Headlights ?

[Bazzamon]

What is the difference between Xenon & standard headlights. Huge price difference so whats the go?

[itgwv]

Whiter beam and better distance and high beams are fantastic. Plus the washer jets to clean them are cool when they pop out.

[Mischa]

What is the difference between Xenon & standard headlights. Huge price difference so whats the go?

imo a bit of an unnecessary luxury... depends if slightly brighter lights are worth the sum of money to you. but who knows you m ight get them thrown in for rather cheap... but you always pay for what you get in some way.

[LiFers]

Whiter beam....

Xenon light is not whiter, despite the marketing. It is colder (more blue), and brighter. In fact, the incandesent or halogen spectrum is closer to daylight in that is it more continuous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headlight#HID_light_sources_.28xenon_and_bi-xenon.29

See the bit on spectral power distribution and color rendering index.

As you'll read, Xenon lamps in cars should really only be refered to as HID - High Intensity Discharge - as they use Xenon only for startup and are actually metal halide lamps.

[itgwv]

Xenon light is not whiter, despite the marketing. It is colder (more blue), and brighter. In fact, the incandesent or halogen spectrum is closer to daylight in that is it more continuous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headlight#HID_light_sources_.28xenon_and_bi-xenon.29

See the bit on spectral power distribution and color rendering index.

As you'll read, Xenon lamps in cars should really only be refered to as HID - High Intensity Discharge - as they use Xenon only for startup and are actually metal halide lamps.

Well i have 2 cars with xenon and the beam is whiter than standard lights! Wouldn't pay extra for it but came standard and i'm not going to argue with that. Mostly the high beam which impresses me, fantastic for night drives in the mountains.

[DUBING]

They also use less power.. 40% i think..

[Jester_Fu]

I've got them on the R, and they're quite extrodinary. First car i've had with HID/Xeons. The lenses VW use on the low beam mean there's a very very good throw of light into your peripheral area. I find the HID's are about as good as using the low beams + fog's on my old car to get better peripheral coverage when drivign on country roads. The distance from them is also really really good, and the high beams are just nasty. Driving around the burbs, especially ones with less street lights, you'll notice you don't need high beams to pick street numbers as the throw and intensity is that wide and good from the HID's.

The low beams on HID are definately worth the extra money, IMO, unless you want to run fogs and your normal low beams - and you still wont get the same distance out of them.

The light definately has a blue tinge to me. Much more noticable than the old yellowish headlights. They seem to get more white the longer they're on, but i think this is just eyes adjusting to them... not them getting white Def. always have a blue tinge about them, IMO.

Having now had them, i definately wouldn't do without them ever again. Not an option on the R, but any future car i get will definately be optioned to have them if not standard. If you do a bit of country driving or night driving in general, then i'd say 100% write the cheque. If not... then it'll just be your own taste per budget.

[Tim]

ive got xenons on my GTI.
definately worth having in my opinion. theyre awesome! If youre worried about the cost just bust your salespersons balls for a discount

[balkanac]

I have them as well on my MK4 R32 and i love them! High beams are still a normal bulb, and i can see the difference when i turn them on. Is it the same on MK5 cars or do you guys have a different system? I heard that they give more light when you turn high beams on (being bi-xenons) but i just dont see that on my car

[pinzvidz]

What is the difference between Xenon & standard headlights. Huge price difference so whats the go?

Price difference is large because the bi-xenons actually work on both low and high beam (hence extra mechanics within the light assemblies to flick the lenses about to give you low or high beam HIDs (some of the few vehicles out there that have HIDs only have low beam - Toyota is a good example of their typical cost cutting using low beam only HIDs). There's also ISO standards for HIDs, which include self-levelling, and headlight washers. This is why there is a huge price difference. And I can tell you they're worth every cent. We live on Tamborine Mountain (foggy most of the time) and the HID light cuts straight through the fog - works a treat, and very safe for my wife, as she drives our GTI most of the time.

I have them as well on my MK4 R32 and i love them! High beams are still a normal bulb, and i can see the difference when i turn them on. Is it the same on MK5 cars or do you guys have a different system? I heard that they give more light when you turn high beams on (being bi-xenons) but i just dont see that on my car

MK5 is as per my response to the OP. The MK4 would more than likely be low beam HID only (no bi-xenon function). The MK5 also uses halogen for high beam as well as the bi-xenons (although the halogens don't do much!).

[balkanac]

(no bi-xenon function)

That explains it, thanks mate

[richardnau]

I'm about to install some Philips X-treme Power lamps in my conventional headlights.

Philips claims 80% more light output for same power input (that is, they are still 55W lamps). See here.

At $160 for four lamps (on eBay), I hope that this represents a good step towards HID brightness at much lower price.

And I won't have to wash the windscreen every fifth time I turn on the headlights.

[pinzvidz]

And I won't have to wash the windscreen every fifth time I turn on the headlights.

Ummm... that's when you activate the windscreen washers, the bi-xenon washers don't kick on their own when turning on the headlights (every 5 times).

[BarneyBoy]

I'm about to install some Philips X-treme Power lamps in my conventional headlights.

Philips claims 80% more light output for same power input (that is, they are still 55W lamps). See here.

At $160 for four lamps (on eBay), I hope that this represents a good step towards HID brightness at much lower price.

And I won't have to wash the windscreen every fifth time I turn on the headlights.

Will you post a write up when you install them?
It's an interesting area - maybe a before and after pic?

[Bazzamon]

white lights

the standard VW h/lights are just great..after when youve stepped out of a Liberty....they, along with all of other jap cars have piss poor yellowy h/lights with no penetration. But a car that surprised me with great h/lights was the AU Falcon..... So why would you want super white lights anyway? Bazza