2003 X-Type. Right low beam (dip beam) headlight just went out. The owner's manual says to contact the dealer. Are these HID Xenon lamps replaceable or do I really have to bring the car to the dealer to replace a bulb? Thanks.

Rikk

 

rikkroto, the bulbs are replaceable. You are going to want a 35W DS2 HID Bulb. Since you are going to be into the car far enough to replace the bulb, I would say to get 2 bulbs and replace the other one too. I say this based on the fact that if you have small hands, you can reach in and access the bulb. But, it is really tight. Not to mention, if you are not easy with the headlight housing, you can break the internals and then you are spending big dollars on a new headlight assembly. So, plan on taking a little bit of extra time, remove the front bumper cover, and make sure that you do things without breaking something else.

If you need any other questions answered, let me know. I know a thing or two about these new bulbs.

 

Thermo,

Thanks for the info. Earlier this week (before I joined this forum), I read the owner's manual, went out and purchased an H1 bulb, and then took off the dust cap. I was a bit of a challenge but I got the dust cap out without being too aggressive. I don't think I damaged anything but... I knew immediately it wasn't an H1 so I put the dust cap back on and secured it.

Then I joined this forum and found the "HID label on the driver's side A pillar". I called a dealer last night and the service consultant said that I could change the lamp myself and it cost $325. He then mentioned it might be the ballast ($475) and that the only way to know is by changing the bulb first (and I always thought being a "parts changer" was not the correct way to diagnose a problem). He suggested that I go to Autozone to purchase a bulb there for $100 and try that first.

So I purchased the HID bulb and the Autozone manager stated that I should disconnect the battery ground as the bulb can actually store an electrical charge (capacitance of some sort).

So, is there something I should do to discharge the bulb? And is the ballast likely to need replacement also? Appreciate your help. (And I thought this was going to be easy...)

 

My bad. I think I put up a new post instead of a reply. See new post. Thanks.
Rikk

 

rikkroto, first off, once you disconnect the ballast, the bulb will loose any and all potential. so, what the Autozone guy was talking about is out to lunch. Now the ballast can store some charge, but as long as you are not sticking a screw driver into the openings, you will be fine. Besides, if you park the car, let it set for an hour, any charge that might be there will have faded away. But, I will caution you, keep your hands away from the ballast when the headlights are turned on. If you think sticking your finger in a light socket hurts (115 volts), the HIDs have an initial voltage of 23,000 volts. That will make you twitch. After the first second or two, it drops to 85 VDC. Still enough to make you know.

Another tidbit to keep in mind, the glass on the HID bulb needs to remain spotless. Anything like finger print oil on the glass, smudge mark, etc will cause a hot spot in the glass which will lead to a much shorter life of the bulb. Keep in mind that parts of the light bulb are running up around 5000K (4700C, or about 8500F, yes, that HOT!!!!!). Now, this heat is very localized and isn't a problem for the car, but if you start trapping this heat (oil is a good heat insulator), the temperature goes even hotter and things start to break down.

So, if you get something on the bulb, use a clean terry cloth and gently clean the bulb off so anything that you can see is removed. After that, install the bulb and put the ballast back on carefully. You can pick up the D2S bulbs on E-bay for like $30 for a pair. Much cheaper that what you will find at Autozone. Will also have a much larger selection to choose from.

 

You're right so far about everything regarding HID bulbs, but I had to chime in here to correct this. The 5000 Kelvin rating is referring to the color temperature of the bulb, NOT the operating temperature. Same Kelvin unit, but very different uses.

 

AML, it is my understanding that if you look at the temperature of the gas as it is being excited, the gas particles are being excited to that temperature, hence why they give off the color light that they do. Due to the very limited size of the gas particles and the volume of gas used, this temperature is not radiated all that far, hence why the bulb does not get very hot. If you look at the color rating of say an LED, then yes, the color and temperature of the component vary between each other. But, in the case of an LED, the light is being generated through a process where the electricity is exciting the reflector material electrons which causes them to jump up to a higher electron orbit and when they loose a little bit of energy, the electron drops back to its normal orbit, emitting a pulse of light. The amount of energy it takes to drop the electron back down is relative to the color of light it outputs. The color is dictated by the chemical impurities put into the reflector material since this is what is actually getting excited and changing state. Where, in an HID bulb, the gas is being put into a plasma phase state. In this condition, the nucleus of an atom has no electrons associated with it. All of the electrons are free floating around in the area (keeps the overall gas neutral). But, in this case, because of the heat required to obtain this phase state, matter will emit a certain amount of energy out in the form of light. The amount of light and its color is a direct result of the temperature. You can see this effect when you heat up a piece of metal. At room temperature, the metal is still emitting a finite amount of light at a specific wavelength (granted, the amount of light is very low and the wavelength is not in the visable spectrum of the human eye). But, as you heat it up hotter and hotter, the amount of light coming off increases and the wavelength changes to go from infrared into the low end of the red spectrum. As you heat the metal more, the frequency gets higher and you see the light shift to an orange color. Eventually, the metal will get hot enough and have other parts of the metal at other temperatures that you get the full spectrum of light, which results in a white light.

This is how it was explained to me when I was getting taught about infrared cameras and they integrated how lighting can affect these types of cameras.

 

What you've explained is all true with thermal radiation and whatnot, but when it comes to measuring color temperatures, it's not direct. As in a light source with 5000K color temperature isn't going to actually be burning at a 5000K thermal temperature.

The color temp ratings are in essence a comparative (or correlative) number. When we say a light bulb is 5000K color temp, we mean that the color it emits is comparable to the color of a blackbody radiator (that metal you refer to) when it is heated up to 5000K thermally.

HIDs are a fed a constant flow of power by the ballast, and because of that, the thermal temps they run at are pretty consistent regardless of color temp. The color temps vary because of the composition of gases and salts. If you notice when an HID bulb is ignited, some bulbs will flash a few brilliant colors (blue, yellow, etc.), or some will start out very blue, then stabilize to a more white color. That's because as the bulb is warming up, different gases/salts are being ignited, up until the point where it's fully warmed up and all the gases/salts have been ignited and you're left with the advertised color temp.

 

I have just recently bought a 2002 X-Type and I noticed that the low beams were the HID, I wanted to know if there is a good kit to change over the high beams and fog lights to matching HID lights. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

zcarver, there is not kit that allows a 1 for 1 swap that I am aware of. Now, with that being said, take some time and find an HID kit specifically for the H11 bulbs. Do not buy the generic kit that covers the H1, H3, etc bulbs. They make HID kits just for the H11 bulb. This will save you a lot of time in your modification process. Pretty much, if you get the H11 specific HID kit, you can unplug the halogen bulb, make up the wiring for the ballast using the supplied plug, mount the ballast to the inside of the bumper, then mount the bulb into the housing. That is about as easy as you are going to get. Otherwise, you are having to pull the bulb out of the H11 base, drill a 9/16" hole through the base, elongate it so you can fit the plugs through, then make sure you can fit the bulb into the base properly, silicon the bulb into place, modify the wiring, ....... I think you can see why taking the little bit of extra time is going to be well worth it, even if it costs you an extra $10 or so.

As for the high beams, there is no easy way to upgrade those. If you are sticking with 35W HID bulbs, then you should be fine using the stock wiring. If you are looking to upgrade to 50W HID bulbs, then going with an aftermarket relay setup is going to be necessary as the factory relay can not handle the starting surge that 50W HID bulb cause (about 55 amps total on a relay rated for 20 amps). If you want more info for this, let me know. The kit you make is pretty easy, but not everyone knows what needs to be done.