Xenon halogen lights
Discussion
I have them too but I'm not sure compared to the original ones as they came with the car, but they should be brighter. I can say for certain tomorrow, as I have to swap the bulbs back to the original as they are illegal here apparently (Norway) and the car is due to go in for it's EU-Kontroll (MOT) tomorrow.
Jerwatt said:
I have them too but I'm not sure compared to the original ones as they came with the car, but they should be brighter. I can say for certain tomorrow, as I have to swap the bulbs back to the original as they are illegal here apparently (Norway) and the car is due to go in for it's EU-Kontroll (MOT) tomorrow.
Let me know what you notice. I don't wanna go waste my money if they don't make that much difference.Taken some pictures for you. I'm not exactly sure what the lights are though, as they seem to be some sort of Japanese import. Attached a picture of part of the stuff for them (bulbs and some kind of bulb covering thing) but not taken one of the rest of the stuff (seperate wiring).
When driving I haven't used full beams yet, but I noticed in the 10km of tunnels to and from work that the normal ones weren't really visable, whereas the xenon ones were before (you have to drive with lights on at all times here). The xenon pictures might appear less bright (away from the lights) but that is likely due to the camera, and shows it's more likely the xenon ones are brighter, as there's a bigger contrast. Normal bulbs are Philips Premium (12342PR C1) H4 12v 60/55W.
Order of pictures: Bulbs and other thing, normal dipped, normal full, xenon dipped, xenon full.
Hope it helps!
When driving I haven't used full beams yet, but I noticed in the 10km of tunnels to and from work that the normal ones weren't really visable, whereas the xenon ones were before (you have to drive with lights on at all times here). The xenon pictures might appear less bright (away from the lights) but that is likely due to the camera, and shows it's more likely the xenon ones are brighter, as there's a bigger contrast. Normal bulbs are Philips Premium (12342PR C1) H4 12v 60/55W.
Order of pictures: Bulbs and other thing, normal dipped, normal full, xenon dipped, xenon full.
Hope it helps!
Edited by Jerwatt on Friday 18th February 16:54
Pretty sure they are HID bulbs in which case they might well use xenon gas but they aren't what we'd call xenon bulbs. They will probably plug into a ballast resistor somewhere and the standard bulb plug will plug into this. Normal xenon bulbs are simple bulb replacements and look like normal halogen bulbs. They are a very good upgrade over halogen but aren't as bright as HID. HID tend not to be as good in older headlights (like Mk1 & Mk2) as the beam pattern isn't accurate enough and you end up dazzling oncoming traffic. That said, the ones you have seem to work pretty well - I'd guess they weren't cheap!
MX-5 Lazza said:
Pretty sure they are HID bulbs in which case they might well use xenon gas but they aren't what we'd call xenon bulbs. They will probably plug into a ballast resistor somewhere and the standard bulb plug will plug into this. Normal xenon bulbs are simple bulb replacements and look like normal halogen bulbs. They are a very good upgrade over halogen but aren't as bright as HID. HID tend not to be as good in older headlights (like Mk1 & Mk2) as the beam pattern isn't accurate enough and you end up dazzling oncoming traffic. That said, the ones you have seem to work pretty well - I'd guess they weren't cheap!
Ok, that would make sense as they connected to small boxes, on a seperate wiring system to the normal bulbs. I guess they are specifically for the Mk 2,as they have those coverings for the bulbs, which are the same "connection" as the bulbs themselves - this casued a little confusion at first when changing them! Thanks for the explaination.Sorry Garykiller if this has caused some confusion.
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