Above: Simplified diagram of white versus yellow sectors.
Its better to compare an automotive HID lamp with the well known fluoresent tube. Very simplistic, light is produced by sending current through metal vapor.
Its obviuos that HID bulbs have the great properties of being brighter and whiter. An HID bulb dos NOT spread light like a generic light source that spreads equal light 360 degrees:
The labled light color on an HID bulb is an average that it will maintain over 2-3000 hours. After passing around 100-500 hours the phenonmen "color shift" will take place. Color will change slightly from a yellowish tone to a crisper bluer tone. The magnitude of color shift will vary depending on brand, model and rated color. It is a very gradual change and unless paid close attention to, a customer might not notice. OEM 4100K Bulbs manufactured by Philips has been reported to have a more noticeable color shift than OEM 4100K Osram. OEM 4100K Bulbs manufactured by Philips has a colorshift of approx 250K after 500 hours, which will bring it to up to 4350K.
Asian manufactured bulbs has been reported to have little or no color shift. Most of them come with output stealing blue filters, which may be part of the cause.
Why is HID lights totally blue for a few seconds after
startup?
Due to the extreme complexity, this question has been
condensed in to a MS Word document contributed by Ekooke, JustHitADeerWithHID,
H1HID, and Mr.108
HID
Phenomenon Document
It may sound like some non meaningful letter combination, but there is actually a meaning to the madness:
The main difference is the U-shaped masking on the D2R
that blocks out unpredictable light in certain directions. Also, the
base has different notches.
Name of base is P32-d2 for D2S and P32-d3 for D2R.
D2R was developed
so that Mercedes could still use their reflector based headlights in the
mid 1990s. They did not want use projectors like BMW. A glare box inside
the headlight could have been used to accomplish a straight line, but a mask
painted on the bulb was cheaper to make and had better precision. Other (near) luxury
cars (Lexus, Infinity and Acura) followed Mercedes and equipped their cars
with D2R bulbs in reflector based headlamps.
Using a D2R in anything else than a OEM HID headlight designed
for the D2R bulb makes no sense. It will only reduce output. Some HID kits
comes with D2R bulbs. Some amateur kit designers will even claim that D2R
genrally reduces glare in a retrofit. This is nonsense. The D2R bulb masking
is around 3-4 a'clock and 8-9 o'clock when bulb is in right position. Those
are not the (only) sectors that creates glare.
As an example, here is the data on Philips 2 versions:
D2S: 3200lm, 4250K, 91lm/W, 35W
D2R: 2800lm, 4150K, 80lm/W, 35W
Above from left, D2R and D2S. Note that Philips does not make blue
painted HID bulbs. The appearant blue color is just background.
D1S is a further developed D2S, to increase safety and elimnate the need to mount ballast inside or onto headlamp. The base of a D1S bulb has ignitor built in, eliminating the need to transfer 23kV through a cable. The Less components that can be harmed by mechanial impact, the safer it is. D1S is part of Philips "XenStart" system - see "HID Ballast" page for more info.
D1S is basically a D2S, where base is "cut halfway off" and a black box is mounted to the base. Which means D1S does not have any higher output. D1S system is backwords compatible. A D2S bulb can be mounted into a D1S socket of a OEM HID headlamp. When mounting a D1S into a D2S socket, you will see that bulbs seats great because mating base are identical. Its the securing part that can be questionable. Deep securing rings will not go under the ignitor box. An OEM HID headlamp designed for D1S typically use a spring clip to secure HID bulb. The spring rate is much higher than in traditional halogen system, mainly because of higher weight and need for more safety. A D2S bulb will m
The connector on D1S is different as well. Voltage from ballast is only around 85V, so extreme high voltage plugs are not needed.
D1R differ the same way from D1S as D2R differs from D2S. For more details on Osram D1S, see this offsite link.
Legend:
OEM=Original Manufacturer Equipment
aftermarked=sold as spare bulbs or manufacturer of kit
Bulb base: P32-d
85122: D2S. Color is bluer white with slight greenish tone.
85122+: D2S CM (Plus). 5000K. Aftermarked only. Ment to pair up with used 85122. Released Q4, 2002.
85122WX: D2S Ultinon. Aftermarked only. Released Dec 2001. Ultinons label on bulb were later relabled to "
Philips BL-2 Non automotive use"
85123: D2S. Color is bluer white with slight purple tone. Not officially on Philips product list. Nevertheless, it is found in some BMW OEM HID headlamps. Click here for a color comparison to 85122.
85407: D1S. Integrated ignitor.
85407+: D1S CM (Plus). Integrated ignitor. Aftermarked only. Ment to pair up with used 85407. Released Q4, 2002.
85126: D2R.
85126+: D2R CM (Plus). 5000K. Aftermarked only. Ment to pair up with used 85126. Released Q4, 2002.
85126WX: D2R. Ultinon. Aftermarked only. Released Dec 2001.
85408: D1R. Integrated ignitor.
85408+: D1R CM (Plus). Integrated ignitor. Aftermarked only. Ment to pair up with used 85408. Released Q4, 2002.
"CM" means color match.
There is a 4 letter date code following, which looks like this: L029, C024 etc.
What they mean is probably not very useful unless you do warranty work for
Philips.
Philips and Osram are the ones widely used in cars in North America/Europe. (GE is still trying to get their feet into car manufacturers budget.) They come with standard 4100K color temperature only. This is the only legal HID bulb color temperatire under DOT/ECE regulations. Many projector headlights in upscale vehicles may look like they have higher Kelvin rating, but that is an optical effect. See Section for projector units for more details.
Philips bulbs is slightly whiter than Osram. The amount of lumens are the same. Osrams seems to be softer on the eye. (Its proven that a lower amount of blue and higher amount of yellow irretates eyes less). Philips has the excact opposite, slightly more blue, slightly less yellow, so they appear more colder white.
Non of the OE companies manufacturers HID bulbs with any halogen type base. This would be an illegal product to sell and use on the street. OE companies value safe products higher than making some quick money now and lawsuits later. The only base they produce is P32-d that will fit into socket of a OEM HID headlamp. As an example, any seller who claims to have a 9006 Philips HID bulb is a scam. This is confusing marketing. At the best, all the seller can offer is a 9006 rebased Philips OEM HID bulb. More information on HID kits are found here.
Bulbs bought as HID kits or bulbs used in a Halogen headlamps are not covered. Some kit manufacturers use Philips bulbs as parts of their kits and sell with 5 years warranty. Only HID bulbs sold with a car are warranted from Philips. That leaves the retailer or the kit manufacturer as warrant. It is very doubtful that you will obtain that.
Most of us have played around with halogen bulbs and found out that the only thing that really decreases life is over voltage and high G-forces. HID bulbs are more frigile:
How to recognize the real Philips Ultinon HID bulb from a clone?
There are several indications. One of them is that
they are only made in Aachen, Germany. They are not made or made under
license anywhere else. The rest of the properties
are shown in this
picture. It shows the D2S version of it. Rebased bulb might lack the text
on the base. Custom base will lack the entire base. The remaining properties
will still be valid.
It is shown in product catalogs as "MPXL-DL35". MPXL stands for Micro Power
Xenon Light. This is the bulb installed OE in many HID headlamps today.
It is 3200lm bright (+/-450lm) and 4100K colortemp (0.380x 0.390y).
At zero hours it starts off at 4100K and goes upwards to 4600K after 1500 hours.
After that there is no measure points, but curve has the direction to reach 5000K
after maybe 2500hours.
Do not rush out and buy some 5 year old bulb from an old BMW 750iA yet;
As all other bulbs, they also get dimmer with time:
100% at 0 hours
90% ar 200 hours
80% at 1000 hours
75% at 1500 hours
70% at 2000 hours
Chances that a bulb gets as old as 2000h is not likely. 2000h of driving
in 70km/h (~50mph) is a pretty long distance: 140000km (~90000miles).
Chances that most cars see some form of front accident that will break
the bulbs are pretty high.
There is no reason to jump any conclusion that they loose lumen
too fast. I would be surprised if any other lamp can do better.
An halogen lamp is usually out of service after 5-600 on graphs like this.
Asian HID bulbs has repuation for 5-600 hours of life as well.
The hard facts on 4100K Osram HID bulb:
The hard facts on 4100K General Electric (GE) HID bulb:
The hard facts on Philips 6000K Ultinon:
Marketing name is currently "Plus". Production started up mid Sept 2002.
This will cover the demand for a bulb that will have the same colortemp as
an OEM bulb on a 2-4 year old car, without losing any real performance.
Typical use would be for replacing bulb on a high end car with more than 1000 hours of use, so that color is matched better than a new OEM bulb.
Base will be labled "ECE". These bulbs should be attractive for OEM dealers.
D3x and D4x are mercury free versions of the D1x and D2x light sources.
They do not work with older D1x/D2x type ballasts because steady on voltage is only 36 V.
Compare that to a D1x/D2x style, and u will see that voltage is 85 V.
In detail, 42 +/- 9 V can be measured at a D3x/D4x bulb.
They have same output, same life as D1x/D2x bulbs
Obviesly the arc disappears when power is turned off. The metal salts
will then turn into powder and will fill 1/8 of the bottom of the round
glass capsule in the middle of hid bulb. The color of these salts are grey/
green on Philips and Osram 4100K. Philips 6000K has a deep red color, which
can be mistaken to be blood. The color of the salt will remain until bulb
is turned on again.
Below: Philips D2S. The salts have fallen down towards return wire. Salts
have turned into solids. Bulb in picture below was burning with return wire
down. It was then turned almost upside down. That is why the salts are pointing
upwards.
Osram Sylvania and blue HID bulbs
6000K, 7000K, 15000K HID bulb scam
What are the results of using 6000K, 7000K, 15000K HID bulbs?
The importance of spacing for return wire on D2 bulb
Where can I buy original P32-d based HID bulbs from?
They are labeled "Osram Xenarc" and comes installed
as OE bulb on many HID headlamp equipped cars.
"Xenarc standard" datsheet:
Offsite link to Osram website
They have marketwise been more in the shadow, compared
to other HID manufacturers. They have not
been spotted anywhere else than as replacement bulbs at a dealer. This not an
indication of quality, probably more of an indication of price. A GE D2S bulb is
listed 3200lm and 4100K.
"Arcstream" Datasheet1:
Offsite link1 to GE's website
"Xensation" Datasheet2:
Offsite link2 to GE's website
Marketing names: "Ultinon", "Cool Power" and "Cool White" are all the same D2 lamps.
The Ultinon and standard lamps are identical with the visible exception
of the 'salts' colour in the burner and the ceramic insulation on the earth return lead.
Base is labeled: "Not legal for use in Europe/USA". This bulb is clearly
ment for the Asia/Japanese marked - they do not have the strict regulations when it comes to color.
Some aftermarked vendors market Ultinon as a brighter bulb than a standard D2. This is not true:
OEM Philips D2S is 3200lm bright (+/-450lm) and 4100K colortemp (0.380x 0.390y). (For comparison)
Philips Ultinon D2S is 2400lm bright (+/-250lm) and 5800K colortemp (0.327X 0.312Y).
The hard facts on 5000K Philips:
OEM Philips D2S is 3200lm bright (+/-450lm) and 4100K colortemp (0.380x 0.390y). (For comparison)
Philips 5000K D2S is 3100lm bright (+/-???lm) and 5000K colortemp.
What are D3S and D4S type HID bulbs?
How does arc look like when bulb is off?
Osram Sylvania has an HID bulb with higher color temperature as well.
They call it D-HC (Discharge-High Color) HID, with 5400K and 2600lm bright and
has an integrated starter in the bulb base.
It is used in their X1010 Aux low beam kit.
Their standard HID capsule has 4100K and is 3200lm bright.
Many people said, "oh no, not another blue bulb!",
and thought that the blue low quality bulb "scam" finally spread over to hit
the real HID market in late 2001. Philips Ultinons made in Germany
have equal quality, like the OEM Philips bulb, so you cant really call
that product a scam.
There are other blue HID bulbs made other
places in the world that can be scam products. They maybe even have the
Philips or Osram name on the box, or the base, but bulbs are made or modified by someone else.
Equal bulbs can also be markeded to have different color temperature. Most customers would
never know if color temp was was off, as long as they are matched as a pair.
Some kit and bulb suppliers advertise with 7000K and higher. This can
be suspective because a lower than OEM quality bulb can have been used. No bulb OEM
manufacturer makes any versions with more than ~6000K.
So either it is 6000K, or the bulb might have been painted. Painting bulbs decreases
brightness and in most cases decreases life.
So be aware what you are buying.
As an example, look at table below, and see how blue a
9000K bulb will be! Would you honestly want it to be as blue as the sky?
Yellow:
1500 k Candlelight
2700-2900 k Yellow painted fog halogen bulbs
-------------------------------
Yellowish white:
3200 k Sunrise/sunset
3200 k Premium H7 non painted halogen bulb
3400 k 1 hour from dusk/dawn
-------------------------------
White:
4100 k Philips/Osram OEM HID D2S
5500 k Bright sunny daylight around noon
----------------
Blueish white
5500-5600 k Electronic photo flash
6000 k Philips Ultinon HID D2S
6500-7500 k Overcast sky
-----------------
Blue:
9000-12000 k Blue sky
-----------------
Purple:
28000 Northern sky
12000-30000 k Ultra Violet light (black light)
---------------------------------
Above table is based on the ancient Kelvin (K) colortemp defined along time ago.
Before we knew that was electro magnetic waves.
At that time we only knew the temperature
something had when burning. As an example, a candle light burns at around
1500K (see table above) or 2100F (Fahrenheit) or 1200C (Celsius).
Interesting! So what is actually white light?
Now that you know that light is electro magnetic waves, imagine that each base color
(blue, green, yellow and red) has each wave length. White light is a balanced mix of
all of them. Here is the window that are visible with human eyes:
720nm infra red - heat radiation (invisible)
660nm red
610nm yellow
550nm green
460nm blue
420nm black light
400nm ultra violet (invisible)
1nm = 0.000000001 meter
Stage 1 refers to 4100K and stage 2 normally refers to something
higher value K.
As an example, a 6000K bulb in some headlamps might
not show much difference at all, others will look more blue. These are
observations when standing in front of the car looking into the headlights from above.
After getting over the initial thrill of cooler light, many drivers have noticed that important traffic information
are not as appearant as with OEM standard bulb. White traffic signs is being lit too much
and can feel glaring.
During winter 2002, exponensional use
of Kelvin (K) rating is used as brightness improving advertisement. Its all just
big empty words. Do a search for "kelvin color temperature" on a search engine (ie: yahoo.com)
and you will see that it has nothing to do with brightness and all to do with
color. Going upwards from 4100K means that your light turns blue at the expense
of total brightness and yellow color. Theoretically, if the same brightness were to be kept, you would have
to increase the wattage of the bulb from 35 to maybe 40W, and redesign the ballast.
This would be a very costly solution, so thats pretty much why all automotive HID bulbs
are 35W.
If the return wire (on the bulb) electrically hits headlight reflector, you can risk your
ballast. The igniting mechanism in ballasts are relatively frigile and
start voltage can decrease from the rated 23kV. That means that it will
not be aurn wire and the metal. (Notice that even plastic reflectors
are considered an electrical conductor. They are chromed.) You can get away with a
close distance if area is very small. But it might give unpredictable
results. Its the same with lighting froime.
Philips: autolamps-online.com, suvlights.com or car dealer.
Osram: suvlights.com or car dealer.
Whether u purchase from suvlights.com or autolamps-online.com is
a matter of personal preference. Postage is minimal from both places
- they only weigh like 40-60 grams or something each.
What other wattages than 35W HID bulbs does exist?
There is a 17W HID bulb used for diving flashlights. It does appearantly lack some of the
good features and/or qualities compared to a Philips/Osram HID 35W bulb.
The main developer of automotive HID bulbs, Philips, has a 50W HID
bulb (Product name: MPXL-DL50) and supporting ballast readily developed. Per fall 2002, there was no automatic shutdown on these ballasts. Output is around 5300lm. Inserting this bulb into a vehicle lamp
designed for the 35W HID bulb gives more some more output, but its not a huge difference.
The bulb base is not much difference from P32-d base used in 35W HID bulb base. Colortemp is 3900K which creates a CRI of 75, which is excellent. Life expectancy is around 3000hours at ideal condiations.
The availability of MPXL-DL50 has been special order only up until 2004. Some boxes of 10 were sold on ebay fall
2004. Be prepare to order in larger quantities if interested. When/if Philips gets more success in selling the centralized
lighting concept (based on fibre optical wires), the MPXL-DL50 will remain an oddity.
Todays hid bulbs are designed to operate at ~85 volts after igniting.
Increasing voltage increases output, decreases color temperature, increases current
and decreases life. An example of a ballast currently on the marked that can deliver
more volts is the german built
Auserwald ballast. (Distrubuted in the US by Kenrad Lighting, Oregon).
It has separate output terminals labled "50W" where
increased voltage is present. (It also has output terminals labled 35W).
Hidkits.com
has a variable output ballast, that can decrease output voltage from 85V.
This will make output dimmer and bluer. Their ballasts is an in house design,
and many has reported it to have a questionable design and finish in year 2000/2001.
How do I convert A D2R bulb to an almost D2S?
1. Sand the ceramic paint of the D2R off with 400 grit sandpaper. Be careful
and dont rub too hard and dont expect to get it all off right away. Patience
and a steady hand is key.
2. Then use the 600 grit to go over the areas where the ceramic paint
is/was. Do not sand any place that did not have the old ceramic D2R paint.
3. Next, use the 1500 grit paper and go back over the areas again. This is
the longest part. This is the part that you can repeat. Do not repeat the
above steps. The paper in the above steps will just make the scratches
worse. I used a very little drop of water on the sandpaper and rubbed the
D2R while it was wet. This helped alot. After, the first time using the 1500
grit dry, repeat with 1500 grit wet. After you feel that you cant do anymore
or that you are making it worse, then proceed to the next step
4. Use a very small amount of the Rubbing compound and spread it using a
clean cotton terry cloth. Just put enough to make a thin layer over the
areas where the stripe was. To remove the rubbing compound use a clean terry
cloth. To remove any film and to clean it in general, use isopropyl alcohol
and a sterile natural cotton swab(better to use) oran it in general, use isopropyl alcohol
and a sterile natural cotton swab(better to use) or a q-tip.
5. The last step, which i didnt do but others have, is to take a dremel and
attach a cotton polisher. Dont turn it up much at elp alot. I didnt do this step. My bulb
looked scratched after i was done and was extremely worried. BUt when i put
it into to my projector along side the my other projector which had a
regular D2S, the beam pattern and brightness were the same. So even if the
bulb still looks terribly scratched dont worry aobut it b/c there is NO WAY
that you can get it to look like the rest of the bulb. Just stay in the
areas where the ceramic paint is and you will be fine. Dont scratch up
anywhere else.
As for the bases of the D2S and D2R...they are ALMOST identical except that
the notches are on opposite sides. However, to fix this problem it literally
took me 30 seconds to fix. I found where the notch on the D2R needed to be
fit my D2S housing, and took a triangular file and filed away; 30 seconds
and problem fixed. The hardest part was figuring out which size file I
needed. I got a pretty small one and made a notch just big enough for the
housing's notch to fit.
In total, you have to weigh how much time you want to
put into this against price of new D2S bulbs. HID bulb return wire is covered with a thin ceramic tube and is therefor
brittle. HID bulbs are frigile, they cannot be handled as much as
halogen bulbs. The most common reason for broken insulator is after using HID
bulbs in a halogen housing. It may sound awkward, what is really the difference
you may wonder. Fact is that halogen headlights have a much smaller
diameter hole compared to an OEM headlight. An OEM headlight typically has
an opening of about 25mm (1 inch). So if you buy HID equipment and insulator
is broken about 30% of way from the base, well then seller has not been aware
that bulb must be HANDLED WITH CARE when inserting/removing. Life of bulb will be reduced if insulator broken. The intention of the insulator
is to stop high voltage arcs during startup directly from inner wire to
return wire. Such archs will eventually kill bulb. Rapairing it is probably not
worth the effort. There is not really any material that will stop high voltage
from arcing besides ceramic. If you are able to place special rinsed clay onto
wire, then burn it a 1000C oven, it be great for wire but not HID bulb.
Return wire could be cut, a new insulator could be attached (not available on
the marked), then return wire could be welded back together. This would require
a small scale welder - not very common tool to have.
Many sellers nowadays offers several brands with different price tag. Typically,
HID bulbs desgined and manufactured in simple facilities will have lower quality.
Most of these bulbs are made Asia. Typical signs of lower quality is non existing data sheets.
The marked also has many copycats: Packaging and bulb labled Philips or Osram
exists on the marked. Be sceptical if a brand name bulb is too cheap to be true.
Consumers reports life to be short (less than 600 hours) and dim output.
Please visit the online forum.
There are plenty of people that have automotive lighting as a hobby and are willing to help you.
Copyright 2001-2004 Automotive Lighting FAQ
How do I make a blue bulb clear?
D2R and blucoated bulbs are less bright than a clear D2S. The coating
can physically be removed.
Get a 3M Auto-Pak WetorDry Automotive Sandpaper (Walmart)
(it has 220, 320, 400, and 600 grit paper) and i bought 3M 1500 grit paper.
3M rubbing compound is great to remove 1500 grit scratches.
Also, use masking tape to cover the base of the bulb and the end of the bulb
so water and any foregin parts do not get anywhere they do not belong.
How do I fix a broken return wire insulator?
Conclusion: Broken return wire equals defective bulb
What brands of HID bulbs is NOT world class
Here is a list of bulbs in this category:
Where can I ask questions?
