OK, I've fitted a xenon headlamp conversion and very good it is, too.

However, there's one strange problem. When I turn the headlamps on, the ABS and diff warning lights come on. This puzzles me; the headlamps are plug and play - I've not cut the wiring loom at all ? and they take their power straight off the battery, so it's not a voltage-drop issue.

All I can think is that the high voltage ballast boxes are causing some form of interferance,

Any thoughts?

Phil

 

Phil

Personally, I think it is God punishing you for blinding your fellow roadusers. I had a rant on Smartgroups some months ago about Xenon/HID conversions which I don't care to repeat here, however at that time I had only just avoided crashing due to being blinded by some a**hole (or a**ehole in English) with the bright-white almost blue headlights he was using. At least he could see me trying to stay on the road and presumably had a good laugh. The putz.

This is obviously not aimed at you and the insinuation is not that I feel the same way towards you - just use them with care when you see some 13 year old heap with 1.5 candlepower headlights coming the other way.

As you may have guessed, I cannot help with the technical nature of the problem. Sorry. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

(Disclaimer: I stated earlier that I would not care to repeat the rant on Smartgroups. However, I reserve the right to withdraw such a statement should the need arise. And it did.)

 

I'm with Christer on this (someone had to be eventually!).

My Lupo GTi has them and I am tired of the flashes from oncoming drivers. Yes, yes, they ARE correctly adjusted. I also don't like the way the light has a very sharp cut-off to the lit area instead of the more gradual fade of traditional lights.

Xenons are very modern and very bright, but not for me.

But I forgive you, Phil. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

 

Yikes! I hadn't realised I'd fitted weapons of mass destruction. All I wanted was to be able to see where I was going - honest gov...

John, I've always been puzzled when people say that Xenon light cuts off quicker than halogen. How can this be? All light acts according to the inverse-square law, doesn't it?

Now, what about these warning lights...

Cheers

Phil

 

Not talking about how far the actual beam will reach, but the nature of its boundaries. The light from Xenons (due to the lens/reflector/whatever) has a definite 'edge'. Inside the edge is bright. Outside of it is the utter and complete black void of death. Sorry, got a little carried away for a moment.

Maybe using ordinary 964 lenses, this doesn't happen.

 

Of course, the standard headlamps give a black void of death a mere 6 inches from the lamps...

 

Phil my opinion is a bit more moderate and perhaps no more helpful. However I did add xenon lights to my last car. They do draw a tremendous amount of power on start up. If I had the defrost on and then turned on the xenons the motor would almost stall. If I was driving you could even feel it. I assumed that it was from the heavy load hitting the altenator. Though I suppose that it could have been that combined with the coilpacks not getting enough juice to energize properly. In the end the seemed to be more of a pain than they were worth. HID's on non projector style lights generally seems to be a bad idea, even OE ones.

AK

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by Phil Raby:
<strong>Of course, the standard headlamps give a black void of death a mere 6 inches from the lamps... </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">

Seriously, I know that some people say the standard lights are feeble, but mine really don't seem to be. OK, you wouldn't want to do three-figure speeds on unlit roads on dipped, but they're fine to about 70/80mph and main beam is good.

I wonder if they are better on some cars than others.

Your comment reminds me of my Fiat X1/9. The light output was so poor, it's a good job that the lights were the pop-up type - it was the only way you tell if they were on!

 

John, I had an X1/9 once - great little car, if a trifle rusty! Thanks for reminding me of it

Still no further ahead with the warning lights though....

 

How is your battery condition / alternator output?

There is a thread on smartgroups at the moment about ABS / diff warning lights coming on and someone there has mentioned low battery can cause this. Given the comment above from AK about the amount of power they take, maybe it is a voltage drop issue after all?

 

Gosh, a relevant reply <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

Thanks Dave, I'll check that.

Cheers

Phil

 

I've got what I presume are Xenons (£900 option?) on my Audi and they are amazing! Excellent for clearing the fast lane of dithering fools! PS never been flashed?

Much more annoying is the new 'young lad' fashion of driving around with sidelights plus front fogs on. In excellent 'old git' fashion on my 2CV I've adjusted my rear fog upwards to blind the idiots when they come up behind me!

Piers

 

Thankfully the front foglight fad seems to be dying off - a couple of years ago all the Vectramen were doing it.

So how did you adjust the rear fog upwards on the 2CV - by sticking a brick in the front?

 

Hi Phil. Jeez, I bet you weren't expecting a public stoning! Anyway, my battery is on its way out, and I have too ABS/diff warn lights on intermittently. (better on a warm day, which I presume is the battery feeling a bit stronger) - I can't think of any other connection, 'scuse the pun. This thread has inspired a post - why not turn our fogs into death-ray driving lights? The scoobie boys do it...

 

To me it also seems as a battery problem.

<img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" />

ALEX