What to know about xenon

[vedran]

Please help a new member. I want to replace my "normal" lights with xenon ones but dont know what to pay attention when buying them.
What means bixenon, ecode, to buy Audi original or some other type, which type not to buy....[confused]

And at the end ... what a hell does "bump" means [headbang].

[CapstoneJHS]

And at the end ... what a hell does "bump" means [headbang].

"Bump" just means they're "bumping" the thread back to the top of the section. Usually done in the For Sale section to get more attention for threads that haven't had a response in a few days.

[vedran]

Thanks mate, anyone else about xenon??

[jgmpn6]

Yea theres two ways to go about doing xenon headlights.

You can go the cheap way and buy "plug and play" hid kits off ebay, but your probably going to get a headlight warning (correct me if im wrong)

The proper way to go about it is to buy oem hid housings, preferrably ecodes so you dont have the amber. Then you can chose either single or bixenon housings, i.e. hid at highbeam and lowbeam or solely lowbeam. Once youve chosen your housings you need to get on ebay and locate some ballasts and housings.

[vedran]

Still confused...
1. what is hid housing? (can you chow me some link for ebay or some pictures please)
2. What means ecode
3. what is amber
4. Isn't normal to buy bixnenon (aren't they better then xnenon)
5. What does ballast and housing look like?

Yea, I'm shame of my self but.....

[vedran]

Let's go like this...
I have H7 normal lights on my A4 MY2006 As you can maybe see on my avatar.
What do I need to do and buy to make them as factory bixenon. Do I need to buy new lights, projectors, bulb....???
Can someone please post pictures of parts that I need to buy?

[vtracer20]

ecode is a standard that europe uses for beam pattern in europe. US spec headlight are slightly different from ecode headlights as the beam pattern is different.

If you buy a hid kit for you halogen housing headlights (the ones that are on the car) you will blind everyone on the road. What need ot do is either buy bi-xeon headlights which use both hi/low beam in the same housing. (housing = headlight). If you look at my gallery you will see my car usues bi-xenon headlights. the ones i have are projector headlights with bi-xeon lights.

If you want bi-xeon just spend the extra money and get the right product. Just get them from a dealer or a cheaper source but get the OEM (from factory) stuff.

[vedran]

Yes man, that is what I want but don't know where to find it becose there is so much people seling so much solutions for xenon that I'm loosing my self. But would you said that Valeo headlights are good solution or only Audi original??

Btw. nice ride you have

[Kid Red]

Not to thread jack, just continuing the topic-

So xenon is just low beam and bi-xenon is hi/low? Then you have the daytime lights I guess which is normally a projector? A projector is the same thing as HID? Silly questions I know, just never had it explained and I want to upgrade to xenons as well.

[cstarky15]

The projectors project the xenon lights. Halogen lights use reflectors to project the lights. If you get bi-xenon lights you will have xenon lights for both high and low lights. the older A4's only had single xenon lights.

[cfujikawa]

lemme see if i can help out. the projector lamp is that round ball looking thing inside the headlight (for those who have the xenon housing). this is where the HID bulb sits. people without the xenon lights just have a series of reflectors, and a h7 halogen light bulb. HID bulbs require a special igniter, called a "ballast". without a ballast, the HID bulb will not work. the xenon headlight option include all these in one package. if you want to upgrade your halogen lights to xenon lights, you have a few options. but to give you a simplified answer... to properly upgrade to xenon lights (as if they were the xenons that come as an option on our cars), you need to replace the whole housing. the other options are a lot of work (projector retrofit), or not as good of quality (aftermarker HID bulb kit).

so say you want to replace the whole housing and do it right. now comes all your options for the xenon housing:
- bi-xenons use the projector lamp (ball thingy) for both the low beam, and high beam. so both will be xenon. normal xenons (older non-bi-xenon models) use the projector for the low beam, but use a normal halogen bulb (h7) for the high beams.
- adaptive bi-xenons are bi-xenon housings that have a special function built in. as you steer your car, the lights move to point in the direction you are turning. they use an internal motor housing, so these cost quite a bit more.
- ambers are the orange blinker lights inside the housing (standard on north american model audis). many people don't like the look of these, so they modify their housings and get rid of these. others replace their whole headlight housings with "e-codes"... european spec headlights. these come standard without the amber blinkers. they are also said to have slightly better light performance.

i can only share insight on that xenon headlights are, and the difference between them. i bought my car with the adaptive bi-xenon option included, so i don't know pricing or availability of upgrade kits out there. maybe someone who has done the halogen to xenon retrofit can chime in for more info on this.

[vedran]

cfujikawa mate, I really appreciate your post. This is what I needed to understand xenon. Thanks

[cfujikawa]

just trying to help. i did a lot of research when i was trying to retrofit HID's into a previous car. but with all the different options, and different terminology out there, it helps to just get simple answers to help you on your way.

[Phrost]

Looks like everything is covered.

HIDs (high intensity discharge bulbs, or xenons) use a pair of electrodes which arch the current to produce light, instead of where a regular H7 bulb is a normal bulb with a "filament" which is just a resistor that produces the light. Xenons don't get nearly as hot because they only arch the current instead of burning it off to produce light, but they need the ballast to make the initial "spike" of electricity to get the arch and light the bulb.

[atop]

i can get the plug n plays for you any temp for 120.