This might be a retarded question but i'll ask anyway. Is there a major difference if any at all between a HID headlight and a xenon? Is one more expensive than the other. Me being a car-nut i can usually tell at night whether a car behind me has xenons or HID's. Which do u prefer if any?

 

No difference. HID lights use an electrical charge to ignite xenon gas contained in the bulb.

 

You're thinking of the difference between a Xenon bulb and a Projector headlight (which we have).

 

Ahh so then there is a diff. between what we have and a xenon gas bulb.

 

What's a projector light?

I thought we had HIDs, which = xenon.

 

projector lighting uses lenses to focus light. it can be used to focus light from any type of bulbs such as the traditional halogen. i believe the last supra had projector lights that uses halogen. the 1st IS350 also had halogen projectors standard. HIDs were an option for the first year IS350.

 

are projectors kind of like those cheapy "angle eye" headlights they sell for civics and integras??

scott

 

projector headlights look like our s2k headlights. it uses a lens in front of the light bulb to focus light much like a video projector. our s2k just uses a xenon bulb behind the lens and not a halogen bulb, but either can be used in a projector headlight setup.

 

check out the headlights in this pic. the low beams which are near the corner signals are projectors uses a lens to focus light. the high beam which are near the grill are non projectors and uses mirror surfaces to reflect light.

http://www.racelook.de/images/bmw/e46_cabrio_front.jpg

 

It's either halogen or HIDs. Xenon fills the HID bulb. Anything else that claims to have the HID/Xenon look means that the bulb has been painted along with maybe a chemical change also, but this doesn't mean it's an HID. Projectors are what create the cut-off line on our headlights. Under the cut-off line from a projector headlamp, the light is focused so we get more visibility. This doesnt mean that all HID cars have projector headlights. HIDs also do come in normal-looking headlight housings. For example, the IS300. These days, MOST HID equipped cars come with projectors.

Another thing.. some projectors are meant for halogen and some are meant for HIDs. As mentioned somewhere above, the late model Supra came with halogen projectors.