DDM HID headlight upgrade
Since I’m going to all the trouble of replacing my headlights with the European versions, I figured I would upgrade to HID lights while I have them apart.
What are HID lights?
High-intensity discharge (HID) headlamps produce light with an electric arc rather than a glowing filament. The high intensity of the arc comes from metallic salts that are vapourised within the arc chamber. These lamps are formally known as gas-discharge burners, and produce more light for a given level of power consumption than ordinary tungsten and tungsten-halogen bulbs.
Automotive HID lamps are commonly called “xenon headlamps”, though they are actually metal halide lamps that contain xenon gas. The xenon gas allows the lamps to produce minimally adequate light immediately upon powerup, and accelerates the lamps’ run-up time. If argon were used instead, as is commonly done in street lights and other stationary metal halide lamp applications, it would take several minutes for the lamps to reach their full output.
Project "Charlie Murphy" 