£182 for a xenon low beam bulb from vx??

[stuartiwilson79]

vx garage are looking £182 for a low beam xenon bulb for my 06 facelift vectra... nasty surprise when i expected about £40

local motorfactors place can do one (if its the right one) for £85 does anyone know any cheaper than this??!!!!

thanks

[Penfold101]

eBay mate - piece of cake to fit and you can ge a choice of the colour ratings...

[stuartiwilson79]

the light i have is a directional proper xenon (i think gas charged) with some kind of box connector on it instead of pins?? so the guy in vx said, anywhere i priced said £85 £90 for the bulb, said i couldnt use standard bulbs on the car or anything... its the "low Beam Bulb" warning comes on, does that literally mean replace the lower of the lights in the unit not the dip bulb which is not xenon (does it sit higher up?)

i dont get why the bulbs are so expensive...

[Penfold101]

You've basically got what are called Xenon or HID bulbs. There's isn't a filament in them, it's a spark between two electrodes which creates the light, and they need about 20,000 volts to start them going. Do you have a pic of the front of your car...?

[stuartiwilson79]

no pic on this laptop sorry, its got adaptive forward lighting, facelift model, looks like a bluey colour ring (the light!) its self levelling too... vx took chassis number and said the bulb i needed was gas charged (they thought) and was £182, 2 other local motor factors said £80ish quid.. i havent had bulb out to see it yet, so dont have clue what to get except what they tell me then...??

[Penfold101]

Yeah, that's fine. this is what you want mate, choice of colours and a good company with a reputable history on here...

http://www.hids-direct.co.uk/d1s-hid...4fj75spgo2g1p0

[stuartiwilson79]

how come you are so sure?? (not meaning to be rude) and how come morot factor places not doing ones as cheap??? only prob is means changing both bulbs then to get colour match!!! lol , do i not need gas charged ones or what??

[Penfold101]

Because I've got the same headlights and the same bulbs mate - I've ripped them apart and know exactly how the insides work too...

Gas charged is a fancy way of saying xenon. Instead of being filled with one of the halogen gases like the normal filament bulbs, they've got a mixture of rare gases in them including xenon. Hence they're known as Xenons, or HID (High Intensity Discharge). You can orger the same colour you have now (4300K), or change it to the 6000K for something a bit more stylish with a tinge of blue.

To change one it's easiest to remove the headlight which means dropping the front of the bumper forward. You don't need to remove it fully, just pull it forward enough to get access to the lower attachment screw. If you're doing one, it's only an extra ten minutes to change the other. I'll see if I can find my pictures from when I did it...

[Penfold101]

This is what the bulb looks like - a D1S:



This is the back of the headlight. The main cap is held on with torx screws so can't really be accessed without removing the headlight:



This is the moveable section with goes up and down, and the lens portion moves side to side independently:



And the view of the back where the bulb actually fits:

[stuartiwilson79]

thanks for all the advice, i went out looking at car there in dark, dip beam/low beam drivers side is working (with sidelight too) passenger side sideleight is working, dip beam/low beam is not working, when i flick lights on to full beam the side lights get brighter on both sides, gets brighter on the driver side dip beam and is still out on the passenger side... does this mean i have the 1 low beam/dip beam light away which is just my xenon one??!!!

i cant get my head around how that company can do 2 bulbs for half the price of the 1 bulb in all th emotor factor places, guess im just scared to order bulbs that wont be right and i cant get a refund on!!!!!

in terms of colour the ones on my car look closer to the 6000 lights def blue tint off the one thats working....!!!

i had ordered this other one in at 65quid and now dont know what to do!!!!