BMW HID question

[Turbo6]

Well i'll ask you guys first before I take my new BMW back to the dealer. I don't know if something is wrong but a few days this happen.......Engine was off I turn the ignition and turn on the headlights. I noticed that it will go into a like a orange color and then to that white/bluish color, so I started to turn off and on a few times...The later it stayed that orange color and not back to the white/bluish color....I started the car up and turn on the lights and still that same orange color!

I drove back home and waited a few minutes and it seem to go back to the whitish color but I noticed that it don't seem to have that white/bluish colot to it anymore.....

Did I srew-up the lights??

 

[mattheww50]

Until the Arc stabilizes,and the lamps are fully warmed up, you can get all sorts of colors. I had a 175 watt GE MV2 lamp that would occaisionally flash red for a second or two before it was fully warmed up (it took about 5 minutes to reach full output), it then went on to its nominal 17,500 lumen output at 5000K.

Two bits of advice, as long as the funny colors are only a short term phenomenon, it is normal.
Don't turn the lights on and off in short order. Starting is very hard on the lamp, and the electronics.

The color tint of the lamp is very subjective, and is related to your surroundings. A night when most of the lighting is incandescent or Sodium Vapor, which is relatively low Kelvin Temperature (2700K or less), the lights will seem very blue. Move to an area with HID lighting, or broad daylight, where the color temperature is much higher, more like 5000K, and relative to those sources, it doesn't look blue at all. Your eyes have built in automatic white balance, and it can play tricks on you if you aren't careful.

 

[ChrisA]

I agree to what Matthew said - on my car (BMW 330d) the HID lamps start out slightly yellow (like ordinary headlights) and it takes about half a minute to reach that bluish white color. Don't try to turn it on and off repeatedly - that's of no use and can do much more harm than to regular incandescent bulbs.

Chris

 

[Willmore]

The first few hours of burn in on automotive HID bulbs seems to be quite important. I had a lamp failure very soon after I purchased my 2001 325xi. One lamp failed to start. I turned the lamps off, waited 30 seconds and turned them back on. The bulb came back on and has been FB ever since. I've probably got 800 hours on them so far and they are quite happy. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Also, hot restart is painful for the bulbs and can cause a lot of wear on the electrodes. Try to avoid doing that. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

For a 'break in' ride, I drove from Madison, WI to Cedar Falls, IA to see my hometown football team win the state playoffs. Varying my speed, gear, etc. made for an interesting ride. Oh, it was overcast and those wonderful HID lowbeams were on the whole time. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Just wish I could find a DOT legal HID driving light replacement. The Sylvania/Osram x1010 kit *might* work, but requires more dremel work on my bumper than I really feel comfortable with. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif