just as the tittle says..

thanks

 

The 98 LS400 has Xenon headlights as a popular (read most all of them came with them) option.

I may be misunderstanding your question though if your specifically asking about something called 'bixenon' which I'm not sure the definition of (strikes me as a German marketing term for HID headlights)

 

best put i think is.... highs and lows are HID...

mine did not come with HID.. but i bought a set of HID housings.... just wondering.

 

nop, no bixenon. if i am correct, bixenon is possible only on projectors? and it's not done by having different hid systems, but instead when you hit high beam, it will kick off another lens or tilt the projector to shine high. someone correct me though

 

This my understanding of bixenon.
bixenon projectors have small motors attached with iron panel to block the half of the light for low beam, when you hit the high beam, the motor turns and removes the panel so full light will go out thru the projector (It controls the beam angle).

 

makes sense. bottom line is there shouldn't be a separate system for the high beam, since hid system needs time to ignite and get full brightness, which completely defeat the point of high beam when you want to "flash"

 

Ding ding ding. We have a winner.

It is just a shield that moves up and down. The LS did not have this.

 

This is the system I have in my car. There is an electrical solenoid that pulls down the cutoff shield so the light pattern goes to something like this
___ ___
/.......\ /.......\ ____ ____ Diagram to the left would be the high beam.....diagram to the right would be where the low beam cutoff is.

The cutoff shield actually takes away 50% of the light output on your HID's. When the solenoid pulls the shield down...the light under the cutoff still stays the same brightness while the light that is now aiming upwards is blindingly bright.

So with bi-xenon HID hitting the high beam would be like one set of low beam and two sets of high beam(one from HID other from the two inner Halogen bulbs). Trust me it is bright! I can light up highway signs from half a mile down the road so brightly that they look like european illuminated signs!

 

Not all systems work like that. The E-class comes with Bi-xenon, and different bulbs. Its also has a different type of HID bulb... ignites much faster. Almost looks like a regular halogen, but much stronger, and more instant. Projects a nice Arc... VERY bright.

Btw Dave, a GOOD number of 98's did not come with HID's, I would like to say close to 40%. However all 99+ did.

 

This Bi-Xenon projector I have is shared in several different cars. E39 5 Series, E46 M3, E39 M5, Current X5, BMW 7 Series, Audi A8/S8, A6/S6, and also the Mercedes E55. Does the E-class have a different setup than the E55? I think it might be possible, but I dont think they would re-engineer a whole new housing with new optics just to have a different system for the AMG.

The Bi-Xenon with the solenoid(such as the one I have) has almost zero lag time to activation. The bulb is on already in the first place so there is nothing to restrike or turn on. The shield just moves out of the way.

Grand_LS4 I have not seen the type of HID bulb you are talking about. I am not saying they dont exist, but the HID bulbs I have had experience with need at least 5-10 seconds to reach maximum brightness. The fastest starting system I have seen can get the bulb to 70% brightness within 2-3 seconds, but I have never seen anything that can do full on instantly(needed for the effect of flashing high beams). Maybe some cars have HID in the high beam reflectors, but I dont think I have ever seen that setup before. It would cost then 2X more for the lighting system to have twice the number of bulbs, ballasts, and igniters.

Sorry for the threadjack, but here is a relevant piece of info. One of my friends parents have the 99 LS. It is only low-beam that has HID. The high beams are just standard halogen bulbs.