[aviator]

Is everyyone satisfied with the XLR's high beam light activation method? All other Cadillac products (and most cars worldwide) enable the driver to >FLASH< your headlights at someone by pulling the light lever towards the driver. In my XLR, anyway, this is not possible.

When I pull up behind a slow moving Viper tooling along in the left lane, its kind of inconvenient to twist that little ring forwards and backwards to flash my headlights at the lout to get him to move over.

Anyone else bugged? :confused

aviator

 

[bob swersky]

The only slow moving Viper is the one out of gas. :flag

 

[1_XLR]

it seems to me, if I remember right, there is a small lever on the lower side of the lever that you pull forward, rather than hold and twist???

regardless, I'm too impatientient to wait for slow moving vipers to move out of the way, I just go around:thumbs

 

[alk3997]

Isn't the reason that the daytime passing lamps are difficult to use in the XLR is that the Xenon lamps should not be used that way? If I remember right, Xenon lamps don't like to be turned on and quickly turned off. It reduces the lifetime of the lamp significantly.

On the XLR, the Xenons work as both the standard lamp and the high beams. So, for a daylight "flash", the high beam version would have to turn on quickly and off. I guess that is one disadvantage of using the bi-Xenon system. The daytime running lamps are already on, so those couldn't be used either.

On our Infiniti, there is a warning in the owner's manual about short trips. It states that the owner should not use the Xenon lamps for short trips since it reduces the life of the bulbs. Many owners have wondered if we should carry two flashlights with us for those short trips The Q45 uses standard lamps for the high beams so the passing light isn't an issue.

 

[aviator]

You could be right

Like you, this isn't my first rodeo.

The XLR replaced a BMW 330i convertible that had xenon headlamps. Also, my current daily driver, a Mercedes ML500 has them. 3-1/2 years with the Beamer and 3 years with the Mercedes, and nary a peep out of the xenon headlights. And they both can >FLASH< at slow moving vipers camped out in the left lane.

Perhaps its because I tend to take "road trips" in my Cessna 210, where I would normally be doing all the headlight flashing.

It's not really a squalk, just an question.

I actually hadn't thought about bulb longevity. :thumbs

Gracias! :cheers

aviator

 

[Tony P in FL]

Flashing to pass isn't turning the bulb on or off, there is a small relector inside the lamp assembly that clicks into place when you turn on the brights. It just angles the light higher, that's all.

 

[alk3997]

Tony, I think you may have missed my point. At night you are correct in that the reflector just changes position and low beams become high beams.

The question was about the daylight flash to pass function. In the daylight, the low beams aren't on. So, in the daytime the low/high beam Xenon lights have to be powered-up/reflector position changed/powered-down. My point was that this is not good for a Xenon bulb. It is one of the reasons why some car manufacturers still use a "regular" bulb for the brights.

 

[Tony P in FL]

Gotcha. Missed what you meant.

 

[wildcat7]

Isn't the reason that the daytime passing lamps are difficult to use in the XLR is that the Xenon lamps should not be used that way? If I remember right, Xenon lamps don't like to be turned on and quickly turned off. It reduces the lifetime of the lamp significantly.

Very true, the projectors in the XLR lamps are very powerful and require more than the standard 12v to activate (thus no quick flipping the switch)

Check it out sometime when you're parked in your garage with the engine and no accessories running, have someone flip on the headlamps while you're standing at the front of the car. You can hear them initialize, sounds like someting from a power line transformer.