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SUVs Mitsubishi Outlander Xenon HID headlamps
16 messages, Last post on Oct 19, 2009 at 12:10 PM
You are in the Mitsubishi Outlander Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & tidester
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Replying to: cool08outtie (Nov 13, 2008 11:41 am) The HIDs might also have to be programmed. (whatever happened to just having only relays controlled directly by the stalk switches?) |
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Note that the below information posted in 2006 on my webpage so the standard gas-discharge bulbs including BMW/Audi mentioned may be higher than 4100K now. Why do BMW & Audi lights appear blue when they use a white bulb? MISCONCEPTIONS There are many companies and private merchants out there that will advertise 7000K, 8000K, and even 12000K HID kits. Most of these vendors lurk around on ebay, online car forums, websites, and ricer accessory shops. 100% of the people that buy these kits do so because they are uninformed, uneducated, or misguided in the field of lighting, and will buy these junk kits thinking three things: that these bulbs are brighter, that these bulbs should cost more money, and/or that they will perform better. All three statements are completely false. Perhaps this misconception and frenzy for purple lights originates from BMW and Audi's infamous Hella projector HIDs. Philips is the number one manufacturer of HID bulbs. The Philips OEM D2S bulb is rated at 4100K at 12.8 volts and produces 3200 lumens of light. The Philips Ultinon D2S is 5800K at 12.8 volts and produces 2400 lumens of light. As you can see, with all other factors remaining constant, the brightness of an HID bulb declines the higher up the color index you go. Vision, a Korean bulb manufacturer, makes an 8000K bulb, which they used to advertise on Acura-Forums as 2000 lumens bright. This is barely a marked improvement over halogens, and will produce more glare and eye fatigue than it is beneficial. 4100K has been proven through tireless independent research by the Germans, Japanese, and Americans to be the most functional, truest white and thus the brightest possible color temperature. Every car manufacturer in the world (including BMW and Audi) uses none other than a standard 4100K gas-discharge bulb. No exceptions. The reason being is that 4100K is daylight white in color and produces the same color visible light as direct sunlight. This is least fatiguing functional color on the eyes and produces the most comfortable contrast on the road. So the million dollar question is now: Why do BMW & Audi lights appear blue when they use a white bulb? Well, this coloration is the result of the light projectors; the lenses: it's transparency, it's curvature, the tiny grooves etched into it; the projector assembly, the shield, and the reflector bowl. All these components work together to produce a signature of light unique to that particular optic's design. On the Audi and BMW projectors, the lens curvature at the edge bends the white light producing a "prism effect". White light is broken down to it's fundemental colors. Since blue lights is high energy, it is absorbed last and thus travels farther. So with this prism effect, you'll notice that BMW HIDs are only purple and blue from the sides, the top, and the bottom edges, but are always daylight white on the road and in the beam pattern. This phenomenon can be demonstrated when you watch an oncoming BMW hit a pot hole or speed bump in the road and the car's nose pitches up and down. The headlights will flicker and "throw colors off", but returns to a solid white beam pattern directly on the road. Trying to emulate this color-flickering effect with a solid-state blue or purple bulb is only detrimental to lighting performance, it doesn't fool anyone, but most importantly it endangers other motorists around you. Blue light has what we call a very high diffuse density, which causes it to radiate outwards as opposed to forwards. What results is a wide glow of light outside the beam pattern that is blinding to motorists you share the road with. A blue HID bulb will produce color bleed around the headlight, around the objects it lights up, outside of the beam pattern, and around the cut off line. This is effect is known as "glare", and these illegal and improperly installed HID kits are the reason why HIDs get a bad wrap. As common evidence of glare, observe a traffic light at night in a dimly lit area. There is red light and green light. Red is opposite blue and green is next to blue, thus we can substitute green for blue. If you observe the aura, or glow, of light around a red light and compare it to that of a green light, you'll notice that the green light produces much more glare than red. Blue is even worse. Purple, the worst. Pictures worth a thousand words, for pictures comparsion on blue versus white bulbs, go to my page at http://www.cardomain.com/ride/612165/4
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Replying to: ocuihs (Nov 22, 2008 6:13 am) Just a question before I get involved in this project in changing the halogen headlamps of a 2009 SE Outlander AWD for a Xenon lamp combination. The idea is to buy the headlamp assemblage of the Xenon light that comes with the XLS AWD (Package P2, $1650), taking away the halogen headlamps (as a unit) of the SE and replacing by the Xenon lamps assemblage. This experiment will possible require just to replace the standard halogen headlamp fuse by one of 25A in the SE. Can I do this experiment so I will have my SE with Xenon lights at a cost of $600? Each xenon lamp/light costs $300.
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Replying to: batman47 (May 18, 2009 2:24 am)
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Replying to: batman47 (May 18, 2009 8:32 am) The European Association of US car import has presented a complaint to fight this regulation due to American car makers don’t install lamp washer in the front bumper on cars with Xenon. |
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