I am looking to upgrade from the standard stock Wagner lights. I am extremely interested in the sylvania silverstar. I found them on amazon for 20 a piece. In want to purchase these but have heard mixed reviews. Anyone running these on their xj Ad want to give me some feedback? Also I have saw something about a harness, is that necessary?

 

Get the putco harness and silvrtstars you'll see a big difference

 

I have used Silverstar's in other applications and they are OK but I don't think they are as good as they are portrayed on TV. Compared to stock old Wagners, they would be a visible improvement as any Halogen light degrades over time and a new one will be brighter.

I personally went with Hella H4 lenses with replaceable bulbs (the "cool kids" in the VW/Audi groups I belong to call them "E-Codes"). You can get brighter bulbs and my favorite is the 90/100 bulb. The Hella H4s typically say they are not approved for road use and are considered "Off Road Use Only" in the USA because they don't have the DOT certification and only European certifications. I don't know of any DOT approved Lenses for this application beyond the Sylvania & Wagner sealed beam halogens.

Just relaying the existing headlights with a wire harness will make a visible improvement no matter what way you go, Stock old Wagner, Silverstar, H4 lenses, etc. Relaying is a good idea and an absolute must if you plan to exceed stock wattage.

I used the Putco harness and was disappointed. It was China made and obvious China quality. It also uses a cheap china knock off, Honda style relay instead of a Bosch style relay. The Honda style are much more expensive and much less available. The relays that came with the Putco were junk and one failed within days of service. I paid $50 for the harness and ended up in additional "good" relays for $18 x 2.

If I had it to do over, I would have used a harness from eBay for half the money of the Putco, got the same Chinese quality and had the option for Bosch style relays. Bosch relays are everywhere and cheap, even Genuine Bosch Made In Germany Quality relays can be had for under $10.

Example: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CERAMIC-H4-HEADLIGHT-RELAY-WIRING-HARNESS-2-HEADLAMP-LIGHT-BULB-SOCKET-PLUGS-7X6-/330813121438?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4d05ffa39e&vxp=mtr
I have seen some harnesses down in the $24.99 free shipping price, search "H4 2 headlight harness" and you will get many options to pick your preference from.

Depending on the year of XJ, some have had issues related to factory fog lights and how they interact with the factory headlight wiring and further how they can effect the functionality of a headlight relay harness. Search/Read the Cherokee Forums for those descriptions as I did not encounter that.

As far as install went, the harness was not rocket science and it helped that I had the nose of the truck apart to install a transmission cooler. I can't really imagine doing the harness without pulling the grill, headlights, headlight buckets and front nose piece from the XJ, exposing things down to the radiator and core support.

Overall opinion, I am glad I installed the relay harness, I am glad I went with my long loved Hella lenses and I believe it was well worth the money and time spent.

For comparison, I have been driving my XJ a lot and hadn't been in my 2010 Silverado for a couple of weeks. Drove the Silverado last night and felt like the lights were too dim

 

Can you give me a link to the putco harness.

 

Just google it....makes a big difference...

 

Plenty info here....https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f51/pu...nstall-164659/

 

Although they may not be the BEST light upgrade, I found that they were a very big improvement, and when paired with the putco harness (I bought it off Amazon) they improved even more. I was definitely happy with the results.

 

I don't know of any DOT approved Lenses for this application beyond the Sylvania & Wagner sealed beam halogens.

Ummmm hella clear vision housings , I have them right now with the putco harness with 80/100 bulbs .
I am going to get auto pal H code housings as I am not pleased with the DOT housings I have now .

 

Does the Putco harness come with relays? I made my own and I added relays for high and low beams. On our XJ's, all the power goes through the switch and it'll fry itself unless you're lucky and when you upgrade your lights, more power goes through the switch.

 

I've been running the Putco harness and silver stars for almost a year now and I love them. They are way brighter than my stocks. I would recommend them to anybody. I helped my companies electrician install them maybe there's a problem with install as to why they don't last for some....idk. But I'd buy them again

 

What exactly does the putco harness do that the factory doesn't?

 

OP, you're better off running standard halogens in e code housings and a harness. I've ran everything from sealed silverstar to what i have now. Just get the harness. Let the power run through the relay instead the switch and get aftermarket housings. Even xtravision bulbs look good after that

 

What the harness does is to supply your headlights with full bat voltage directly from the battery terminal through relays. It uses your headlight switch as a trigger for the relays. The stock setup runs the headlight supply voltage through a ton of skimpy wires through the headlight switch. By the time it goes through all that it is usually not full bat voltage anymore. Over time that stress on the headlight switch will cause it to melt and give you all sorts of headlight issues. This problem becomes even worse when you upgrade the headlights to ones that draw more power (higher wattage). And to the OP, I had the siverstars with the harness and it was a great improvement over stock.

 

Putco harness made a massive improvement even to my Silverstar Xtravision.

 

To add to this, if the OP decides to take the H4 conversion route rather than the sealed beam silverstars, there are several companies that make these housings, such as Hella, IPF, however many people have had good luck with the "Autopal" e-code lenses found on eBay.

But definitely do the headlight harness upgrade. It took me about 30 minutes to complete the install, with me taking my time to split-loom everything and add fuses.