Are so called"xenon" lights worth buying?

F

FocusRun

New member
I was looking through ebay and saw a bunch of "Xenon headlights" for the Focus. They are much cheaper than the regular halogens that I'm using. I burnt one of my stock lights and it cost about 14 bucks for one bulb. These so called "xenon" are about 17 bucks for a set and are brighter.



Since I share the road with other motorist, I'm concerned that these cheapo Xenon might do more harm than good. Last thing I want to do is have the blind some poor driver. On the other hand, I would not might mind having brighter lights (for a cheaper price).



What do you guys think?
 
Depends on the brand. I would only recommend Sylvania Silverstars (approx $70/pair) as a good bulb upgrade. Otherwise, stick with OEM, they last longer than any cheapo xenon bulb.



Other decent brand would be PIAA. Stay away from Eurolite.
 
Go with REAL xenon. There is a company called HIDS4LESS that makes real xenon kits that can be retrofitted to any vehicle. I put a pair in my 88 Saleen and they are well worth it. I had the superwhite bulbs before, and there is no comparison with the real thing. I would look around and see whats available. I understand that Sylvania/ Phillips/ etc. all make these type of true xenon kits.



Good Luck
 
I agree, go with the real-deal xenon bulbs. Take note though that the real-deal is extremely costly. The other bulbs who claim to be xenon are merely standard halogen bulbs that are like dipped in blue paint. They are only designed to emulate the look of xenons, but pale in comparison in terms of performance. In fact, a lot of these superwhite bulbs have reduced performance over stock bulbs, especially in rainy conditions. You can easily tell the real-deal xenons from the knockoffs - usually, the real xenons come with an external ballast, and the bulb itself has no filament.



I'll try to look for the site which did a side by side comparo of xenon-knockoff superwhites vs. stock 60/55W H4 bulbs and post the URL here. Anyhow, the gist of that comparo was that the superwhites had diminished performance, both in terms of brightness and distance of beam.
 
lalaland said:
Depends on the brand. I would only recommend Sylvania Silverstars (approx $70/pair) as a good bulb upgrade. Otherwise, stick with OEM, they last longer than any cheapo xenon bulb.



Other decent brand would be PIAA. Stay away from Eurolite.
Click to expand...



I will agree 100%. I got a set of Toucan's Eurolites. in my hatchback. THEY SUCK!!!!! If I am on a really dark backroad at night.....fuggedaboudid......I can't see crap!
 
My PIAAs claim 85W light output with 55W; I'm not stupid and know they can't change the laws of physics, but in a side by side comparison to stock bulbs, they are MUCH brighter.



Another less expensive mod is to rewire your headlights to receive your car's full voltage from the battery, instead of using the chincy wiring and switched provided by the factory.

That helped a lot, too.

I took the upgraded diagram, and bought the parts instead of his outrageously expensive kit, but this is where I go the idea:

http://lighting.mbz.org/tech/relays/relays.html
 
REAL XENON Hi intesity Discharge lights cost over $400....anything else is a wanna be.....



HID uses Xenon filled tubes with a metal arcing device .... Ballast .... and starter .........
 
Guess My Name is absolutely correct.



HID lighting is going to cost a minimum $400 depending on the type of head light assembly you have. If you seriously want the increased out put and performance nothing compares and it is completely worth every cent.



My car had very poor low beam lights and the factory upgrade was about $1800, so I recently purchased an HID upgrade for $400 (it was a special group buy price) from http://www.liteswap.com and could not be more pleased. The product was great and I was able to install this set up just like the factory option.



The cheap bulbs sold as xexons are mere xexon gas filled regular bulbs very similar to halogens gas filled bulbs with just the look (but not the performance of HID) or halogens with a blue tint in the glass. True HID or "xexon" lights require a ballast and ignitor (there are a couple of manufacturers that the ballast and ignitor in the same piece of equipment).
 
Don't get the PIAA's. They look brighter on the road because of the colour, but in actual tests they performed lower than actual OEM halogen lights.



You are best off with Sylivana Silverstars.
 
The cheap ones are not very good. Because they're coated with a blue paint, the light emitted isn't as bright, they also don't last very long. The most I've gotten out of them is 6 months.



My suggestion is to either stay with the OEM bulbs or upgrade to the REAL HID, which can be anywhere from 200-600 depending on the manufacturer and the intensity of the light.
 
I have used PIAA SuperWhites on my '94 Maxima and the light output was pretty decent.



I am trying to figure out the route I want to go in upgrading the '02 Maxima's high beams. I already have 4150K HID low beams.
 
I have PIAA Superwhites on my 03 Grand Cherokee and my wife's 02 Mustang. On my 96 Grand I have some Xenon bulbs.



I am using wiring harnesses on all the vehicles. I think the wiring harness makes all the difference in the world....Andrew
 
i've owned PIAA (55w), Hyper Industries(80w) and another one(90w) i forgot name.



If I were to ever buy another pair, it would be a 90w one. They are brighter then stock. The PIAA's were pathetic especially for the price. I remember paying $17 shipped for the 90w ones.



The downside is that the 90w ones lasted me 5-6 months. The 80w about 8-9 months.



My stock ones are in right now and they're still running fine.



I bought them just for looks and not performance. I'm going to just stick with stock for now until i can afford REAL European HID's.



Cheers



Davi



ps if you buy the cheaper ones, get the XD5's or the XD3's
 
Like everyone else previously said the only way to go is REAL HID. I had Matrix Ultra Whites 90/100 watt and they burnt out in 5 months, then i had Hiper Super Plazma 80/85 watt which i sold to a friend which burnt out then i had PIAA Xtreme Force 60/55 watt and just decided to upgrade to REAL HID. If you just save your money up for the REAL HIDs you'll be more then happy you got them. The light output on my truck is unbelieveable. Its like driving during the day. I read somewhere that halogen bulbs have a life of like 2-300 hours whereas HIDs last for 2,500-3,000 hours. You'd probably save money in the long run with HIDs then replacing the knock off ones every 6 months. I got my 6000k kit on eBay. There are tons of kits on eBay priced reasonable. For anyone considering doing an aftermarket HID conversion I would recommend you not to go anything higher then 6000k. After a certain Kelvin temp. you get pure color(blue & purple) and less white light(if you look at the kelvin chart you'll see what i mean).
 
I'd switch to true HIDs if my car was newer and I planned on keeping it for a long time, so I used the high beam Silverstars and modified them to fit in place of my low beams. They are adjusted so as not to cause glare to oncoming traffic. Definitely a big improvement over stock and a much whiter light on the road, similar in appearance to true HIDs, but of course, not nearly as bright and not as even a beam pattern. Still, a decent $40 upgrade.
 
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