I searched but i could not find an answer. Does anyone know for how long HID bulbs last in our cars?

 

there is no real answer, but they are supposed to last longer than halogen bulbs

sometimes they can last years, and in a rare case less than a year

 

I think I read somewhere that they can have a long life, but that life is dramatically shortened by flashing them such that they don't fully heat up when turned on and off. In other words, if you're going to turn them on, leave them on long enough to heat up. I'm guessing that would be about 10 seconds or so.

 

I can't give you a estimated time, but what I can say is that during the installation of the lights, if they were touched at any one time it greatly decreases the its life potential. The oils on the human skin do not react properly with the filament within our HIDS. Over time, it will eventually take it's took on your lights and you will be forced to replace it. Properly installed, the lights should last for the life of the car....

 

What color Kelvin Temp is stock on the HID's?

 

This is more the case with a hi-output incandescent such as halogen than with a gaseous discharge lamp such as HID.

HID's do not have filaments in the normal sense.. not like an incandescent.

 

Figure in the neighborhood of 8000 - 9000 hours.

 

This is bad for any lamp, be it incandescent or otherwise. However, with an HID, it's worse on the ballasts than the lamp. Best not to flash them at all.

Doing this with incandescents causes tungsten boil-off.

 

one of reason to stay away from flashing at traffic.

 

I believe all Cars have 4200K Stock, and I believe I have read that HID's last the life of the car if not longer, but who knows

 

You just dissappointed some female TL fans...

 

dont the high beams and low beams use the same bulb? and when the high beams are turned on, all it does is shift some reflector inside the headlight to shine higher so wouldnt it be ok to flash someone and not have it affect the life of the bulbs?

 

Thanks.. I've noticed that the TL's, S2000's, BMW's and some others look more blue than some of the other HID cars. Maybe its the projector lights?

 

Yes.

 

If you are REAL retentive, you may want to put it up on "blocks" to avoid the flat spotting problem.

 

Ya its the projector and how the housing is made

 

Thanks. I love the sparkle it emitts.

 

thanks guys for all the answers and good info

 

Yes only at night. Not during the day.

 

That's actually incorrect...as mentioned above, HID bulbs have no filament. The main point though is that the oils on your skin don't "react" with the filament in a halogen bulb, per se. The oil from your fingerprint literally creates a hot spot on the bulb and will cause premature failure (glass cracks/breaks). This will usually happen within a few hours, but higher powered bulbs (500W halogens in floodlights) will literally explode within a minute or two of use. Whenever installing these bulbs, use a cloth or towel with a little bit of alcohol and wipe down the bulb after installing...those suckers aren't cheap

 

HID bulbs have a lifespan of about 3000 hours officially.

This is normally considered "life of car" as most people don't do 3000 hours of night driving. That's 165,000 miles of driving at night, or driving with the lights on.

EX: Kris from the 2nd gen forum, our resident tranny expert, has something like 188,000 miles on his 2000 TL and the lights are the factory originals, they've never needed replacement.

But all cars are different, there are exceptions.

 

The USA version of the TL doesn't have the DRLs, so I think he's referring to the projectors. The projectors each have one HID bulb and a shutter to switch between high and low beam.

 

I believe we are both on right track I think I just need to rephrase my post on top.

If you start flashing at cars during the day, you are rapidly igniting HIDs without time to heatup/cool down. There is a time that's recommended before re-igniting HID. Im not sure what that exact number is (someone said 10 seconds). As a result, you are decreasing lamp life.

 

If I remember correctly, our lamp/bulb doesn't light more if you go to highbeam. There is a shutter or flap that covers part of the light and that's what causes the straight line. So hence our bulbs should only be at a constant temp all the time when lit.

 

Which I feel crappy because some cars (I beleive STS) have two bulbs to make twice the amount of light in high beam