Xenon HID Headlamps

[92saturnsl2]

My '07 Pacifica I purchased recently has Xenon HID headlamps. This is the first vehicle with this style of lighting that I've owned, so I have a few questions. How is reliability and maintenance with these? Any parts wear out over time and/or does the lighting output degrade with age? Do these work like traditional "bulbs" in when it burns out, you just replace with another? From what I understand they work along the same lines as a metal halide or sodium lamp, so I suspect there's a ballast or other electrical gizmos to make them work. Do these need periodic replacement?

How does the brightness compare to the more modern LED headlights available on new vehicles? Those [LEDs] can be pretty blinding when driving toward one, is the glare reduced or about the same with Xenon HID?

Early this morning was the first chance I had to do some night driving and I must say I'm extremely impressed. It's going to be difficult to go back to my other vehicles with "ordinary" headlamps after driving this one.

EDIT: One other thing--- The fog lights on this car are traditional halogens- the warm white color is several shades more yellow than the bright white of the OEM Xenon headlamps. Is there a bulb I can use in the halogen socket that will more closely resemble the color of the Xenon bulb? I don't want blue bulbs like the trash they sell on Ebay, just a nice bright white. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Wolf359]

My factory Xenons are 4300k. Those blue ones tend to be in the 6000k range or higher. I believe bulb life on my is about 2500 hours and I might still be on my original ones. They do get slightly dimmer with age but they are way brighter than halogens. I believe they're actually slightly brighter than LEDs but they do cost a lot more so that's why the manufacturers made the switch over to LED. There's usually a ballast that goes with the Xenons and if those go bad, the lights also go out. Both my car have bixenons (both for high and low beam) and I haven't really had to do anything with them yet. Beware of fake bulbs, you can get cheap ones on eBay for $10, but they'll fickler and go out on you. I'd get real bulbs from a real supplier like Home Depot, Rockauto etc that control their inventory chain. Amazon use to just throw all of their inventory and other vendors into one bin so even if you bought it from Amazon, you might end up with a fake.

 

[spackard]

You should wait until you've driven on wet, dark roads. I think you'll appreciate the fogs you have.

 

[Rolla07]

Originally Posted By: spackard
You should wait until you've driven on wet, dark roads. I think you'll appreciate the fogs you have.


+1, Id leave the fogs as is

 

[earlyre]

Originally Posted By: Rolla07
Originally Posted By: spackard
You should wait until you've driven on wet, dark roads. I think you'll appreciate the fogs you have.


+1, Id leave the fogs as is


I've actually gone the other direction from the OP, I put SUPERJDM5000* Yellow Halogens in my Fog/driving lights.




*obviously not the real brand name. but i forget what it was.

 

[LotI]

Originally Posted By: spackard
You should wait until you've driven on wet, dark roads. I think you'll appreciate the fogs you have.

I agree. Im the opposite with Xenon mains and LED fogs. I miss the PIAA Hyper yellows I installed in my MINI.

 

[Gixxer46]

HID are way better than halogen. They are better than most LED lights. The technology just hasn’t surpassed it yet. HID light will travel farther than LED. There is no maintance. You just change the bulb when it stops working or has faded enough. If something else goes like the ballast than that will need to be replaced as well.They do fade with time like halogen and might even change color. It’s mainly just replacement of the bulb.

The glare is controlled by the projector house shutter. The projector is the glass ball looking thing and within it is this piece of metal that limits the height of the light. That’s why when you pull up to a wall you see a nice straight line. The projector also focuses the light as well. When the high beams are on the shutter raised and is more blinding.

This why some people who put hid in their halogen assembly is terrible because the reflector housing bounces light everywhere. A retro fit needs to be done.

As for your fog lights, get some leds, look at morimoto two strokes or gtr lighting. They have really high lumens and the shorter distance mkes it great for a fog light.

It’s funny how you mention never going back to halogen. The government will make cameras up the ying yang standard but driving by candle light not?

 

[mclasser]

Yep, they have ballasts, but they usually last a long time. Often times when HID bulbs fail, they turn purple first. HIDs in projector housings really put out a lot of light.