Xenon Lights?

Factual Questions
1

Ok, so I drive a cozy little '04 Toyota Camry. However I find myself driving along long stretches of dark Interstate quite often (I live in Philly, and visit State College often). So I was thinking off adding those little xenon lights for a little extra visibility at night.

What is the legality of this? Can I just get one of those “xenon” light bulbs off ebay and stick them in? Do I need to do rewiring? For example I found something like this (well, these aren’t actual xenons, but still):
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280146657629

Those look like regular bulbs that I can replace… but yes/no?

I have no clue what to do when it comes to this topic…

2

From the link:

Product Specification:
** * 12V, 85W/100W**
** * For OFF-Road Use Only. (Not DOT Approved)**

These are higher wattage bulbs (normal bulbs are 55W/70W IIRC). They do produce more light but they will blind oncoming motorists. Thats why they are not DOT approved.

3

What about silverstars? Are those bright enough for the road but still not completely blinding?

4

Osram Silverstars or Phillips X-treme are street legal but I doubt they are as effective as they claim to be. But they are rather inexpensive so you won’t lose anything trying and besides they can’t be worse than the bulbs you have now.

5

Those “xenon” bulbs off ebay are regular bulbs with blue tint. The light is WORSE than regular white bulbs. Real xenons are more than just the bulb, they need a ballast & igniter.

If you drive on empty dark stretches of highway the best thing would be to add separate driving lights (high beams).

6

This guy knows all about car lighting.

Unclviny
2009 Subaru Forester with HIR (NOT HID!) headlight bulbs, high output foglight bulbs, PIAA 520 fog lights with PIAA plasma ion yellow bulbs and PIAA 510 driving lights with Piaa plasma ion bulbs.

P.S. if you go with Silverstars use the Osram (German) ones and NOT the Sylvania ones!

7

Used Silverstars for a while. Got sick and tired of replacing them. They lasted one year if I was LUCKY (which usually resulted in getting pulled over before I realized it). I replaced them with some generic “high output” lights from NAPA. Haven’t touched my headlights since.

8

You can get a real HID kit for around $100-150. This would come with ballasts and real HID bulbs. The problem is the reflector and lens are not designed for these bulbs and they will blind oncoming motorists.

Don’t try any of the HID look bulbs. They sacrifice light output to attempt to simulate the look of real HIDs (usually with a blue coating). Sylvania Xtra visions are supposed to be among the best bulbs for light output.

9

So can you not use your high-beams (assuming you’ve got empty road in front of you)? Otherwise, can you get some aftermarket driving lights added? What kind of budget are you working with? Can you add an aftermarket bumper cover that has cutouts for driving lights (assuming that your model does not have the cutouts)?