HID lamp quantity purchase

[Charlie Smith]

I'm forwarding this to the V8 list and to the regular quattro list.
Below my discussion, is info on a group purchase being done by a
Dodge Viper group.

I don't know what various cars use the 9006 bulb for low beam, but
if your car does use the 9006 then this is a chance to easily convert
to Xenon High Intensity Discharge (HID) lights at a reasonable price.

There has been considerable discussion of this on the S-Car list, some
of which bears discussing here.  Some information on Xenon HID lights,
I'm giving you my general understandings - so I may not be able to 
answer detailed technical questions on Xenon HID technology:

    It takes a perceptable period of time for the lights to really get 
to full intensity brightness after they are turned on.  Because of this,
they are best suited for an application where they are turned on and 
left on, like for low beams.

    Because of this lag in brightness, you probably do not want to use
Xenon HID lights for high beam, even if you could fit some bulb into
your headlight assembly.  You also do not want to wire your lights so
that the HID low beam turns off when the high beam goes on.  If your
car IS wired that way now, you will want to rewire things so that the
low beams stay on when you turn on the high beams. 

    The Xenon HID bulbs are like a single filiment bulb.  There is only 
one point of light source.  You will not see them built as replacements
for dual filiment bulbs like the H4.  At least you won't see them like
this unless it uses only one of the two circuits.  I have seen at least
one outfit advertising Xenon HID bulbs with adapters for various sockets 
that doesn't tell you right out that there's only one point of light
source.

    Other ways of rigging up Xenon HID lights have been discussed.  
There is a collection of Ford parts from some late Mustang that a 
couple of S-Car listers are using for a conversion.  This setup 
involves rebuilding of their headlight units to properly locate 
the Mustang bulbs at the correct focal point.  Definitely not a bolt
in operation.  This setup is supposed to be in the mid $450 range.

    There is a ballast unit for each bulb, that must be located and
mounted close to the bulb.  Most units use a special wire from the 
ballast unit to the HID bulb.  The wiring TO the balast is definitely
polarity sensitive, if you reverse the polarity of +12 and ground you 
will screw up the ballast.  So what else is new?

    A Xenon HID setup will use a little less amperage than your OEM
55 watt bulb.  I've heard 35 watts, but I'm not sure.

    Pricing on these conversions seems to be from $500 to over $1000
depending on who knows what.  The $525 cost on the 9006 conversion below
is about as good as I've seen.

    Beware of colored bulbs and "super bright" conversions that are not
actually Xenon HIDs.  SOme of the colored bulb conversions that give a 
blue tone to the light actually put out less light.

    - Charlie


  Charlie Smith   charlie at elektro.cmhnet.org  614-271-1418  
  http://elektro.cmhnet.org/~charlie   Columbus Ohio   USA

  95 S6 Quattro  -  24 PSI, RS2 6 speed, and other features  
  93 V8 Quattro  -  Still for sale <<=== call & make offer.



> Subject: HID lamp quantity purchase
> 
> This is info Jerry Scott posted earlier.  I called Sean Roe yesterday
> and got on the list.  There are 16 sets ordered so far.  They expect to
> place the order in the middle of January and to have the kits in late 
> January.  They will call for payment after they have the lights, which
> can be credit card or they will ship COD. 
> 
>     - Charlie
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Earlier, jerryscott at earthlink.net wrote:
> >
> > Sean Roe in Florida, 904-733-5469 is making a 30 car set buy of Xenon
> > 9006 HIDs with the ballasts. He will sell them for $525 per car set 
> > and will take delivery sometime in January 2001. Call him if you are 
> > interested.
> > 
> > The brand of the electronics is Phillips and the envelope (bulb) 
> > is Doohee. This is a required minimum order size and he will sell 
> > them at near his cost for $525 plus shipping per set of two.  He 
> > is doing this for the Viper community and I thought I would pass 
> > it along to the Audi group to help him reach his minimum.  If you 
> > are interested call Sean Roe, 904-733-5469 to be added to his list. 
> > He requires no deposit, but only a verbal commitment.  If he get 
> > enough names, he should have them sometime in January. 
> >
> > This will be a direct plug-in for the bulb in the Audi UrS.  
> > You will only need to find a mounting location for the ballast. Pram 
> > Oen in California has already done the conversion and said that it is 
> > so bright that it washes out the fog light to the point that you 
> > cannot tell that it is on. The focal center is the same as the stock 
> > 9006 bulb. No relay is needed since it will draw nearly the same power 
> > as the stock 9006. This way you will not trigger the blown lamp 
> > indicator on the dash. Call Sean for any other details. 
> > Jerry Scott