Headlights

[Ducklakeview]

Originally Posted by owenfackrell

Yours should (as should all 7seat ones) but you have stated before about the lack of the nivomats on yours.

Maybe it's only UK 7 strs that have Nivomats?

Mike

[owenfackrell]

There were a bunch of xc's sent out from the factory with out them due to a shortage and these were changed for free except aLex's who's car was an ex-diplomatic car and he's been told that it's exempt from the replacement.

[A lex]

Thats correct.

However, whats more important for the OP in this case, is that the HID system does not rely on the Nivomats for the self-levelling. There is a separate stand-alone levelling system using sensors mounted on the rear axle.

[Tannaton]

To answer the OP's question - yes the Xenon headlights can be fitted in place of halogens, the ballasts are incorporated into the lamps themselves so they just plug in.

With regard to the MOT, as clan pointed out the headlamp levelling system and washers are only testable items if fitted.

What is likely to be an MOT failure is some of the poor quality HID retrofit kits, you seem to be dazzled by a lot of them on the road these days. The H4's are the worst but even the H7's are never likely to work correctly due to the different physical characteristics of a HID and Halogen bulb. FYI they are technically illegal as they invalidate the E approval of the lamp which is a requirement from 1/8/1980.... but I have never heard of anyone being prosecuted for it. A lot are failing MOT's though due to beam pattern issues.

[Sniffey]

Well, this is going to be a long reply, so kudos to whoever bothers to read this:

At first, been traveling a little latley, so haven't checked this post before now.
And I must say I'm amazed by the response, and the fact that I got my answer in the very first reply.

To clear up a few things:
Car in question is a 2008 original(from factory) 7 seater with the "self leveling" suspension, or whatever you choose to call it(just got the car, so I haven't had time to really get my head into these "technical terms")..
1 thing I have noticed so far though: A 7 seater without that kind of suspension could also be a 5 seater rebuilt to a 7 seater..

Car has got everything except nav and xenon headlights, thus bringing me to why I asked the question in first place.
Also; I live in northen Norway(cold), so yes, it has the winterpackage

Now, I know for sure that a self leveling suspension, in theory, is enough to make it pass through "MOT". The definition of a "self leveling headlight" beeing; whatever means necessary to make the headlight stay in such a position that the beam pattern it gives does not give a light value above 0.7 lux 25 meters infront of the car 110cm above the road(EEC regulative 76/761/EEC, for all you europeans out there)
Even halogens have this rule, thus beeing why all headlights are tilted slightly downward. And if you think of it, the higher the headlights are mounted on your car, the more it's tilted downwards, and vice versa, the lower the car is, thus less tilt(ever noticed how certain trucks are placing their headlights as low as they possibly can? This is to get the most out of whatever light they have, Thus, still obeying them rules, but still giving the most out of what they can have)

Citröen C5 is a good example that utilize the phenumatic suspension rather than having ride height sensors on all axels(although its quite different from the Volvo)
And even if you have "automatic headlight leveling" with sensors on every axle, wheel, nob and switch, it does almost nothing when actully driving(ill come back to this futher down).

EU's directives for lighting is bullsh*t anyway, I get why low beams have to be that way, but the limits on highbeam's are, simply put, stupid.

Now, when it comes to retrofitting, I have done a couple, proper retrofits; Getting and actual bixenon projector(Usually Acura TL's, FX-R's or E55's, running Osram or Phillips D2S's on hella ballast's usually).

Check out the forums on hidplanet.com if you have no idea what I'm talking about here(I have a thread there aswell, haven't been updated in a while though..)

I even got an old Volvo 240 through MOT with bixenon headlights that I built myself.
Also, I went through mounting sensors on rear and front axle, just to discover that it does, if anything, nothing when driving. It just places them in the right height when starting up the car and seems to stand absolutley still when driving..

However, I can't do this with the headlights on my XC90 as the glass itself is starting to get worn(lots of scratches and such), thus again bringing me to the question I started out with, will newer headlights fit my car?

And yes I totally agree with you, I absolutley hate those H4's and H7's trying to fry your corneas into bacon.
And, by the way; strapping a h4 china bulb in a reflector is not called a retrofit, its just called beeing a colossal arse.

So to whoever read it all, here's some stars for you

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by Sniffey

Well, this is going to be a long reply, so kudos to whoever bothers to read this:

I read all of your reply and enjoyed it!

I would make a point (which clearly you know) that most halogen headlamps (including XC90) are "reflector" types, in that the beam is created and directed by a reflector. This works because halogen lamps create almost a "point source", i.e. the filament is about 1mm wide and 5mm long. Reflector headlamps are cheap to make and simple.

Most HID headlamps however are "projector" headlamps, these are more complicated and not only have reflectors but one or sometimes two lenses to focus the light. This is required because HID lamps are much less of a "point source" - i.e. the burner capsule in the bulb (although still small) is several times bigger in physical size than a filament.

This means that when fitting a HID bulb to a reflector headlamp it does not give anywhere near a good enough "cut-off" on dipped beam. One characteristic of projector headlamps is that there is a very sharp cut off on dipped beam and this is why headlamp levelling systems are often needed. If you have ever had a Merc or Audi behind you with HID headlamps, when they go over bumps it is almost as though they flash you. If you have factory projector headlamps and you drive up to a wall in the dark with dipped beam on - you will see what I mean about a "sharp cut off". With reflector headlamps and halogen bulbs the cut off is much more blurred. With reflector headlamps and H4 retrofit HID's the cut off is usually non-existent. Some older high end cars have projector headlamps with halogen bulbs - e.g. X-Type Jag.

So as you rightly pointed out you can retro fit HID's but the only way of doing it properly is to dismantle the headlamps and fit projector units.

[owenfackrell]

The older xc90's and in fact older volvo's also have reflector xenon's. The xc90 ones are easy to spot over the halogen ones as the bottom of the reflector has a large flat section. I must say that having 2 cars with xenon one projector and one reflector the Volvo reflector ones also have a very good cut off with almost zero light above in fact I would say it was the same as the projector ones.
I have had to replace my leveling sensor and as such had to carry out recalibration on it so I decieded to read the live data from it. There is a slight delay to what happens ie if you move it and then move it back (going over a bump) the headlight does not move, if you move it and then pause it does move the headlight. If you have these from factory you can see this for you self if you drive the rear left of the car on to a curb or such as you will see the headlights drop other than that they don't move. It's certanley not fast enough to take into account going over bumps or humps in the road.
I also saw an advert for audi's new led head lights which are a permanent highbeam as they sense where the oncoming light is and just turn off those leds. I'm not sure it will work well.

[Tannaton]

Yep there are some older Xenon's based on reflectors but they are invariably H7's (separate bulb and reflector for dipped and main beam).

[owenfackrell]

Mine are bi xenon as the dip bulb (d2r bulb) is tipped up when activating the main beam along with the seperate main lamp coming on.
I know the later reflector one the shield drops down where as the renault projector also tips up.

[Sniffey]

Originally Posted by Tannaton

I read all of your reply and enjoyed it!

You're welcome!

Well, you can get tons of halo headlights to almost any car, of ebay or whatever. And most of these run halogen projectors(often H1 or H7 bulbs).
Though, these do not give nearly as wide of a beam as an hid projector, and gives an halogen cutoff(ECE cutoff), thus is not applicable to xenon bulbs(DOT cutoff)
However, they are certanly an improvement compared to an old reflector style halogen.

Projector halogens have been around since, ugh, I don't know, early 90's mabye(my 91 mitsubishi l300 have projector halogens), and alot of newer cars come with halogen projectors, as it is better than a reflector, and cheaper than xenon, altough, not as good as xenon(a compromise if you want), while we are waiting for led's to become cheaper..

Owen:
I do like reflector xenon's, I think, on most cars it gives a better allround look, rather than a small blue eye looking at you.
There's just a few problems with it:
1. Reflector xenon's beeing more vulnerable to scratches or coating on the glass, that way you're totally legal, but you still fry any staring eyes..
2. Reflector xenon's not beeing as good as projectors; Light output is just not compareable, projectors are often much wider, and have no problem giving just as much throw to the light, if not more than a reflector.

Other than that, there is nothing negative to it, but as my wife uses this car the most, I'd rather sacrifice looks instead of light. In the end, she doesn't care how the car looks, just as long as it drives, so safety is first...
That's why I added xenon highbeams and a led bar the same day I got it

Edit: Many newer cars don't even have a seperate highbeam anymore, its just a projector, where the cutoff shield retracts when you flick highbeams on..
Edit2: Also, thanks for confirming it, usually automatic height level adjustment just sits there and adapts to any major changes, I.E. you drop 100kg's of luggage in the back, its supposed to compromise that by lowering the headlights a little. But it's no where fast enough to react to bumps, hills or whatever.., while autoleveling suspension raises the whole car accordingly.