[ Home ] Tips of the Trade ] Links ] Photo Gallery ] Video Clips ] MyGMconnection Blog ]

Check out my Blog

 

 

Photos from the southeast street rod show

 Welcome to My GM Connection!

 All the Information - Without any sales hype    

Tip of the Week Industry News

Facts About Headlights

In the beginning, cars and trucks used incandescent or “sealed beam” headlights. Similar in design and function to your typical screw-in light bulb, they used a tungsten steel wire – or filament - sealed in a glass lens. When electricity passed through the filament it became so hot that it produced a steady and reliable source of light. As with home lighting, sealed beams had limitations. The brightness was limited and the light produced was not clean, natural-looking but a dingy tainted or yellow color. They also weren’t very efficient. The energy used to light the bulb actually produced 95% heat and only 5% light.

Next came the Halogen headlight. Around 1978, a brighter longer-lasting headlight hit the market. Although still an incandescent bulb, it was filled with an inert gas known as halogen which allowed it to burn brighter and last longer. This is still the most common style headlight in the industry. Early halogen headlights were sized and shaped like the old sealed beams which were either round or rectangular. This was convenient if you wanted to upgrade your lighting to the new halogens, but eventually the bulb and the headlight capsule or lens became two separate items. This allowed manufacturers to design the smooth streamlined headlights that are common today. The halogen bulb merely snaps into the back of the unit to provide the light source and is actually self-contained.

The latest technology regarding headlights deals with eliminating the tungsten steel filament that has been the common component of lighting since Thomas Edison. Such is the case with vapor lamps. Mercury and sodium vapor lamps are used in streetlights and at sports stadiums. But for automotive applications Xenon gas is the way to go. Xenon gas headlights produce a brilliant bluish light three times brighter than a halogen bulb, while using 65% less energy. The automotive industry has dubbed these style headlights “High Intensity Discharge” or HID headlights. While very bright, they use a special controller or ballast to create an arc between two points which excites the gas and creates light. To accomplish this, the ballast steps up the voltage from 12volts that the vehicle runs on, to 20,000 volts to ignite the xenon in the bulb.

Unfortunately, all of this high-tech magic adds to the price of having HID lighting. HID bulbs and ballasts can run hundreds of dollars to replace while a halogen bulb is twenty dollars or so. And don’t be fooled by imitations – HID produces a blue light but not every blue light is an HID.

Didn't find it? Try GOOGLING our site!


    

 

 

                     

 

 

CSF_logo.jpg

 

Cigar Shop Finder.com

Find Cigar Friendly Places Near You!

12BuickVerano

2012 Buick Verano Starts at $23,470

The all-new 2012 Buick Verano luxury sedan, which goes on sale later this year, will have a starting price of $23,470 including $885 in destination charges

____________________________________
 

PaceCarSM

Chevy Making Strides Against Breast Cancer at NASCAR

A yellow flag at two upcoming NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races will generate some green to fight breast cancer.

Chevrolet will make a $200 donation to the American Cancer Society for each caution lap that a specially themed pink Camaro SS pace car runs in upcoming NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Richmond International Raceway

______________________________________

Chevrolet Cruze Remains Best Selling Compact Car in U.S.

 

For the fourth month in a row, the Chevrolet Cruze is the best-selling compact car in the United States, recording a total of 21,807 sales in August. It is also the fifth-consecutive month of Cruze sales exceeding 20,000 units.

______________________________________

volts

Volt Drawing New Faces to Chevrolet Dealerships

For Chevrolet dealers in the Pacific Northwest and Mid-Atlantic states, the arrival of the Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle with extended range means new faces coming through the doors of their stores

_______________________________________

2012-Chevrolet-Silverado-Autonet

Take Your Office on the Road with the 2012 Chevy Silverado

Chevy WiFi powered by Autonet Mobile delivers high-speed Internet service to the 2012 Chevrolet Silverado, transforming it into an on-demand mobile office for small-business owners, contractors and travelers

_______________________________________

OnStar Helps Your Phone Tell Your Car Where to Go

OnStar is announcing a navigation enhancement to its RemoteLink mobile app that allows a subscriber the ability to search for a destination on his smartphone and send it directly to his vehicle where the route can be accessed audibly through OnStar Turn-by-Turn or via an in-dash navigation system.

 

 

              

 

 

What About Us?


The goal of this site is to help you understand more about the entire car ownership experience.  You will find nothing to buy here except occasional items from my personal troves.  Our goal is to make you a well informed consumer of the second most expensive investment you may ever make in life - your car!  Your feedback and questions are welcome.  Check out Tips of the Trade for  common car questions.  You will find general information relative to various makes and models. We are first-class maniacal car enthusiasts who love high-tech as well as old school. For our purpose GM simply stands for General Mechanics - that's what we do, what we know and what we share!

 

This site is not sponsored by or in any way affiliated with the General Motors Corporation. Photography © GM Corp. and  provided by GM Media.

 

Thanks for visiting our site!  

Feel free to share your thoughts, feedback and suggestions by emailing us at info@mygmconnection.com

 

Back to Top

 

 

 This site was last updated 09/07/11