Something about Xenon light

[Guest Cklasse]

Broke my xenon bulb while trying to take it out yesterday.....so I decided to find out more about this xenon thingy.

Autobac is selling the Philips Xenon bulb at S$450 a pair! That's two third of what I paid for 2 (1 year old) Xenon headlamp assy!

Found that you can get a pair of bulbs from US for about S$100 less (or lesser). It's going for US$109 for one site that I found.

Anyway, the one we are using here are likely to be the D2S type 4300k with P32D mounting (a 2nd generation changeable xenon light) that has a slight yellow tinge.

Here's the write-out for the D2S 6000k, bearing in mind that it loses 25% lumen compared to 4000k type.

Read somewhere that the D2 type has mercury in it, so I need to check out my headlamp housing to see if there are specks of the silvery stuff inside. ....it's getting more complicated with a broken xenon bulb. :spiderman:

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The Ultinon family of automotive discharge lamps was introduced by Philips in 2001 to meet the significant aftermarket demand for headlighting units having a 6000K colour temperature, higher than the standard 4100K type.

The 4100K lamps can produce headlight beams of distinctly different colours depending on the design of the optical system into which they are incorporated. Many HID headlights now employ projection lens systems which capture all light from the lamp, thoroughly homogenise it, and then project a uniform colour beam out through a mask and lens. Colour variation from one projection system to another is minimal, the only difference sometimes occurring around the edge of the beam where chromatic aberrations from imperfect lenses may give the beam a purple coloured lining.

However with 4100K lamps in reflector style headlights, the beam will often be found to have a yellow or green colour in the upper areas. The light here originates from the lower portion of the reflector. Light hitting that part of the reflector must pass through the lower half of the arc tube in which the pool of yellow-coloured molten metal halide salts resides, and much of the blue light is therefore filtered out in this area.

This greenish-yellow tinge is considered to be most unsightly in the aftermarket, a bluer light being strongly preferred. To satisfy this market Philips introduced this higher colour temperature 6000K lamp whose dose contains indium iodide to create extra blue light. Some 25% lumens are sacrificed which deters few end users, but does mean that the lamps are not street-legal in Europe or the USA. Consequently they are intended primarily for sale to the Asian aftermarket.

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[Guest jenvid]

I think D2R is more likely.. my memory is failing me. D2S is for those biXenon lamps.

The price is a bit off... u shld be able to get them at ard 100+ per pc. U tried calling Pin Liang or that shop in Waterloo (off hand cant remember)

[Guest Cklasse]

It's D2S...that's what printed on my xenon light.

Anyway, D2S is for lamp assembly with projection lens while D2R is for reflector lamp. Autobac claimed that D2C (which is what they are selling is an alternative but I half suspect they are only partially right).

Here's the info from the website;

The VeDiLiSVehicleDischargeLightingSystem commenced in 1988 as a EUREKA funded European project to spearhead the extension of electric discharge lamps into automotive applications. The aims of the project were to deliver better road lighting for safer night-time driving, and won the support of automotive manufacturers because of the superior performance, considerably lower power requirement and the dramatically enhanced lamp lifetime which effectively matches the life of an average vehicle.

The first design, type D1, was equipped with flying leads for permanent integration into the vehicle - an apparently sensible idea in view of the fact that the lamp should outlast the life of the vehicle. However it soon became clear that road accidents and damage to the headlights required that an easily replaceable lamp be developed.

Of course a new base type was necessary, to meet automotive regulations while also withstanding the typical ignition pulse of 23kV that is necessary to hot-restart these lamps. The result is the D2 lamp equipped with the P32d base, illustrated here. It features heavy insulation between the co-axial conductors, which minimise electromagnetic radiations emanating from the high frequency ~400Hz signal supplied to the lamp during normal operation.

Two formats of D2 lamp have been developed. Type D2S is for use with projection optics. Type D2R has a black stripe over part of the outer jacket, and is for use with reflector optics, the black stripe helping to achieve a sharper cut-off at the beam edge, reducing stray light and glare.

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Now I am questioning the auto light function is the cause of a bulb blow due to the frequent on/off of the xenon light....will dig further. :spiderman:

[Guest kepiting1sg]

Now I am questioning the auto light function is the cause of a bulb blow due to the frequent on/off of the xenon light....will dig further. :spiderman:

Hi Cklasse,

Did you tried swapping the bulbs around to see if it's a bulb problem?

At times could be a ballast problem or even a starter problem!