Need Whiter Bulb for 2016 Sonata

Hey all...new guy here. We just purchased a new to us 2016 Hyundai Sonata Sport. The headlamps seem to be a soft yellow (typical headlamp color on most cars) but the LED fog lights beneath them are bright white. My wife is trying to get a different bulb for the low beams that will more closely match the white LED's below. She doesn't want to go to full HID's yet so I am looking for a regular Halogen bulb I guess. I don't have a manual with the car but when I called the parts dept at Hyundai, they told me the OEM bulbs are HB3. I was going to give the Sylvania Silverstar Ultra's a run, but the more I read, the more I see complaints about longevity. Are there any bulb guru's here who can point me in the right direction?

jwatkins77 said:

Hey all...new guy here.

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:welcome:

We just purchased a new to us 2016 Hyundai Sonata Sport. The headlamps seem to be a soft yellow (typical headlamp color on most cars) but the LED fog lights beneath them are bright white.

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Both your headlamps and your fog lamps produce white light. Compared to the very high CCT of the LED fog lamps, they might seem to tend toward yellow, but they are still white.

My wife is trying to get a different bulb for the low beams that will more closely match the white LED's below.

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Why? Headlamps and fog lamps are life safety equipment. Most of the time, you won't even know what color your fog lamps are because they shouldn't be on. Fog lamps are useful only when all three are true:

1. It is nighttime
2. It is genuinely foggy
3. You are going slower than 30mph

Fog lamps are not for daytime, clear weather, or speeds over 30mph. They can, if properly designed and located on a vehicle, and properly *used*, occasionally prove useful. They are not for style, nor are they for impressing people, and they do not supplement the low beam or help spot deer or anything of the sort. They're for crawling along and keeping your lane when forward visibility is extremely poor. (A rear fog lamp is much more useful; try the forum search for more information.)

Fog lamps are often misused and misunderstood-- for more information on them, and on why they're not extremely useful, see here.

She doesn't want to go to full HID's yet so I am looking for a regular Halogen bulb I guess.

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Going "full HID" would mean needing a new lamp assembly, designed to use an arc-discharge capsule. Your parts department should be able to tell you the availability and price of the genuine Hyundai parts (I'd expect around $800 each); the service department can probably quote the installation price.

I don't have a manual with the car but when I called the parts dept at Hyundai, they told me the OEM bulbs are HB3. I was going to give the Sylvania Silverstar Ultra's a run, but the more I read, the more I see complaints about longevity. Are there any bulb guru's here who can point me in the right direction?

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Sylvania SilverStar Ultras are terrible bulbs, with a short lifespan and when they're still working they produce poor-quality light. The best HB3 you can use is this, your high beam is ALSO HB3 but for that, swapping in this HIR1 after a base modification (that site is unrelated to this forum, despite similarities of the URLs) will maximize your high beam.

Alaric is right on pretty much all counts, except you'd be OK to use the higher-performing HIR1 (9011) in both your low and high beams as long as the lamps are aimed correctly for sure.

Definitely drop that "yet" from your thoughts of "converting" to HID or LED -- it cannot be done effectively, safely, or legally without installing a complete headlamp assembly designed, from the start, as an HID or LED headlamp. Detailed info here.

And yes, Sylvania Silverstar bulbs are a scam -- and so are all other so-called "whiter light" bulbs. Sylvania got whacked for the false claims they were making for their bulbs, but the problem is with the concept, no matter what brand name is applied.

(Alaric is especially right about the fog lamps. They should basically almost never be turned on. They are not auxiliary low beams, fashion lights, style lights, etc.)

Thanks for the responses guys.

What would be the biggest difference between the X-treme Vision and the CrystalVision Ultra? One is just a little more blueish/white?

jwatkins77 said:

Thanks for the responses guys.

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You're welcome!

What would be the biggest difference between the X-treme Vision and the CrystalVision Ultra? One is just a little more blueish/white?

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The X-Treme Vision is a genuine performance bulb, the CrystalVision is Philips' own attempt to capture the "tuner" market: It's a blue-tinted bulb with a very short life and emits light that tends too strongly towards blue, and is hard for the human optical system to process. (It's easier to list the bulbs that are GOOD than to list the ones that aren't, hence we didn't mention them in the first place.)

The X-Treme Vision HB3 is your best HB3 choice for your low beams, but your particular halogen projectors can accept the HIR1 as an upgrade after you do the previously-mentioned base modification (so long as those lamps are aimed properly after that upgrade).

Got it. Thanks again!