XC90 replacement bulbs?
 

Evening. New to the group and still learning. I don't seem to be able to search via myANDROID Looking for info on the active xeNon's. Mine are horrendous so looking for better but more affordable bulbs. Can anyone help

2010 XC90 R DESIGN

The original OEM Xenons from e.g. Osram are now very very affordable compared to a few years ago.
Now about 30 GBP each.

Watch out for fakes!
Buy from a reputable seller....

I considered the cheaper osrams but fear they won't shed enough light. The night I bought the car last week I had a 100mule trip. It was actually unnerving how bad they were. Is this a common thing or am I just unfortunate. I would estimate I could see around 20ft in pitch back and didn't even notice my lights were on in towns. Had the hight etc checked at an MOT station. All good there. It's so bad I've even considered swapping them for halogens!

That could be some of the mentioned "fakes", or they are done, or your headlamp glass is blurry... :)

The xenons in the XC90 are normally very good. They are in my top3 of the best lights in cars, I've personally driven.. :)

Check this site out


https://www.hids-direct.co.uk/categories/mtec-bulbs.

You need to check your Car Owners manual as to what type of bulb you require. (Should be about page 245 sec 11 Bulbs)

It will be in your Specs list as there are BI-XENON'S (which are fixed headlamp and dont move)which require one type of bulb (35w D2R).....

and ACTIVE BI-XENON'S (which move your lights from side to side as you go round corners)which are another type (35w D1S) .

Also you will probably find your flasher main beam will look terrible(ghastly yellow) when you fit your new Bi-XENON'S (they will be 65w halogen H9's for the ACTIVE BI XENON'S ARRAY (main beam flasher)

....and 55w halogen H7's for the main beam /dipped beam array for the BI-XENON (Fixed Head Lamp array) which the above site can also supply at a very reasonable price per pair)

Your User Manual will explain it better if i have confused you.

I found the best colour frequency to go for was something around the 4700k mark (cosmos blue white is 4750k on mtec list at £14.99 per pair)which gives a very nice crisp white blue beam.
Not blue at all just a very nice clean bright white .

Avoid the 9000k frequencies if you can which tend to lean towards a bluey purple beam and are awful.

Hope this helps. (pm me if you need help)

Just thought I'd chip in - bought two D1S bulbs from Amazon (highest average reviews, name rhymes with Bar Dover) - £20 for the pair, delivered the next day. The difference is clear right away, still to go for a proper drive. Will report on longevity (if they fail anytime soon). Overall, very happy at the moment.

https://i.ibb.co/CB8BnF1/Comparison.png

It may be the projectors inside your headlights are dirty. I replaced both bulbs on my car last year. Bought OSRAM Xenarc Night Breaker Unlimited D1S from https://www.powerbulbs.com/ and checked the serial numbers against Osram's own site to make sure they were genuine. I would hope so at £122! Definitely an improvement but still not as good as I would have expected.

Fast forward a year and my headlights are now so bad that it is bordering on dangerous. Looking at the projector through the headlight lens it looks to be a milky colour, not clear as I see on other cars. Debating whether to buy another pair of bulbs but worried that it would just be a waste of money. No way to take apart the head lights on a S60 either to see if they could be cleaned internally.

In my reading the most well reviewed source of new lamps talked about on here is www.powerbulbs.com

I've used them myself and always had excellent service and quality genuine products.

They're an ethical site as well - they tell you clearly whether their upgrade options are road legal or not.