Xenon/Xenon plus/Bi-Xenon

[Nollywood]

Originally Posted by Adrian E

I'll be popping up to Sutton in the next week or so to see if the 'Philips' D2R bulbs this bloke is selling look the genuine article or not at 27 quid a pop

Is that each, or for a pair?

[Adrian E]

Thats each, but they do appear to be genuine philips

[David's8]

Being a newbie (who now has Iceblue8's first S8 mentioned at the start of this thread back in 2010!) I have been trying to get to grips with this b-xenon thing. I do have the bi-xenon unit (as shown earlier) and the xenon lamp does move when switching from dip to main. The problem initially confusing me was that there is a main beam halogen supplementary light which comes on too at high beam. (I guess I thought that the bi-xenons did away with halogen altogether.)

This does appear quite yellow compared with the xenon so i wondering whether that halogen lamp could be upgraded to a better (halogen) lamp without disturbing the system? At present it is a Osram 63210 12v 55w H7U.

[mannyo]

The halogen lamp in the bi-xenon cluster has 2 functions,

1) its used when you flash your headlights by pulling the indicator stalk towards you, and in this case the xenon remains off. Xenons do not like being turned on / off for short periods and take a while to warm up to temperature and provide full light, far longer than a quick flash.

2) it supplements the main beam when in use, although most of the main beam light is xenon.

Any H7 bulb should the bill as a replacement.

[Adrian E]

I fitted Philips X-treme Vision +100% bulbs to my high beam assist and front fogs - you can actually tell when the lights are on now in the dark whereas the old ones made no difference whatsoever to the light output!!

You can pick them up for a tenner on ebay from the Channel Islands and they turn up nice and quick

[David's8]

Originally Posted by Adrian E

I fitted Philips X-treme Vision +100% bulbs to my high beam assist and front fogs - you can actually tell when the lights are on now in the dark whereas the old ones made no difference whatsoever to the light output!!

Originally Posted by mannyo

2) it supplements the main beam when in use, although most of the main beam light is xenon.

Any H7 bulb should the bill as a replacement.

Thanks for the help guys. It is all becoming as clear as, well, xenon! I shall probably look at some improved output halogen H7s. Iceblue8 is right - its often dark and wet up here and you need every bit of help you can get.
I did check the xenons and they are D2R.

[adjuster]

Here in the USA, we don't have the Bi-HID lights on the D2's, but my D3 had that feature, and it just flipped a small panel in the projector lamp.

But, as noted here, the "high beam" was still an halogen 55 watt bulb. (Easy upgrade to a higher watt bulb if you want, or going to a "silver star" or similar light, whatever they might call it in your neck of the woods. )

[HPsauce]

Originally Posted by adjuster

Easy upgrade to a higher watt bulb if you want

Not legal in UK and probably not anywhere in the EU.
But there are plenty of "higher output" legal filament bulbs available and that's what I have in mine.

[adjuster]

Not legal in the USA either.

But how much do you run around with your high beams on?

They do not check them here in Idaho, but I suppose some states might, but it's more if they work, than what the wattage of the bulb on the high beams is.

I've run 55 watt HID's in non-HID housings/lamps for a few years now, and they are very bright.

My daughter got pulled over for speeding, and the officer asked if she had her bright lights on, but she was only cited for speeding, no issue on the lights once the officer saw the van was loaded with people, and that explained the high light pattern. (I see it all the time around here, especially trucks pulling trailers have the lights too high on low beam, but nobody does much about it.)

Personally, I have my lights adjusted so the cut off/pattern does not blind other traffic, but provides a better than stock view at night.

[Nollywood]

I wouldn't run higher-wattage bulbs. If they aren't relayed (as I suspect they're not) you run the risk of melting the wiring, burning out your switch contacts, or worse burning your entire dash wiring harness.