I wanted to know if anyone has tried the Xenon HID alternative to the standard sealed beam in pre 92 XJS cars like these:
IPCW CWC-7003-HID: sealed beam, a strong clear shade, hid xenon bulb and 4 star reviews
I HATE these on every car pointed at me, too much purple and blue, they seem to have more glare, or more bothersome glare, but they are GREAT if you're the one looking out, WAY brighter, and maybe, safer. My BMW 535 does that with regular halogen lamps.
Is there a Halogen replacement as bright as the UHP/HID style?
I've taken to driving with the headlights on FULL TIME.
Sometimes, I think other drivers don't see me in the XJS. I've been ignored and nearly hit several idiots who unexpectedly pulled out right in front of me, as if they didn't even see me. Thank goodness for the anti-lock 4 wheel disc brakes!
I was toying with the idea of changing all 4 sealed beam headlamps, and wanted to ask this Forum if anyone had tried this yet.
Suggestions?

 

Buy some new light units that take H4 bulbs (outers) and H1, inners. Buy some modern high quality bulbs (eg Osram Nightbreakers). This will give superb lighting, be road legal, be a direct fit, and make your old sealed beams look like candles.
These are the H4 units, you need two H1 units as well.

 

Unless those headlight units are made for use with HID (which they aren't), then all you will do is get a lot of scatter and be blinding people coming the other way.
A fresnel lense, which is what is pictured, is desiged to reflect and refract light from a 'traditional' buld with a filament. Those filaments are always in exactly the same place for a given bulb, which is why they have locating tabs to ensure the orientation is correct. An HID bulb generates light across it's whole length/width - that means that the light generated in the exact area that the filament would normall be is transmitted to the road in the correct place. The rest of the light 'scatters' due to the light source being in the wrong place.

HID bulbs are designed to be used with projector lenses, that focus it in the correct place and have a physical obstruction in them to obstruct the light that would otherwise be pointing upwards - that's why they have such a definite cut-off.

When people put HID bulbs in fresnel lenses they are fooled into thinking that they are providing a better light for driving because when you look at them they apprear so much brighter, but the main reason for that is that there is so much scatter that light directs into their face.