HID Low Beams Died

[Ignacio]

Remember when we had a Self Buy for HID Low Beams in October of 2005? I jumped in and bought a set of 6000K blingmeisters and installed them the following Spring. They've been great lights putting out lots of lumens where I needed them and a very clean cutoff.

Some might also remember that I ran the Iron Butt Rally in August and had a bit of a scary moment in New Mexico at 3 a.m. when I lost a second light to what I had presumed was an electrical wiring or water infiltration issue. In my haste to switch to the spare halogen I luckily had packed--I pulled the wires from the HID bulb that had died in the first leg.

Well, I didn't get around to fixing it until now and found out that it wasn't wiring or water for one of the bulbs. One had burned out. It was grayish black inside the salt chamber and when I tried to fire it up in the comfort of my garage I got dim pulses of light.

I didn't see any water infiltration, definitely hadn't handled the bulbs, or anything else unusual. It had just burned out.

By my estimates I got about 40,000 miles and between 1,000 and 1,500 hours on the bulb. I had read somewhere that Hella HID's should got 10,000 hours...so obviously much less than I had hoped. Meanwhile, Warchild hooked me up with a spare set of 4300K he had from the original buy and I'm hoping to be good for another 18 months plus.

Another observation is that in the end of the light is an epoxy material and over the time it has heated up, cooled, and eventually cracked. I did have some powder and chunks in my reflector.

I'm not suggesting these bulbs suck though. The epoxy doesn't appear to serve a purpose I can see, but this is one data point. The other bulb would work fine if I hadn't yanked out the wire...and actually will carry it as an emergency spare after I silicone the crap out of it. And even if they're only good for less than 2,000 hours the number of useful photons they produce are well worth it IMO.

Also, the McCullough ballasts and igniters seem fine...no changing those.

Anyway, call it an extended report.

 

[Toecutter]

Check here for availability of lifetime-warranty HID supplies. Cost more, but only cost once. I bought a set off eBay, one side passed in a week. Could've gotten the same thing lifetime for less than $50.00 more, from a guy I could actually call and talk with.

I got in on that same buy. When mine die, I'm gettin' some of these:

Apexcone H4/9004/9007 55w - $320 (Under "Products")

 

[Flylooper]

Check here for availability of lifetime-warranty HID supplies. Cost more, but only cost once. I bought a set off eBay, one side passed in a week. Could've gotten the same thing lifetime for less than $50.00 more, from a guy I could actually call and talk with.
I got in on that same buy. When mine die, I'm gettin' some of these:

Apexcone H4/9004/9007 55w - $320 (Under "Products")

This whole lighting issue has me in a quandary: The OE lights on my '04 bike are clearly inferior. I've augmented them with a pair of Hellas which work fine. They're inexpensive and throw a ton of light, but with them off, the OE lights are terrible, damn near dangerous, IMHO, when riding at night.

So, I've been patiently looking at HID systems and this thread reminds me (as we get into the season) that I need to do something about this.

Why is it that these bulbs burn out after so few hours on them? I think the McCulloughs are rated at 3,000 hours. The HID's on my car don't have this issue. I've never burned out, nor had to repair/replace any component of my Acura's HID system.

Self qualification: I'm nearly totally ignorant about this subject, as you can see.

 

[Feejer/Weejer man]

The FJR oem lighting is one of the best around. Just by comparison to hid's etc are they inferior.

 

[Ignacio]

Why is it that these bulbs burn out after so few hours on them? I think the McCulloughs are rated at 3,000 hours. The HID's on my car don't have this issue. I've never burned out, nor had to repair/replace any component of my Acura's HID system.

The items we did a group buy on were McCullough ballasts and igniters, but the bulbs were not. In fact, they didn't have any branding on them....so probably weren't as high of quality of what you probably have in your car. But at $160 for the full set.....they're WAY cheaper than what's in your car. If the bulbs are half of that cost...that makes each bulb about $40 each and I figure for 1000 to 1500 hours on what is probably the low end...that's cost effective.

You tend to get what you pay for.

 

[Duster19]

Check here for availability of lifetime-warranty HID supplies. Cost more, but only cost once. I bought a set off eBay, one side passed in a week. Could've gotten the same thing lifetime for less than $50.00 more, from a guy I could actually call and talk with.
I got in on that same buy. When mine die, I'm gettin' some of these:

Apexcone H4/9004/9007 55w - $320 (Under "Products")

This whole lighting issue has me in a quandary: The OE lights on my '04 bike are clearly inferior. I've augmented them with a pair of Hellas which work fine. They're inexpensive and throw a ton of light, but with them off, the OE lights are terrible, damn near dangerous, IMHO, when riding at night.

So, I've been patiently looking at HID systems and this thread reminds me (as we get into the season) that I need to do something about this.

Why is it that these bulbs burn out after so few hours on them? I think the McCulloughs are rated at 3,000 hours. The HID's on my car don't have this issue. I've never burned out, nor had to repair/replace any component of my Acura's HID system.

Self qualification: I'm nearly totally ignorant about this subject, as you can see.

I have to totally agree with you about this. When I have to turn my Piaa 910's off (55 watt bulbs by the way).. it's scary. It really looks like my headlights aren't even on.

Matt, a couple of questions for you or anyone that knows the answer. How hard is it to replace the stock bulbs? (I've read not hard but a pain in the butt if you have big or even average size hands). As you know, I'm a newbie to all of this and want to learn, but also don't want to screw things up and cost me more money in the long run. If they last 40,000 miles I'd be happy. For that amount of riding I will probably get 3-4 years of use.

Basically Matt.. .what's your favorite bottle of wine, liquor or 1/2 rack of beer...and I'll be over to get help with the headlights and Galfer break lines ...

Dave

 

[Ignacio]

Matt, a couple of questions for you or anyone that knows the answer. How hard is it to replace the stock bulbs? (I've read not hard but a pain in the butt if you have big or even average size hands). As you know, I'm a newbie to all of this and want to learn, but also don't want to screw things up and cost me more money in the long run.

I wouldn't want to say you can replace them while drunk.....because that would have much larger implications, but I could do the left one at least while at a .05.

However, I've changed the left one without pulling off a bit of plastic....and the right is much harder to do without removing at least the C and D panel. The trick is being able to visualize the angles, mechanics, and forces of how the metal keeper works and the rubber boot. It's not something that one can easily screw up...it just might be hard to do on the side of the road.

If various pictures don't do it for you give a call and you can see the stuff before it gets buttoned up Sunday. I'm generally around tomorrow.

 

[Jester]

I'm installing a set of these too. We got to the light off point and nothing.

Moved the grounds from the windshield motor mounting bolts to the negative terminal and Voila!

Tried the high beams and the light pattern flipped from 3.5 feet and below (on the wall) to 3.5 feet and above. Not quite the pattern I was expecting....

Is this normal?

J

 

[Toecutter]

Moved the grounds from the windshield motor mounting bolts to the negative terminal and Voila!

:clapping: :yahoo:

Did the diagram have you grounding them someplace other than the battery terminals?

Tried the high beams and the light pattern flipped from 3.5 feet and below (on the wall) to 3.5 feet and above. Not quite the pattern I was expecting....
Is this normal?

This is the complaint I've heard about the telescopic Bi-Xenon units. Welcome to the realm of R & D! I think there's some info on a mod to the capsules on one of the other HID threads. Maybe this one. At any rate, the vendor probably won't be much help with that issue, but I've BTDT with the original shuttered versions.

Have you ridden with them yet? As I recall from mine, the dual lows (when I used to have them) really lit the place up, but I've never seen the highs in action outside of the parking lot across from the Park City Marriott.

 

[bmwhd]

I'm installing a set of these too. We got to the light off point and nothing.
Moved the grounds from the windshield motor mounting bolts to the negative terminal and Voila!

Tried the high beams and the light pattern flipped from 3.5 feet and below (on the wall) to 3.5 feet and above. Not quite the pattern I was expecting....

Is this normal?

J

Yes, the ground must be very clean for the ballasts to work.

No, that doesn't sound normal (low/high transition). Mine matched the halogen patterns (low and high) quite closely.

 

[ngarider]

Yep, mine are the same as bmwhd's, and I adjusted a bit to throw just a bit more light down the road on lowbeam.

I tried using a metal brace for ground. I eventually had issues. Direct to battery (or from a ground bus bar off battery) is the way to go. A ground bus in front will also save you trouble when you hook other stuff up (like, oh... a Datel).