Blue Lights

Have a look here

auto.howstuffworks.com/question387.htm

Hi Hopscotch,
Perhaps these cars you noticed have the bi-xenon headlights.These are becoming quite common now on many luxury cars such as BMW X5,Range Rover Sport,D3 and so on.Not sure if available yet as an aftermarket accessory but would be quite pricey anyway.
Cheers Mark

I have seemn the bi-enons around a lot lately and find them quite disconcerting on approaching them. From the drivers seat the light is superior but they seem to flash and flare when approaching them in another vehicle, wonder if that can be fixed?

I had a chat with the Philips lighting man at one of the shows, and he advised me to get white light bulbs, as they provide a better experience to older eyes.

As I have these pesky older eyes, I had tried some cheapy blue globes but didn't like the lack of reflectiveness they gave, so I replaced them with the white Philips ones he recommended (also inexpensive at about $32 each) and I find them excellent.

Can't remember the model though, it was a while ago and I don't keep the outers, but I think they are the Visionplus - see the details here

http://www.lighting.philips.com.au/au/en/Portal?xml=automotive_lighting/app&fldr_id=96&fid=4555

I replaced all my globes with blue coloured ones and even though its no better as far as light output,they do make everything appear white instead of yellow. Seems to be better on my eyes anyhow !!! But I'm only a young 48 though !!!!

Kevin, I have noticed them too, and i don't like them when the vehicle approaches, although i can't pin down the reason. I don't drive at night very often and don't have good night driving vision.

Hi all,
a few years ago, I was travelling north from Toowoomba late in the day in a '96 Holden sedan, which had 2 small spotlights low in the front bumper bar. As I passed through a very small town, I realised the sun was setting and turned my lights on, not realising that the spots were turned on too.
Just as I reached the outer edge of the town I was pulled up by a member of the local constabulary who informed me that my 'blue' lights were illegal. I was told to turn them off and warned not to have them the next time I passed that way. We took them back to the shop and they replaced them with 'white' lights without charge.
That road is, for the most part, a very narrow, curvy and badly maintained bit of bitumen which needed all of ones senses to drive at night. Not long after that, I noticed a lot of new cars had very blue coloured headlights, which to my eyes are far worse than the little spots we had. As they bump up and down with the eneveness of the road, they make you flinch as if they were a camera flash and you look away instinctively to avoid the continual flashes . That's my take on it anyway.
OzeSheila.

It's not only those blue lights that are hard on the eyes but also those extras wankers put in those holes lower down the front of the vehicle than the normal lights and then they set them up too high.
I feel the law should change so that any extra lights must be only available with high beam.
Blue lights are very prevalent up here in the north. Mostly on wannabe cars.

Pooley

Headlights are covered by the Australian Design Rules. Unfortunately the ADR's just state that a headlight must produce a white light to the front, there's no mention of what colour they can produce when viewed at a different angle. The frustrasting part is, these light do produce a white light directly to the front, but you only have to go a few degrees off centre and you see a blue light.

The reason these lights are so annoying is due to vehicle movement. As a car travels over undulations in the road, the lights change from white to blue and vice-versa, producing a flashing effect.

Very bloody annoying on long flat country roads !

Keep the shiny side up
Ferris