When your stopping distance exceeds the light throw.

If you see an ice shanty covered in black plastic fly by you at 130mph on a snowmobile crossing an ice covered lake on a moonless night you really understand.

 

they look great on a MINI

 

Gee. . . I opted to not get the xenons because I find other cars with xenons so obnoxious. When they pass it takes away my vision somewhat . . . I don't see how blinding the oncoming car can be that safe. Plus it is being rude. I'm plenty rude but I like to be so with intention . . . not just as a sort of blinding light.

On my own on a race track I'm sure it would be wonderful. Ah, no amount of lighting makes it safe to race on public roads at night.

 

Can ppl really TELL whether someone with "obnoxious" headlights has Xenon or other "upgraded" lighting? I been driving for a long time, and Headlight Obnoxiousness is nothing new...

The stock lamps are certainly adequate, the Xenons do look neat if you have extra funds for bling... I'm glad I chose audio upgrade vs. Xenons.

Tatt

 

Two points to add to this thread. I did have quite a problem with my Xenon's on my trip back from the Dealer in Ohio. Specifically, I spent a day and a half in Yellowstone N.P., very little street lighting there. Therfore, it was very dark at night. The hard cutoff of the xenon lights made it *extremely* difficult for me to read the road signs when driving into the village areas at night. These signs were non-reflective in nature. I had to use my highbeams to see the signs well enough to navigate by. Granted, this may have been just the right combination of sign height, no reflectivity, and dark areas. However, in this specific case, I had serious misgivings about the xenons. Both nights in the park were this way.

In 3.5 weeks of driving since, I love them, have not had a repeat situation.

Second, I have had quite a few people 'flash' me - it has left me worried that my lights may need adjustment (is this possible? I know the lights are auto leveling).

Overall, I am happy, but the lights are not perfect.

 

brg, I had the same misconception regarding 'autoleveling' - that feature only adjusts the lights based on the car suspension loads (i.e. if you've got a big load in the boot, it would generally cause the lights to aim higher - the autoleveling corrects for this.)

On my 3,000 mile trip home I went through Missouri and Kansas in the pitch black and I was NOT impressed with the xenons - the cutoff made it hard for me to see much ahead. After several weeks I finally adjusted the headlights (std. adjustment screws are easily seen) and finally I CAN SEE! Previously I'd only see the road behind the car in front of me - now I can see the bumper (oh, and the ROAD!) I've never been flashed, so I assume they're not too high.

 

Another blast from the past. The Tucker had this feature in its center headlamp... in 1948.

The 35w Xenon H2S bulbs are rated for 3200 lumens/2700 hours. The 55w H7 bulbs are actually quite a bit brighter than many other halogen bulbs and produces 1500 lumens/300 hours. For comparison, a 55w 9006 is only rated for 1000 lumens.

 

Ah, that would be moi. The "Girl" with the good toys: Bike, Mini, 4X4...

And I still say, don't sell any fun toys to do mods on the second. Even though, I REALLY enjoy the Xenons on the '04 MCS.

 

Not to do mods, I just don't want $'s tied up in something I haven't been riding a lot lately. I'll be back full time after my daughter gets a little older. The RD 400 should prove an able distraction in the meantime, 2-strokes anyone?

I always like to up the pre-mix a bit and go cruising the HD haunts

..zing, zing, zing, COUGH, COUGH, they LUV me...

P.S. No Xenons on that ride, barely more light than a warmed over candle...(just wanted to not be accused of being "off-topic" )

 

I'm not sure if those of you that are having problems are because you do not have the newer housing. On my '05 I have no problems with the cut off. I have driven through some extremely dark Texas hill country roads and they performed great!

Just food for thought since this guy was asking about them on the newer MINI's

 

I used the money that I saved by not buying the electronic nanny...DSC...to pay for my Zenons. Good lighting is very important to me.

Chuck

 

I have xenons, fog and rally lights. No problems anywhere at night.

 

I also have the fogs. One of my first additions will be a set of driving lights. Then I'll really be able to see those bambi's.

Chuck

 

I love my Xenons. I motor alot in the dark, on a 2 lane busy highway.
I don't get to use my highbeams much because of oncoming traffic. My Xenons light up lots of road, and ditch.

My fogs fill in great when I need them in fog, or snowstorms

 

I salute you. For what you ask? For knowing what fog lights are used for & using them correctly. My son calls them lizard lights when there on for no reason other than the look at me I'm cool factor.

Chuck

 

I absolutely hate xenon lights. They hurt my eyes. That piercing blue shade just gets to me. I honestly don't see why anyone would need them, but I live in the Los Angeles area, and all our roads are very well lit. I could see how it might be nice to have more illumination on darker roads (though my trips into the surrounding hills deserts have never necessitated any) but honestly, I think it would be far safer and more courteous to other drivers to have regular old halogen head lights with toggled brighter lights like fog lamps or hi beams for when extra illumination is needed. IMO, they're just gaudy and rude on a crowded freeway.

 

I tend to agree, based on what I see in my strictly suburban surroundings. Here they are simply a fad...meaningless bling, only for show/pretense. But then, our roads are covered with scads of street lights. They may be legitimately useful in other surroundings.

 

Puleeeze......

 

I'll agree with this as far as cars & trucks with fog & driving lights on all the time goes. As far as Xenons go they are the next step forward in lighting technology. Not really bling, but new tech shows up on the high end cars & trucks first. Heck even air bags did. Wonder if anyone ever thought of those as bling? Xenons do make the road safer by letting you see what's in front of you. Pretty important in my book. I bet the same arguments were being bantied about when the switch was made from gas lights to electric & I even remember the ones when people complained about those darn halogen lights replacing the tungsten incandesents. That last statement makes me feel pretty old. The color is different & I believe that is what bothers some folks. IIRC the color temperature is colser to that of sunlight. Too my eyes they aren't any worse to look at than any other set of headlights coming at me. They even self level so they won't blind other drivers. I don't know of any halogen lighting systen that does that.

This seems to be a hot topic, maybe even hotter than, is the electro nanny...DSC...really needed? Just my .02 here & worth every penny you've paid for it.

Chuck

 

"2006 MCS HB/W.....IT'S ON THE BOAT!!!!!
95 Miata not for sale......I'm keeping it!!!!
2 TOYS Life IS GOOD!!!! "

Yep, I've got an almost perfect original 69 Malibu with 59,000 miles. About as different from MINI as you can get, but still a great toy.

While I don't have the warehouse full of muscle cars I'd like to have I'm thankful for the two great toys I own. I'm 62 and haven't noticed any lessening of my desire for toys....let's hope that doesn't happen.

Oh...and enough about the Xenon headlights.

If you like um' fine, if you don't, learn to live with them cause there're unlikely to go away. Kinda like the cell phone.

 

Someday soon coming from Washing DC to you Nay Sayers.. Federal Law.

Get used to the "blue look"

Just like the coming law that forces us to all buy HDTV's in a couple of years.

I can just hear it now... "They can have my precious halogens when they pull them from my cold dead hands!"

 

It amazes me to see all the ignorant negative statements against xenon lights. Saying that it is for bling alone is pure ignorance. OEM xenons lights that utilize projectors like the ones used in the mini are a more focused less blinding light than halogens. If everyone had these setups there would be no complaints from anyone...

There are a few morons out there that put HID lights in a halogen housing. This shoots lights all over the place and is not the proper way to make use of the extra light.

Standard low beam halogens provide 800 - 1200 lumens of light. Lumens = brightness, The standard xenon low beams are rated at 3200 lumens. When used in a projector the pattern is wide with a sharp cutoff so others are not blinded by it.
Xenons are just coming of age, soon to be the deFacto standard... I'm very glad this technology exists.... and its only going to get better.
Xenons are also more efficient using only 35watts for 3200 lumens vs halogens 60watts for 1000. This does equate to better gas mileage too...

 

but what happens when you're in a little car tailed by or approaching an oncoming truck with its sharply cut-off 3200 lumens in your field of view where with halogen beams, you might be catching only a fraction of the 1000 lumens due to their wider dispersity? And with nighttime visibility way over a mile, why bother with brighter lights, especially when they flash and sparkle in a distracting manner in reaction to uneven road surfaces?

Brighter points of light during nighttime *do* disrupt biological nightvision. The high contrast overexposes the eye's receptors and briefly disrupts the ability to sense dimly lit objects. That seem patently unsafe to me.

And I get really tired of people asserting that a dissenting opinion is the result of ignorance. If you want, I can calculate how long it would take for the beta and rho receptor to revert back from their excited state. IIRC, it's just a little over one second to reattain 90% sensitivity, discounting the brains response time. That's almost a hundred yards and says nothing about the overexposure issues.

 

If you are going 100 yards in a second you better have some really good lighting, since that is slightly over 200 mph.

 

THIS is OT but to set the record straight, there is NO law requiring you to buy HDTV. There is law requiring broadcasters to broadcast in HDTV by a certain date. If you dont have a HDTV tuner, you wont get those channels but they know very well there are 100s or millions of analogs sets out there and the massive US market is not going to instantly switch to HDTV buy anydate