Omega Owners Forum
Omega Help Area => Omega General Help => Topic started by: greebo on 09 January 2010, 17:05:10
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hi everyone. hope you all had a good chrimbo & safe new year. can anyone tell me? what is so special about these xeon headlights that ive heard about????? :-/
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what night breakers?
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Xenon headlights use Xenon gas through with an electric current is passed, the gas emits a white/bluey light. Some people refer to them as HID's. However, no manufacturer in the uk I know of refers to them as that, only xenon..thus I call them Xenon's. Some cheap ebay bulbs say they are xenon, which they are not. Simply xenon effect. In reality they're useless.
I couldn't be without Xenon now, so much clearer and better than standard headlights. Also doesn't fatigue the eyes I find. After driving a Xenon equipped vehicle at night, I don't find my eyes tired. Can sometimes find this on halogen equipped vehicles.
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makes me sound like a plonker. specialy th mileage i clock up per week. but, yeh. ive heard people saying they've had them fitted. wot are they?
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so i take it you would recomend fitting them then? most of my driving is early morming or after dark. thanks for the advice. :y
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they are much better than standard halogen lights, i fitted nightbreakers (halogen type) in my CD, and they work well.
Xenons came fitted on CDX/MV6 & Elite Omegas, and have headlight washers, and levelling system, to be done right these need to be fitted.
Nightbreaker Halogen bulbs come very close to Xenon output
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they are much better than standard halogen lights, i fitted nightbreakers (halogen type) in my CD, and they work well.
Xenons came fitted on CDX/MV6 & Elite Omegas, and have headlight washers, and levelling system, to be done right these need to be fitted.
Nightbreaker Halogen bulbs come very close to Xenon output
I fitted Nightbreakers and think they're no better than cheapo bulbs from a car boot sale:(
Wouldn't be without my HID's though! ;)
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i'll look into pricing them up next weekend. hitler has me at work tomorrow. so thanks again for your help.
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Xeon is an Intel server chip :P
Xenon is a gas. Some bulbs have Xenon gas in instead of Halogen, but still a standard bulb. Xenon will be whiter.
HIDs (High Intensity Discharge) use a different method to produce light. In the old days, Xenon lights and HIDs used to be on and the same, but with many normal bulbs being Xenon gas, and these also being referred to as Xenon lights, confusion reigns.
Xenon filled normal bulbs do not have the same advantages of HID lights.
According to DfT, to legally retrofit HID lights to a non HID car you need to:
Have HID approved lenses
Have an automatic levelling system
Have an automatic headlamp cleaning system
Note, this makes all HID upgrade kits you see on eGay illegal for road use in the UK (and across most of Europe)
Hope that answers everything
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As tunnie says, there's fair bit to change if you want proper Xenon's. New headlights, ballast pack, new interior light switch, levelling sensors on the n/s front and rear suspension, and headlight washers on the bumper. I'm sure it is doable, but would be a challenge I imagine.
I think you might be better doing what tunnie has done, fitting nightbreaker halogen bulbs.
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Xeon is an Intel server chip :P
Xenon is a gas. Some bulbs have Xenon gas in instead of Halogen, but still a standard bulb. Xenon will be whiter.
HIDs (High Intensity Discharge) use a different method to produce light. In the old days, Xenon lights and HIDs used to be on and the same, but with many normal bulbs being Xenon gas, and these also being referred to as Xenon lights, confusion reigns.
Xenon filled normal bulbs do not have the same advantages of HID lights.
According to DfT, to legally retrofit HID lights to a non HID car you need to:
Have HID approved lenses
Have an automatic levelling system
Have an automatic headlamp cleaning system
Note, this makes all HID upgrade kits you see on eGay illegal for road use in the UK (and across most of Europe)
Hope that answers everything
BUT - as my MOT tester says when he does my Carlton (retro fitted HIDs with no washers yet) - "The light beam pattern is fine, so I have to pass that."
He's passed it for four years straight now, next one due in Feb. If the law has changed since last Feb, then he might insist I fit washers.
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Xeon is an Intel server chip :P
Xenon is a gas. Some bulbs have Xenon gas in instead of Halogen, but still a standard bulb. Xenon will be whiter.
HIDs (High Intensity Discharge) use a different method to produce light. In the old days, Xenon lights and HIDs used to be on and the same, but with many normal bulbs being Xenon gas, and these also being referred to as Xenon lights, confusion reigns.
Xenon filled normal bulbs do not have the same advantages of HID lights.
According to DfT, to legally retrofit HID lights to a non HID car you need to:
Have HID approved lenses
Have an automatic levelling system
Have an automatic headlamp cleaning system
Note, this makes all HID upgrade kits you see on eGay illegal for road use in the UK (and across most of Europe)
Hope that answers everything
That's the problem I find, where confusion arises.
I call them Xenon's not HID's. All manufacturers I deal with normally, VX, Land Rover, Merc, Daimler/Jaguar all refer to vehicles having Xenon headlights.
I wouls say HID's are only aftermarket, I've yet to see a manufacturer call lights HID's. There may be some, but all I know call them Xenon's.
Then you get the xenon halogen bulbs you mentioned. Which aren't xenon really at all. They're just playing to the stupid side of people, they think oooh I can have xenon headlights for a fraction of the cost of an oe system, when they're nothing alike.
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Xeon is an Intel server chip :P
Xenon is a gas. Some bulbs have Xenon gas in instead of Halogen, but still a standard bulb. Xenon will be whiter.
HIDs (High Intensity Discharge) use a different method to produce light. In the old days, Xenon lights and HIDs used to be on and the same, but with many normal bulbs being Xenon gas, and these also being referred to as Xenon lights, confusion reigns.
Xenon filled normal bulbs do not have the same advantages of HID lights.
According to DfT, to legally retrofit HID lights to a non HID car you need to:
Have HID approved lenses
Have an automatic levelling system
Have an automatic headlamp cleaning system
Note, this makes all HID upgrade kits you see on eGay illegal for road use in the UK (and across most of Europe)
Hope that answers everything
BUT - as my MOT tester says when he does my Carlton (retro fitted HIDs with no washers yet) - "The light beam pattern is fine, so I have to pass that."
He's passed it for four years straight now, next one due in Feb. If the law has changed since last Feb, then he might insist I fit washers.
Note - it is not an MOT item.
An MOT does not make a car legal ;)
DfT clearly states the requirements for HIDs :)
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Badly adjusted HIDs, dirty HIDs, ones with bad lenses, and ones that don't automatically lower if boot is full is annoying and dangerous to other road users. Similar to those people who purposely adjust one of their headlights to be high and striaght - we all regularly come across these antisocial idiots.
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they are much better than standard halogen lights, i fitted nightbreakers (halogen type) in my CD, and they work well.
Xenons came fitted on CDX/MV6 & Elite Omegas, and have headlight washers, and levelling system, to be done right these need to be fitted.
Nightbreaker Halogen bulbs come very close to Xenon output
I fitted Nightbreakers and think they're no better than cheapo bulbs from a car boot sale:(
Wouldn't be without my HID's though! ;)
Said many a time, the night breakers for halogen and Hids get different reports, Nightbreakers in halogen bulb/lens work well
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That's the problem I find, where confusion arises.
I call them Xenon's not HID's. All manufacturers I deal with normally, VX, Land Rover, Merc, Daimler/Jaguar all refer to vehicles having Xenon headlights.
I wouls say HID's are only aftermarket, I've yet to see a manufacturer call lights HID's. There may be some, but all I know call them Xenon's.
Then you get the xenon halogen bulbs you mentioned. Which aren't xenon really at all. They're just playing to the stupid side of people, they think oooh I can have xenon headlights for a fraction of the cost of an oe system, when they're nothing alike.
Quartz-halogen lamps use a halogen gas inside a quartz glass tube. The quartz glass gets hot enough that atoms of metal that have burnt off the filiament evaporate and are carried back to the filiament by the halogen gas. The earliest ones used iodine gas (in the 1960's). Xenon is a halogen gas. Recently manufacturers have had success getting Quartz-halogen lamps to work better by using xenon.
Discharge lamps have been used for years for street lighting. Very efficient but they needed great big transformers and ballasts to generate the voltage and control the current. Also the light wasn't very easy to focus (it wasn't an intense point source) and the element used to generate the visible light (sodium) gave of a flat orange light.
Recent developments in electronics have allowed the control gear to fit in a box the size of a packet of cigarettes. This is the really clever bit. Xenon gas has been used for the High Intensity Disharge tube because it gives off light which approximates to daylight.
I blame the marketing departments. Xenon sounds clean and modern. HID more accurately describes the process though.
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its worth mentioning if you buy a set from most places in the uk they will not be legal to use on uk roads! "off road use only" most will pass an mot but if you were to be involved in an accident and your insurance company were to see that these were fitted they may deem your insurance void. harsh but true!
HTH
James :)