Do HID bulbs lose effectiveness with age?

[superunknown]

My 2003 Ford SVT Focus has factory-installed HID projector low-beams manufactured by Hella in Germany. While they appear to work well enough, I have noticed that the light emitted by other vehicles on the road with HID projectors is often much brighter than mine, i.e. when side-by-side on the highway at night.

My car is 7 years old but has sat for much of its life. I purchased it this past May with 27,000 miles and have been driving it daily since, so obviously the headlight usage has been limited until now. The headlight lenses are in perfect shape and clean. I work 11p-7a so headlight performance is something I notice nightly on the way to work.

Long story short, is the seemingly low light output a result of my car's age, or do the newer vehicles on the road just have better-designed optics?

TIA.

 

[getnpsi]

I do know that certain projectors themselves are superior to others. You may check if yours are "below average" and install new ones preferably ones that bolt right up to your housings with no modification. The people who retrofit have alist of good to so-so on hidplanet.com. May not just be the bulb age in other words. Depends on how deep your pockets are also, if you are really not satisfied with your output and want to do some upgrading.

 

[brentalan]

some of these people are installing aftermarket 55W HID kits which always are brighter than factory hids.

The other thing is they are in halogen housings so the light is scattered and you may see more light at the angle you are at as well

 

[dparm]

Yes. They output less light and colorshift as they age.

0 hours = 3200 lumens (100%)
200 hours = 2880 lumens (90%)
1000 hours = 2560 lumens (80%)
1500 hours = 2400 lumens (75%)
2000 hours = 2240 lumens (70%)


So even after 2000 hours (that's 5 1/2 years of one hour per day), they're still far brighter than halogens.

 

[dparm]

You can replace just the capsules if you want to return to full brightness and the original 4300k color.

Make sure you get good OEM quality stuff -- Sylvania/Osram or Philips.

 

[Smokescreen]

Please go here for quality bulbs, there is so much made in China junk out there, and you want stuff that is made by a reputable company like Osram or Philips. http://store.candlepower.com/houpbuthno.html

"So even after 2000 hours (that's 5 1/2 years of one hour per day), they're still far brighter than halogens."

....well normal halogens...HIRs are another story...interesting table values, I didn't know that it was at that rate the loss happened.

 

[Shuttler]

Originally Posted By: Smokescreen
Please go here for quality bulbs, there is so much made in China junk out there, and you want stuff that is made by a reputable company like Osram or Philips. http://store.candlepower.com/houpbuthno.html

Way overpriced. I looked up D1R that I use in my Lincolns and they quote ~$148 for a Philips vs $44 for an Osram at Amazon.

While Chinese produce a lot of junk they also make a lot of high quality high tech products. I worked on high end SUN equipment and Cray stuff, and we had most parts made in China. It is simply impossible to figure who is who on that market. Also, EU makes quite a lot of junk, and most products are hybrids: the bulb may be made in China, contact group - in Portugal, ignition module in France, German made after all...

 

[UG_Passat]

Originally Posted By: superunknown
My 2003 Ford SVT Focus has factory-installed HID projector low-beams manufactured by Hella in Germany. While they appear to work well enough, I have noticed that the light emitted by other vehicles on the road with HID projectors is often much brighter than mine, i.e. when side-by-side on the highway at night.

My car is 7 years old but has sat for much of its life. I purchased it this past May with 27,000 miles and have been driving it daily since, so obviously the headlight usage has been limited until now. The headlight lenses are in perfect shape and clean. I work 11p-7a so headlight performance is something I notice nightly on the way to work.

Long story short, is the seemingly low light output a result of my car's age, or do the newer vehicles on the road just have better-designed optics?

TIA.


...so yes on both accounts. Yes, they lose out on output.

Yes, different projectors have different performance.

 

[superunknown]

Thank you all for the helpful responses.

I guess I could have simplified the question by asking if HID bulbs have a "shelf-life", since some of you spoke about loss of performance with age AND use, where I was wondering about age specifically. Nonetheless, it seems the "problem" lies in the age/design of the projectors as well as the age of the bulbs themselves.

Based on what I've read elsewhere, I may give some replacement bulbs a shot before looking into retrofitting newer projectors/lenses. The Philips 85122+ D2S bulbs look like a good option: http://www.theretrofitsource.com/product_info.php?cPath=27&products_id=148

 

[Shuttler]

Good find, thanks for sharing

 

[97prizm]

Hid's will colorshift after 100-200 hours and lose a few lumens in output. One of the BIG killers of hid bulbs is frequently turening them off and on, especially repeatedly. This will cause a "hot restart" resulting in a orange or pinkish color temporarily.

 

[delta901]

I actually installed a new pair of Philips D2R (~$70 shipped from ebay.) There are nothing wrong with my previous bulbs but diff is noticable (brighter but "yellower" )

A very reasonable "upgrade"

 

[superunknown]

So after some reading on HID Planet and taking a closer look at my projector lenses, I believe the cause for what appears to be diminished output is the "fresnel" finish on the lens itself. It appears as though a "clear lens" swap is popular with the retrofit crowd in the pursuit of increased output.

If I can manage to find replacement "clear" lenses that fit my projectors, I may combine those with some high-quality replacement bulbs and see if headlight performance improves.

Thanks all for the suggestions.

 

[djquik1]

Go with the Phillips 85122+ bulbs for a dramatic increase in output. Also,you will need the clear/ECE lenses off of a Mitsubishi Lancer EVO for a direct swap.

 

[SHOZ]

If you look at an old HID bulb it will be black in the middle where the arc is contained. This starts out as a gradual darkening and will turn almost all black with the bulb then failing due to internal heat,