Xenon headlight bulb upgrade - whats that all about?

I thought the Xenon headlights needed to be self-levelling, and that they were starting to check this at MOT from this year? Certainly the retrofit "boy racer" ones seem to be the cause of most of the dazzling ones ...

AKA Xenons.

Work well on cars that have poor headlight design. Had them on my Jag S-Type as the non-xenon originals are almost invisible. But, without the correct focussing lens they have a nasty scatter pattern for oncoming vehicles.

However, they're about to crack down on them in a revision of MoT rules so these kits are likely all about to become unpassable.

Scott

Quite a few standard newish cars manage this quite well too.

Just replacing halogen lamps with new ones will often give quite an improvement as they seem to age. The high efficiency ones can be better too - but likely have a shorter life.

HID conversion kits can work very well and not dazzle - but this depends on your reflector design. The projector type that use a separate flag for cut-off usually work well. Those where it is part of bulb, usually not.

Xenon bulbs are simply halogens with improved light output. HID lamps are a different pot of pourri altogether and conversion kits are often mis-matched to the existing headlamp unit, leading to bad focus, lots of scattering and dazzling of other drivers. If you really want HIDs, see if your car had an HID option and go looking in the breakers or fit a complete aftermarket unit, not just the bulbs and control gear.

Careful there is room for confusion here.

HID is High Intensity Discharge, an arc lamp, the gas inside may contain Xenon.

There are also tungsten filament halogen lamps, the gas inside may contain Xenon.

HID lamps need special control gear to strike and maintain the arc. I also thought the construction and use rules insisted that HID lamps could only be fitted to self-leveling headlights.

As for the OP might be worth toddling along to Halfords and seeing if they still have the BOGOF (or similar) offer running on headlamps. I bought a pair of "+70% output" ones for =A319.99 just before Christmas. The +90% jobbies where only a few quid more. Of course wether one can really detect the difference between an ordinary and +90% jobbie is debateable.

That or there should be a ban on fat Essex chicks riding in the back seat.

LOL! Even if 'fat Essex chick' is probably tautology..

I have had some of the high output bulbs, and they certainly appeared significantly brighter to me.

I never quite understood why the rules specify maximum wattage rather than light output. It also seems odd that, when the car has separate dip and main beam bulbs, they are permitted to be lit simultaneously. I bet you couldn't have a 50/100 W single bulb.

Chris

Be careful here.. xenon bulbs are just tungsten halogen bulbs sold at high prices to mugs that don't know the difference between HIDs and tungsten bulbs.

Then there are the blue coloured ones that are sold at high prices to the mugs that want others to think they are HIDs.

Tungsten bulbs come in different types including, normal, long life, high output and silly blue.

Fantastic Dennis, fantastic. What is the limiting factor?

I dhould imagine not easy to check for the MOT. Different reflectors and beam patterns would make things to variable.

That's probably more down to getting rid of the heat more than regulations.

You used to be able to buy 55/150W halogen bulbs, although it was not legal to use them on the road. They were very popular on rally cars, including some of those taking part in road events.

Colin Bignell

And power headlamp washers.

In article , Phil Addison writes

IME, the xenon sets place a lot of emphasis on the brightness and beam length on main beam but dipped beam isn't that much improved. The result is that you (and your eyes) get used to the brightness of the mains only to be plunged into relative darkness when you have to dip for oncoming traffic. Fine for deserted roads or competition use but not much cop for routine driving IMV so I went back to regular (halogen) bulbs when one of my high performance ones went.

No experience on HID.

Of course it is. If you live in a crowded part of the country how often do you use main beam anyway?

In total darkness with little traffic you can get away with far less powerful lights than is the norm these days.

ISTR Rover making a car with twin headlghts that worked as individual units. Big problem when driving in snow when the non lit main or dipped beam would get covered in snow without the heat of the light to keep it clear. Switch from dipped to main beam and instant darkness. Exciting

Paul Mc Cann

I had several Rover P6 with twin headlights, but the outers were double dipping and the inners *added* on main beam. Can't think of any other Rover with individual twin headlights apart from the federal spec SD1.

BMW also made lots of models with individual twin lights, so I can't see it being a problem given the weather found in Germany.

The four headlight design was necessary because the first halogen bulbs, type H1, were single filament, non-dipping. That meant you needed one pair of main beam lights and one pair of dip beam lights. The twin-filament dipping H4 bulb did not come out until much later, after which it was, as you say, used in the outer pair.

Colin Bignell