Dreadful Xenon HID Headlights

[hidnmine]

Hi,

I recently bought a 2009 Audi A6 with Xenon HID headlights.
The first time I went out on a dark country road, I thought they must be faulty. Dip is not too bad, but main beam hardly projects at all beyond the dip range, and lights up way high into the trees.

At first I thought they must be faulty - it looks a bit like when the headlight bulb hasn't located properly, but on inspection I can't find anything wrong, and both headlights are behaving the same..

Is this normal? Can I do anything to improve the lights?

Thanks,
Andy

 

[NHN]

Sounds like levelling is either faulty or the beams need adjusting properly on an mot bay with vcds to set mot mode 1st.

 

[hidnmine]

Hi,
No - it's not the levelling.
Dip beam is pointing where it should.
It just seems like the design of these bi-xenons tries to keep the dip pattern constant while using the same lamp for main beam.
The end result is that main beam does not project a strong long-distance beam at all, instead it lights up the road and surroundings (including the tree tops) more like a floodlight.
20 years ago the lights on my Rover 800 would have knocked spots off of this car - and they weren't HIDs!

 

[c4a5er]

Strange...I thought the bi xenons on my A6 were very good.......

 

[hidnmine]

Did yours have this odd main beam pattern i.e. a wide angle beam?

 

[NHN]

If its not giving you distance then there must be an issue, the beam is adjusted by a motorised flap, maybe something's amiss with this, however I would still get the beam patterns checked to be 100% sure, only fiver in mot bay, as my bixenons are like night & day with the beams, very obvious differences & light up where they should, 1st time heard of an issue of these on the C6 tbh.

 

[c4a5er]

Did yours have this odd main beam pattern i.e. a wide angle beam?

Quite honestly my attention wasn't drawn to the beam pattern simply because they were very good lights. There was nothing odd about them at all.

 

[Tank.]

I noticed the same,

But then when you think about it, the extra light from high beam is coming from the same bulb so it's not producing any more light just spreading it over a wider area

 

[A5sprint]

The xenon's on my 08 S5 are the same, not a patch on the Mrs mini cooper with xenon's.

 

[hidnmine]

When I have time, I'll remove the headlights for a closer look.
I'll also fit a pair of new aftermarket HID lamps to see if they're any brighter.

 

[rich dj]

I have the same issue I had osram oem xenon Iamps in and changed them to the 75% brighter osram night breakers they are better but still nothing like the C5 A6 with aftermarket xenon dips and halogen mains.
The extra lamps make a lot if difference I'm toying with the idea of loosing the daylight runners and modifying the headlamp to take a halogen on main beam.
Also the adjustment of the lamps is very critical took me a while to get max beam in the centre

 

[hidnmine]

I had a closer look at the weekend - stripped the front of the car to remove the headlights and take a closer look.
High and low beams both come from a single HID source.
On low beam (dip), a metal plate, a bit like a camera shutter, blocks the light that would go up, to give the dip pattern - half the light output is lost!
On high beam (main) a solenoid removes the shutter allowing light to exit the lens equally all the way round - so main beam, instead of a long range focussed beam, is just dip 360 degrees.
All told, neither main beam nor dip send the maximum light where it's wanted - a cheap and nasty solution IMHO
A second (filament) lamp, instead of giving more light where it's needed, is connected to the steering and angled to give (not very useful) light when turning sharp corners e.g. when parking.

 

[rich dj]

Headlamp unit change then and some vcd changing. Sounds expensive

 

[hidnmine]

No - I won't be changing expensive components; just the lamps, but I have to say I am really disappointed with such poor lights on a premium quality/priced car.

 

[rich dj]

Yes I was disappointed. My wife who drives a Yaris with halogens single bulb type said your lights are rubbish. Which went down well.

 

[A5sprint]

Think I'll have to fit 4 of those massive spotlights like the original quattro coupe rally cars had