Xenon headlamp bulb question

[voiceinsideyou]

Excuse the extreme newbie-ness of this question - but my Altezza has a genuine (read: not blue-filtered) Xenon HID headlamp kit installed, and one of the headlamps isn't working (stopped the other night). I'm presuming it's the bulb that's gone but am wondering if the bulbs are as widely stocked as regular headlamp bulbs?

Where will the best place be to get a replacement? And is there any difference between bulbs (other than power/light rating) that I should be aware of? Should I replace both bulbs at the same time?

[FLAWLES]

the blubs are stocked " are comon " just goe into any-car part store and say exactly wot u have just said they should be able to help

tip do not go into rip of co on a weekend u will get some school dork who wont now what u are talking about and ask u what type of car u have and wot type of part u are after and give u a fan belt in the mean time u have wasted 1/2 hour" as u can se i dnt like repco

i do know there is a kit you can buy that changes the old bulbs to the xenon ones its got some sort of resistor or something with it but this does not help u

[Farmer_dave]

Ouch I have heard that replacement Xenon bulbs are ten times the price of a standard bulb I hope this isnt true for your sake!!

p.s how good do they work man??

[voiceinsideyou]

Wouldn't surprise me if they are. :-/

Well, they're great anyway - really bright and clear as well. And they look great too, being white/blue (and pretty much the only road-legal and safe way of getting blueish lights). :-]

[FLAWLES]

yea i think there something like $48ea " i think "

[neo]

Not many places 'stock' the bulbs.. narva only just started to being them in

[ROBODISCO_20v]

Xenon bulb are more like $480 each. F%#k a standard type bulb for a toyota windom is $80 from toyota & they aren't avaliable from places like appco/repco.

[Adamal]

We've got quite a few Toyota dealerships as clients (Albany Toyota, North Shore Toyota, Giltrap City, Papakura Toyota etc) so I'll ring around and see what I can find for ya voice

[voiceinsideyou]

Well, the aftermarket kit I've got installed is a Hella one, so I'm not sure how much help Toyota will be. I think the bulbs _are_ really expensive, after talking to a few people - which surprises me that mine could have gone so quickly. Maybe it's something else - a wiring fault perhaps? Before I shell out big $$, I'd better be sure that's the problem!

[voiceinsideyou]

Incidentally - I just employed the patented method of "take it apart and put it all back together again" on the headlamp kit, including dismantling the ballast box. And now it works.

Huzzah!

[2fas4u]

has anyone tried those new narva blue filtered headlight bulbs that neo mentioned? if so what are they like? i'm keen on getting some for the MR2 if they are good. i got a MAXILITE slimline foglamp replacing my standard MR2 ones and it seems to do quite well in lighting up the road. very bright. got them for 100 bucks from repco and just wired straight to where the original foglamp wire was.

[Stealer Of Souls]

Narva's are crap...
The hella Cool Blues are much better performance, BUT you'll pay twice the price for it... If you're buying for spots/fogs then at the moment narva are the only one who do the blue cut bulbs (H3 pattern) but hella are bring out some in the next couple of months....

Just as a side not, those maxilites are probably using 100W bulbs and usually aren't hi-intensity cut off... but I digress... 100W means real bright... but not technically legal... but no one will question ya... My main point was that my friend bought a pair... and basically the whole housing rusted away in about six months... Light still worked and there was enough housing to hold the shape/lens/what have ya...

And for comparision... my fogs (hella FF100) cost me $70+gst and my spots (hella FF200) cost me $67+gst... they kick butt...
Go Hella cause they're Hella Good... and Narva are just Not A Reliable Vehicle Accessory....

[voiceinsideyou]

Yeah, I also wonder about the legality of the white/blue filtered headlamp bulbs - but then again, I'm biased as I have a proper Xenon kit. The filtering of the light decreases the amount of lighting that the bulbs produce, so to compensate the wattages are increased. Overseas, I think they're making the filtered bulbs illegal as they create a lot of glare for other drivers.

Apparently, anyway.

Although my dipped lights are proper Xenons, I will probably replace my full lights with blue bulbs - when the lights are on full, it hardly matters how much glare is produced!