HID Help!

[JustinKYC]

Hi everyone,

So over summer I purchased a set of 6000k D1S 3five Morimoto Bulbs and a set of 6000k Morimoto HID System for my fog lights. I got my foglights working and they give off what I think 6000k should be giving. But when I replaced my HID bulbs for my headlights, the two colors from my fogs and headlights are completely different.


Untitled by Jkyc., on Flickr

I thought there was something wrong with the bulb so I ordered another set of 6000k bulbs for iJDMtoy. I tried them out today and they look exactly the same as my morimotos. I'm starting to think its not the bulbs problems and thinking there's something up with maybe the ballasts?

Any input? I would really like to get this done with so I can get my headlights and foglights color matched.

Thanks

[dubwerkz]

Re: HID Help!

in my opinion, when matching any HID set-up (fogs to headlights) go with the same brand, which it looks like you have done.
there's a couple of things to take into consideration:

1. if the headlights have been burning longer than the fogs, they could be slightly discolored due to the burn period of the lamp.
2. are both ballast's the same? (ie. digital slim, etc).
3. sometimes your housing can cause that, but usually when going with a higher-end set of HID's, you shouldn't see a difference.

Look's like your headlights are running through projectors? and the fogs are just a standard fog light lens? sometimes the projector lens will distort the color/output.

[Danaldson]

Re: HID Help!

im sure sean (mechengg)will chime in. He seems to know his stuff when it comes to hid's and such.

[JustinKYC]

Re: HID Help!

in my opinion, when matching any HID set-up (fogs to headlights) go with the same brand, which it looks like you have done.
there's a couple of things to take into consideration:

1. if the headlights have been burning longer than the fogs, they could be slightly discolored due to the burn period of the lamp.
2. are both ballast's the same? (ie. digital slim, etc).
3. sometimes your housing can cause that, but usually when going with a higher-end set of HID's, you shouldn't see a difference.

Look's like your headlights are running through projectors? and the fogs are just a standard fog light lens? sometimes the projector lens will distort the color/output.

I've installed them at the same time so that should be fine. The ballasts are different, for the headlights I just have the OEM ballasts where as the foglights I have the Morimoto 3five Ballasts. The headlights are projectors but I tested the bulb outside the housing as well and it still gives the same white-greeny tint in comparison to a bright white with blue tint.

im sure sean (mechengg)will chime in. He seems to know his stuff when it comes to hid's and such.

thanks

[MechEngg]

Re: HID Help!

Hey,

Ballasts can change the color of the HID but it is not that drastic, usually a few hundred K lost for every 20W of additional power to the bulbs, in your case you would have to be running 200W ballasts for the bulbs to look like that.

MY guess is that the salts need some burn time. When you get a set of new bulbs/ballasts they will ALWAYS be yellower than you think. Depends on the bulbs but it usually takes between 20-100 hours of burn time to have the light color actually shift to the final color, you will also notice it get brighter over this time.

Another purely biased opinion (but correct IMO) is that you should not be running HIDs in those reflectors. The glare is horrible, i gave you the benefit of the doubt in the other thread but with that picture i would recommend you take them out immediately. Reflector vs projector will also give you different light colors and different intensities but it won't make that significant a difference that you see here.

I would say that a combination of the reflector and having burn time are making the foglight HIDs white, where as the new-ness and projectors are making the headlights yellower. I would give it ~50 hours and check back with us at that time, should be about a month of driving in the winters here in calgary.

[JustinKYC]

Re: HID Help!

Thanks for the reply.

The thing is that I installed the two bulbs at the same time and tested it outside of the housing and the foglight bulb produces a much more whiter light than the headlights. I've been running the headlights for about 3 weeks now, they have gotten whiter for sure, but no where close to the foglight bulb.

That's not a biased opinion, HIDs in reflectors are horrible for other drivers and I agree with you. But I really enjoy the the color and lighting of the fogs but if I were to take them out, it would just be almost $180 down the drain. Do you know of any other possible options?

[MechEngg]

Re: HID Help!

Well one of them is a D1S you said, i'm guessing the other is a rebased bulb? Which type of bulb? If it is in the 880 series then it is only a 27 watt bulb (or similar) and will appear whiter with a 35W ballast and that could be causing the noticable difference?

[JustinKYC]

Re: HID Help!

Well one of them is a D1S you said, i'm guessing the other is a rebased bulb? Which type of bulb? If it is in the 880 series then it is only a 27 watt bulb (or similar) and will appear whiter with a 35W ballast and that could be causing the noticable difference?

The fogs are H8 size, don't know what kind of bulb it is.