eighteight

last week i went to the dealer because my right headlight was going out after it got hot. He swapped it out, and i noticed that night that the one he changed wasnt blue like the other one. I went back assuming he put the wrong one in, and he put a new one in, and the same thing. Now i got one blue, one white headlight. He says the one he put in is stock, and the other one must be wrong, i say no way thats the one that came with the car your not touching that one so i can have 2 white lights. Then i remember that when it rained a couple of weeks ago there was some water inside the right headlight, and he said this must be the reason. When you look directly at both lights you can see the bulbs are blue, but the reflection all around is white on the right headlight. He says the water must have washed off the outer coating or something, and thats why its not reflecting blue any more. Does this sound reasonable?? They ordered me a new one, and there gonna change it next week, cant hurt to try but do you think it will work? thanks

acura_service

i know on a mercedes if you change a headlamp bulb, it will not match, that is because the factory bulbs are phillips and replacements are osram's which have a yellowish color instead of blue, but thats all you can get, so i always replace both for people so they match, also i was told by mb that hid bulbs have to mature to color

Eggplant-EX

If that doesn't work, have them replace the other side as well, then it will match

eighteight

thats the problem, i dont want them to look the same if there both gonna be white. I want them both blue, the way the car came, the way every other 2001 acura-cls looks.

autoxCLS

You see - that's the thing - they're NOT blue, and not supposed to be blue. They're white lights - similar in design to a regular flourescent bulb, but at a different frequency of light. If I remember correctly, ours "burn" at 4500K, which is right smack in the middle of the white and blue color range. Technically, White is 4200 Kelvin, whereas 5000 Kelvin is Blue.

acura_service

xenon does not mean "blue" - they are brighter than halogen
whatever the tinted color may be when you first turn them on

Scorpius

Thay are 'less red' than a normal halogen bulb. We're used to seeing all those yellow lights when we put our superior HID one next to it, it'll look blue. Kapische?

acura_service

yes but xenon does not mean blue, its just a different spectrum of light, some replacement bulbs are more yellow/white than the originals

KCPreki11

dude screw both those headlights...buy the 6000k's and see the diff.

eighteight

all im asking for is to make it look the way it did the day i bought it, i dont think thats too much to ask. do you think its possible that because the water got in the light that could affect the color the light reflects?

Derekh

Xenon lights have a color shift approx after 100 hours of use they start to look bluer. Xenon lights are white the blue/purple color you see is light that is thrown at the reflector to give the lights a cool color. remeber they are gas powered go flick on a butane light and you can see blue red ,orange etc in the flame for hid they use that small amount of blue to create the HID color.

92legend

DerekH is right about the color shift. If the dealer did replace the entire headlamp see if you can get your old bulb out of your old headlamp back. Or is it what went out? If not, and you put it back in both of your headlights will look the same color.

eighteight

yea the original light broke, so they swapped it out. but now the new one doesnt look blue. So your saying if i give it 100 hours, it will turn more blue?? The dealer apparently didnt know that because he was confused as to why they didnt match.

chizad1980

Shit, I wish my bulbs turned more blue after a hundred hours. I work the night shift, so I have driven my car 2 hours a night for the past 8 months. I was actually considering going to the dealer, because my lights don't seem as bright as they used to be. They look dull, almost light those fake HID's. When I drive next to other cars with HID's, they are tons brighter, and whiter. Do any of you guys have this problem? Please let me know, so I know whether or not to bitch at the dealer.

red99cl2.3

you;ve probably seen alot of projector setups. those would be brighter and reach further

fuzzy02CLS

iTrader: (2)

On the CL & TL, If 1 bulb goes out & gets replaced IT WILL NOT match the other light. This is normal. Reason being the lights are broken in already. The new light will need to be either ran for a while & hope the color changes. Sometimes it is never a total match. Or the other light will need to be replaced as well.

phipark

I think you guys have it backwards. The bulbs are blue to start with, then over time they turn to the super white color that you are used to. The blue is normal when brand new.

car_lost

welcome to 3 years ago.

gsrblack

just fyi for anyone getting bulbs exchanged....(yeah, i see this is a 3 yr old post):

same thing happened to me....after they changed one (the inverter and bulb), it was a bit yellower than the original. i complained and they changed just the bulb on the other, and that one was even more yellow than the new one that was replaced. i complained more and they swapped out both assemblies....and the same thing, one was always whiter than the other. too hard to get them to match....so i just live with it. now, i can't really tell. but the lights aren't really blue....they are just bright white, a lot whiter than regular halogens on most cars.

MethodRN

I see that this a 3 y/o post brought back from the dead.
To my understanding.....
1. Xenon is just a gas inside the light bulb itself. What actually causes the increased light output yet low power draw is HID inverter and therefore, needing bulbs such as D2R or D2S. I mean, you can buy a bulb out there that burns Xenon, has anywhere from 4300 to 8000K. But these do not produce the same output. They'll just look anywhere from white to blue to purlpe and look brighter to oncoming traffic.
2. Anything greater than 6000K, and you actually lose lumens. You're headlight will have a blueish hue and will look brighter to oncoming traffic, but the distance of your visibility from inside actually decreases.
3. Anything greater then 6000K actually fatigues you're eyes. Where as a white light produced from 4300K to 6000K are easier and cause less fatigue. I've actually experienced this. I took a long road trip in my CL-S and the exact same trip in a 4Runner w/o HID. My eyes got tired sooner, and I needed more stops becuase I was getting sleepy while driving the 4Runner.
Again these are just my thoughts, I could be wrong. I read alot of this information on a site, just can't remember the URL.

MethodRN

BTW I use 5000K Philips and here are my results.


When one bulb went out, I replaced both to avoid any matching issues. Most places recommend this cause if one went out, the other can't be far behid from going out also.

F23A4

1bigredviper

so on a 2003 cl-S, how many miles would i expect before replacing xenon bulbs and when i do, how much do they cost??

Tosh

The life of a Xenon bulb depends on how many times it is turned on as well as how long it is on for. Just like any other bulb....

bigman

i had the same problem and had both headlights changed and they were white, not blue. But after a few weeks they started getting blue again.

Sly Raskal

iTrader: (1)

in addition, when the lights are first turned on they look blue, and as they heat up they turn to a more white color.

nucleusTL

When I first got my 03 tl Everyone going in the opposite direction would flick their highbeams at me trying to say that my highbeams were on. But they were not on so I would really turn my highbeams on to let them know my highbeams were actually not on. (if that makes any sense)