Chrysler # 3157 light bulb

I noticed that my Intrepid takes a #3157 bulb for tail light, brake
light, reverse, and rear turn signal. So I assume that 3157 must have
two filaments, high and low. But my second generation Intrepid has
amber rear turn signals, which wouldn't seem to require two filaments,
nor would the reverse light. Did they just specify a 3157 to keep a
common part number/less inventory and then just not use the low
filament? I'm just curious especially since it seems a budget concious
manufacturer would use a more expensive 2 filament bulb when a single
filament would do.

The front sidemarkers and turn signal use 3157NALL. I assume the A
stands for amber; what does the N stand for?

Also, are the LL ("long life") suffix bulbs just as bright as the
regular bulbs?

 

You must have a '98-'01 model. In '02, the reverse lamp was changed to a
912 bulb.

That is exactly what they did.

Economies of scale are at work here: One socket, one P/N, one robot to
install the bulbs...

"Natural". "NA" = "Natural Amber", that is, a transparent amber bulb. This
"NA" designation was used when amber-glass bulbs replaced the old painted
"A" bulbs (looked like they'd been shot with school bus yellow paint) in
the '80s. Then Cadmium glass was banned and so most of these bulbs are no
longer made out of amber glass. Instead, they're dip-coated in transparent
amber polymer coatings. Some of these are better than others; you can see
a lot of cars running around with their amber-bulb-behind-clear-lens turn
signals giving off a brownish-white light; the coating bakes off. Some
manufacturers have kept the "NA" designation for these coated bulbs,
others have gone back to the "A" designation. And to make things
extra-interesting, Sylvania is now marketing very good dichroically-coated
signal bulbs under the "Silver Star" name. These give a better amber color
and the coating will never bake off or fade, but the bulbs are expensive.
(If you buy these, avoid the temptation to buy the Silver Star headlamp
bulbs as well; they're junk.)

The differences, where any exist, are too trivial to worry about. If you
want the longest possible bulb life, replace the clear 3157s with 4114K,
and the amber 3157NA with 5702KA. Both of those new bulbs come from GM
dealer parts counters. 4114K is the DRL bulb for an '02 Chev Silverado
pickup, and 5702KA is the park/turn/DRL bulb for an '04 Saturn Ion.

 

signal bulbs under the "Silver Star" name. These give a better amber color

Nope! Stearn your still full of shit on this.

The Silver Star Headlights are great headlights (but short-lived, probably
1-2 years.) They produce about as pure white a light you can find in a
headlight, and their just as bright as Sylvania's XtraVision (which is a
little more yellow). Everyone who have SilverStar's (that I know) loves
them. (If you do buy them, get them off Ebay; I picked one pair for $18.)

If your not familure with these, here is the Sylvania website for both;
SilverStar:
http://www.sylvania.com/ConsumerProducts/AutomotiveLighting/HighPerformance/Silverstar/default.htm
XtraVision:
http://www.sylvania.com/ConsumerProducts/AutomotiveLighting/HighPerformance/Xtravision/default.htm

Personally I say forget the SilverStar turn signals. Waste of good money
just for a turn signal bulb.

 

Actually, for a less money you can pick up GE's Night Hawk line of bulbs
which put out about 40% more light than the Xtravision line and last a lot
longer than the Silver Star line of bulbs. Don't get us started on a
discussion of "Pure White" (there ain't no such thing).

Richard.

 

Quite right.

DS (I'm just as full of shit as everyone else, but on this particular
topic, mine is extremely well-informed and factually accurate shit 8^{D} )

 

Hmm... looking at the links you've provided, if you go up one level
(click on the "silverstar products" link from the one page, and the
"xtravision products" link on the other) you can see pictures of the
products in question. The picture of the SilverStar H4 bulb is clearly
(heh) made of blue tinted glass, while the XtraVision appears to be
clear. The choice should be obvious.

nate

 

Well, sure, unless you feel that the laws of marketeering trump the laws
of physics.

http://www.bmwcca.org/members/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Let_There_Be_E36_Light&page=3

23% *less* peak light from a Silverstar bulb compared to a standard bulb,
17% *more* peak light from an Xtravision bulb compared to a standard bulb,
therefore 40% *less* peak light from a Silverstar compared to an
Xtravision.

And Xtravisions aren't even the best bulbs on the US market.

DS

 

My guess is that Nate was saying that the CLEAR bulb (XtraVision) should
be the obvious choice... not the Toilet Duck colored Silverstar

 

Yes, of course he was. And I was agreeing with him.

 

am I that... transparent?

nate

 

That's right. A '99.

I wonder why they would bother to change to a different part number in the
middle of the production years. My CHMSL uses a 912 bulb as well. In fact
many Hoover vacuum cleaners use a 912 bulb for a headlight, for some reason
12v is created inside or near the motor.

Ok, so a 3156 bulb should work for the rear turn signal and reverse light.

Interesting, thanks for the explanation.

Thanks for the tip re: the GM model numbers. I noticed that GE's 3157
"upgrade" is a 3157KR. They also have a H3-55NH listed for an Intrepid
foggylight upgrade.

Unfortunately there aren't many good headlight replacements for the Intrepid's
9005/9006 -XSLL unless you want to modify another part number.

 

Engineering cost reduction for a lower cost part. (As opposed to the
engineering cost avoidance the original engineer claimed when he re-used an
existing stocked part)

Bob

 

Yeah, I've no complaints about how my 3157 reverse lights illuminate behind me.
I don't think the 912 bulbs would do as well, but that's a guess.

 

Stuff like this happens *all the time*. All it takes is some supplier's
sales team to figure out a way to save the car company $0.01 per car, and
*DING* the deal is done. Pennies make promotions in the industry. OR, some
particular piece of equipment used in the manufacture and assembly of the
device in question gets discontinued or needs repair, and it's more cost
effective to make a change. Automakers are very adept at squeezing blood
from turnips.

Surely. A 3356 or 3456 would work better (25% more light, rather nice in
the reverse light), but good luck finding those. 3357 or 3457 are much
easier to find and offer the same advantage. The 345x bulbs have a base
made out of special plastic that is especially heatproof; not really
necessary except in constant-burn applications (Daylight Running Lamps).

"KR" = Krypton = Long Life.

Yep, the Night Hawk bulb. It's a good one.

Except that there's enough room behind the Intrepid's headlamps to use
standard angle-base 9005 and 9006 bulbs, which means you can use 9011-9012
bulbs instead...and those are a SIGNIFICANT upgrade (90% more low beam
light, 49% more high beam light). As long as you aim the lamps correctly,
those particular headlamps are well enough focused not to cause undue
glare even with the brighter bulbs.

 

It's a correct guess.

 

Trouble is, I believe the stock fog lights on Intrepids are only 35 Watts, the
GE replacement is 55 Watts. Sylvania also specifies a 55 W bulb. 300m fog
lights are 55 Watts, but Intrepids are listed as 35 Watts in the Chrysler
parts catalog.

Would a 55 Watt bulb cause things to melt? The only point of these fog lights
seems to be to flash other people who drive around all night with their
blinding foglights in everyone's face....

 

Nope, H3-55w should be correct. It's possible they substituted a cheesy
800-series bulb after initial production, in which case it does not matter
what bulb you were to install in the fog lights; they wouldn't do any
good.

DS

 

Good to know, thanks.