Hey technical guru's I have a question about an HID bulb. I've had my kit installed for a little over a year now, and they've been working great. Low beams in morette housings, grounded directly to the battery (per mulder's instructions). No problems experienced EVAR with them until yesterday evening.

Nothing changed on my car (installed a new fuel pump, nothing NEAR the headlights, obviously.) Fuel pump working just fine.

Last night was cooler, maybe 30 degrees, but it's been much colder before. I leave my g/f's house around midnight, turn on my lights and I notice that the left one (drivers' side) is noticeably a different color than the passenger side, as reflecting off the white car parked in front of me. I drive down the road not giving it much thought when the left one begins to flicker a bit from on/off. I turn off all lights and sit by the side of the road for a minute or two, and turn them back on. Both lights fire up with no problem, but the left one's color is DEFINITELY "off." I have 7000k bulbs, and the right one (normal) is very white/blueish, while the left one looks very yellow-ish. I pull into a gas station just to look at them side by side, and they are NOTICEABLY different in color (which has never happened before).

Drove home, and it SEEMS like the bulb on the left is just as intense as the one on the right, but they are very noticeably different in color. They both fire up without a problem, but the flickering got me thinking of whether or not my bulb is going to die any day now, or if the balast/igniter has taken a poop on me. Obviously what I need to do is swap the bulbs and see if the "discolored" bulb goes with the swap to determine the problem, but I was just wondering if somebody had any insight and could tell me, "Yeah - it's definitely your bulb" or "Yeah - it's definitely XXXXXXXXX."

I'm sorta surprised it would be the bulb as it's barely been over 1 year, but I'd rather buy two new bulbs than an igniter/balast. And on the hope that it IS a bulb, any good places to get HID 7000k replacement BULB's by themselves?

thanks all,
/<

You have to swap the bulbs first to see if that's what it is. Online speculation here won't do any good until you do that.
As for replacements you have to source bulbs that are compatible with your particular setup, there is no standardization for aftermarket HID bulbs since they are all modified by the kit provider to physically fit the halogen base and electrically plug in to the ignitor/ballast provided with the kit. Obviously for your Morettes you need H7-based bulbs, the electrical part is a bit more difficult. Some kits use the original "OEM" type D2S based bulbs with matching ballast connectors as used in factory HID applications, others use the bulb capsule without the base and have wire pigtails that plug into the ballast or ignitor module.
The best place to start would be the vendor you got the HIDs from, assuming you bought them new. They might have bulbs or be able to tell you where to get them. Be aware though, that many vendors no longer carry HID kits and parts due to the recent govt. enforcement action.
There is always ebay of course, although you may have to do a bit of searching and waiting for the right items to come up. Search for "HID bulbs" and most of the hits will be "HID Look" halogens.

Thanks for the thoughts and SUPER fast response on this one, as always, mr. mulder.

F'ing gremlins strike again. I'm not sure if I'm crazy, it was too much wine with dinner, the crack I smoked earlier, or whatever, but everything seemed fine tonight :confused: I know I am not completely crazy because when I stopped at a gas station, I asked a guy pumping to just take a look to make sure it wasn't me who was messed up. I asked him, "just take a look at my lights and tell me if you notice anything color-wise..." He immediately said, "yeah - they're different colors from one another. The one on the [drivers] side is yellow, and the one on the [passenger] side is bluer..."

Well, tonight, there is no sign of it! I'm going to pull them off in my garage tomorrow since they need some realignment (too high) and I will re-check all the connections to make sure nothing got loose (I did a quick scan this afternoon, but nothing too intense) - will post back my results, but unfortunately, I may not be able to find much!

If they DO act up tomorrow, or if I'm feeling saucy, I may just swap left and right bulbs for the hell of it to see if this problem ever returns.

:confused: x10000

will keep you all posted

So then one last (hopefully OT now!) thing mulder - do you think it's worth it to try and snag a pair of replacement bulbs now for when they EVENTUALLY burn out?

Theoretically, a set of OEM-quality HID bulbs should last for a few thousand hours of use which is several years of normal night driving. However the nominal life of cheaper aftermarket bulbs such as what you appear to have is questionable, so you can certainly try to find a spare set for when they crap out.
Just don't expect to find exact replacements easily, or that they will be cheap when you do find them. You'll likely pay around $100 apiece.

Well, I believe it is the bulb. Not sure if that's good or bad, but that's my verdict. I waited til it was dark, and fired them up again, and sure enough, they were different colors, though I am POSITIVE they were not late last night, but yet, they WERE earlier in the night. :confused:

I simply swapped the bulbs and noticed the "discolored" one (that is yellower in color) moved to the other side. I ALSO noticed a buzzing sound coming from this bulb which I associated to something else at first, but noticed that TOO moved to the "other side" when swapped. The bad bulb was initially on the drivers' side, and now it resides on the passenger side. Will be sending an email to Adam @Z1 where I purchased them almost a year ago. The kit seemed like a nice kit, and good quality, so maybe I just got an unlucky bulb. *shrug*

Anyway, here are some pics to hopefully help some people in the future, or maybe shed some light (no pun intended) on the matter:

Pic# 2 of the car from afar with the lights on. No messing around with any settings digitally, just a straight on shot with no flash. You can note the color of the RIGHT (drivers side) bulb is normal, and the color that I have seen for the last year. The color of the bulb on the LEFT (passenger side) is clearly yellower/redder, makes a buzzing sound, and also has a slight flicker on occasion when first starting up (moreso than the normal HID "flicker.")

Again, I am positive it's the bulb because the bad bulb was previously on the drivers' side, and when I swapped it, it moved to the passenger side, leaving the ballasts and igniters in the same position.

Now here's the kicker. Just playing around in simple little MS PhotoEditor, I was able to tweak the gamma/contrast/brightness and get the following results, further exemplifying the color difference. Note also the difference in size of the "halo's" - possibly indicating the discolored bulb is also putting out less light. (Though it could also have to do with the color and the camera lens.)

Edit: Sent email to Z1, we'll see what happens and if they can dig up a bulb for me or not. According to my records, it was a K2 kit with 7000k bulbs, installed by me on 11/22/02 ~10,000 miles on the car. I have ~28,000 now. DRL's were disabled a long time ago (before I even had my morettes) via the glove-box plug thingy. I am always careful never to touch the bulbs with my bare hands, and the install went just fine last Novemeber. Never had a single problem with them since 2 days ago.

Well, it was an uninspiring and uneventful death for my little bulb. I was heading over to my g/f's house, and turned on the headlights as I was heading out of my driveway. Just for kicks, I went out and looked at them-- they were strangely identical again, like all was well. Drove about 2 miles, stopped at a traffic light, and the little bulb sputtered for about 5 seconds and went out completely. Now when I turn the bulbs on, it'll light briefly, maybe 1 second max, but never comes on - R.I.P. little guy.

so was it the lightbulb or the ballast?

I bought some rebased 4100k Philips bulbs at Xenonfactory.com (http://www.xenonfactory.com/products/hid/rebased.htm). You might want to check them out, I believe they sell H7 based bulbs. They were shipped pretty fast even. The only downside is that the bulbs aren't cheap. :(

He isn't looking for bulbs any more, this thread is over a year old. :)

sorry, I brought this thread back from the dead cuz what he's explaning is EXACTLY what I'm experiencing.. I need to know if it was the ballast or the bulb or the wiring or all 3.

Oh whoops!..My bad! LOL :p Wasn't paying attention.

sorry, I brought this thread back from the dead cuz what he's explaning is EXACTLY what I'm experiencing.. I need to know if it was the ballast or the bulb or the wiring or all 3.
Howdy! It was the bulb that was toast, as I was able to confirm this by swapping the bulb.

Whether or not the ballast or igniter were the source of the bulb going bad, I cannot say. In all possible combinations, it pointed to the bulb itself. I swapped igniters, ballast, in both combinations, and every time the "problem" went with the "bad" bulb itself. I have since uninstalled my HIDs, I greatly miss them, but have instead went back to a nice set of halogens from danielsternlighting.com and they have been problem free since installation.

Hope that helps!

Happy- thanks for the link, even though it doesn't help me directly, it'll hopefully help somebody else doing a search! :)

CirrusWRX,
I bought my car used with HID's and Morrettes. For safety, legal and durability (wiring and cheap components) reasons I would like to go to halogen bulbs as well. Are you still using your Morrettes? If so, what stuff did you get from danielsternlighting? I checked out the website and sent him an email as well. Bulbs? Kits? Harnesses? Just curious, any information helps. Thanks!

CirrusWRX,
I bought my car used with HID's and Morrettes. For safety, legal and durability (wiring and cheap components) reasons I would like to go to halogen bulbs as well. Are you still using your Morrettes? If so, what stuff did you get from danielsternlighting? I checked out the website and sent him an email as well. Bulbs? Kits? Harnesses? Just curious, any information helps. Thanks!
To be totally honest, I went with Mr. Stern's recommendations as I know nearly nothing about this stuff. That guy knows a thing or two about auto lighting, bulbs, etc. and he hooked me up. He knows all about morettes, their housings, power ratings, etc. He (like Mulder) will tell you that the subaru wiring just plain sucks from the factory, but you can certainly use it (as many do) without upgrading it. Otherwise, all you really need (assuming your stock wiring isn't hacked up!) is a plain old halogen bulb. He'll steer you in the right direction for wattage, brand, etc. and you'll like your setup (I know I do!) And seeing as how replacement bulbs are like >$20, you can't go wrong IMO.

Also, if you want, ask him about a "full light upgrade" across the board. He'll set you up with replacement blinkers, side markers, brake lights, reverse lights, rear blinkers, etc. and they make a WORLD of a difference. Backing up, it's like you have rear-facing low beams! Stepping on the brakes at night lights up signs in the other direction! It's not a bad thing when people are gunning for your rear end to be able to SEE you at night /fog/ rain, etc. It's definitely not "necessary" but it makes a world of difference IMO, and I just did it all in an hour on a lazy Saturday afternoon.

Thanks for quick reply! I'll see what he recommends. The wiring is a bit hacked up from whenever the HID's were installed so I'll have a bit to cleanup (and throw away). I'll be glad when everything is fixed! :) Hopefully I won't get pulled over for having a headlight out (bad ballast) and having aftermarket HID's before I get things fixed.

...or hope that your OTHER HID doesn't burn out :eek:

But it sounds like you've got it under control - hopefully the wiring won't be too bad. Any chance the previous owner just used a plug and play harness and your original wiring is actually intact?

Hey Kyle.. we meet again!

My kit is out of warranty (the place that made them, Polarion, has gone out of business)

One of the bulbs fizzled out and I sent it back for warranty.. but the vendor has no way of sourcing replacements. Sucks. He did say he would get me stuff at cost, at least.

Anyhoo - what did DS recommended for the rest of the car, turn signals, etc. I had a moment last night where I pulled into a gas station because I didn't think my turn signals were working. They were working fine, just not spraying light everywhere like the ones on the Miata.

thanks,
john

Hey Kyle.. we meet again!

My kit is out of warranty (the place that made them, Polarion, has gone out of business)

One of the bulbs fizzled out and I sent it back for warranty.. but the vendor has no way of sourcing replacements. Sucks. He did say he would get me stuff at cost, at least.

Anyhoo - what did DS recommended for the rest of the car, turn signals, etc. I had a moment last night where I pulled into a gas station because I didn't think my turn signals were working. They were working fine, just not spraying light everywhere like the ones on the Miata.

thanks,
john

That sucks :( Those HID kits just aren't OEM quality I suppose, and mine barely made it a year before I gave up! :mad: Oh well. But if you contact DS he's got a TON of knowledge on what bulbs go where and he'll hook you up with an itemized list of what bulbs you can easily change, and then you can pick and choose from there. All the bulbs are "industry standard" for auto lighting, he's just got ones that are a LOT better+brighter. For something like $40 to replace them ALL (and I mean everything) it's such a nice, purposeful, safety-minded, and easy upgrade.