Headlights and high beam...

A

alex85

Active member
 Wirral
Noticed tonight whilst driving in the dark (best get used to that for the immediate future).

I have xenon headlights, when i put them on high beam they are very bright, but when i flash, it seems that it uses different lights.

Does the high/main beam use the xenon bulb by way of a solenoid lifting a cover as bi-xenons do? Whereas flashing the headlights uses a seperate bulb? I've not put high beam on and looked but it seems that way... the high beam gives excellent visibility but the flasher not so much.
 
Think youve hit the nail right on the head in your last paragraph. Yes, that is a bi-xenon operation. Great arent they! :thumbsup:
 
Mattt said:
Xenon lights do not like to be flashed!
Click to expand...

I think you are right. I checked it out today, when you put high beam on the main xenon lights get brighter AND the inside lights come on. But when you flash, just the inside lights. It makes driving on country lanes SO much easier, it's brilliant.

I have noticed that 350z's flash using their xenons though.
 
Bi-Xenons wont get brighter. They just move a mirror shield in front of the bottom half of the reflector that focuses the beam downwards for dipped beam. The reason Xenon/projector lamps have such a sharp edge is because of this shield. Remove the shield and you get more wise-spread light but less intensity. :)
 
What year is your Z? Those of us post facelift here in the US don't have a bulb in the inside lights. They're just great big hunks of glass. Sure wish they would retrofit a lowbeam like my old 325 had.
 
Having dismantled and rebuilt several sets of Z4 lights let me give the exact explanation of it all as most of it's in the above posts, but some errors in bits of it.

Firstly it's only applicable to the UK as other countries have variations. Some markets do not even have active inner lights, just AE rings on blanks.

So:
Outer is a bi-xenon and inner a single filament Halogen.

Dipped is the Xenon only
Main is the xenon and halogen
'flash to pass' adds the halogen to whatever state the xenon were in (dipped or off)
Interestingly 'flash to pass' with lights off and even keys out, gives a timed 'walk me home' of the xenons only on. neat :)

Bi xenon. The shutter does not focus, gather or direct the beam. It actually sits in between bulb and projector lens cuts off/blocks the a lower portion of the beam. Through the focussing of the lens, inverts it such that it appears to cut off the upper right hand part of the beam pattern, leaving just the asymetric pattern to light the path/road edge and not dazzle to the RHS.

Of course as stated xenon do not like switching on/off and indeed do not even have elements, so cannot work the same way as traditional bi filament halogens. (I cannot comment on 350z, but would be very suprised if the xenon can be used as a rapid flash to pass.)

Hope that helps and is a result of way too many hours wasted building Z4 xenon lights....
 
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