Yet another HID experiment

[Toecutter]

I also have to report that I now have a very small amount of what appears to be heat damage to the reflective coating inside the headlight housing.

Where (on the reflector) is the damage located? I have a bit directly above the bulbs, on the "ceiling".

 

[bmwhd]

I also have to report that I now have a very small amount of what appears to be heat damage to the reflective coating inside the headlight housing.

Where (on the reflector) is the damage located? I have a bit directly above the bulbs, on the "ceiling".

Same here. Right above the bulbs. I plan to keep an eye on it to see if it gets any worse. Light pattern remains excellent and I won't give up the HIDs no matter what so I may have to apply a small square of silver heat shield to that spot if it looks like it's spreading

 

[slapnpop]

The the dark color arc chamber is typically caused by electrode burn-back. Prominent factor here is number of strikes, especially hot re-strikes.

The foggy spot in the reflector could also be an effect of out gassing. There are several elements inside the bulb that start to leak out slowly as the bulb ages, and can deposit above the bulb on the reflector. Heat damage is likely, but not the only possible cause.

 

[TriggerT]

I picked up a set of these HID's from another member who purchased them, but never installed them. Any pictures of install on a Gen 2 would be great, and any further feedback on issues people have had would also be helpful. Thanks.

 

[bmwhd]

I picked up a set of these HID's from another member who purchased them, but never installed them. Any pictures of install on a Gen 2 would be great, and any further feedback on issues people have had would also be helpful. Thanks.

Interesting timing on this post. As it turns out, the second of the original two HID capsules that started this thread failed yesterday. I'll be replacing it with a less cheap but still inexpensive version. The wires, relays, and ballasts all were fine but the capsules were just too cheap.

I've done a bunch of HID conversions and these two capsules are the only ones I've had fail. I've got over 200k miles and 5 years elapsed on the ones I put in my Tahoe for example.

I remain a very strong proponent of this conversion. Even riding home last night with only one HID on and the other side dark, there was more and better light than with the pair of OEM bulbs.

Let me see if I can dig up the photos.

 

[TriggerT]

Thanks Todd. Did anything more ever happen with the spot on your reflector that was being changed by either heat or off gasing?

 

[bmwhd]

Thanks Todd. Did anything more ever happen with the spot on your reflector that was being changed by either heat or off gasing?

That seems to have stabilized. I have not noticed any further growth in size or severity.

 

[BrunDog]

One of my slim ballasts crapped out about 6 months ago, and I ordered 2 replacements, one to replace and one as a backup replacement. These cheapo Chinese lights are questionable for durability, but like above, I would not give up HID lighting, if for no other reason other than daylight visibility.

-BD

 

[bmwhd]

One of my slim ballasts crapped out about 6 months ago, and I ordered 2 replacements, one to replace and one as a backup replacement. These cheapo Chinese lights are questionable for durability, but like above, I would not give up HID lighting, if for no other reason other than daylight visibility.
-BD

Turns out I was wrong. For the second time, a simple grounding issue was the problem, not the lights. HIDs have to have a REALLY solid path to ground or they won't fire and during my recent battery swap, I left one of the two ground wires for the HIDs off. D'oh!

 

[bmwhd]

UPDATE As stated in the previous reply, my cheap set didn't suffer a second failure. However, in the course of debugging the problem (and prior to finding the loose ground wire) I was looking over a new kit that is of MUCH higher quality but no more cost. I'll post side-by-side pics and vendor info soon. Long story short - I've ripped out my original set lock, stock and barrel and replaced it with this new kit and I'm really pleased with the even better light patterns and output.

 

[bmwhd]

Ok, I have the complete new kit installed. I'm really happy with this upgrade which says something since I thought the original kit put out very nice lumens and pattern.

Short version - I received a new kit that includes a pair of Phillips 5K H4 telescoping bi-xenon capsules and a modified wire harness. I've lot most of my original install pictures but I took a couple this time.

First, here's a couple that try to show the immense difference in quality of manufacture between these capsules and the very cheap versions I had been using.

These photos show the Phillips capsule. The servo, wires, and shielding are all much nicer in quality and fit than others I've seen.

Here's the original unit:

It's hard to see here but one of the key differences besides quality is the type shield, the shape of the high beam cut out, and the design of the high beam deflector(?) that rides with the capsule as the servo moves it fore and aft. On the Phillips, this piece is solid and secure. On the cheaper unit, it is very thin and flops around a bit. Also, the shape of the hole in the shield which determines high beam pattern is different. I'll shoot beam patterns as soon as I can.

This shows the weather boot modified with the two notches you have to cut out to allow any of these HID capsules to fit in the weather boot.

Here's the capsule installed in the boot before the shield is reinstalled

With shield back in place

Here's how I zip tie the boot bent backwards to facilitate installation in the bike.

 

[Toecutter]

Where'd you get the new capsules?

 

[bmwhd]

A local guy that supplies the DFWBMW club. I'm getting his full contact and price info and will post soon. The kits are very competitively priced.

 

[TriggerT]

Thanks for the info!!

 

[user 5188]

One of my slim ballasts crapped out about 6 months ago, and I ordered 2 replacements, one to replace and one as a backup replacement. These cheapo Chinese lights are questionable for durability, but like above, I would not give up HID lighting, if for no other reason other than daylight visibility.
-BD

There are two problems that make poor HID sets.

One is active lamp voltage monitoring.

The other is power handling capability, and lack of protection in the ballast.

Over time the bulb requires a higher voltage to maintain the arc in the lamp, simultaniously, running too high of a voltage will shorten the life of the bulb considerably.

Cheapo ballasts use bulb run time to gradually increase the voltage output to the bulb it works but is innefficient, while high quality ballasts use active lamp voltage monitoring via a secondary ciruit in the ballast to maintain the arc with the lowest possible voltage. obviously this cost a litttle extra, but the benefit is a longer bulb life span by far. Replacement hi/lo h4-3 bulbs for the fjr are somewhat expensive, so this is a big benefit.

Secondly, as i said, the bulb will need a higher voltage to maintain the arc as it ages, cheap ballasts may only becapable of lamp voltages of say 130 volts, while better ballast will be able to run the bulb as high as say 160 volts, this can litterally double the effective service life of the bulb by having a ballast that can run it longer.

Keep in mind, an hid bulb never really "burns out" it just take a higher voltage to keep it lit, and eventually the ballast will not be able to light it. Reignighting the bulb while it is still warm from being run only seconds earlier has the largest effect on shortening the electrodes and thus shortening the life of the bulb.

About chinese made hid kits, I am not aware of ANY aftermarket HID kits that are not made in china, there are OEM fac tories for hid compnonents in other countries, but they do not make halogen-HID conversion kits, or parts. Occasionally, Philips, GE, or sylvania will manufacture HID vessels which are sent to foreight factories awhere they are remounted into halogen bases, and sold as conversion kits THESE ARE the best kits, but all too often the sellers arnt even aware that they have sylvania, GE, or philips bulbs so they wont list them as having such. There are made in china bulb, you DO NOT WANT THEM, they usually lack an effective UV sheild and the abundance of UV light form the bulb can damage plastic lamp housings.

The bulbs pictured above, are made in china using philips HID vessels made in germany. I have these very same bulbs, they have a stainless steel mounting plate that is ideal for motorcyles

I learned all this because I now sell hid kits locally. If any of you ever need help installing, or troubleshooting an HID set, I can help.

 

[bmwhd]

UPDATE - I met with Steve (the vendor) today and we agreed that since he doesn't have his web site act together, he'd just as soon have me offer the lighting products he sells (HID and LED) to the FJR community directly. I'll put a post soon in the Vendor forum with prices and info. These are very high quality kits and I'll be passing them along without markup. I just want to give folks here access to these items with a minimum of fuss.

 

[MajBach]

UPDATE - I met with Steve (the vendor) today and we agreed that since he doesn't have his web site act together, he'd just as soon have me offer the lighting products he sells (HID and LED) to the FJR community directly. I'll put a post soon in the Vendor forum with prices and info. These are very high quality kits and I'll be passing them along without markup. I just want to give folks here access to these items with a minimum of fuss.

It's been awhile but do you still supply these? Can you recommend an on-line high quality vendor?