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update on quest to regain a bright xenon beam
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Posted by Saabinhappy (more from Saabinhappy) on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:45:34 Share Post by Email
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So I kept driving at night thinking my vision was going beause it was getting darker and darker in front of me. I would pass by late model cars with HID lights and notice that when they passed they would cast a shadow in front of me and their beams were very clearly visible and delineated.

My bulbs had something like 80K on the clock (second set, first was swapped at 70K, I'm at 150K now) so I went on ebay and purcahsed a slightly used matching set. So far, in this -20 degree weather and with the air of a flashlight and one windburned hand I was able to do the driver side bulb. To my surprise there was only a slight difference, more light downstream on the ground but still a weak, fuzzy cutoff on the sides of the driveway especially at an angle to the direction of the bulb.

I compared the new bulbs with the old. The old bulbs had a green/grey deposit all over the gas chamber which indicated that they were indeed very old and near the end of their life. The slightly used OSRAM bulbs had clear chambers with just a slight yellow deposit.

To the point of this lengthy post? Don't underestimate the penalty of having cloudy lenses. after 150K mines are yellowish and somewhat cloudy. I am going to pick up a 3M polish kid and work on them this weekend. I expect that to bring that sharp cutoff back and put more light in front of me.

PS - the 80K tired bulbs NEVER flickered.
PPS- new bulbs have little to no deposit/residue on chamber, as the bulb ages the deposit will turn yellow, dark green, grey and eventually a dark grey on its way out over the course of its lifetime. As the bulb ages the beam gets "cooler in color" new bulbs have almost a yellowish tinge to our eyes, then the beam gets bluer and eventually a reddish purple (see acuras circa 2000 one the first passanger cars to do hid mainstream).

Damn, this was long. Later!


posted by 216.141.1...


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