Power Beam

[Robroy]

I need to replace a broken high beam headlight. I was thinking about replacing all four of them to the Halogen type to get some stronger light.
I guess these parts are easy to come by in the US. I'm coming over in April and was hoping to bring a set of sealed beams back home.
Any special shop that carry these? the kind of shop you may find in any American city.

The kind I currently have on are called Power Beam, I guess these are not the Halogen type?

[Robroy]

Thanks Keith,
I was hopping someone would say that:)
I also hope they come well packed, so I can get them home in one piece.
Do you have any hunch about the price?

Regards
Per

[Robroy]

It’s getting dark already at 9 in the evenings here now and this weekend I drove for the first time in complete darkness since I installed the replacement halogens from NAPA.
GREAT light!:xyxthumbs: :xyxthumbs: Almost better than on my daily drivers and on them the headlight costs ten times more.
Well done Buick!:beers:

[EEE]

What do you call the original lights on cars like ours? Do they have another name than: old round car light?

Do the halogen lights have replaceable bulbs, or do you replace the whole glass case when they break?

[The German]

... Do the halogen lights have replaceable bulbs, or do you replace the whole glass case when they break?

In Germany the normal sealed beam lights are not allowed and so I had to install those Halogen headlights. I bought some lights that are normally used in a BMW 520 of 1991-1996 (Model E 34) and are of the same type in some other cars here. One can replace the bulbs without changing the complete headlight:
==> 3 pictures !
______________________
Rolf

[Robroy]

What do you call the original lights on cars like ours? Do they have another name than: old round car light?

Do the halogen lights have replaceable bulbs, or do you replace the whole glass case when they break?

Kimson,
On the headlights that were on my car from the beginning it said "Power Beam" on the glass. Don't know if that’s a brand name or not, but they for sure were the sealed beam type which means that you can't replace the bulb, you replace the whole unit instead which is cheap anyway.
The new ones I have put on are the same type, but halogen.

Rolf,
One can't really tell that those BMW headlights don't are the original ones on your car! Good job!
What's the reason for sealed beams not being allowed in Germany? Safety issue maybe?:confused2:

[Bob Alberini]

If you guys have heard of "T-3"s, that was GM's name for the sealed beam headlamp bulbs through 1972. Beginning in 1973, the name was changed to "Power Beam" so it sounds like your car likely had some or all of the original headlamps in it, Per. They were available as replacements but other brands such as General Electric, Tung Sol and Westinghouse (among others) were much more common.

[The German]

... What's the reason for sealed beams not being allowed in Germany? Safety issue maybe?

It´s a bit difficult to explain for me, because my English is not very good, but I´ll try:
In Germany we are forced to use headlights which have asymetric light beam - that means that the light straight in front of the car covers a longer distance than the light at the left side; that´s made to avoid dazzling the other cars (their drivers) driving the other direction on the other (left) side of the street. I found 2 pictures which show this special light beam and how the glas is designed to get this effect. The newer headlights with Xenon bulbs have a special form of the reflector to get the same effect.
The 3rd picture shows the differance between asymetric and non-asymetic light.
_____________________
Rolf

[Robroy]

I know exactly what you mean Rolf. I thought that the sealed beam type were asymmetric too, like on all cars, hmm:confused2: .
It’s easy to check by parking close to a wall with the lights on.

[The German]

Per, I took some new pictures of my new headlights and of the sealed beams. You can clearly see the differance. The outer headlights (first pic) are the normal driving lights with the function of high beam also and with a little second bulb for parking light. The inner lights (second pic) are only for the high beam.
And at the 4 sealed beam lights (one for all in the 3rd pic) I could not find any differance. I cannot test the sealed beams because they aren´t installed. But I guess that they don´t have the same asymetric light as the other lights.
_______________________
Rolf

[EEE]

Are xenon lights those blue lights that started appearing about five-ten years ago? Those available in our format? Expensive? I guess I could just google it, but hey, let's keep the discussion going.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/XENON-HID-CONVERSION-KIT-H1-H3-H4-H7-H11-9005-9006-9007_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ36476QQihZ008QQite mZ180151440971QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

[The German]

Yes, Xenon lights bring out a blue touched light. Whether they are available in our format I don´t know and I would not replace my lights again. My new Halogen lights are good enough.
________________________
Rolf

[Robroy]

And at the 4 sealed beam lights (one for all in the 3rd pic) I could not find any differance. I cannot test the sealed beams because they aren´t installed. But I guess that they don´t have the same asymetric light as the other lights.


You are right Rolf, the sealed beams are not the asymmetric type.
It's clear on the pictures and I also checked by turning on my lights with car standing close to a wall yesterday evening.
This should be good news for Ian Stewart. The non asymmetric type of headlight should work in left hand traffic as well.

Regarding Xenon lights;
My friend has this kind on his Audi and the bulbs are EXPENSIVE and you must have them replaced at a workshop (due to a risk of explosion I think it was).
However he managed to get new Xenon bulbs on Evilbay for ten times lower price.
That's about all I know about Xenon