Sexi_Lexi

My car will be 11 months old in 2 more days and about a week ago, the passenger side HID bulb blew out. Did this happen to anyone else? It's not a big deal but I'm just curious if I'm the only one with this problem.

I got the bulb replaced but what pisses me off is a) the car is not even a year old for the bulb to go out like that and b) my headlights are now not the same color because my driver side will be whiter than my passenger side due to the color shift.

And for those of you who are wondering, I DID NOT do a single thing to the bulbs. No mods whatsoever.

I'm wondering if this happened because I leave my headlight on auto so every time I'm under a freeway overpass, the headlights would turn on. Maybe the flickering of off and on all the time burnt out the bulb?

ISbb

IMO the bulb life is not calculate by how old your car is! Is how many hrs of used... ture that the bulb should last longer than a year but things happen right? And how come the color is not the same? if you replacing the with the same color (K) bulb they should be the same unless there are more problems need to be solve beside the bulb itself... I think you should get it both replace and save the extra one (old one) for the next blown (let's hope not)!

kickin8

iTrader: (1)

the dealer should replace both bulbs for u if you complain about the color issue.......

Sexi_Lexi

the reason for the color difference is that an HID's color will shift and change slightly over time/usage. when our cars were brand new, the bulbs were more yellow but with a lot of usage, the color is more white than yellow.

ISbb

really!? I thought the color should be the same at all time... Anyway in that case is only matter of time...

ISbb

I suppose they should do it in the frist place(I think the dealer knows that)

tx_is300

i just had my HID bulb go out also.
i set the lite to AUTO setting and maybe this has something to do with it.
especially when in the garage, the lites always comes on at first since it is dark, which causes the sensors to come on/off more often.
in my old IS300, i always manually turned the lites on/off.
my IS350 is about 11 months also.

i presume the HID bulb is under warranty at least during the first year?

or maybe there is electrical problem??

bagwell

I never thought keeping the lights set to AUTO was a good idea....it surely can't help the life of the HID bulbs turning on/off unnecessarily, altho some people say they always leave theirs on AUTO with no issues over the life of their other car(s).

ISbb

I think I should turn on/off the light manually from today onward...

eddo1

I remember reading somewhere that HID lamp life is shorten if you keep turning it on and off without letting it get to a normal operating temp (as in leaving it on auto going under a tunnel). Something about the crystals in the HID bulb. I'll try to find that article again. So I usually operate it manually and not flicker on and off in garages.

Here u go, from autmotive faq:
http://faqlight.carpassion.info/hl-hid-bulbs.htm

#
What decreases life of HID bulbs

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:
# Probably the number one reason is lamps running with non approved ballast. It does not matter how good the lamp is if the ballast characteristics are not OK the lamp will die prematurely.
# Turning bulb on and off without neccesary cooldown. Turning it on more than 3 times an hour seems to reduce life according to datasheet.
# Burning in the wrong position or plane. This creates over heating both of the internal components in the lamp but also at the pinch. The biggest failure across lamps as a whole is airleak. In the HID lamp you have very high pressure and temperature, if these are direct wrongly to the pinch the lamp will fail. Both Philips and Osram recommends horisontal (+/- 10 degrees) burn positioning.
# Handling. They are a delicate product which have not been designed to be handled. They are very much fit and forget. You can risk damage either to the burner or to the UV shield or both. This damage can be either physical or by contact depositing oils and acids from your skin on the glass.
# Headlight housing not according to specs of the D2 bulb. Bulb vibrations caused by loose retaining mechanism, or bulb getting too warm simply because housing is too small and do not get adequete cooling.

Dj_AmtraX

iTrader: (2)

Changing the bulb is a b*tch!

pocky

iTrader: (12)

Dj_AmtraX, Changing the low beams does NOT require you to remove the bumper. I know you were installing turn signals when you did this. Only the turn signals require bumper removal. I suggest you thread the thread throughly

Kari, if you got this under warranty; I would suggest you ask the to change out the driver side also so you can match the two HID's. Or just order 6000K.

EDIT:

# Turning bulb on and off without neccesary cooldown. Turning it on more than 3 times an hour seems to reduce life according to datasheet.

I think this might be the number one cause of HID failure in all cars with AUTO feature.

Whenever I drive under a tunnel, or underpass. The HID's never turn on. Maybe I drive too fast under it?

I realize our cars actually give it about 10 seconds to make sure it's "dark" enough to turn on the HID's. Unlike German cars where the minute there is shade for 2-3 seconds, the lights come on.

j|michael

I leave my headlights on all the time. The running lights are too yellow, and look gross. I wish there was a way to change them to white LEDs, then i would leave the lights off during the day.

Dj_AmtraX

iTrader: (2)

From my experience, it looks like it will be VERY difficult to remove/install new HID without removing the headlight assembly. I hope I don't have to do it soon. I am going to leave my switch to manual. I never liked the auto anyways.

pocky

iTrader: (12)

I just changed my OEM HID's to 6000K last night in 35 minutes.