of current draw, so no it will not harm anything. But for that 17% extra current draw over 9006, you get 70% more light output.

I had 9005 Sylvania Cool Blues for 1.5 years before one went out (2 days before getting HID ).

racinjason

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Gerbilo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">


racingjason, From what I've heard, as long as you use the 65w bulbs you are fine. They will burn out quicker though, but from what I've seen people have had them go 2 years without problems.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Cool, I think I will try this out, they should last me a pretty long time because I dont drive my car that much, thanks again for the info.

mrmonk

my left bulb just burnt out after the second time ive done this conversion...

DAMMIT!!! my drivers side burns out every like 4 months or so..

9005

reliability factor gets a

gettting HID's in like a couple of weeks

gsr nate

yeah, awesome g, butttt mine look more white than those, maybe it's the cam

Gerbilo

Nate, It's the camera, mine look just like yours do when looking at them in person, white!

racinjason, you are welcome, I hope that this helps you out, and yes, i've heard in many threads that if you drive w/ your lights on a lot they will burn out quick, if you rarely drive w/ your lights on they wont... well duh... but if you don't extra safe

Patrick... well yeah, this guy knows what he is talking about

spender, I posted the writeup the night I did the work, so as of right now, I have had 2 nights of driving on the lights, and that only totals out to a half hour or so... But.. so far no problems as far as electrical.. I will keep this thread updated though(it's my baby )

Ridinstock, thanks a bunch, This was my first writeup or work of any kind to my car. I'd love to do more, the problem is I am far from an expert and don't want to mislead anyone. I will, if I have the chance, try to do more writeups in the future... not sure what on, but i'll try. I know that "how to" info is desperately needed among the posts starting "dude, My VTECH DOESNT WORK"

Gerbilo

Oh yeah, i'm a bit tipsy, so sorry if my reply doesn't make any sense at all...

my writeup is my HT baby in my opinion, this place is very, very critical(as you all know) and i'm very glad to hear all the good responses!!

Also, if you do have any questions on the procedure, feel free to ask, If I haven't come in contact with the problem it's very possible someone else has!

Gerbilo

bump so you can all be educated!!

gramentz

damn, thats a very noticeable difference, gonna have to try that...awesome writeup by the way

ILuvJDMITR

ok, so i found amber HL bulbs... took me 2 years, but I found em... they are only avail 9006 and H4. I wanted em for my high beams. can the 9006 be retro fitted to fitted in the 9005 housing? and why not just make jumper wire harnesses to change the plugs?

Muckman

iTrader: (2)

I did this mod awhile ago thinking it was real cheap and clever but it sucks. The bulbs burn out every 3-6 months because they are not designed to operate with that much power. I was using the high quality Sylvania Silverstar bulbs and at $25 a pop it adds up quick.

Gerbilo

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ILuvJDMITR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">can the 9006 be retro fitted to fitted in the 9005 housing?</TD></TR></TABLE>

theoretically, you should be able to by doing the same thing. Remove the guide on the socket first, and on the top notch you'll want to cut it down on the otherside of how I said to do it for the 9005.

tripb18c1

I just did the conversion but I had 12V 100W lights laying around. I think it's a bit over 4 amps more over stock. Is this okay?????

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ILuvJDMITR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ok, so i found amber HL bulbs... took me 2 years, but I found em... they are only avail 9006 and H4. I wanted em for my high beams. can the 9006 be retro fitted to fitted in the 9005 housing? and why not just make jumper wire harnesses to change the plugs?</TD></TR></TABLE>

9006 will not fit in the 9005 housing. The base where the o-ring goes is slightly larger on 9006.

For this reason it's good to double up on the o-rings when putting 9005's into the low beam housing. I believe the link in my sig shows this.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Muckman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I did this mod awhile ago thinking it was real cheap and clever but it sucks. The bulbs burn out every 3-6 months because they are not designed to operate with that much power. I was using the high quality Sylvania Silverstar bulbs and at $25 a pop it adds up quick.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I dunno man, I ran 9005 Sylvania Cool Blues in my projectors for 1.5 years before one burned out, and those are less than $20/pair and put out the same amount of light as the Silverstars.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tripb18c1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I just did the conversion but I had 12V 100W lights laying around. I think it's a bit over 4 amps more over stock. Is this okay?????</TD></TR></TABLE>

Stock headlight fuses are 10A, which should be good for 120-140 watts depending on if the car is running or not, and depending on the voltage drop. However it's the heat generated by 100W halogen bulbs that will start doing things like melting housings, harnesses, etc.