Xenon dips

Slightly Bunkers

Hi there,

I have a Saab 93 (03) with Xenon dip lights. Had to replace one last year and nearly fainted at the cost of a bulb!!! The other one had just blown this week. My question is, is there a cheaper alternative to these bulbs that gives good light? For example Halogen headlamps.

Any help and savings would be great!

Thanks

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

These are meant to be the bog's dollocks.

ongarite

Any idea if they have been replaced before?
If not 9 years out of them is pretty good.

You would have to change the headlights & wiring to switch back to Halogens I would guess.

How much did a new Xenon bulb cost last time and what fitting/type are they?

Atlantic Dawn

Powebulbs.com have them for about €50 each delivered, best price I have seen.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

ongarite wrote: »

You would have to change the headlights & wiring to switch back to Halogens I would guess.

That's a good point that never occured to me.

Ardennes1944

try here, i use them a good bit for parts for my opel http://www.carpartsconnexion.com/

Paddy@CIRL

Surely this is the first time anyone has wanted to go from HIDs to Halogen!?

OP, Xenon bulbs are meant to last the lifetime of the car, certainly much longer than traditional halogen bulbs. When a Xenon bulb goes, you're supposed to replace both at the same time (I know that's going to be hard to swallow). This is to do with the burn in process of Xenon bulbs, as it takes a while for the bulbs to 'settle' for want of a better word. Once they have burned in, they should be at their brightest and will undergo a slight colour shift (this is why they recommend both are changed, as they both burn in and colour shift at the same time). Check out Powerbulbs in the UK for prices, they're a very reputable retailer.

The cost of converting your car from HID to Halogen will be a lot, lot more expensive than replacing a xenon bulb.

Slightly Bunkers

thanks everyone. I have only had the car for 4 years so not sure when the bulbs were changed if ever. Cost €80 plus fitting I think.

Paddy@CIRL - didn't know that and they never said anything at the garage when they ordered a new bulb for me! Its a good point though.

mickdw

I was quoted 190 plus vat plus fitting for a xenon d3s bulb from audi dealer - somewhere close to 300 all in.
I found a genuine philips replacement on ebay for around 60 euro. I was a bit concerned that the bulb might be some dodgy copy but when it arrived, it looked pretty genuine with the identical labelling etc. Put it in the car and it was a perfect match colour wise and beam pattern looks perfect.
There are cheaper pairs of bulbs available too for about 60 for the pair.
Dont change back to halogen, it would be madness and really, you are likely to spend more on halogen bulbs as you could end up buying 2 or 3 a year version a xenon bulb every 3 or 4 years.

dr.fuzzenstein

mickdw wrote: »

I was quoted 190 plus vat plus fitting for a xenon d3s bulb from audi dealer - somewhere close to 300 all in.
I found a genuine philips replacement on ebay for around 60 euro. I was a bit concerned that the bulb might be some dodgy copy but when it arrived, it looked pretty genuine with the identical labelling etc. Put it in the car and it was a perfect match colour wise and beam pattern looks perfect.
There are cheaper pairs of bulbs available too for about 60 for the pair.
Dont change back to halogen, it would be madness and really, you are likely to spend more on halogen bulbs as you could end up buying 2 or 3 a year version a xenon bulb every 3 or 4 years.

If my car blew that many bulbs, I'd be looking into what's wrong with it!
My current pair of bulbs have lasted about a year and a half and I'd expect to get 2 years out of them or more.
So not a costsaving IMO to go to Xenon's, it's got to be purely for the increased visibility.
I'll wait a bit to see what else comes along, newer and shinier is not always better.
But as per the OP, personally I wouldn't change back, unless there was a good pair of headlights to be had for cheap from the scrappy.

Kavs

Whatever you do, dont touch those Osram halogen bulbs. Paid €30 for a set over a year ago and in the last two weeks have had to replace both (only got average use).

Also I was very disappointed with the light output and did'nt notice much difference between them and the old set.

Avoid like the plague.

Slightly Bunkers

Ok, so I went to a local motor factor shop to see had they the xenon bulb in stock. Guy comes out takes out the bulb that was working to see if they had the right one in stock. They had. Cost somewhere in the region of €50. Now the fun begins! They could not get the light assembly back together. Long story short an hour and a half later and a trip to a nearby garage the light that was working is now working and the bulb is replaced on the other light. Guy from shop refused to take money for bulb cos he felt bad for having me wait around for hour and a half!! This all happened between 5.30 and 7 so he was more put out than I was!!! They were closing the shop when I arrived!

Upshot of the whole thing is that I don't know how much the bulb retails at but I do know that it was cheaper than the last on I got!!

Tropheus

My Allroad has factory xenons. It's currently on its third set of bulbs at 170k miles. I've never had a bulb blow, but after about 3 years or so, they become useless to the point that they're worse than halogens.

As well as the colour shift mentioned above, I think they lose their luminosity over time.

OldmanMondeo

deccurley wrote: »

These are meant to be the bog's dollocks.

I have a set of the in the car and just drop the dog and thats your answer, I now call them sh*tbreakers. Will be sticking the phillips back in soon.

OP, as pointed out, you would have to change the headlamp units and probably a load of wiring and relay's. The cost of doing all this would far outweigh the cost of a new Xenon. Philips Xenon bulbs would be around 120 +vat, depending on D1,D2 or D3 in a local factors, not sure how easy they are to change.

TBH the sooner all car go with these the better, it will uniform all car head lights to 3 options instead of H1,2,3,4,7 HB3,4,10 etc.

lomb

Osram nightbreakers burn out about annually verus osrams standard halogens lasting me 10 years and 80000 miles. Not worth the hassle or the cost.