Right, and since you'd experienced both (with the difference being just the lens vs. the back reflector having the different shapes in them) in the same car, I was curious as to what a difference it made.
My 2002 Malibu has separate bulbs for low and high. I don't know which bulbs it uses because I haven't had to replace one yet. The high beams are very bright but throw all the light way down the road without any near the front of the car. I'd wonder if they're aimed wrong except the low beams seem to be aimed fine. I hardly ever use my brights (even when there's no one else on the road) because of that.
I didn't think that would be street-legal.
They make some bulbs with LEDs on the back of them to point toward the reflector, too. Not too effective but they do make them. Another fun thing with LEDs for turn signals is you have to replace the flasher unit too or else the signal will flash at hyper-speed the same way it does if you have a turn-signal light out, because LEDs don't draw enough current.
I didn't notice a major difference between the two setups. When you're dealing with a bulb that dim, the only useful beam pattern is a bright hotspot in the center without any width, because if you spread the light out to the sides, it won't be bright enough. Generally, the fluted lens optics are only found on older cars, because you use a simple parabolic reflector with them. The mid 90s saw CAD get big, and CAD can give you a multi-surface reflector that does the same thing, without needing any lens optics. But, of course, the projector has put the two of them out of business, allowing for a distinct cutoff.
Yup, half the guys had hyperflashers, and others had load resistors. Both are stupid, when you can buy for $15 a new turn signal flasher module that goes in the fusebox, and fixes it without wasting a bunch of juice through a load resistor.
I've been tossing around the idea of LED tails. I know that I have the technical ability to do them, but I'd need to spend probably $100 to do it right (Superflux 4-chip LEDs, PWM brightness control, and voltage regulators), and I get worried about the liability if I get into an accident.
My headlights are DOT and SAE approved for an Infiniti M35, so I'm not really worried about them. LEDs would worry me, though.
'02 Malibu is 9005/9006. It's a really popular combination. They're both pretty decent bulbs, when used in an OEM application (I have aftermarket dual-reflector 9005/9006 headlights here, and they suck, because the reflectors were improperly designed by some dude in China, to be sold on ebay). And, if you want them brighter, it's an easy swap to 9011 HIR bulbs, which will give you about twice the output.
Do the low beams stay on with the highbeams? A properly designed quad-headlight setup should have that, so the lows can be aimed low, and the highs can be aimed high. That's the key advantage with this type of a setup versus a dual filament. My high beam filaments have to do double duty - foreground and distance. With a quad setup, you can design the highs solely for distance, and keep the lows on to handle foreground.I bet people out in the country like having the long distance highs, but you don't really need them for where you live.
