8k to 6k HIDs

[MartinDov]

Hi,

I currently have 8k HIDs on my car, H4 style bulbs and recently one of the bulbs has burnt out.

What I want to know is if I buy 6k replacement bulbs, H4s, will they work on the same ballasts.. I.e. is the ballast only providing power and the bulb is controlling the light output colour?

Im looking to buy http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HID-...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

Advice please

Thanks

 

[kidinspace]

when it comes to bulb colours on HID bulbs it depends how much light want on the road, the lower the number/colour temp the more light transmistted on the road.
I had 6000K fitted to my car but had to remove them due to a separate issue.
The ballast provides the 23,000 volts required to create the arc of electicity required which is the light produced, the colour of light is determined by the gas as far as I remember. These bulbs also run at 35 watts unlike halogen bulbs at 55 watts - somehting else the ballasts do.
but I found these produced the most natural light on the road.
This ballast looks the same as mine (although the stickers are different)

Just find a set of bulbs with that type on connection on them as from the research I done this appears to be the most common type of ballast on the market.
If you don't already have bi-xenons then look for those as replacement bulbs - give you full beam too.

Edit:- Just looked on the link you posted and those bulbs will fit on the type of ballast pictured above.
But like i said look at getting these:- Ebay item number - 230328001990, these come with the wiring required to get the full beam back.

.G.

 

[MartinDov]

Yep my ballast's look like that, can those ballasts run the 6k and 8k, 10k etc bulbs.. There is no need for new ballasts.. This is what I needed to find out about.

 

[kidinspace]

Yep my ballast's look like that, can those ballasts run the 6k and 8k, 10k etc bulbs.. There is no need for new ballasts.. This is what I needed to find out about.

In a word yes because the colours produced by the bulb is dictated by the mix and strengths of gases used in the bulbs itself.
The arc tube or inner bulb is made of plain fused quartz and has tungsten electrodes with the distance between the tips approx. 4.2, maybe 5 millimeters (approx. or slightly under .2 inch). Its construction resembles that of a miniaturized short arc lamp, but true short arc lamps have a much more concentrated arc.

The arc tube has xenon gas in it at a couple of atmospheres to maybe a few atmospheres when cold and a few to maybe several atmospheres when hot. There is also mercury in the bulb, and when it is vaporized the mercury adds at least 20 atmospheres of pressure for a total pressure of around or maybe even over 30 atmospheres.

Metal halides - salts - are also in the arc tube. The formulation in automotive HID lamps includes sodium and scandium halides (probably iodides) and maybe traces of others such as lithium and thallium halides.

More ordinary metal halide lamps do not have high pressure xenon but have low pressure argon instead. The high pressure xenon is used to obtain some usable light output during warmup before the other ingredients have vaporized.



But since each side consists of two parts - light bulb + ballast - have you taken the known working bulb and plugged it in where the other one went out to see if it is the bulb or the ballast?

 

[MartinDov]

Yea I tested both sides with the bulb/ballasts and I can see a colouration on the bulb that fails to work, it ignites but doesn't light. I can see where it has burnt out.

Just bought those 6ks so see what happens when they arrive.

 

[kidinspace]

Yea I tested both sides with the bulb/ballasts and I can see a colouration on the bulb that fails to work, it ignites but doesn't light. I can see where it has burnt out.

Just bought those 6ks so see what happens when they arrive.

The ones you've bought don't have full beam, did you have no full beam before?

.G.

 

[MartinDov]

I didn't have full beam no, I had a full beam but it was a very rubbish orange glow of a light to say the least...

 

[cupraajy]

always wondered this about the H4 hids....Still get a main beam? Not that it really effects me running the H7 versions.

 

[MartinDov]

Well the driving beam is HID, then full beam is like halogen but it's not very good. Well not on the 8k HID bulbs I had to start with.

 

[kidinspace]

Buy these, ebay item:- 230328001990

.G.