How To Tell If HID Burned Out?

[MR Bulk]

Is there any indication, such as the connecting wires within being broken, etc.? I realize there is a tiny ball of gas that glows a hot bright white in there, but when an HID bulb is "broken", will there be physical indications such as breaching of the glass envelope, etc.?

Answers from anyone who has personally experienced this would be very much appreciated.

 

[Wolfen]

Now you are into HID? Is there no hope?

 

[Ted T]

I work on high end cars and can tell you I have never seen a bulb wear out in a hid headlight. The only failures have been of the igniter, the high voltage balast that runs the bulb.
Ted

 

[highlandsun]

If you drop a bulb and shatter the glass envelope, I think it will be pretty obvious... But for an installed bulb that hasn't been hit with a hammer or something, it would take a few thousand hours of burn time for the electrodes to wear down so far that they can't maintain the arc.

 

[MR Bulk]

Hmmm, then my LC100 electronics might be bad?

 

[Chris M.]

Silly question but have you checked the little fuse? You have to remove the back plate of the ballast assembly, there`s 2 of them in there- one is in circuit and the other is a spare. Odd little short things, no idea where you can get extras from so it`s good they give you a spare.

I blew mine when experimenting, trying to power it from a 12 volt lead acid cell. Thankfully only the fuse went, suffice to say I stopped experimenting with it at that point and put it back together as nature intended

.

 

[MR Bulk]

Chris, sounds like you and I should talk. I checked the fuse, did everything else I could think of, including removing and reinstalling the bulb, rechecked a dozen times the battery orientation, etc. Still no light!