HID performance ,,,,,,, interesting discovery

I've been retrofitting HID's in all of my vehicles for over 10 years now, and I've done a handful and a half of conversions for friends over the years as well. So, I've got a good amount of experience and I'm in the Lighting industry as well.

About 3 plus years ago I had a little paint work done on my 08' X-Runner at while it was being done I decided to replace the headlights due to some UV sunlight damage that would not polish out. I had a DDM tuning 55w H4 kit in there and I was fairly happy with the overall performance but never thrilled. High beams always sucked.

Anyway, I had a bulb go out on me a couple of weeks ago and popped in a halogen until I got the parts to fix my issue. I ordered a new kit from DDM, same as what I had, H4 hi/low and I also ordered a new pair of Depot headlights as well. The headlights came to me about a week after I put in the new HID's.

Here's the interesting part of the story, the new HID's are significantly brighter than the old ones I pulled out. I realize that some types of lamps are brighter when new than ones that have some age on them but didn't realize or had forgotten about that little fact. The kit I put in was the same as the one I had removed in terms of specs. 5K color, H4. I compared the new lamps to the old ones and the capsule was at the same height, the only difference was the light shield but the positioning was the same.

So, if those running HID's and have been for a long time feel that your lights just aren't as right as you once thought they were, you may be right.

BTW, before the haters chime in about doing HID's to a non factory HID unit, let start off by saying that I agree with you in regards to many times the end results are terrible for oncoming drivers. I have not had such bad luck. Though my photo metrics aren't perfect, I have my aiming set so as the light is on the road as it belongs, not glaring into space. With a good bulb that had the capsule correctly positioned in the reflector bowl, and the correct light shield in place, it isn't bad at all. At lease when the lenses are cyrstal clear and not fogged.

 

That's called color shift

 

And poor QC from China probably

 

No not exactly. Just like fluorescent lamps, the output will slowly degrade over time. Also true of LED's.

 

It's color shift and natural aging of the HID bulb. Every HID bulb does this, even OEM.

 

Aw hell....ALL light bulbs halogen, HID, LED, no matter what kind they are dim over time.

The sun will eventually burn out too for that matter.