What is the difference between Xenon, litronic and HID headlights?
What are the benefits or shortcommings of each?
Thanks!

 

They are all the same type of lighting system. "Litronics" is Porsche's (Bosch's) trade name for its HID system. "Xenon" is a gas used for HID lighting & is frequently used as a generic term for HID lighting, but is also used to describe regular halogen bulbs w/trace xenon gas to confuse consumers.

Regardless of brand, xenon/HID lighting uses a bulb w/o a filament in which a bubble of gas is ignited by a very high voltage electric arc produced by a ballast & igniter circuit. The HID bulb used in most cars draws just 35W (after start up) to produce a light output several times greater than the typical standard 55W halogen bulb. An HID bulb uses less energy, produces less heat, lasts much longer & yields more light with cost as the only negative.

 

Another sidenote, there is a big difference between HID and xenon gas filled bulbs. Namely HID really works and the xenon gas filled bulbs with blue/purple coatings actually do worse as producing lumens as compared to factory bulbs. Not to mention they look cheap. Just my 2 cents.

Boris

 

Hi Dan:
I just found the links for explanations about these terms. That Litronic was actually Porsche's brand name for Xenon/HID was what stumped me.

Thanks for the info, Dan.
Here are links for Litronic info and installation:
<a href="http://faq.auto.light.tripod.com/general-faq.htm" target="_blank">http://faq.auto.light.tripod.com/general-faq.htm</a>
<a href="http://members.tripod.com/davidtam1/on.htm" target="_blank">http://members.tripod.com/davidtam1/on.htm</a>
<a href="http://pages.prodigy.net/jfelker/litronics/lintonicinst.htm" target="_blank">http://pages.prodigy.net/jfelker/litronics/lintonicinst.htm</a>

 

[quote]Originally posted by Skytop:
<strong>What is the difference between Xenon, litronic and HID headlights?
What are the benefits or shortcommings of each?
Thanks!</strong><hr></blockquote>

They are all the same other than Litronic being a Bosch trademark. You can find more info <a href="http://lighting.mbz.org/faq/FAQ.html" target="_blank">here</a>.

 

xenon is an inert gas, like helium. When used in bulbs it displaces oxygen to keep the filament from burning up, and in halogen bulbs helps redeposition of tungsten atoms onto the element. Other gases used in halogen bulbs include nitrogen, argon, and krypton, with xenon & krypton being generally the most expensive.

So saying its a 'xenon' light doesn't really tell much. The big differences are between HID (which may use xenon as a filler gas) and tungsten filament lighting systems. And of the filament lights, 'halogen' lights, which use both an inert gas like xenon and a halogen to aid in redeposition of tungsten, run hotter and are 'whiter' than non-halogen.

Chip