For those who haven't recieved your cars yet.....I found few pictures that really capture the look of the Xenon headlamps. I think this one is close.

...

i really wish all the lights, the running lights and fog lights, were the same color or at least a bright white...now you have 3 different colors illuminating...

too bad we didn't have a choice in fog light color

You do have a choice in the fog light colors.
There is Blue Tint, Multi-Color Tint, and clear.

check out the Rx-8
accesories catalogue (http://accessories.mazdausa.com/accessories/images/brochures/2004_RX8_AccessoryBrochure.pdf)

I think both the tint options would go well with the xenons.

-JiM

Originally posted by j1mb0x99
You do have a choice in the fog light colors.
There is Blue Tint, Multi-Color Tint, and clear.Sure, if you buy them as accessories. But the standard fitment foglights that come with every package except the base model (in the US) come in white only.

Originally posted by Gyro
...

Am i the only one that notices that on the horizon of the beam, towards the middle it slants down for no reason? It does it on mine also, and it pisses me off, i wish it was a strait beam of light. Does anyone know why it does this?

Originally posted by bassik277


Am i the only one that notices that on the horizon of the beam, towards the middle it slants down for no reason? It does it on mine also, and it pisses me off, i wish it was a strait beam of light. Does anyone know why it does this?

Possibly to reduce the amount of light hitting oncoming drivers in the face.

Well, I suspect so the lights don't totally blind the driver in front of you. But I also thought they had an auto-leveling feature to keep the headlights pointed at the road no matter the angle of the car. That way you can see going up hills and such, instead of the beams of light shooting over the crest.

Or, could be I'm just crazy.

Originally posted by j1mb0x99
You do have a choice in the fog light colors.
There is Blue Tint, Multi-Color Tint, and clear.

check out the Rx-8
accesories catalogue (http://accessories.mazdausa.com/accessories/images/brochures/2004_RX8_AccessoryBrochure.pdf)

I think both the tint options would go well with the xenons.

-JiM

i meant it should have been a port choice...i don't want to have to pay $200 for another pair of fog lights...

i wonder, can we just change out the bulbs? has anyone even looked into this yet?

Originally posted by bassik277
Am i the only one that notices that on the horizon of the beam, towards the middle it slants down for no reason? It does it on mine also, and it pisses me off, i wish it was a strait beam of light. Does anyone know why it does this? It's called a Z-beam, and all good lights do it. It's designed to cast more light on the near side of the road without dazzling oncoming traffic.

Kewl pics! Thx from someone still waiting........ :)

Originally posted by Gyro
... http://www.rx8club.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=90762

that's what i'm talking about! look how wide it is!!! great pic!

Of course you can change the bulb in the foglight. You just need to take the bulb out and find out what type it is. I changed my blinker in the back to red instead of orange.

how come your xenon light came out with a bit of blue??
for my one, it's got a bit of yellow
:mad:
yours one look much better:p

2

i think the lights have a break in period

mine are blue 2 and ive only been used for show.. cars never been driving in the dark yet

Mine are definitely very blue -- no yellow cast to them. I would check and make sure you really don't have the base halogen lamps.

This is kind of funny, because on the left, after the little drop-off, my lights have a yellow cast on the top. On the right, it's blue/purple.

Anyway, somewhere in the forum, there is a post about the Xenons having a break-in period. Whether that's true or not, I don't know.

And I don't think you'll have ANY confusion knowing whether or not you have the xenons--there really is no comparison. I can honestly say I will never drive another car that has halogen headlights voluntarily.

Well
my light is definitely Xenon
It is really white and bright
But the only thing is the top part of the light are kind of yellow
It doesnt effect much
but I just dont like any yellow on my light

My friend got his car last sat.
I checked his light
His one is just same as my one
I'm from Australia
Maybe you guys got different light than our one

I took another photo ( at night this time )
This is how's my xenon light look like

2

3

4 ( I took this by covering one part of the light )

5

So
now..
is your xenon light look like 3 or 4???

xenon lighting does have a break in period. It usually starts out pure white with a tinge or yellow and becomes bluer. the rx8 has self leveling features... has anyone noticed it working?

But I got my car for a month already

whats that under your headlights, that thing sticking out,i dont have that

headlight washers, we (the US) don't get them

I'm glad we dont get them
I like the look without them

Our Xenon headlamps are supposed to be self leveling. Now...not having owned a car with xenons before, I may not know what to exactly expect. BUT....I have heard of audi owners saying there car does a leveling "self check" at start up. I have done many tests to see if the horizontal beam cutoff changes with the angle and pitch of my car on the road. The lights never seems to do anything. No movement or "leveling" what so ever.
Has anyone else noticed this?
Does the "leveling" really mean intensity? Next time you turn your head lights, watch closely at the light pattern. It appears the the lights are bright...then dimmer then bright again. This all takes place in a second or two.
I initially assumed that this was the Xenon Fusion balasts warming up. Does anyone else know how our RX-8's self level?

Originally posted by Gyro
Does anyone else know how our RX-8's self level? They go through a self-test and levelling cycle when you first turn them on. Try it yourself - park facing a wall and put a few heavy items in the trunk. Turn on the lights, and let them stabilise. Make a mark on the wall at the cutoff point of the beam. Now turn them off again, remove the trunk ballast, and turn them on again. You should see the cutoff below your mark for a moment, then it should automatically adjust back up to the mark. If they're not doing this, then you have a system fault and should be getting a yellow warning light on the dash.

(BTW, you may need to have the ignition turned on when you do this - I'm not sure if the system is enabled with the ignition off.)

you can see them level out when you turn them on but more impressive to me is they were more yellow when I got the car and now they are really sharp white. Looks like they broke in finally

Originally posted by eccles
They go through a self-test and levelling cycle when you first turn them on. Try it yourself - park facing a wall and put a few heavy items in the trunk. Turn on the lights, and let them stabilise. Make a mark on the wall at the cutoff point of the beam. Now turn them off again, remove the trunk ballast, and turn them on again. You should see the cutoff below your mark for a moment, then it should automatically adjust back up to the mark. If they're not doing this, then you have a system fault and should be getting a yellow warning light on the dash.

(BTW, you may need to have the ignition turned on when you do this - I'm not sure if the system is enabled with the ignition off.) OK. this is long. To cut to the chase, does anyone know if there is any adjustment for the auto-leveling mechanism? I suspect that if there is, mine is adjusted to a range of zero (i.e., auto-leveling is effectively off.)

I've been concerned about my perceived lack of auto-leveling since I bought the car, and now I'm convinced there is an range-of-adjustment problem (no range) or it's off/not working. I've never seen any instrument panel warning lights for this -- no system fault indicated, that is.

I've never seen my headlights level-adjust: they just always point straight up or down with the car. Last night I went out, fired up the car & turned on the headlights. Observing the top-of-beam cutoff location, I pushed and held down on the trunk. I watched the cutoff point correspondingly rise to a higher position, and holding to a count of ten saw no leveling whatsoever. I released and saw the cutoff point drop back to the original position.

Now, my neighbor fires up his BMW 5 series. Headlights on, I actually see the xenons do the self-adjust up against the garage door: they tilted up (high!) then back down. Then I watch as he backs out the driveway and pause for traffic: while tilted thus, again I could easitly see the xenons auto-level. And finally, as the BMW moved onto the level road surface I saw the headlights adjusting all the time. It was really obvious that the auto-leveling was working.

So I go and repeat the same procedure with my car in his driveway, even to the point of shutting off and restarting the engine. No self-test auto-leveling at headlights on, no adjust backing down driveway or pausing on the incline, no adjust while moving onto the level road surface. It's pretty clear the auto-adjust is simply not working.

Thus far the shop manual is unavailable, so again, does anyone know how to adjust the auto-leveling mechanism for the xenons? (And thanks for reading this far!)
Cheers,
-jd.

EDIT: I started a new thread with this post (http://www.rx-8forum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12596), as it seems more of a tech question... -jd.

See my response in the other thread.. :P

Wait...im confused...whats the difference between HID and Xenon? Arent they the same thingys?

same thing different terms.

Xenon gas fusion.

High Intensity Discharge ....( I believe)

Uhhhh...thx..but which is better? I heard different stories...like Xenon is really bright or HID is better then Xenon and so on...

xenon is a brand of HID
like levis to jeans

actually....Mikeb, in automotive use, HID and xenon are the same.

HID- High Intensity Discharge, is the name of the tecnology. Xenon is the name of the gas that CAN be used in HID's. High power streetlamps over freeways are HID...but not Xenon.

HID's that are used in stadium lighting..Freeways.. etc use different high pressure gas to produce bright, highly efficient light. Usually Mercury or Sodium Vapor. Mercury Vapor cant have automotive application due to long warm up times(ever notice how a street lamp will flicker and sometimes slowly warm up). The headlamps in a vehicle need to be immidiate. Thats why they use Xenon gas in the HID headlamps under high pressure, because it has a very fast "excite" phase.

There are no filaments in a HID bulb. Positive charge electricity is introduced in the form of an arc, and excites the high pressure gas. Electricity is in essence flowing through the gas...and lighting it up. Thats why HID's last longer. No filament to break/burn out. Thats also why thay are cooler.
Halogens lights rely on heat to do their lighting. The filament glows and the halogen gas around it "enhances" its performance. Very old technology, and not efficient compared to HID.

So all HID automotive applications use xenon gas, but otherwise....in non automotive use, HID's can use a number of different gases.

OOOOoooOO...ic...thx! I learned something todaii :) How come cars still use halogen lights tho? I hate my yellow lights...

Like everything else...The price is relatively high to produce an entire HID system. They are trickling down further and further in the market. $28,300 for a RX8 with sport package gets you Xenons, a couple years ago you had to pay 10 grand more for a car equiped with HID's. A few years from now, they will be on corollas....wait and see.

In the big applications it SAVES money....like stadium lighting. It uses far less electricity, yields more light output, and needs less maintenance. A no brainer.

For cars though, it definately yields more light output, but thats where most of the benefit stops. Yes they last far longer than halogens...but the cost of halogens is so cheap its almost a mute point. The energy consumption is a non issue as well.

With self leveling systems and generaly more components involved, they never will be AS cheap to mass produce as standard halogens, but the consumer market will demand the crossover to a HID predomination.

gyro

you put me in my place I must say:eek:

Have anyone ran across an incoming car at night then flick their high beam at you, thinking that you are running on high beam but your not???
It happens to me everytime I drive at night.

there is a whole thread on that

http://home.comcast.net/~ajkarkos/rx8c.jpg





http://home.comcast.net/~ajkarkos/rx8a.jpg



Just some pics of my car the day I picked it up. It was raining...and it was only 5pm, but it gets dark in New England around 4pm around this time.


As you can see the Xenon lamps in my car a crystal blue....no yellow at all. And I am happy to say the auto-leveling works awesome.

question..
i have a normal headlight..
and i asked dealer and they told me you cant change it to xenon head light..
is there any way you can change it..?
plz mail me to soo_1987@hotmail.com

It would probably cost over 1000 dollars.

But, I would really like to replace my fog lights with these: http://www.piaa.com/Lamps/Lamp-pages/610hid.html

True Xenon bulbs require replacing the entire lighting assmebly. They are High Intensity Discharge (HID) bulbs. The ones you can buy or order for normal headlights mimic the same color, but to get a true Xenon HID system, you are gonna pay big bucks.

rx8 xenon lamps runs on 4300k temperature that's why it has yellow tint in it. it will always start at bright white/blue, then turn yellow a little bit once the bulb warms up. You can buy a 5000k temp aftermarket bulbs that will make it blue/white all the time. It will be less brighter but the color will be bluer. if you have the shinka, buy the 8000k, purple ones!

4000K is kind of yellow/white
5000K is bright white
6000K is VERY white
7000K is VERY purple
8000-9000K is VERY blue
9000+ is UV

question..
i have a normal headlight..
and i asked dealer and they told me you cant change it to xenon head light..
is there any way you can change it..?
plz mail me to soo_1987@hotmail.comI asked a Mazda dealer that question once, because I was considering the 5 speed MT first (which is not available in the US btw). His guess was something like 3.000 € including washers and automatic adjustment (both required for HID in Germany). I decided to get a 6 speed MT instead.

Holy Back-from-the-dead-thread, Batman!!! :eek: :D

question..
i have a normal headlight..
and i asked dealer and they told me you cant change it to xenon head light..
is there any way you can change it..?
plz mail me to soo_1987@hotmail.com If you want a "whiter" light for the standard halogen headlights, get some replacement bulbs from PIAA or Nokya. Look for something like the PIAA Extreme Whites or Extreme Force, or the Nokya Arctic Whites. You need 55 watt H7 bulbs for the low beams, and 65 watt H9 bulbs for the high beams. Pay close attention to the wattage rating -- a rating higher than 55 watts (low beam) and 65 watts (high beam) can end up frying your wiring. The replacement bulbs will not give you the stronger/brighter light of the HID/Xenon systems, but they will change the color of the light that comes out, from the yellowish-tint of the OEM lights to a more bluish-tint. Puttig an HID/Xenon system in requires ballasts, so it's not a matter of just switching out the bulbs.

HTH,
Bill

This should answer everything about those who wants a hid light on a halogen lamp.

So listen boys and girls cuz this is how it should end....

No!! a definite NOOO! on those bulbs that will give you a HID look cuz its just too fake! You bought a 25k ride to install a cheap ass bulb! They draw a lot of current and certainly will fry alot of things in your ride. Also your wallet.

Not only they look cheesy! Its just plain funny! That reminds back in the 90's when honda TUNERS (weaklings!) try to customize their highschool ride.

Im sure u dont want that dont you??

The answer is search the web for an hid kit! i put one on my 2002 ford explorer and they look nice! they have the xenon charged bulbs (actual ones), ballast and whole lot of junk to go with it! it's plug and play baby! they run brighter, and run cooler with less current drawn from your system.

The drawback is the price! your looking at 350 to 600! better than spending 900 per headlamp assembly.

Dont be cheap! It's your eight were talking bout here!

They draw a lot of current and certainly will fry alot of things in your ride.
Um, as long as the wattage rating is equal to (or less than) the stock bulbs, there will be no chance of damage to the wiring. Nada. To each his own, but let's at least stick with facts rather than fearmongering.