Are the halogen and xenon housings different?

[ccg71584]

i was wondering if the two housing assembly are the same with different parts put in them?

i wanted to know because my passenger side headlight got broke last night and i was super pissed. I don't want to get a ding on my insurance for this so i wanted to know if i could use the Halogen assembly and just put the xenon components in it. If no one knows that is fine.

[audtatious]

i was wondering if they are the assembly is the same and they just have different parts put in them?

Halogen bulbs use a filament like a normal incandescent light bulb as shown below:

Xenon uses an electric arc between electrodes similar to the diagram below:

[audtatious]

I think he's talking about the housing?

Could be. I took a guess

From the "other" side of the coin, non-HID headlight reflectors are not designed for using Xenon bulbs thus they should not technically be used with HiD's. Of course, that has not stopped anyone yet

[Burtonboarder950]

all of you guys are so mean! you all understand, you guys just want to pick on the guy He is simply asking if the housing for xeonon and halogen lights is the same. You guys is bullys.

[adidas2go]

Its looks like it buddy. I would get with a friend near you who has a 2.5 and make sure the interior of the light has the same mounting points for the Xenon Controller. I dont see a reason why nissan wouldn't make 1 housing and just swap in the controller, but you never know. It seems that the controller and the bulb are the expensive part of the design. You can see it here in the pic below.Its broken down at buynissanparts.com without any designation from xenon to halogen for the housing itself. I belive you can just buy the housing and reuse your controller and bulbs.

[racingtiger03]

thats unusual.. normally the housing for the HID's is made slightly different in the reflecting area to make up for the difference in position of where the arc sits as compared to where the filament of an incandescent is at. Maybe there is an extra spacer or something on the HID's so they can use the same housing? Thats what normally causes glare with PnP kits, the housing isnt designed for the slightly farther out source of light from the xenon arc

[adidas2go]

Designing flaws accounted for, I don't think a company such as Nissan, that used cheap silicone instead of normal sealant to save a few dollars, would spends the hundreds of thousands more in production costs to create 2 different light housing. I dunno though, that's just economics. Just get with a 2.5er in the area and check it out

[ccg71584]

so thats the problem i am the only one in my area. I pulled mine out and found a pic of the back of a non hid one, and they looked different from. Thats what i know as of this point.

[LongBeachCoupe]

well my pass side light is fried... i just picked up a driver side HID (i have a 2.5) so ill have both in my hand and be able to tell you the difference. I wont be doing the install for a while though (as i cant find the pass side, the side i need) yet.

[ccg71584]

i need a passenger side. How much did you get the driver side for?

[LongBeachCoupe]

$100

[bina12834]

where did you get the stock HID housing for $100 from?!!!?!?!?

they cost $700 a piece from nissan parts online.

[ccg71584]

**** get me a housing for $100. I will pay you shipping and some extra for you.

[LongBeachCoupe]

Ill swap the drivers side HID housing, with nissan factory hid and ballast

But only for a passenger side enclosure. non-hid is fine.

[ccg71584]

Ill swap the drivers side HID housing, with nissan factory hid and ballast

But only for a passenger side enclosure. non-hid is fine.

i need the passenger side hid housing. I have all the components.

[LongBeachCoupe]

good luck, they are hard to come by.

Ill take a good look at the one im getting in the mail n take comparison pics if i can,.

[ccg71584]

good luck, they are hard to come by.

Ill take a good look at the one im getting in the mail n take comparison pics if i can,.

Cool thanks.

[bina12834]

good luck, they are hard to come by.

Ill take a good look at the one im getting in the mail n take comparison pics if i can,.

so you never answered my question of where you got it for $100

[LongBeachCoupe]

sorry, a collision shop

[ccg71584]

sorry, a collision shop

the cheapest i have found for a xenon unit is $400.

[121traffic]

The HID and halogen housings are indeed different. When I was shopping for HIDs to replace my halogens, I just wanted to know for shi*s and grins. I went to the dealership and looked at two A/C's side by side, both 3.5s. One had the premium package, the other was base with cloth interior. The HID housing has an extra "seam" (for lack of better words) that runs horizontally through the vertical "seams" that both headlights have in the reflector. I will try to snap some pics later.

[121traffic]

Well, this topic inspired me to go out and run by a dealership to snap a couple of quick pics to show what I meant when describing the housing differences. There were no more premium A/Cs on the lot, so the housings are from the sedan. The difference I'm talking about is still evident though.

Here's a pic of a non-HID sedan housing:

Here are a couple pics of a premium sedan housing that illustrate the horizontal "seam" that is running across the vertical seams, giving the housing a very different shape, and probably a cleaner cut-off:

I still love my aftermarket HIDs though (Xentec 5000ks with the old ballasts), even with the bit of glare they have.

Hope that helps!

[adidas2go]

Yea, they look exactly the same to me. Just looks like you caught the light differently.

[audtatious]

Good pix

Would be interesting to see a side-by-side comparison of factory HID vs. aftermarket HID swap with non-HID housings (against a wall to see the way the beam works)

[audtatious]

Yea, they look exactly the same to me. Just looks like you caught the light differently.

No. The top is the non-HID and it is different in the pix

[121traffic]

Nope. There is clearly a horizontal seam and a definite shape difference in the HID housings (the second two photos) as compared to the top photo of the non-HID housing.

ETA: I can probably swing the beam comparison photos. A guy that I work with has a wife that drived a premium A/C. Hers the was reason I fell in love with the car and I bought mine a month later. He drives it to work sometimes. Next time he does, I'll see if we can't line the cars up and I'll snap some photos of his OEM xenons vs. my Xentec 5000Ks.

[adidas2go]

Well, the question here is, whether or not you could take the HID outta that "bottom pic" and put it in the "top pic" . Looks like it can be done fairly simply. Wouldn't make sense at all for Nissan to make 2 different housings for the same car. They don't do it for the G35 or 350z, so I highly doubt they would spend the money for development of 2 headlight housings, on the altima coupe.

[121traffic]

I doubt it. The answer is here in this thread:

http://forums.altimas.org/zerothread/318697

It looks like the OEM xenon bulb is a D2R. I would imagine that's a completely difference fitment than the halogen H11 bulb that the non-premium housing takes. Hence why we search for H11 conversion kits, and not just straight D2R kits when outfitting our cars for aftermarket HID. In addition, I would imagine that there very well could be some differences with the harnesses between the premium and non-premium cars.

I don't get what you mean by it "not making sense." The housings are clearly different. This is probably because the D2R OEM bulb has a reflective shield on one side of the bulb (hence the 'R' in the designator, which probably helps with cutoff and glare), whereas the halogen bulbs (and the H11 HID conversion bulbs) do not. I would think that if you took a OEM D2R bulb with a reflective shield and put it in a non-xenon housing, the beam pattern would be screwed up. The bulb would not be emitting direct light in all directions into a reflector housing that is designed to reflect and direct light from a bulb with 360 degree illumination.

If you are talking about the "housing" in regards to the bulb fitment, I don't think the D2R OEM bulb would screw into the housing the same as an H11. Bulb sizes are largely standardized across the industry. It has nothing to do with Nissan making a choice on how to manufacture their bulb fitment, and I don't think much development was needed. They just manufactured one type of housing to accept an industry standard bulb, and changed the mounting for the HID housing to accept an industry standard HID size. I can't argue on the 350Z, etc. because I just don't know. What I do know is that the non-premium AC takes an H11 low-beam, and I can say with pretty good certainty that this bulb size and mounting fitment will be completely different than an OEM D2R.

Easiest thing to do to get a better idea would be for someone who has factory HIDs to check to see if an H11 halogen can be screwed into the xenon housing, and if the harness is plug and play with the halogen bulb. I don't see that happening.
Modified by 121traffic at 11:46 PM 6/30/2008

[ccg71584]

i wanted to know if i could take the components out of a non-hid headlight assembly and put in the hid components, ballast and all. Then have everything go back on to the car and work.

[GryStrm]

once u get the clear lens off....which is a chore it self...ull have to pull the refelctors....which i cant see how to do!...theres two blots and an adjuster...with no visible means to discontect...ill post pics...