Xenon Headlights From Ebay

[cranken]

This is probably a dumb question, but.... has anyone had any experience (good or bad) with the fake xenon headlights that are sold on ebay for around $6.95?

[steviej]

I've only heard that they are crap, just regular halogen bulbs with a cheap coating.

Don't get fooled by the name. All halogens have Xenon in them. Xenon is the inert gas used to keep the particle decay of the halogen element down to a minimum. In HID bulbs, Xenon is actually excited to produce the characteristic light.

Go with a known name.

Sylvania Silverstars are bright, reputable, last a long time and won't set you back too much. Usually you can catch them on sale at Autozone, Wal Mart, PepBoys etc. ~$15-25 each for a 9005 or 9006.

PIAA, in my opinion, are the best for lighting. However, they will run you about $70.00/pair.

I have them in my highs, the road signs actually reflect so bright you almost can't read them from a distance.

There are other brands that I have heard good things about like, Polarg and Razo. But, I have no experiecne with them.

good luck.

steviej

[assassinator01]

I got a fair of the HID from a local shop for 40 bucks a pair. I am really happy with them. It makes a big diffrence in my opinon if you want email me and i can try to get you a hook up. assassinator_01@hotmail.com

[steviej]

that seems very cheap for HIDs, don't confuse Halogen or Xenon with true HID.

I have copied a post from another board to help in the confusion.

The author is rominl, and he is the moderator of the lighting forum on that board.

confused between hid and halogen bulb type? here's the answer

well seems like some of you are confused about the different bulb types, etc... so i will try to give some info here and see how it can help first of all, when it comes to hid, yes there are a bit more components like the ballasts, relay, couple more wires, etc... but if you just look at the bulb, they are just bulbs, so it's not hard to talk about the type (set aside other components)

now when cars come with hid stock, it can only be two cases, either d2r or d2s. this is the bulb type, and they have their own distinct shape (base). d2r is for reflective housing (acura, lexus GS, LS, etc...), has the metal piece on it. d2s id for projective housing (bimmer, audi, lexus SC430, etc...), doesn't have the metal piece on the bulb. these are the ONLY two hid bulb that comes out from factory and will fit on any cars with stock hid. so if you get a car that comes with HID, it will ONLY be one of these two.

how most other cars that comes without hid, say gs300, lx470, etc... they have halogen. there are couple of bulb type for halogen, 9006 (GS low beam), 9005 (GS high beam), H1 (old gen bmw low beam), H7, etc.... a lot of them. no halogen headlight will use d2r or d2s bulb, coz'.... there is just no halogen bulb of that size.

so now say you want to put hid kit on your gs without hid. the low beam on your GS is 9006, so you would want to get a hid kit that comes with bulbs that have 9006 base so it will fit in the housing. however, like i said before, all hid bulbs, when out of factory, are either d2r or d2s. so what to do?

that's where companies like autolamps-online.com "re-base" the bulbs. they use either d2r or d2s bulbs, take off the original base, and put in the 9006 base, seal it, sell it to you, so you can just put in the bulb in your gs300. now whether they use d2r or d2s is their own choice, but there is little reason why they would use d2r coz' there is the metal piece which will reduce the light output. almost all the hid kit i see out there, companies use d2s bulbs, rebase them to whatever bulb type of your headlight (9006, 9005, etc...)

so what that means is, if you get a 9006 hid kit that uses d2s bulbs (like the one you get from autolamp or jason aka discountcycle), it will fit in your gs300 non hid housing no problem. no silicone, no rubber ring, no nothing. just put the bulb in, twist it, and it will be locked it tight just like your stock 9006 halogen bulbs.

however, sometimes people they go to junk yark or whatever, and they ripped off a STOCK hid setup from another car. for example you go there, found a crashed gs430 (hid is standard), you rip off the bulbs, ballasts, relays, etc... now you have a hid too. however, that bulb you get, it's d2r, it has DIFFERNCT base as your 9006 halogen setup. now if you want to put THAT kit in your car, you will need to somehow seal it in. the bulb will NOT be fit tight in the housing at all. you can use silicone, however it will be hard to change bulb later, etc....

steviej

Suggstion,

This forum needs a similar lighting forum.

[assassinator01]

I got them cheap as the owner of the shop is my best buddy. Do i guess he was having a really nice day :)

[es3doubleO]

Some of the cheap headlight bulbs melt your headlight socket, so watch out for those. I had the eurolights and they melted mine. I had to replace the socket and i put in sylvania silverstars, so far so good.

[chillaxin]

:) i agree with you, we should have a lighting forum thing

[bbsal]

ok i changed my front headlights from silverstars to new 100watt xenon bulbs.they are alot brighter then the silverstars and bluer also but i think i might of made a mistake.i put new sockets in the car also that are high performance to hold up with the higher watt bulb but heres the thing. i put in 9005 sockets instead of 9006 and also 9005 bulbs instead of 9006.i guess thats why they are so much better looking but im now wondering if that can hurt anything.so far in a week now of driving alot at night i havent had a problem but i just want to make sure.

[bbsal]

also i bought the new sockets at pepboys and they are for higher watt bulbs and looks like its holding up perfect but just need to know for peice of mind.another thing thats weird.even though i now have 9005 in both high beam and low beam if i turn on the high beam its still 10 times brighter then the low beam.is that because the high beams harness has more watts it pushes out?

[steviej]

the refectors on the highs are slightly different so the beam is more focused, thus making the concentration of light seem brighter. Kinda like turning the bulb housing on a MagLite.

maybe. :whistles:

sj