Hi All,
Xenon lights seem to becomming more popular now. I notice the bluey white lights in my mirror but how much better are they than normal halogen headlights? Are they worth paying £500-£750 option when paying buying a new car?
I would be interested to here from people that run cars with Xenon's.
Cheers
Jlo
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Am not an expert but for 20 quid, you could get a set or Osram bulbs which provide 50% more light, or bluey bulbs which provide 30% more light
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I feel there is no straightforward answer.
The HIDs in my Vectra GSi Estate gave far better lighting than did the standard Halogen lights in my brother's Vectra of the same age. This was true on full and dip beam, as well as in dry and wet weather. Range, cutoff definition, detail revealed, and spread were always better with my HIDs, as was lack of glare in the wet.
I also however have experience of HIDs and Halogen lights in Volvo V70s, and find absolutely no benefit in the former, what so ever. In fact, I am glad that my salesman talked me out of lining his pocket and buying them. Because I have self levelling suspension, I don't ever even need to twiddle the aiming knob with my Halogens. (HIDs by law must do this automatically).
In my personal opinion, many (I didn't say all) cars sport them simply as a fashion accessory that easily parts punters with their money.
Another Backroomer recently posted that he liked the 'flick, zoom' that happens on startup with true HIDs. Well, the gadget and childish sides of me liked this feature of aforementioned Vectra too, but to me it ain't worth £££££££s.
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To add a question to post just made:
The Vectra was not Bi-Xenon (ie Xenon for main and dip beam), which made me wonder why both main and dip were better than my brother's Vectra. Perhaps a lot of the answer, substantiated by the excellent halogens in my V70, lies simply in good design.
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I bought Xenon headlamps last winter after being spun a tale about the benefits to visibility they give in fogy / misty weather and in spray or snow. These were not HID units just Xenon H7 bulbs. I found them to be very fragile. They cost me £15 a pop, and as I replaced them in pairs I ran up a bill of £90 during last winter. Anyone else find their lifespan considerably shorter than ordinary halogens?
Leon
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I got xenons on my Alfa, and I must say, they are excellent. As regards lifespan, they reckon the bulbs will last the total life of the car.
I also drive various other cars (parents, GF's) without the xenons and I find the difference very marked indeed.
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Hi All,
Thanks for your views.
Cheers
Jlo
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To Leon...
Firstly, H7 is a halogen bulb, even if it does have \'Xenon\' in the title, HID/Xenon is the automotive version of Metal Halide arc lights, street lights which may be low pressure sodium (very yellow), high pressure s**ium (golden yellow), mercury (bluish white) or metal halide (white) are all forms of HID (high intensity discharge) lighting also.
Secondly, £90? 6 sets of bulbs, are you touching the glass with your fingers when you install them? The grease on your fingers causes hot spots on the glass which causes premature failure. The 50% bulbs do have a shorter average life than the standard ones but I\'ve had 2years plus out of them in the past. Not touching the glass is very important for halogen bulbs but is also a good idea to install other bulbs without touching them, ie indicators and brake lights.
Cheers.
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HID came on my second hand car, but I wouldn\'t pay more than about £300 for HID as an option on a new one. I would rather keep the money for other things and pay about £20 for a set of Philips Visionplus or Osram Silverstar, both of which I have tried in many cars, both my own and those I recommended them too. The best halogens I ever had were about 90% as good as the HIDs.
Richard of idiotsville
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There is an interesting product test on the link below.
www.autoexpress.co.uk/product_test/product_test_st...0
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My new Merc came with BI-Xenons as standard. The difference is amazing. The light output is brilliant and full beam is fierce. I don't think I would pay more than £300 to have them fitted as an extra though.
As mentioned several times above you can buy brighter lamps, Osram and phillips make them but what people seem to forget is that all the cars with factory fitted xenons all have to have self levelling systems for the lights. People will fit the brighter lamps to their cars but forget that if they are out of level they are going to blind every other road user.
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Those bluey lights are a pain if they're a few hundred yards behind you on the motorway - they keep flickering away and it takes about 10 minutes of watching them in the rear-view before having confidence that there's no police car following.
Mattster
Boycott shoddy build and reliability.
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SjB
Funnily enough Volvo's have been renowned for years as having good headlight design. Probably the dark winter nights!
At one time would have said that best set of standard headlights I have ever driven behind were on an S60 with "Xenon" bulbs, ie normal bulbs but with the whiter light that comes with the Xenon gas. Say standard in order to exclude special competition setups.
The statement re the S60 was true until I got used to the current Mondeo with HID on dip and bulbs on main. Anything else now with normal halogen bulbs fitted looks quite yellow by comparison.
Again I don't quite understand why the main is so good either, but it is. Never that impressed with Vectra lights though.
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