Xenon lights -- hot or not?
Moderators: kamzcab86, CalAltaDubber
Xenon lights -- hot or not?
Same question as the "halo" lights thread, only I'm curious about the xenon lights offered on ebay...anyone with any experience with them?
Are you talking about the cheap wannabe HID's? or the real kits that go for $400+?
If you are talking about the cheap bulbs that are filled with Xenon gas and have a blue tint to them, don't bother. Those lights generally run at higher wattages (80/100+), where your stock bulbs run at 55/65 (or near it). Believe it or not, those aftermarket bulbs WILL melt your wires and socket after a short period of time, especially if you do not upgrade the wiring and relays.
Also, the blue lighting can be deceiving because they look like real HID's. Unfortunately, most people don't know that blue lights have a shorter wave-length and actually reduce visibility at night.
If you are talking about the cheap bulbs that are filled with Xenon gas and have a blue tint to them, don't bother. Those lights generally run at higher wattages (80/100+), where your stock bulbs run at 55/65 (or near it). Believe it or not, those aftermarket bulbs WILL melt your wires and socket after a short period of time, especially if you do not upgrade the wiring and relays.
Also, the blue lighting can be deceiving because they look like real HID's. Unfortunately, most people don't know that blue lights have a shorter wave-length and actually reduce visibility at night.
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- Calimus
- Grand High PooBah
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- Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2002 11:40 pm
- What year is your cabby?: 1989
- Do you own a Cabriolet?: Yes
- Location: Cartersville, Ga
I actually have a set of those in my scirocco (the cheapies that is) and I will agree with euro sport there that they can melt the wiring, however, the wiring in all the A1 cars is crap and you can do something about it.
In the scirocco crowd we all want the Euro style lights but find that they just arn't all that bright once we get them in, so we relay the lights. Once relayed you will find a massive difference even with the stock lighting. I'll see if I can make up a wiring diagram for the relaying for a cabby. Since my wife (kuklaki) has a cabby, I'll see what I can do since I'm about to relay her lights now that I've done mine in the scirocco.
Now, the blue lights that come with those kits are crap, even at the higher wattage, the blue makes it hard to see the road and the regular 55/65 won't do all that well either. You'd have to order some high wattage 100/120w lights from Europe to get the vision you want out of those lights. An let me be the first to tell you, do not even accidently touch the light housings after they have been on for more then 5min as they will cook your hand/fingers/whatever in a second. They give off massive ammounts of heat.
So, look for a link to a wiring diagram for the cabbies sometime this weekend.
In the scirocco crowd we all want the Euro style lights but find that they just arn't all that bright once we get them in, so we relay the lights. Once relayed you will find a massive difference even with the stock lighting. I'll see if I can make up a wiring diagram for the relaying for a cabby. Since my wife (kuklaki) has a cabby, I'll see what I can do since I'm about to relay her lights now that I've done mine in the scirocco.
Now, the blue lights that come with those kits are crap, even at the higher wattage, the blue makes it hard to see the road and the regular 55/65 won't do all that well either. You'd have to order some high wattage 100/120w lights from Europe to get the vision you want out of those lights. An let me be the first to tell you, do not even accidently touch the light housings after they have been on for more then 5min as they will cook your hand/fingers/whatever in a second. They give off massive ammounts of heat.
So, look for a link to a wiring diagram for the cabbies sometime this weekend.
16' Challenger ScatPack
05' Yamaha FJR1300
02' Honda VTX 1800C
05' Yamaha FJR1300
02' Honda VTX 1800C
I'm looking forward to knowing how to relay the lights. I'm not really even sure what that means, to be honest...looks like I'll learn soon enough.
All this talk of cooked fingers and melted wiring has me a little...no, a LOT scared of changing from stock lighting. I mean, I've never heard anyone complain about the stock lights, so is it really worth spending the money, re-wiring the car, and still risking melting whatever touches the lights to drop a Euro lighting system in the car?
Dan
All this talk of cooked fingers and melted wiring has me a little...no, a LOT scared of changing from stock lighting. I mean, I've never heard anyone complain about the stock lights, so is it really worth spending the money, re-wiring the car, and still risking melting whatever touches the lights to drop a Euro lighting system in the car?
Dan
- Calimus
- Grand High PooBah
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- Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2002 11:40 pm
- What year is your cabby?: 1989
- Do you own a Cabriolet?: Yes
- Location: Cartersville, Ga
The money is minimal, say around maybe 20-30 at the most for the wire, relays and connecters needed. Even if you don't go to a higher wattage setup and keep the stock setup, it will improve the lighting since more voltage will be able to get to the lights and with the added wiring, there will be less resistance. VW used about 18-16 gage wiring for the lighting, the how-to I'll be writing up uses 14-12 gage which is a bit bigger of a wire allowing more juice to flow through. Trust me, it's all good stuffs.
16' Challenger ScatPack
05' Yamaha FJR1300
02' Honda VTX 1800C
05' Yamaha FJR1300
02' Honda VTX 1800C
- BigDaddy90Cabby
- Exploited Staff Member
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- Do you own a Cabriolet?: Yes
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i dont knwo abotu all that relays and stuff.. maybe one of these days
Jimmy
1990 Cabby
Corpus Christi, TX
http://www.cardomain.com/id/bigdaddyjimmyjam
"That's funny, I don't care who you are, that's funny!"
1990 Cabby
Corpus Christi, TX
http://www.cardomain.com/id/bigdaddyjimmyjam
"That's funny, I don't care who you are, that's funny!"
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- Location: Salt Lake City, UT
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Hey look at this site it gives complete details on how to do the converstion
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech ... elays.html
hope it works for you'll
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech ... elays.html
hope it works for you'll
'87 Cab 2.0 16v
- BigDaddy90Cabby
- Exploited Staff Member
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- Do you own a Cabriolet?: Yes
- Location: Corpus Christi Texas
- Contact:
Save that bad boy to the favorites... try that when i can get back at the car and get some work done!
Jimmy
1990 Cabby
Corpus Christi, TX
http://www.cardomain.com/id/bigdaddyjimmyjam
"That's funny, I don't care who you are, that's funny!"
1990 Cabby
Corpus Christi, TX
http://www.cardomain.com/id/bigdaddyjimmyjam
"That's funny, I don't care who you are, that's funny!"