Xenon headlights ($470 for a pair..make your own)

[Ameer Antar]

I don't think there's any light upgrade worth  $900 or whatever. The 
difference is very notable, but it's not like you can't see w/o them. 
People have been driving for years w/o them. HID's are very different from 
xenon or halogen bulbs. There are probably hundreds of different kinds of 
gas charged lights on the market now. Some are blue, some white, and I've 
even seen pink! Yuck! Anyway, I think the best solution for those w/o 
factory HID's is to get those xenon gas charged bulbs,  but it must be a 
quality item. I know someone who spent $80 on bulbs that look really cheesy 
and didn't help out vision. I decided to give it a try since I had old 4x6 
lenses in the garage. The white bulbs are great. The road signs really 
brightened up compared to the halogens and the side view increased. I need 
to get new lenses though since mine aren't very reflective, and the bulbs 
are reflective types since they are painted at the tip. I think I will 
check out susquehanna motorsport since they have good prices and I've heard 
good things about the Hella Xenon lamps. They're no HID's but who cares, 
there like 2% the cost of HID's. just my opinion.


At 02:03 PM 9/15/00, you wrote:
>Unfortunately, there is more to the HID lights than the source of
>illumination.  On the newer cars the reflector and lens on the unit are
>designed differently, AAMOF, another term you will sometimes see used for
>the newer lights are "projector" headlamps.  Even if you spring for the HID
>bulbs that will fit your stock headlamps you may not find the change in
>illumination to be worth the cost of the HID system.
>
>Remember that there are differences between the "conventional" bulbs and the
>HID units.  HID stands for High Intensity Discharge ... normal incandescent
>bulbs create light by heating up a filament of wire to a high temperature,
>and it is the filament that glows.  In these lights the gas in the envelope
>is intended to be either inert (non-halogen bulbs) or to cause any metal
>vaporized from the filament to reattach itself to the filament (halogen
>bulbs).  There is no filament in the HID bulbs ... the light is generated by
>ionizing the gas between two electrodes.  Where on an incandescent light you
>are looking at light generated by a tungsten filament, the light in an HID
>bulb is generated by the change of state of the gas molecules in the
>envelope ...
>
>Steve Buchholz
>San Jose, CA (USA)
>
> > Hella has started to sell (for $89??) bulbs that use the actual xenon gas!
>
> > This gives you the same color as the xenon headlamps. Add to that a
>$279.95
> > HID kit (www.fet-usa.com) to boost the performance output of the bulbs and
>
> > you have your self anexcellent xenon headlamp replica.
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