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Converting headlights to Xenon on a 93


jlinde

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I live in Europe where the Cadillacs were equipped with H4 headlight which means

a single reflector and just one bulb (H4 with both high and low beam). In the US you have

double reflectors - on for high and one for low beam if I understand it right.

Is your standard headlight OK ( I have a 94 Pontiac with the 9005 and 9006 Bulbs and those give

a lot better light than our european H4) and is it becoming even better after putting in Xenon

bulbs with some kind of needed transformers. It would be interesting to know from somebody

who made a conversion.

/Jan L

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I have a 1997 Eldorado and looked at a conversion. The standard system for GM cars made for use in the U.S. in this model year range is to use the high beams at 3/4 power as daytime running lights. The 3/4 power feature must be disabled to use the headlight signal to run HID systems. Unless your model uses the running lights in the fascia below the bumper for the running lights, or does not use daytime running lights, this is a problem because the result is that you will be running the high beam HID lights all the time in the daytime, which (a) probably isn't very polite to other drivers, particularly in underpasses, tunnels, and such, and may be illegal, and (B) dramatically reduces the life of the HID bulbs if you do a lot of daytime driving. The alternative would be to use HID for low beam only, which seems to me to defeat much of the purpose of having HID. In fact, most HID conversions that I saw online were high-beam only. I ended up going to Sylvania SilverStar bulbs instead.

If you can find a system that simply turns off the high beam when less than full power is supplied and provides for a different daytime running light that is legal where you register the car, that would be ideal. Many states require daytime running lights when the windshield wipers are on, and Canada requires them all the time. I understand that some European countries require full-time daytime running lights.

CTS-V_LateralGs_6-2018_tiny.jpg
-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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Well, if it is so that Xenon is not so good to have on all the time (we have to have to have some kind of light on in the daytime here in Sweden , most often low beam H4 as in the 92-94 Cad) at full 13-14 volts I think I will try to find your type of reflector for 9005-9006 bulbs like the ones you use before spending to much on a Xenon system that won't work OK. /Jan L.

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I used the Sylvania SilverStar because they were just about all there was for brighter but legal bulbs at that time. There is more selection now.

CTS-V_LateralGs_6-2018_tiny.jpg
-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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