Xenon Headlights not that good

[rjp]

My WM has the Bi Xenon headlights. I upgraded from a VS S111 stato and thought the new lights wern't as good as the old car's. I've had a few people comment on how bad the Xenons were, so sort of confirmed my initial observation.

Took the car to the local dealer today to have a look. Came back with the usual "operating normally" comment. Curiously, two of the service guys commented that they thought that the WM's headlights weren't that good as a whole. No 'fix' was offered though.

I'd assume that all Xenons fitted in the different models would be the same?

Regardless, what performace do others with teh Xenons fitted get?

cheers

 

[Troy711]

I put 35W 6000K after market HIDs in mine and it is unreal. Maybe change the bulbs to a different colour temperature if it is possible..?

 

[andyman]

same lights in my parents rav4, i dont like them either, the stock light beam seems hollow to me if you know where im getting at

 

[rjp]

I put 35W 6000K after market HIDs in mine and it is unreal. Maybe change the bulbs to a different colour temperature if it is possible..?

Sorry, I may not have been clear enough in my original post. I have a WM Caprice with the Xenon bulbs. According to the manual, the Caprice high and low beam can only be replaced by a Holden dealer. Unless you know otherwise....

If so, we could catch up easy enough. We seem to be crossing each others paths regularly recently. I'm the evoke coloured Caprice that crossed in front of you at the AIS last week (and followed you at Kippax just before xmas)

cheers

 

[rjp]

same lights in my parents rav4, i dont like them either, the stock light beam seems hollow to me if you know where im getting at

Yeah, I know where your getting. They're nice and bright in a cylinder just in front of you (great for possum shooting), then there's nothing that you drive into. Almost like they're mis-aligned to point up, but they're not...

 

[Troy711]

Oh, a local lol. Maybe come along to a cruise night and we can compare . It may have also been my missus driving the car too.

I've also seen in the manuals that only dealers can change bulbs.. maybe it's a ploy to get more money cos if they can change them surely a user could also do it.

 

[rjp]

Just went and had a closer look at the car.

The Caprice headlights are a 'sealed' unit in that they don't have the dustcaps that you twist off to gain access to the bulbs. It looks like you need to remove the headlight assembly as a whole to get access to the screws that hold the backing plate in place. Not overly hard to do, but a bit of a pain. You'd need to play around with the headlight washers too.

Troy711 - does your Stato have a radiator cowl? Mine either didn't get one, or it's gone missing in action early in the cars life.

 

[Troy711]

Trust me, taking the bumper off is easy it's getting it on which is the **** part! haha.

No radiator cover.. I don't think any came with one.

Does your car have cracked side indicator lenses? I've had a set replaced 6 months ago and one is already cracked.

 

[rjp]

Thanks for the info re the cowl. I've found some pictures on the web with and without the cowl. Must be a friday arvo at the factory thing....

The dealer that I bought the car off of replaced both indicators back in August as they were full of moisture. No cracks at the moment. I'll keep an eye on them.

Car goes back to the northside dealer the week after next to get the front end bushes etc replaced. Invoice from yesterdays work had the comment "Spring isolators and mounts and bearings collapsed". Explains why the thing is a sh!t to keep in a stright line on bumpy roads.

 

[jasonsv6]

cowl is only on the erliey models deleted on the newer ones