H.I.D bulbs...All equal or are cheap bulbs a false economy?
Discussion
Before anyone starts whittling their torches and fetching a pitch fork...I have a factory fitted HID system and not on about retro fitting HID's to a Saxo!
My A4 (B7) had two faulty bulbs a few months ago (Both flickered on and off, the passenger side more so).
Now as some will know. The B7 A4 is a real P.I.T.A to change bulbs with the bumper, grille, inner arches and headlamps need removing to do so (I have a 3.0 TDi). I wasnt sure if i needed bulbs or ballasts so bought some €24 bulbs from Ebay. They did the trick! Result!
But the light from them is dreadful.
Dipped beam is poor. I mean seriously fuzzy with no clear definition on the road and very little light after 10M. Full beam seems to be the same just a tad brighter. NO penetration...Maybe 12-15M. I can drive full beam and oncoming cars dont care. I have had them re-aligned. Nothing.
So i am beginning to believe its the bulbs. They are just no good. I would never use the cheapest bulbs when i had Halogen but in my experimentation/cost saving i opted for these dirt cheap HID bulbs.
Can anyone else shed any light? Has anyone else suffered similar?
Any recommendations for brand?
My A4 (B7) had two faulty bulbs a few months ago (Both flickered on and off, the passenger side more so).
Now as some will know. The B7 A4 is a real P.I.T.A to change bulbs with the bumper, grille, inner arches and headlamps need removing to do so (I have a 3.0 TDi). I wasnt sure if i needed bulbs or ballasts so bought some €24 bulbs from Ebay. They did the trick! Result!
But the light from them is dreadful.
Dipped beam is poor. I mean seriously fuzzy with no clear definition on the road and very little light after 10M. Full beam seems to be the same just a tad brighter. NO penetration...Maybe 12-15M. I can drive full beam and oncoming cars dont care. I have had them re-aligned. Nothing.
So i am beginning to believe its the bulbs. They are just no good. I would never use the cheapest bulbs when i had Halogen but in my experimentation/cost saving i opted for these dirt cheap HID bulbs.
Can anyone else shed any light? Has anyone else suffered similar?
Any recommendations for brand?
I recently bought some cheap HID/Xenon bulbs for our Honda Civic, which has factory fitted xenons. I've only been out in the car a handful of times at night since I fitted them, but the lighting performance really is very poor TBH. I am going to replace them with the Philips X-treme Vision which seem to do well in the magazine tests. Last time I buy cheap HID/Xenon bulbs off Ebay!
ss1977 said:
am going to replace them with the Philips X-treme Vision....
Had the same and were excellent, but one blew, had a look around for replacements and came across 'Philips Xtreme Vision PLUS 130%' for the great price of £20 delivered - not had chance to fit them yet though.http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/p/car-accessories/...
I bought some cheap replacement D1S bulbs last year and they were a complete waste of time. The light output was no better than the >10 year old originals in the car and with a great deal more flickering.
Now replaced with genuine Osram bulbs and I won't be making the same mistake again.
Lots of info on the differences between cheap bulbs and quality branded ones here: http://priuschat.com/threads/not-all-hid-bulbs-are...
Now replaced with genuine Osram bulbs and I won't be making the same mistake again.
Lots of info on the differences between cheap bulbs and quality branded ones here: http://priuschat.com/threads/not-all-hid-bulbs-are...
It looks like the second reply has assumed you don't have a factory fitted system...
I have experienced the same issue as you when replacing the D2S xenon bulbs in a Mercedes SL with cheap eBay ones. The beam was devoid of focus or penetration.
Having done some background reading the reasons became obvious. Such bulbs require an extreme level of precision during manufacture. Those which lack this will exhibit:
1. The quartz tube which houses the arc 'bubble' may not be perpendicular to the mounting base.
2. The arc bubble itself will almost certainly be malformed
3. The gas inside the arc bubble may be of an incorrect specification
4. The salts inside the arc bubble may be of an incorrect specification & quantity
5. The arc gap between the two electrodes may be incorrect
6. The return wire from the top electrode may be on the wrong side of the quartz tube
7. The quartz tube may not be quartz...
The Chinese manufacturing plants which churn out such rubbish need to cut corners in every possible way, including those factors above.
All such factors will combine to produce a less bright, less well focused, and shorter lived beam.
In some cases, particularly if the arc gap is excessive, you'll be driving your ballasts (the black boxes which provide the high starting and steady-state voltage) too hard which could shorten their life.
Sorry to confirm your suspicions but they need to come out. Replace them with genuine Osram or Philips units and the beams will return to normality.
I got mine from http://www.hids-direct.co.uk/ . 2 x Osram HID bulbs for £70 (D2S or D4S). Mine were genuine and well packaged.
I have experienced the same issue as you when replacing the D2S xenon bulbs in a Mercedes SL with cheap eBay ones. The beam was devoid of focus or penetration.
Having done some background reading the reasons became obvious. Such bulbs require an extreme level of precision during manufacture. Those which lack this will exhibit:
1. The quartz tube which houses the arc 'bubble' may not be perpendicular to the mounting base.
2. The arc bubble itself will almost certainly be malformed
3. The gas inside the arc bubble may be of an incorrect specification
4. The salts inside the arc bubble may be of an incorrect specification & quantity
5. The arc gap between the two electrodes may be incorrect
6. The return wire from the top electrode may be on the wrong side of the quartz tube
7. The quartz tube may not be quartz...
The Chinese manufacturing plants which churn out such rubbish need to cut corners in every possible way, including those factors above.
All such factors will combine to produce a less bright, less well focused, and shorter lived beam.
In some cases, particularly if the arc gap is excessive, you'll be driving your ballasts (the black boxes which provide the high starting and steady-state voltage) too hard which could shorten their life.
Sorry to confirm your suspicions but they need to come out. Replace them with genuine Osram or Philips units and the beams will return to normality.
I got mine from http://www.hids-direct.co.uk/ . 2 x Osram HID bulbs for £70 (D2S or D4S). Mine were genuine and well packaged.
a ballast dropped on one of my previous cars, 250-300 for a new one or £15 for a cheap Chinese set of 35w digital ballasts and 4300k bulbs, IMO they are better than the factory fit items and the light colour is much nicer and seems to give added definition to road markings, signs and cats eyes than the standard article. do flicker a bit on warm up but I can deal with that. it seems to be hit and miss with hids, and sometimes cheap bulbs with standard fit ballasts can cause issue. get yourself on the bay and have a look theres a uk seller selling normal 36w kits at 15-20 and the bi xenon seem to be about 30, grab em and have a go, if they are better then problem solved if they re no different then its only 30 andyou could prbablyget a good chunk of money back if you resell the.
beemer thom said:
a ballast dropped on one of my previous cars, 250-300 for a new one or £15 for a cheap Chinese set of 35w digital ballasts and 4300k bulbs, IMO they are better than the factory fit items and the light colour is much nicer and seems to give added definition to road markings, signs and cats eyes than the standard article. do flicker a bit on warm up but I can deal with that. it seems to be hit and miss with hids, and sometimes cheap bulbs with standard fit ballasts can cause issue. get yourself on the bay and have a look theres a uk seller selling normal 36w kits at 15-20 and the bi xenon seem to be about 30, grab em and have a go, if they are better then problem solved if they re no different then its only 30 andyou could prbablyget a good chunk of money back if you resell the.
Or save yourself the ballache of taking all those bits off the car for a 3rd time and buy the proper branded or even OEM bulbs that seem to last 10 years and work perfectly right up until the day they go pop? Unless you're digging up worms to eat I cannot see how that much hassle is worth a potential saving of £40, and even if the eBay specials are "ok" you know they're never going to be as good as the proper parts. Chinese unbranded parts = buy cheap, buy every 6 months.Edited by dme123 on Monday 5th January 16:20
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff