It may or may not matter, does anyone know for sure?
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HID electrode position
- Thread starter UncleSteve
- Start date
I think mine is down, but I dont know why, does it matter really?
I have done some research and it leaned towards it being down. One blurb suggested bulb life could be effected. I am not too concerned with bulb life except if it were to explode in the housing and cost me $250 just for the new light housing. The time/work it would take to install a new light housing is not something I want to do in my off time either.
One thing I read was if the bulb is oriented wrong, it can over heat and burst.
someone on the org should know the answer.
One thing I read was if the bulb is oriented wrong, it can over heat and burst.
someone on the org should know the answer.
Sounds like we need to know the answer. PM sent to XenonKing.
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Its obviuos that HID bulbs have the great properties of being brighter and whiter. An HID bulb dos NOT spread light like a generic light source that spreads equal light 360 degrees:
* Yellow/orange sector. In a sector straight down from arc of the bulb, yellow/orange is highly visible. The direction will not change, even if bulb is rotated. In a OEM HID headlight, usage of this light sector is either totally blocked off, toned down and/or spread evenly into the rest of the beam so that headlamp output only have very minor or non yellow hotspots. How much this sector straight down from arc is utilized will directly affect the color that headlight emits.
Above: Simplified diagram of white versus yellow sectors.
* Return wire shadow will always be present. However, if it faces down, it is within a toned down sector anyway (see regarding yellow sector above), so this should never be seen in the output from an OEM HID headlamp.
On all OEM HID headlamps that has been taken apart so far, return wire have been facing down. When it comes to aftermarked HID kits, return wire can face up, others down. Other directions than straigth up and straight down has not been spotted.
How even is the color and intensity across the arc (the light source)?
The ends of the arc has almost double the intensity and bluest color. Which means that optical engineers can make headlamp output bluer (or more yellow) than the bulb output color is, without using color filters (like they do in photograpy). For HID retrofitting in halogen headlamps, this a feature that cannot be utilized. Its pretty obvious that a chromed reflector cannot be reshaped in any way. So a unlucky retrofitter CAN end up with color spectrum from brown to bright white - in different places of the beam.
* Yellow/orange sector. In a sector straight down from arc of the bulb, yellow/orange is highly visible. The direction will not change, even if bulb is rotated. In a OEM HID headlight, usage of this light sector is either totally blocked off, toned down and/or spread evenly into the rest of the beam so that headlamp output only have very minor or non yellow hotspots. How much this sector straight down from arc is utilized will directly affect the color that headlight emits.
Above: Simplified diagram of white versus yellow sectors.
* Return wire shadow will always be present. However, if it faces down, it is within a toned down sector anyway (see regarding yellow sector above), so this should never be seen in the output from an OEM HID headlamp.
On all OEM HID headlamps that has been taken apart so far, return wire have been facing down. When it comes to aftermarked HID kits, return wire can face up, others down. Other directions than straigth up and straight down has not been spotted.
How even is the color and intensity across the arc (the light source)?
The ends of the arc has almost double the intensity and bluest color. Which means that optical engineers can make headlamp output bluer (or more yellow) than the bulb output color is, without using color filters (like they do in photograpy). For HID retrofitting in halogen headlamps, this a feature that cannot be utilized. Its pretty obvious that a chromed reflector cannot be reshaped in any way. So a unlucky retrofitter CAN end up with color spectrum from brown to bright white - in different places of the beam.
Be interested in seeing what the manufacturer says. My Gen I had to have the HIDs no amount of adjustment gave me the light I needed, however the Gen II has very good factory lights and I more than likely will not install HIDs
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