Headlight Failure/Upgrade

I had my Left Headlight go out after just 13 months which seemed a little early.
I suspected it probably wasn't covered under warranty + I didn't want to wait for dealer service so I decided
to get a new bulb myself.
Since they came in a 2 pack I decided to go for the "100% brighter" Philips bulbs & change both.
These new bulbs are much brighter/whiter than the stock bulbs, hopefully they last a reasonable time.
The package shown has the new bulb on the left, original bulb on the right.
BTW: The headlight bulbs are easy to change on this car.

You may be disappointed in the life of your new lamps.

Last summer I did a lot of research on replacement lamps and came across a chart of Sylvania Headlamp Specifications; unfortunately it is no longer available on any of their sites.

Here is a "cut and paste" of a post I made last August on NissanCubeLife

Our 2014 Cube is now 3 years old, it has 41,000 miles on it. The headlamps are on all of the time while driving. We have not had to replace one yet.

Our time must be near!!

I have spent a lot of time researching different halogen lamps, and the price difference is enormous. Nissan wanted $42 for each lamp.

It appears that the more you pay the shorter the life expectancy will be.

Sylvania advertises 5 different lamps with different "down the road" coverage and colour. Their most expensive (SilverStar zXe)[$60] has a Primary Filament Life of only 150 hrs. compared to their BASIC[$20] at 1100 hrs. They both have an output of 910 lm.. There is no difference in the specifications of any of the 5 lamps except for the colour.

I ended up buying a 10 pack of no-name lamps from Amazon(US) for $20. I haven't had to use any yet so I don't know if it was a smart move.

That may be true about the lamp life, I guess time will tell.
I just bought them at my local Parts Store without doing any research, however the parts guy said he sells a lot of them with no complaints coming back.
According to the reviews on Amazon seems other people like them too.

https://www.amazon.com/Philips-9003-X-tremeVision-Upgrade-Headlight/dp/B00U1OLK86/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=15198388 19&sr=1-1-fkmr1&keywords=XVB2+9003[/url]

Keep us posted in this thread. Hopefully it lasts longer than the OEM bulb.

i must admit the oem bulb life seems very short...i think i got roughly over a year....(my car wasnt use for all of 2015) bought new in 2016....i bought 10 dollar bulbs at Canadian tire...they seem OK to me.....of course one burnt out...bought 1 bulb....2 weeks later the other burnt out....!!..looking at the markings laser etched in the 10 dollar bulbs vs the 30 dollar bulbs.....SEEMS PRETTY IDENTICAL....sadly sometimes i thing the difference is the price only , i am sure not true in ALL cases....shine on micraneers!!!!

I see the stock bulb was an OSRAM.
I always drive with all my lights On which probably didn't help (this was confirmed a good practice during a defensive driver training course at work) however I've had other vehicles driven daily for years without a bulb failure.
They always say replace in pairs.
I don't always drive at night but I still notice how much more light these bulbs put out on the road.
I figure for a little more than the price of a tank of gas I made my Micra safer & more fun to drive at night.

Just an update, I noticed my Right Headlight was out Monday so I re-installed my 1 good original bulb.
2 days later the Left Headlight was out.
This is not the bulb life I had hoped for.
I went back to Lordco & thought I would try something different but decided to ask if there was any warranty.
Turns out its 1 year, so with my receipt I was able to get a new set of bulbs & a fresh receipt with the current date so I should be
good for 1 more year hopefully.

A couple of months ago I was looking at getting new bulbs and then having the OEM ones for emergency. I also like tinkering. I found Phillips bulbs that were $40CDN at Princess Auto. I also have the wonder of how long the so called "brighter" bulbs are in lasting for long. I went and looked a couple of weeks ago and now they're $50CDN. Changing the headlight bulb is easy. Now, have fun changing that 168/192 accent/DRL light that's next to the headlight bulb. I would pay the cost to get OEM bulbs at dealership price if I never have to change that DRL bulb.