Krade

A friend of mine whos an AA man mentioned that Audi tt headlight units cost 4k to replace and that if you touch the back of the unit whilst its on it gives you a 22,000v electric Shock. Anyone confirm or deny this as if its true surely the cars not safe to be on the road.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Xenon light use unmpteen thousand volts to create the electric arc that emits the light.

So it's possible to get a shock if you tourch any bare wires. But bear in mind would you hold on to a HT lead with a running engine? I think not, so use the same caution with xenon lights!

Duck_Pond

22,000V That would make your hair stand on end... a disaster for the hairdresser driving the car.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Been electrocuted a few time me-self. Yet to get the hair stand on end thing though.

230volts ... nice tingle

415volts ... a bit of a jolt

Magneto spark on lawn mower (recall holding HT lead with running engine in above post ).... Repeated jolts at 3000rpm till engine died (a few thousand volts i'd presume)

Camera Flash capacitor - probably getting close to xenon lights .... Hefty jolt, lots of swear words and a burn mark on my finger!

I was stupid enough to do the above twice

Edited... M-u-s-t t-y-p-e m-o-r-e s-l-o-w-l-y

[Edited by ALi-B - 9/11/2003 3:17:11 PM]

RichWalk

An acquantaince of mine, called Julian tried this very thing.. ruined his career (now reduced to just washing hair) apparantely, after the incident, he had a bo**er for a week which his 'friend' Tarquin enjoyed emensely.. poor blokes now sold his TT and bought a bright green Vitara....

TTFN yep I am bored..

rr_ww

TT lights are "only" a grand or so, with fitting, and VAT at a main dealer each

diver944

IMHO these superbright modern xenon lights are dangerous anyway - to other roadusers! Just my opinion but they are far too bright, just like the Vauxhall Omega and modern Beemers.

The older light bulbs were legally limited at 55/60 watts for a reason, these modern lights get round this limit as the watts are low. I've lost count of the times I've had to slow down or even swerve when suddenly hit or distracted by these twinkly overbright lights.

I'll get off me soapbox now

H7

If I remember my O grade Physics, Watts = Volts x Amps (so Amps = Watts/Volts) >> 35Watts/22000Volts = 1.6 milliAmps - hardly enough to make your fingers tingle

BUT, grab it on the 12v side of things ...

Mind, I was cr@p at Physics

R1916v

Volts = amps x ohms

Charge = amps x time

sh4un

I`ve had 240v 415v 2000v shocks and discharged 1 or 2 capacitors on myself by accident the 2000v shock was about the worst, but its not the voltage that will kill ya its the amount of current...

Luke

is there a legal amount of light that is allowed to be emited from a car????? Not a Bulb wattage thing... the actual emited amount

Fatman

...apparently you're not the only one. I've got Xenon discharge (HID) lights in my Scoob. Almost every day someone flashes me as if to warn me that I'm on main-beam. I'm not, of course, I just have bright dip beam lights.

I don't find them (on other cars) too bright, to be honest. And they're a revelation to drive with.

Skittles

"I've lost count of the times I've had to slow down or even swerve when suddenly hit or distracted by these twinkly overbright lights."

Oh come on, swerving due to Xenons... your car must get trashed!!

Xenons have strict guidelines in the UK, the lights must be automatically self levelling while on the road, and the car must be fitted with washer jets.

I do agree they are very bright,but only cause problems if misaligned. As most xenon cars are fairly new, its not much of a problem... for now anyway.

BTW, driving with them really IS a revelation.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Must admit, I have more problems with badly aligned normal lights or cars with knackered front shocks. Including front fog lamps...as most of the time they are never aligned correctly.

I don't think brightness comes into play as badly. My scoob had a new headlamp (cracked) when I bought it, but the dealers never aligned it properly, thus I had people flashing etc. So I had to set the level thing to 2, until I had it sorted.

Now I run with 90/130watt headlamps bulbs and yet to have anyone flash me or swerve off the road in a fit of blindess. But seeing that the Classic's headlamps are so crap they probably emit the same light as a car with decent lights and 55/60watt bulbs

tonybooth

I've just had a new Xenon headlamp unit fitted on my S3, that was £501 fitted.

Thank **** it is still under warranty

TONY

Pie_n_Chips

HID's are std fit on the ATR which is nice, i don't think i could go back to "normal" lights after having HID's TBH.

Hugo Wattleseed

Why do they have to have washer jets then? I can understand the self levelling bit.

Stephen Read

They need washer jets becase a layer of dried on salt (or road grime) can spread the beam of light out (and by that I mean above the level of a proper dipped-beam) and thus it *could* dazzle.

I think that part of the *problem* with HID's is that when the road surface is wet (or otherwise shiny) it is largly irrelevant whether your headlights are correctly angled or not, the reflected light coming back up from the road is almost as much to blame for the perceived dazzling effect.

Personally, I love 'em and believe that the dazzling effect is less than that neddish pastime of having your fogs on when it's not foggy!

Krade

Cheers guys did think it was a bit wierd that a manufacturer would have a product on the road potenially that dangerous.

On the subject of bright lights its just me for whom the Merc tear drop lights all seem to be set to blind me when Im coming towards them regardless of the car im driving?

pugoetru

modern lights are just too bright they do more harm than good
at some junctions you can be totally blinded by them

if people need lights that bright they must be blind

ok you like to see the road if you are driving fast but my 14 year old 205 lights still give me enough light on dip

Dracoro

My S2000 had them standard but they're not too bad compared to the Audi TT which are horrendous (probably coz the light's are higher up in the body on a TT and the S2000's lights are situated at the lowest legal point on the front wings) and I get blinded by TT's when one is behind me on the motorway when it's on lane to the left or right.

Not really the fault of the owners (unless they have the option of normal lights) but more an issue for the manufacturer that says 'you will have HID lights and not normal ones'.

diver944

I was being serious Skittles. I don't mean swerve across three lanes of traffic swerve I mean you're driving along a country road, it's dark, your eyes are adjusted to the dark, you approach a bend and can tell there is another car coming. He suddenly comes around the bend and OMG you suddenly can't see. Instinct causes you to move the wheel away from the sudden retinal pain and lift off.

That's what I mean.

I admit I am one of the fussy old farts who will flash dazzling lights thinking they are on main beam, only to then get the full force of the main beam to the back of my eyeballs.

I was taught to drive on my full beams when there is no oncoming traffic because it is safer to do so and it is much better to see as much as you can at night. But it does seem that these xenons put out a similar light output as normal mainbeams and if the self levelling isnt up to scratch or they are misaligned then I do still think its dangerous to the other roaduser.

I agree 700% about the fog light users, don't get me started on that - arrrggghhh

druddle

PMSL - has anyone told this to Renault ? The ones on my Clio work for about 5 mins before falling apart or leaking.

SkodaMan

e·lec·tro·cute
To kill with electricity: a worker who was electrocuted by a high-tension wire.
To execute (a condemned prisoner) by means of electricity.

He's the undead! Kill him quick

pugoetru

ali b i dont need to use high beam on back roads i can see just fine !

LanciaChris

I find some kinds of modern lights annoying - I dont know the type, but theres one kind where it seems that if the car hits the slightest bump or something in the road that its like the effect of flashing high beams. Im not talking like normal lights over speed bumps, talking very minor imperfections in the roads... Id like those to be banned / redesigned.

Steve3drALS

PMSL@SkodaMan

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

You can't kill me SkodaMan - as you said...I am the undead

pugoetru... It's not what you can see I'm worried about... It's what you CAN'T see that worries me

Cars/bikes/trucks with loose reflectors can that affect LanciaChris
as can duff shock absorbers too.

Adam M

a few milliamps acorss the heart can kill you by inducing a heart attack.

a piezo electric cigarette lighter produces about 10,000V and you can shock it to your rm to produce a tingle rather than death!

The combination of them can be very dangerous but the piezo electric lighter will stuggle to hurt you.

If you can see anything spark, bear in mind the dielectric breakdown voltage of air is something like 10,000 volts per centimetre.

Carl2

Motor bikes who insist on driving around with their full beam on in broad daylight realy gets my goat. Yeah they need to be seen, but how do they expect me to see them when they've blinded me? Morons!!