Bright Head lights with Xenon bulbs

Bramdeman · Post by **Bramdeman** » Wed May 11, 2005 6:19 pm

80/100 on 2 different 480's with no problems

Milosz_480 · Post by **Milosz_480** » Thu May 12, 2005 8:48 pm

I've order set of them in Poland

I look forward to receiving them

Joolz · Post by **Joolz** » Mon May 16, 2005 10:58 am

hey what a great service...mine arrived within 24 hours....now all i have to do is fit them

Big Brother · Post by **Big Brother** » Mon May 16, 2005 11:54 am

did you get them from the same place as me?

Ad

Joolz · Post by **Joolz** » Mon May 16, 2005 12:36 pm

yes adam, i just used the link in your first post..

Big Brother · Post by **Big Brother** » Mon May 16, 2005 1:02 pm

they were very quick with post for me too

robkendall · Post by **robkendall** » Mon May 16, 2005 6:55 pm

its not the wiring melting i would be worried about, its headlight glass cracking!

arent the 480 supposed to be run cool lights or something....remember reading something on here about it once....probably when MHUK did his or something.

rgrds
rob

Big Brother · Post by **Big Brother** » Mon May 16, 2005 6:57 pm

robkendall wrote:probably when MHUK did his or something.

But that was with the evil one

robkendall · Post by **robkendall** » Mon May 16, 2005 7:00 pm

hahaha.........true

lol
rob

Big Brother · Post by **Big Brother** » Mon May 16, 2005 7:01 pm

gerrsvolvo · Post by **gerrsvolvo** » Tue May 17, 2005 1:19 pm

be aware that with these 10/100 watt bulbs your car is no longer in a legal way roadworthy.
You are driving an illegal car.

And so the insurancecompany has the right to say that you are no longer
covered by their insurance.

Nice isnt it?

catgroom · Post by **catgroom** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 11:11 pm

130/80W from Halfords in mine!

Rally spec bulbs,a tenner each......

No problems at all,amazing vision.

I will be adjusting the dim dip relay brightness down a bit though to save that from burning out!

martinholmesuk · Post by **martinholmesuk** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 7:53 am

80/100 without any problems / tested in two 480's.

Website · Post by **coyote1980** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:16 pm

Best bulbs I have used so far are Philips Vision Plus, these provide excellent lighting along the way, better than Philips Blue Vision and all the other blueish lights.

Most important thing is to make sure they're not adjusted too high, when I look at your first piccie it seems rather blinding for 'opponents' so to speak

I always hate the Xenon drivers on the road because their lamps are too blinding...

480R · Post by **480R** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 9:20 pm

I've been reading these posts, but they CAN't be real xenon lights!! I don't know what the rules in brittain are, but as far as I know Xenon equipped cars MUST also have automatically changing height of the lights. This is to stop other users of the road being blinded by Xenon cars. (whitch happens a lot!)
But I agree, the lights on the 480 are rubbish! Even my 40 year old Amazon gives out more light. It's absolutely ridiculous. Even with my main lights on people don't notice it. Normally they flash, but now they never do! (and no they are not broken

)

Have to put some new lights in. It's really ridiculous.

Gr. Ted

Ow yeah one more argument... Those Xenon bulbs are about â‚¬250 each. Even an HID conversion kit (High Intensity Discharge --> Xenon) will cost you about â‚¬500. Spare bulbs for these no-name brand kits are still â‚¬99.
So I really don't think they are Xenon. But they will definatly be very bright!

Brasco · Post by **Brasco** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 10:00 pm

Well they wouldn't be able to sell them as xenon bulbs if they weren't, you know, xenon bulbs. They don't look like a dodgy site after all.

Perhaps there are more technologically advanced xenon bulbs, that are really expensive?

MrHyde · Post by **MrHyde** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 10:52 pm

Well, xeon-bulbs that can be fitted in normal H4 light exist and are sold.
The problen (at least in Germany) is that they are simply illegal to use on public roads because the lamps aren't build for xenon bulbs and in most cases are missing the obligatory lens cleaning and automatic adjusting

Hauke

Ben Harris · Post by **Ben Harris** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 12:18 am

Just to avoid confusion.....

Xenon was the name which was originally used for HID (High Intensity Discharge) lighting systems. I believe they work on the same principle as an arc-welder, to produce the light. These are what are fitted to BMW's/Mercs etc and are bloody expensive! The bulbs alone cost in the region of Â£100, and that's not to mention the electronics that are used behind each bulb to control the auto-levelling system that they must legally have, and the inverter which jumps the voltage up high enough to create the arc.

See Wikipedia for more info.

However, 'the marketing people' have taken the Xenon name and placed it on regular filament bulbs. I hate to spoil it, but as far as I'm aware (and from what I've read) there's nothing special about them, other than a blue tint added to the outside of the glass to emulate the kind of light given by HID lighting systems.

When I replaced the bulbs on my 480, I found a website which did extensive tests on all the different major manufacturers bulbs. Their conclusion (using intensity measuring equipment at a specified distance from the car to measure the brightness) was that the blue tint bulbs actually cut down on the amount of light that is generated by the bulb. Also, the general conscensus was that yellow bulbs actually light up the road better in bad weather conditions than blue-tinted bulbs.

Ben.

JohnTurbo · Post by **JohnTurbo** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 12:34 am

Remember your periodic table gents...Xenon is a noble gas. Nobles gases are so called because they don't react...

If you heat a wire till its...er glowing hot, it will burn out in secods as it reacts with the oxygen in the air.

With a Xenon bulb, the gas is used so the filament does not oxidise.

This is the same use as with a HID lamp, but i'm pretty sure the blue colour is a result of the arc exciting the gas, but you'd have to check, i'm an engineer not a scientist.

So yes, nobody is ripping off product names here, no more than refering windows as "glass" is ripping off pyrex.

Ben Harris · Post by **Ben Harris** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 8:16 am

That's a good point, I hadn't thought about the gas used in the bulbs.

I was just trying to point out though, that Xenon headlights is a term used by marketing people for two different types of light setups, and that they are very different in the way they work, and their cost!

As an aside - looking on eBay, it appears you can get a HID conversion kit for approx Â£160. Whether they're any good though, I've no idea!

EDIT......

and another interesting article here, explaining why you shouldn't convert to HID! http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech ... sions.html

Ben.