[sechack]

Hi C,
Your car, my previous coupe only has halogen. The halogen models for this car are not great. I think I last installed in Sylvania Silverstars Ultras, helped, but not much. I drove around with my high beams on most of the time, oncoming drivers never even noticed.
I think you next project should be to retrofit in some high-power LED projectors! But getting the headlight buckets out, as you can see by my old posts, is a PITA.
Glad to see you are enjoying the car.

All,

since I got my 2004 Coupe last year I was not impressed with the headlights illumination. However, I did not look too much into it until now.

Based on my owner's manual, it looks like that cars that don't have the headlight height adjuster wheel next to the headlight switch, are equipped with Xenon headlights.
However, my car does not have the adjustment wheel but my headlights do not appear to be Xenon. I say this based on the fact that (1) if I start the car with the headlights ON I don't see the up/down self calibration motion and (2) my headlights are definitively yellowish and not white/bluish (which I understand it is a characteristic of Xenon bulbs).

So the question is: is it possible that I have regular headlights even if I don't have the adjustment wheel next to the headlight switch? Also, I have a build sheet for my car and it does not show Xenon headlights (I guess they were optional).
Alternatively, assuming that I do indeed have Xenon (and say the self leveling is not working and/or I have regular bulbs installed), what is the best way to confirm that I have the Xenon? Remove wheel arch lining and see if there is a ballast under the headlight assembly?

I searched a bit the forums but I could not find definitive answers. Hence the this thread.

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