Modern Headlights
I saw that you suggested those style bulbs in another forum(after I already purchased others #-o)..... I am wondering how a bulb like that(270 degree beam angle)can have light coverage better than say....these? [trinket vendor's link not quoted] (supposedly 360 degree beam angle)
The answer is easy: Philips is a legitimate company that put an enormous amount of money and a mountain of serious engineering skill, talent, and work into developing a product that actually works. That other outfit you linked is just one of many vendors of cheap trinkets from China with no actual engineering in them. They obtain the "360-degree output" by a simple yet powerful technique known as
lying.
Since you have suggested the 1157 red & the 1156 white that are safe/effective how about(since this is a Sticky) some of the other commonly used bulbs of the muscle car era like the 1895, 67, 1004 and the famous 194 that a lot of members would like to replace with LED's
1895 isn't ripe yet -- but will be soon (easy workaround: install the later dash bulb sockets for the wedge-base bulbs and go to 194 below)
67 and 1004: No really good ones for awhile, if ever. The cheap ones that work OK...don't last. The cheap ones that last OK...don't work.
194 (also 168):
This one. There are other good ones coming soon to market, in a variety of colors, but they're not here yet. (More dashboard lighting info
here)
For later cars with a double-ended cylindrical ("festoon", "looks like a fuse") bulb that happens to be 39-44mm long in the dome light,
this one is so freakin' good it's worth the hassle of buying from the UK.
studying up on this subject makes me want to stay with the stock bulbs and sit in a chair in the corner mumbling to myself
There's way more junk on the market than good stuff...and every bit of it is described in flowery language as the toppermost-of-the-poppermost upgrade, of course. Because money.
