I've been meaning to post this since the day I got the car. I am JUST NOW remembering to post it... 20 months later.

When the OE alarm goes off (or push the PANIC button), the headlights blink with the horn. Um... HELLO?!?! These are HID headlamps. Keep turning it on/off repeatedly will shorten the life, correct? If it was a halogen headlamp, I could careless.

I couldn't believe myself.

 

Well, if the alarm is going off or if you pushed the panic button, I'm sure you wouldnt mind if the lifespan of your headlights gets decreased. Atleast, if its an emergency. As for shortening the lifespan, I'm not sure how HIDs are affected by repeatedly turning on and off.

 

its called alarm = alert = danger = bad = emergency = now or never = death is eminent

so basically shorting the HID for a couple minutes for what i listed above is worth every penny

 

^^^^True that, even if the car has to blow its door open, I could care less if my life is at hand.

 

how do you activate the alarm? I havent experienced my Z being tampered with...yet.
Can you guys fill me in to how to set off the alarm without pressing the panic button...

 

Flashing the HID's can be drastically reduce the life of the bulbs. However, you ARE panicking. Bulbs only cost $150-300. They can't change the alarm to suit HID and then Halogen Z's differently (efficiency wise).

 

Honestly I don't know cause I never tried it, but try locking yourself inside and then unlocking your door without the key. If that doesn't work, park it in a bad neighborhood and just watch.

 

roll your windows down, lock the car...wait about 5 minutes and pull pin or flip tab (which ever the Z has to manually unlock without key) thats how I used to accidently setoff my factory alarms at gas stations when I couldn't get to my fob.

 

Yea, people do it to my car all the time. My car will be locked and a friend of mine will go to get in the car, door is locked, they just reach in and un-lock it. Poof! Alarm goes off! Stupid stupid people keep setting my alarm off...

 

Nothing we can do now but I agree with your complaint, why couldnt they just have it wired to the Hi-beams, just as effective as flashing the lows in an emrgency, also if you are driving duuring the day and need to flash your hi beams (headlites off) it will turn on both HID and Hi, oh well

 

I wonder how hard it would be to re-wire it so the alarm flashes your high beams?

 

I don't think you could do it via wiring and keep everything else working properly. To keep everything else working as intended you'd have to re-program the BCM to flash the other set of lights. I’m sure we could work that into our re-flash system when we get it ready for the market some time next year, if there is a real interest in it.

 

The problem that wasn't.

 

You can do it by leaving your windows open, then wait about 1min for the alarm to activate, with the blinking red light above your dash. then unlock your door through the window, this sets off your alarm.

 

I frequently flash my HIDs instead of the high eams since it grabs more attention to whoever I am doing it to. Interesting to see if it actually makes a difference.

 

trust us when we say it does^^^^

 

the HID's flash when i flash my highs soo...

 

Yup, this is correct. Lame design which is also shared by my Maxima (which also came standard w/HIDs). If memory serves, I've also seen previous gen (pre-04) Acura TLs w/factory HIDs do this too.

 

What if your car has HID low AND high beams. Like a BMW. Then what?

 

Same with the 06 350z headlights - when you flash somebody when your lights are off, it flashes the HID on/off. I don't see it as a poor design, when many of the new cars do the same thing. I'll still continue to use the HID flash as a warning device.