182David said:
Bi-xenon lights have a 'plate' thing that moves the beam when you move from dipped to main beam. In dipped it shelters the beam to prevent glare and directs it onto the road. In main beam it moves out to spread the light everywhere. There's also a halogen bulb that lights.
Regular xenons forgo the moving thing and just add the halogens to create the main beam.
AFAIK you can't have xenon for high beam, since the bulb has to go on and off quickly and xenon lamps require a couple of seconds and lots of power to illuminate.
think the bixenons are used on H4 conversion kits which use one bulb to do both diped and main beam.. the normal h4 conversion kits have xenon dipped and a halogen main stuck onto the one H4 fitment holder. bi xenon have xenon dipped and main
h4 are either on diped.. or main (dipped switches off on main beam)
xenons arent typically used as main beams purely because they 'charge' up - sure youve noticed them change colour on startup, so when your 'flashing' your main beam it wont be givign them chance to start up..
they dont use more power.. they se less (usually 35w) they have a VERY high starting voltage (like 20 000 V) from the ballast units
the clios have a XENON bulb for dipped beam and a halogen bulb for main beam.
the xenon is behind the projector, and then when you hit the main beam, it stays on and the halogen in the inner surround also comes on.