WJM

Hi everyone,
Can any of you with a 99.5 do me a favor and answer this question:
if you open your hood and look at your low beam lights, do you have an electrical sticker (lightning bolt) on the unit?

The 99.5 manual says this is an indication of Xenon lights. Does anyone have the regular projection lights and also have thesestickers?

thanks
-Will (trying to get the right bulbs in his headlights again)

dB

I didn't think 99.5 had the xenon option. Besides, it pretty easy to tell the difference.

WJM

the 99.5 has the option of the Xenon lights. The reason i cant tell is because i had an accident and afterwards, my car came out of the shop with the headlights seeming very different. I never took apart/looked at my light units beforehand.

I am going back to the shop this weekend, and wanted to have the knowledge in hand...
The shop owner says he has new bulbs that look weird, but i wonder if the problem is that i need xenon bulbs.
Thanks
-Will

Want Xenon

99.5 does <b>not</b> have xenon option, I woulda got it if it did. (nt)

Shabbis

Wow, maybe the shop replaced your regular units with Xenon. Be happy with such an expensive upgrade.

marmer

nt

WJM

It does...check the manual. Also have brochure..to prove it.
There were very few changes between the 99.5 and 2000. Except for not having a full size spare. I am glad i got the 99.5

sorry...

WJM

here is where i am...
B.A. Bright white light, with the top of headlight projection trimmed with a blue aurora.

A.A. really dim lights!! I started driving the car home in the dark and in a rain storm, it seemed like my lights were aimed at the ground. I got home and messed with them. (raised lights as much as possible) Now I have dimmer lights with a red, orange, yellow halo around headlight projection.

I called the shop guy and complained about the bulbs, that perhaps they werent the right ones and if he could check up on them. I am taking the car in this weekend to get some other stuff fixed, and when i called him he told me he has different bulbs that look really weird.

My initial assumption was that the replaced bulbs focal position was for or aft of the factory spec bulbs and that the refraction through the glass lens changed the color, and the bulb just may not be the best designed.

THEN I decided to check my 99.5 additional owners manual, due to a headlight posting last week. When reading about headlights it said that the optional xenon headlight option woudl require __bulbs and you could tell if you had them if there was this sticker. I open the hood and look TADA sticker.

SO I posted the message to see if this is a fluke (aka sticker on regular projection) OR IF Audi accidently didnt put the xenon headlights on my car invoice...

Please let me know. Thanks for the input!
-Will

leeep

I was doing some reading/observations on this for my own self-edification (I'm an engineer! It's what we do! =)

The xenon lights require a significant change to the system (more than just a change of "bulbs") in that it requires the inclusion of an electronic ballast unit to regulate the current flowing through the lights. If indeed your lights were changed, you should notice a few things when you turn them on:

1) lights will flash on with a *distinctly* blue/purple color until they "warm" up to a very intense white light
2) you will hear the units make a distinct sound like a flashbulb going off followed by a slight humming for a few seconds as they power up (this is possibly linked to the fact that it takes nearly 30,000 volts to strike the arc across the electrodes)
3) if you're perceptive, you'll notice the beams shift when the car moves onto a slight incline as the auto-leveling kicks in
4) the spectrum at the edges of the light field should be purplish-blue as a refractive effect of the projection system... I doubt there should be any noticeable red at all since Xenon HID lamps are very rich at the blue end of the spectrum. If you watch a Xenon-equipped Audi bouncing along the freeway, the headlights appear to do a very characteristic "blinking" from white-blue-purple and back.

Hope this helps,

-eric
Japis/Opal '00 Avant 1.8TQTipS w/ X!

WJM

OK..
well I TOO am an engineer...so i need to have a 100% understanding on this.
ok..
In response:
-sticker *Check*
-Light color:
B.A. Blue light *Check*
A.A. Blue light *nope*
-Quick flash? Didnt notice (which does not exclude possibility) *?*
-ballast ? possible have an whine similar to ballast charge with power activation *?*
-higher than normal system voltage (due to lower resistance bulbs?) *check*

would h7s pop in a xenon socket?

Please, do me a favor run out to your car and tell me if you have the stickers or not. thanks
-Will