My factory HID bulbs have lost half their brightness. They are four years old and have about 1,300 hours use. Philips claims they should last 2,500 to 3,000 hours. The glass is clean. The high beams, quartz halogen bulbs, are much brighter. My mechanic recommends waiting for them to stop working. Do HID D2S bulbs gradually wear out like plasma TVs?

 

hmm never heard of this before. HID is relatively new so there really isn't much info on logevity. You can buy some new ones off ebay for around 50 bucks though.

 

They should be no different than any standard metal-halide system. It sounds more like a problem with the ballast/ignitor than the bulb. Both bulbs are dim, right? Compare your lights with another car with the same system, swap bulbs if you can. Check that your headlights are properly aligned.

Have the lights dimmed gradually or all of a sudden?

Again, I'll bet you have a problem somewhere in the charging system. When bulbs fail, they generally just fail.

 

I thought there are separate ballasts and igniters for each side. The past half year they seem to have gradually lost intensity.Both bulbs are dim.

 

yeah that's what I was thinking...they are completely seperate systems. If you are concerned about it, go buy some new bulbs.

 

Thanks Jest, as soon as the weather warms up, I shall.

These bulbs don't have filaments like metal-halides.

 

HID (High Intensity Discharge) is metal-halide... as well as mercury vapor, high/low pressure sodium, etc.

The standard circuit will have power into the ballast, which goes to a capacitor/starter bridged with a power resistor, which goes to the bulb inside of which has another power resistor, to the main gas/metal chamber, and finally back to complete the circuit. The cap/resistor starts the bulb providing a voltage surge which drops to normal power when the bulb is running. I'm sure the systems today are more advanced than a few years ago, but the basic circuit is the same.

I just want to understand what the problem is for future reference. In my experience, a dimming system has usually been an electrical problem. I did not know they were separate systems, though. If you get more info, please post.

 

http://www.proxenon.com/resource_details.php?id=12

 

Uh, I never suggested any confusion between filament-based halogen and HID. I've worked with HID in industrial applications over the years, but I guess having a low post count here means I don't know anything.

Anyway, I'd still be interested in finding if it's the bulbs or something else.

 

I'm open to all ideas, and I'm happy you posted.

http://www.lightingresearch.net/prog...adlighting.asp