Xantia Winter In Norway

[PicassoPigeon]

Ok off on holiday at Christmas , driving from Plymouth to Newcastle then ferry over to Norway. Then driving from Kristiansand to Vågå.
What i would like to do is up rate the headlights as they will be even more naff with the beam benders on them and it will be dark and snowing when driving .

What do i need to do? They need to be on all the time when driving.
Any help with the winter driving side of things would be great too?
Thanks for your help. gav425

[rossnunn]

I upgraded to phillips vision plus's in the ZX & found a good improvement of the brightness of the light pool & it went further down the road too. The pool edge is much crisper so anything outside it you cannot see, anything inside you can, there's no 'grey' area. The ultimate upgrade of course is HID but they are mega ££.

[f00lzz]

I agree.. vision plus did it for me too..... lost that large black spot which seemed to be where I wanted to look!! Oh and take it to an MOT garage and get the beam set as high as possible, but still legal.

[KP]

£175 you can buy a xenon upgrade kit. much better as well and loads of space to install the packs on a xantia. You would need one kit for the Dipped and one kit for the full beam. I can say from the Fiat coupes ive seen with them on and driven it helps 100% compared to standard and fiat coupes are known to have poor lights, not far off the average Xantia.

The upgrade kits that are used generally take an afternoon to install as well.

[citronut]

also get a pair of head lamps from a left hooker,whilst you running over there
regards malcolm

[nxh66]

Are these HID light kits availaible for many cars yet, didn't know you could get them at all! Remember them being a £1000 option on beemers when thay first appeared.

[KP]

Yeah you can get generic kits that you just fit to your car. It sometimes requires a bit of fiddling with the bulb holders but other than that they are fine in the long run.

The FCCUK do regular group buys on them if your interested?

[BonceChops]

One of the main problems with Xantia lights is the volt drop between battery and bulb. To prove it remove the plastic cover from the back of the light and measure the voltage on the dipped bulb with the lights on and the engine running. Then measure the voltage of the battery with the engine running. You may well find a 2 volt difference that is lost due to Citroens undersized cables. The other way to measure voltdrop ( better way ) is to connect one lead of your voltmeter to the lamp and the other to the +ve side of the battery. This will actually show the voltdrop.
We have discussed on here before how to easily upgrade your cable size using relays.
Another test that really proves how much light you are losing is to have the lights on and engine running. Then connect a piece of 2.5mm or 4mm to the +ve of the battery and then touch it onto the bulb. You will see the light become brighter. This shows how much extra light you will get after upgrading the wiring. It would be a good idea to put a 20 amp fuse in the cable you connect between the battery and bulb in case you touch some body work while trying it

[p20]

I have Osram Silverstars fitted to mine, i've used the Philips in an older car. Both make a big difference

[CitroJim]

£175 you can buy a xenon upgrade kit..

I was led to believe they were not strictly legal as a retrofit as the lamp fittings must have a self-levelling mechanism to prevent dazzle.

I guess that a Xantia quite cunningly circumvents this requirement by being self-levelling anyway. The strict legal status would be intersting to know though.

I too have fitted some Philips VisionPlus bulbs and they do make a considerable difference.

[KP]

If your car has levelling controls for teh headlamps then they must work after fitting. it is still possible for them to work afterwards thuogh

The xantia circumvents this as well as the C5 and the others with hydropneumatic suspension so no worries there and perfectly road legal as long as they are adjusted correctly

[pie eater]

Hi All,

Regarding the self levelling lights/suspension debate, on the C5 the HID headlamps have self levelling - You can see this clearly when coming to a stop in the dark, the lights adjust themselves as the car settles. On turning them on, they adjust from a very downward attitude.

Also noticed that even when the lights are off, the units still self adjust! (Noticed this when the car was being reversed onto the drive by Cherub)

[406 V6]

Highjacking this thread, regardig the HID lamps... In Portugal, another requirement is to have headlight washers. But that's not important The thing is: what temperature are we talking about on a commercial car, like on a C5? I would like to have it as "standard" as possible on mine.

I once used some Osram Silver Blue lamps and they are pretty good too

[KP]

They do all sorts of color temps but i believe about 5k or 6k is about right for stayng white and not going blue-y.

I never had the self levelling lamps on the 2.2hdi exec se i drove for a week a fair while back..

The citroen website states they have directional dual Xenon lamps but nothing about self levelling lights..

[KevMayer]

I think my C5 has self levelling lamps....
When I got in it a few nights ago, the auto headlamps came on and the beam adjusted downwards quite a long way. I could see the beam sweep down against a grass bank infront of us.

I'd not noticed it before. I've had the C5 about 3 months.

Cheers, Kev