Xenon Heaqdlight Bulb Replacements

[Mark R]

I'm thinking about swapping out my standard headlight bulbs for a set that contain xenon and claim to be 50% brighter than standard bulbs.

Anyone done this before or have any opinions on there kind of bulbs?

[BigSwanMiniMan]

Mark if these bulbs you are fitting contain XENON then they wont make a difference to standard headlamps because...... XENON headlamps have an ignition unit to ignite the XENON gas, your headlamps wont have an ignition unit so therefore the XENON gas wont make a difference to your lamps.

[Mark R]

This is what I was looking at

Power Bulbs (http://www.powerbulbs.co.uk/product.asp?numRecordPosition=1&P_ID=190&strPageHistory=cat&strKeywords=&SearchFor=&PT_ID=112)

[BigSwanMiniMan]

Mark,

These seem fine, they may have an internal part to ignite the XENON..........

[KenL]

Try Osram Silver Stars, Autoexpress test winners. I replaced the ones in my Aygo with these and they made a big improvment. Got a set ready to go in the MINI.

The Xenon ones just contain some Xenon gas. I think Xenon is just another Halogen - remember group seven on your table of elements!

They are not gas discharge lamps like real Xenons - these need a striking voltage of a few kV to get the gas doing the discharge thing.

[Gorbash12346]

ignite the xenon???? errrr no they don't burn it it needs the ballast unit to create a high enough voltage for the the spark to jump the gap between two electrodes the reason that the bulb is filled with xenon is because it is a noble gas and therefore does not react with the material used for the electrodes the xenon is there to stop oxygen getting at the electrode and letting it burn out

[N12 JLK]

We replaced the bulbs in our old cooper with 2 birthday candles and they were 150% brighter;)

[BigSwanMiniMan]

"CHEWBACCA"

That SH!Twas just way to technical.........:(:(

You need a woman in your life..........:eek::blackeye::p:D

[Gorbash12346]

lol already have 1 thanks... she just lives in edinburgh lol

[Moonshine]

quote:Originally posted by Gorbash12346

ignite the xenon???? errrr no they don't burn it it needs the ballast unit to create a high enough voltage for the the spark to jump the gap between two electrodes the reason that the bulb is filled with xenon is because it is a noble gas and therefore does not react with the material used for the electrodes the xenon is there to stop oxygen getting at the electrode and letting it burn out


without wanting to Pi$s on your parade, my understanding of HID, or gas discharge lamps was the 24Kv arc required at ignition is indeed to ignite the gas and it is the ionised gas (Xenon) that produces the light. Very different from a regular filiment bulb which uses the presens of an inert gas, such as argon or Xenon to exclude oxygen. If O2 was preseni in a regular filiment bulbn then the filiment would burn (or blow)

Further info here http://www.hids4u.co.uk/about.asp

[Moonshine]

Oh these guys do proper HID conversion kits for standard bulbs. I'm not vouching for them as i understand legally they are in a grey area, dispite what many vendors seem to say.
I bought a set for my 1 series (E87), bit ended up returning them (unused) as the HID bulb supplied was too long for the E87 lamp housing (the reflector has a litle reflectibe "hat) in the middle of the lens), though i understand they do a shorter bulb to cope with this issue.

I also understand someone here has their kit on an X5 and a mini and they quite like it....anyone want to comment?

Gerry

[Gorbash12346]

the gas is not actually ignited it is the same principle as strip light the gas is there to aid starting and alos to lengthen the lifespan of the bulb in comparison to any other gas and also enhance the intensity of the light produced sooo a slightly more useful site would be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_discharge_lamp

think of it this way what would the fuel be if it was burning??? and how would that fuel supply last so long in such a small space?