What's the Difference between H7 and H1 bulbs?
 

Obviously they are different sizes but I was wondering why the base model has the H1 as the high-beam and the HID equiped have the H7 as the high-beam.

Does the H1 put out more light than the H7? Or vise-versa?

Or does have nothing to do with light output at all. If not is it beam pattern?

Ok, so after searching for an hour to find out the differences between the H7 and H1 just minutes after posting this I found this info:

H1
High Beam, Front Fog Light
Longitudinal filament
55 W, 800 lm

H7
All headlamp functions
Longitudinal filament
50 W, 1500 lm

This makes no sense. Why would the car with the worst low beams also have the worst high beams and the car with the best low beams have the best high beams? If anything the HID's should have the H1's as they are already super bright. Or they should just adjust the shield so the light projects farther.

You can purchase H1 and H7 bulbs in all kinds of flavors with more wattage (brightness) and in different colors. I have the HID low-beams and swapped my 50W highbeams for 100W Halogens with a nice white color.

Edited to add: beware that you can smoke your wiring harness by swapping higher wattage lights for lower ones, they're illegal, and violate DOT regulations. :eek:

I replaced my high beams with some Silvania Silverstars when I was upgrading to the OEM HID kit from Jun, but the Silverstars are yellow as hell compaired to the HID's. They are claim to be 4000k but I don't think so.

It looks like they just painted a bit of color on them to filter the light comming off them to look closer to white which is decreasing their light output. I think I might start looking for a 70W or 75W bulb for those high beams.

What I really want are some aircraft lights on the front to lightup those jerks that drive in the passing lane at 10 miles under the speed limit...

H7 is a more efficient bulb design than H1, and so it emits more light.

The H1's high beams are on the halogen-spec headlamps, the hid-spec use H7. One good thing about the halogen spec lamps, atleast they use H7 for the low beam.

You can increase wattage, but you will need a relay harness for the increased wattage draw. We dont recommend this route. You're better off going with some high output bulbs, more light without consuming more current.

Mike / ClearCorners.Com

Thanks for the info Mike. What would you recommend as a more efficient H1 high beam over the Sylvania Silverstars?

<edit>

Or has anyone replaced their H1 highbeam with an H7?