Clark Kent

are xenon lights ok to use rather than hid. Also a local store here sells a brand called eurolite for less than 30 bucks. anyone ever hear of those before

kevinb120

Its fake 'xenon' again... True xenon is a hid unit, the term is riced all over the place. I try to only use the term HID. True HID systems require special bulbs(or a sealed projector unit) and always require starter/balast units.

mvon919

HID=High Intesity Discharge... it's a bulb without filament, filled with gas which is usually Xenon gas. Now Halogen name also comes with the gas used with common filament-type headlight. The Halogen gas prevents filament particles dim the bulb and glow brighter.

You're probably talking "Xenon" lights that are common filament bulbs, filled with Halogen gas... some might even say they're filled with Xenon gas... which doesn't make any difference since they're filament type and true HID (with Xenon gas) is electric arc under high voltage (ballasts).

found something in wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-in...discharge_lamp

Clark Kent

so yuo guys don't reccommend the halogen bulbs

mvon919

halogen is the type of bulb you have. those "xenons" you're probably talking about are just regular halogens, bulb dyed in blueish to give fake xenon (hid) look

metroplex

Some halogen bulbs are filled with 10%-30% Xenon for more efficiency (usually marketed as High Efficiency or Ultra Efficiency bulbs). They're typically sold over in Europe (UNECE compliant) because they actually know what good lights look like unless the US manufacturers with the cruddy FMVSS 108 spec.

My H4 conversion lamps with Narva ultra efficiency H4 bulbs look a few notches below HID. The cut-off is so sharp that you thought someone stuck electrical tape over half the lens assembly.

Anyhow, I seriously DOUBT any of the "Xenon" junk you find over the counter in the US actually contain any xenon gas.

mvon919

even though they contain xenon gas, there's still filament that is burning, not electrical arc between tungsten electrodes as in real HID (filled with Xenon)... the halogen gas acts as catalyzer inside the bulb and the brightness of halogen will not change whether it's 10-30% xenon inside. the bulbs marked as 10-30% xenon are blue-ish glass, the color doesn't come (or change) with xenon gas. the blue-ish bulb will imitate the color of true HID. Still looks fake.

metroplex

Incorrect. I have German ECE-compliant Ultra Efficiency bulbs (from Dan Stern) and they contain 30% Xenon gas and are NOT tinted. It does have an effect on how the filament burns, and it is NOT tinted garbage like the SilverStar junk that people here like to use. There are some other things that the Europeans do to halogen bulbs to squeeze out more candelas and lifespan (different gas mixtures, etc...) but we don't see them here in the US most of the time due to FMVSS 108 requirements (instead of ECE requirements).

Like I said before, if you bought "Xenon" bulbs OTC in CONUS, chances are it is junk just like the SilverStars. The Europeans take lighting very seriously because they tend to design their high performance cars to sustain high speeds at night in twisty roads, whereas American cars will have overheating brakes, overheating engines, headlights that are easily over-run above 80 mph, etc... if they do any serious type of racing.

mvon919

Speed of light = 670616629 mph...

seriously, you got pic or link for your special bulbs? (I'm European btw... living in Colorado for now).

mrkabc

+1 to that. Silverstars are crap. Get real HIDs, they aren't that expensive anymore.

titanjc

metroplex, do you have any pictures you could post of the bulbs at night, as well as the cutoff? I'm not familiar with ultra efficiency bulbs myself, and would like to see what I'm missing.

metroplex

There aren't any available for the Stang (I was talking about H4 conversions), but here's the site nonetheless:
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/p.../products.html

I used the H4 conversion + Narva on the 2003 E-250 and the T-bird. The stock S197 GT's headlamps are inferior to the Cibie H4 + Narva bulb setup in terms of light output, cut-off, and color but unfortunately we have to deal with "aero" lamps so we can't do the H4 swap on the Stang.

As for over-running the headlamps, it is very easy to do on a dark road at high speed unless you are using a good set of headlights. Everyone in the world uses ECE except for the US and Canada (FMVSS and CMVSS respectively). The Europeans and Japanese have always held the upper-hand in getting new lighting tech out on the production vehicles. The first batch of LED headlamps are coming out in the Audi R8 and Lexus LS 600. Rumor has it, only the non-US Audi R8 will get LED headlamps... The US-spec Audi R8 will have HIDs.

Rondosa

I used Eurolite in my last car in the fogs to match teh factory HIDs. They are just filament bulbs tinted blue to simulate the colour of HID, nothing more.

Don't bother unless you just want it for pure cosmetics reasons. Won't help improve light output one bit, may even worsen it.

k

kevinb120

They are still either true H.I.D. or glorified halogens. There's nothing wrong with Silverstars. But ECE bulbs are pretty much the same thing. They can pitch it how every they want to, its not true xenon. The only way to go with a new Mustang for a bulb conversion is the stangmods version. Inexpensive, high quality product, lifetime warranty, and tweaked to be a direct plug-in for our cars.

metroplex

Incorrect. HIDs are HIDs, High Efficiency halogens are filled with a different gas (such as more Xenon than Krypton) to tweak the light output. No one here said Xenon bulbs were the same as HIDs or better than HIDs. I am just pointing out that there ARE genuine "Xenon" bulbs that have been designed for more efficient light output, and you generally do NOT find them at AutoZone or made in Korea... In fact, I once tried a set of Sylvania H4 bulbs that I bought OTC and compared them to the Narva H4s... night and day difference. The Narvas were UNTINTED yet produced an extremely white and bright light (not just white) compared to the dim and yellow FMVSS compliant regular H4.

When the Big 3 start designing more cars to sustain high speeds on unlit and windy roads, we may see better lights.

UNECE compliant lamp assemblies are superior to FMVSS compliant lamps in the respect that the cut-off is very different, and I typically find UNECE lights to actually work well on the street and at high speed. The UNECE cut-off is at the horizontal, whereas FMVSS allows quite a bit of light to leak above the horizontal. I have started to notice a lot of the latest domestic cars having sharper cut-offs, so we're slowly progressing to the level of the Europeans.

Clark Kent

so if i was not going to go full conversion. are ther any bulbs even worth trying or should I just leave it stock

RobK

Ever driven fast on a dark road at night? Most US cars have very poor "throw" of the beam pattern down the road. It's very easy to over drive your lights. High beams help, but they often throw more light to the periphery than straight out in front of you. The actual speed of light is totally irrelevant. The main difference with Euro spec. vs. US spec. lighting is simply higher wattage from my experience. I run Euro spec. H1 bulbs in all of my BMWs. They are standard halogen but as stated a higher wattage than the US halogens.

RobK

Leave it stock.

JonCo

I put some of those "blue" lights on my old G6 GT. You most likely will loss visibility. They look cool but offer nothing to enhance driving visibility.

05mustangman

go with the saleen hids