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High Performance Bi-Xenon Headlights

31K views 69 replies 23 participants last post by  Seropdiablo204 
#1 ·
Does anyone out there have the $700. optional "High Performance Bi-Xenon Headlights"?
If so, what is your opinion on their (high) performance?
Has anyone had the experience to do an A-B comparison between the two headlight options, at night, of course?
None of the dealerships near me have, or have sold any cars with the option lights.
Physically, looking at them, through the lens, do they look any different than the standard ones?
I seem to remember reading that the option lamps are 5 watts brighter, and that they also turn left and right along with the steering wheel. Is this true?
Thanks,
AlfaAndy
 
#2 ·
The lighting package is standard on the Quadrifoglio. The robot eyes aren't necessarily a driver enhancement. It makes for a great "look at this" for new passengers. Though, the real effectiveness is questionable.

In my opinion, the real question would be the difference in the overall brightness.

For most makes and models, the aftermarket makes upgraded ballasts and bulb upgrades. I'd be inclined to save the $700 upfront. Though, if the brightness factor is really that much difference then I would think twice about it.

Good question. Maybe a local dealer has two cars with different combos?
 
#3 ·
I have these lights on my Ti but i've only had the car for a week. However I do notice that they are 'there'. When i turn into my driveway at night I clearly see that the lights turn to right as I pull in. Not sure if the adaptive hi beam feature is part of this upgrade or standard for the Giulia, but the dealer told me that the hi beams will come on when the car 'senses' it needs them, then turn them off for on coming cars.
IMO, they are worth $700 if you amortize that over the life of your loan or lease. If you live in an urban setting than maybe they wouldn't be worth it, but in more rural area I could see their worth for sure.
 
#4 ·
The $700 option is for Higher power 35W Xenons vs. base 25W units.
They also swivel with steering above some base speed.

Both models have auto on/off feature.

The auto high beams (with whatever adaptive modes they have) only come when you get the $1500 Driver Assist Dynamic package.

I don't have a Giulia yet but have been looking for this feature and it's not very common on dealer ordered cars.
 
#5 ·
I do not have the upgraded headlamps. i was just to cheap to spend the extra money.

When driving at night, turning the steering wheel about 1/8 turn, turns on an extra lamp pointing in that direction. It's not the brightest thing. It seem to be most effective at slow speeds. I'd probably never notice them on a dark canyon road.

Now I'm wondering if I could rig up a driving lamp, pointed for the turns, that is triggered by this. It only turns on the inside lamp, so it would be hard to blind oncoming traffic.
 
#6 ·
Would 5 watts really make a big difference? Also, I was not aware the Giulia came with any swiveling head lights. I was only aware of their "Static Bending LED lights" which are LEDs which are angled and come on when you turn the wheel right or left after a certain angle. Below is the section in the manual that describes the feature. I've also embedded a video about Giulia's headlight. Again, there is no mention of any swiveling headlights.

My previous car (Buick Lacrosse Touring) had swiveling bi-xenon headlights in which the entire housing would swivel left or right as you turned your steering wheel and you were moving more than 5 miles per hour.

https://youtu.be/kfqSpHAQy6k
 

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#7 ·
They do indeed swivel. My 4C mechanic showed me the service section on them (I asked). It looks like a better mouse trap. As I understand what it says, the faster you drive, the sharper they will turn. It seems to me that it should be the other way around, because the faster you drive, the more gentle (less of an arc) you need to turn.

But, wattage is only how much power the lamp draws, not how bright they are. Lumen is the measure of brightness. Different lamp designs can produce different lumens and still draw the same watts.
 
#10 ·
I had bi-xenons on my 2012 Golf R. In normal day to day city night driving I didn't really notice the difference due to the sheer amount of light noise from street lights and such.

However, I remember being on the backroads of PA on a road trip, and the difference became very apparent. I really noticed the lights following the road curves. Every little bit helps especially if you need to watch out for deer and other animals. You should also notice the difference between the stock 25watt vs 35watt bulb in the high performance xenons. It was a non-brainer for me on my TI order.
 
#16 ·
Right... except for a lot of the published Alfa Romeo Giulia documentation (and videos) contain erroneous information anyway. That features availability that has been out for 6+ months contains features and package options that are stated as available, but haven't been and still aren't available. So we're stuck doing detective work and looking at actual built cars to try and figure things out.
 
#15 ·
I have this feature, at low speeds the leds (SBL) light the sides, and above some set speed the headlights turn up to 15 degrees (AFL)I think, I can't remember where I read this.
All Giulia's have SBL, AFL is part of 35w xenons, Quads have both.
low speed==SBL
hi speed== AFL
 
#17 ·
I just received a reply from the dealer rep. Headlight washer system is available only on the Quad. For me, this is not a deal-breaker. I will still go ahead and order the optional lamps.
 
#18 ·
I have a Quadrifoglio here in the US and don't believe I have headlight washers and I don't see it listed in the owner's manual. The covers on the bumper seem to fit rather poorly.

Has anyone with a US QV checked to see if you have this feature?
 
#21 ·
Here in the USA, only Quads have headlamp wipers. It is not available on the two lesser models. Perhaps next year things will be different. I have no knowledge of what is available in the rest of the world.
 
#22 ·
Washers (high pressure squirter nozzels) Z, not wipers.
I remember the wiper systems on German and Swedish cars in the 80's - 90's. What a mess. Crappy little electric motors attached to crappy linkage. Difficult to service, stupid expensive parts...
I hope that no one still uses them.
 
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#24 ·
I seem to remember that the older lamps (that used wipers) were not glass. Whether they were the same "plastic" as modern lamps, I don't know.The shapes of modern lamps would be the greatest challenge for fitting wipers. In any case, glad that they are relics and not used on the Giulia.
 
#28 ·
Hmmm, I wonder how hard it is to retrofit washers? Is a higher pressure pump required? I guess I should first find out how badly the headlights freeze up before declaring that they need improvement.

LED headlights are notorious for freezing up in winter storm conditions and some (all?) designs have heaters built in to deal with the issue. Unlike halogen or HID, the warmth from the lighting element is directed out the backside of the fixture. Of course a 55 or 65 Watt halogen bulb is putting more heat on the front of the fixture than a 25 or 35 watt HID bulb. All of my halogen headlight vehicles have freeze up issues, so I am not optimistic that the HIDs make enough heat to prevent this problem. There is nothing quite as much fun as having to pull over on a snow covered road in falling wet snow in the dark in order to clear off the front of the headlights.

More of my rambling thoughts on headlights:

When you get HIDs you can't get fog lights. Why is that?

To light your way along a curve you really want the outside light to turn to the inside of the curve (cross eyed lights). Otherwise obstructions on the inside of the curve will block the light and possibly return blinding glare in your field of vision. It is just basic geometry to see why this should be done this way. Somehow I doubt that the lights are implemented this way, but maybe I am wrong. The shape of the headlights is not conducive to such an implementation. Does anybody know?

If the headlight turning is found to be annoying rather than helpful, can it be disabled?

The shape of headlight beam is just as important as the total brightness in terms of being able to see what is ahead on a dark road. If the shape of the beam is not right it will create glare for the driver, glare for the oncoming traffic, dark spots, and/or fail to light up the sides of the road. There is a tendency amongst drivers that do not drive on dark roads a lot to see glare for the driver and interpret it to mean that the way is well lit. The real test to ask is "looking out a reaction time + stopping distance ahead, would you be able to spot a deer on the side of the road?" Reflective striping on the roadway may make it easier to tell which way to steer, but it hides problems with lighting non-reflective items like rocks and deer.

A corollary to the above is that interior light sources and reflections need to be well controlled. Some cars do not dim all interior lights with the interior light brightness control; I did not remember to check this during my test drive and it is best done in the dark anyway. As examples of this: my Dodge truck's high beam indicator light is always full brightness, while my Mazda's cruise control enable indicator is always full brightness.

Does anybody know if Giulia actually has good lighting, or am I going to be hacking away at it to make it usable? "It is great" is not really an answer to my question.

Besides the deer (standing) on the side of the road test:

On a dark road with the headlights on high beam while approaching a reflective road sign can you see what is beyond the sign or does the sign produce blinding glare (too much light pointing up)?

On a dark road with the headlights on high beam while looking down the road is there a bright spot on the road that draws your eyes closer than a stopping distance towards the vehicle (too much light in the forground)?

Are there any dark spots in the pattern (obviously a bad behavior)?

With the dashboard lights dimmed most of the way down, are there any remaining lights that are bright enough to "catch" your peripheral vision?
 
#26 ·
This 10w difference has been bothering me a lot since I drive at night around 80 miles a day
My other car has led headlights/foglights and it's adaptive.
Anyone know if we could change the ballast to the 35w version? And will the 35w bulb fit the same? (D3S vs D5S I believe)
The extra light would really help me out because this is my daily driver. Please msg me if you have any information regarding fitment on the 25w cars
Thank you
 
#27 ·
There may be a chance that you can replace your 25 watt ballasts and bulbs and any other associated parts.
But for how much $$?
Good luck!
 
#30 ·
Money isn't the problem, safety is. To get more light from the giulia my correct plan is to get a morimoto or hylux 55w ballast and wire it using a battery relay harness and use a multimeter to find and tap into the positive and negative 12v terminals of the oem headlight bulb harness to send the on and off signal to the balasts. Aftermarket D5S Bulbs would connect directly to the aftermarket ballast. I don't see why this wouldn't work.. your thoughts?[/QUOTE]

I have no personal experience performing the modifications that you discussed.
Keep in mind that most modern vehicles now run so many functions (including lighting) through an electronic control unit (ecu), and thus it would be only a guess whether certain mods can be done without triggering an adverse reaction in the system.
 
#32 ·
I have no personal experience performing the modifications that you discussed.
Keep in mind that most modern vehicles now run so many functions (including lighting) through an electronic control unit (ecu), and thus it would be only a guess whether certain mods can be done without triggering an adverse reaction in the system.

Thanks. I know IIHS did not like BMW HID headlights largely due to glare issues. Apparently their LED headlights have a better design.

I hear you on the safety issue. I've hit a deer once and do not care to repeat the experience.
It is not clear to me how the headlights are controlled on Giulia. If they have electronics built in, you could have a lot of problems with your plan.

Also the heat from the bulb has to go somewhere and that means dissipating it inside the fixture. If you put in too much wattage you have the potential to melt your fixture.

Lastly, different models of Halogen bulbs have slightly different filament shapes that require a different reflector and lens to get a proper light pattern. I do not know if this is the case for HID bulbs, but I recommend that you research it. I do know that generic after-market Halogen "upgrades" to LED seriously mess up the light pattern and do not meet basic DOT requirements for glare into oncoming traffic.
I hit a deer too!! My friends don't understand why I have such high lighting standards but it's definitely a big factor when choosing a car to buy and this was the only thing steering me away from the giulia
No worries guys, I'm an engineer and have a thing for lighting, I've done this to 4 other modern cars with no adverse effects
I hear you on the aftermarket cheap LED bulbs with their horrible focal points and disgusting cut offs, No need to worry about the bulb's focal point since I will still be using the same bulb type. I also hear you regarding higher heat output, knowing how these plastics work and their melting points, I am not worried about heat being an issue.
I'll look further into this and get back to this thread, I don't see why I can't make it happen.
 
#33 ·
My deer hit had nothing to do with lighting (was in a SAAB with sealed beam halogens and Hella driving lights). I had a great view of it the whole way.
 
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#41 ·
I like how the video avoids the flicker usually seen with LEDs.
 
#43 ·
Schedule a nighttime test drive and learn all the above for yourself. Your standards are unique to you, and no one else's opinion will be sufficient.

For the record, I'm satisfied with my headlamps. Cut-off and range seem fine, and I have not been bothered by glare. The cornering lights are useful in slow-speed turns. I did deactivate the auto high beams.
 
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#51 · (Edited)
Nope LED bulb technology hasn't been able to surpass the output of a 55w HID kit system, sure some overpriced LEDs can beat a 35w xenon kit in terms of lumen output, but I'd go for the most amount of light possible over longevity and that would be the 55w kit.
Some detail:
The original bulbs and wiring/ballast/ignitor is not used in my setup, only to relay the on/off switch, power is taken directly from the battery and no error codes or warning lights are flashing, everything works


Bring it on!
It's coming! I'll wake up tomorrow morning and take it all apart so I can show all the steps involved, there will be many, so if something is unclear don't be afraid to ask!
 
#52 ·
The lights are fantastic in terms of brightness. The wow factor for new passengers when they see the lights illuminate the turn is fun. No front fog lamps but it has rear ones.
 
#54 ·
35W. Very bright, nice coverage and I like the turning feature, it's a novelty.
 
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#55 ·
A novelty, perhaps, but not a new feature. How many others here have had headlamps that turn with the steering wheel on other cars?
 
#59 ·
I do miss how the Lacrosse headlights would angle the light while going in and out a highway ramp. It would angle it perfectly around the corner. However, if you were doing quick steering wheel changes, the headlights wouldn't be able to keep up. For example in a round-about. Where you would make a right and a quick left to go around and a quick right to exit. The articulation speed would not be able to keep up with the steering so there would be a second before the light would be pointing the right direction.
 
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