s4 xenon hedlamps

[marsie]

After coming home late tonite i noticed that when i pulled up to my garage door that one headlamp was brilliant white and the other was less bright and pink?
I swapped the bulbs side to side and the bright lamp swapped sides

Does this mean my xenon bulb is on its way out?
Paul

 

[NHN]

Yeah but dime a dozen on ebay or www.hids4u.co.uk do replacements, dont use audi as rip ur backside out for same bulbs

 

[Dan Gliballs]

Yeah, one of mine seemed to die briefly and I assumed they were like a ton a bulb. I popped into Halfords and they were 20 quid for 2 lol

 

[NHN]

I doubt they were HID bulbs mate, 2 for £20 & I havnt seen halfords sell proper HID bulbs so far & there site doesnt show any, maybe the H7 etc standard bulbs that people seem to call xenon if they have a blue coating on them, lol, but HID doubt it, please do prove me wrong as would surprise me for sure.

 

[Dan Gliballs]

Dunno, just said I wanted a xennon bulb for my 1999 S4 and he said they were on offer at half price, so yeah, would've been 20 quid EACH normally.

 

[aragorn]

I think they sell normal filament bulbs with xenon gas inside, which are slightly brighter than halogen ones, so its probably those they were quoting you.

 

[Dan Gliballs]

Maybe, but luckily I didn't need a new one. It came back on and has been fine for the last year or so.

 

[NHN]

Lucky yeah cause they wouldnt of worked on your xenon headlights mate, lol & aragorn is right xenon gas inside but certainly not HID's

 

[Tifun]

http://store.theretrofitsource.com/

I like that place. You can get clearer lenses and better bulbs and the lights will be way different. I've found the clearer lenses make a huge difference.

 

[Dan Gliballs]

Don't proper ones generally last the life of the car (unless they get smashed obviously)?

I don't know much about them and this is the first car I've had with them on.

 

[Tifun]

HID's wear out, the lumens get worse over time. My lights are from an 01 S4 and I changed the bulbs with new stock ones the first time and it made a huge difference. I then swapped out lenses and got an even bigger difference. Then, lastly I changed the bulbs to a different kelvin and yet again a noticeable difference. I'm not sure how much different euro vrs US spec S4 internals are. I thought they used the same housing. I think its called a colorshift, if you look at an older HID bulb there is more salt buildup on the inside of it, something to do with chemical reactions from my understanding.

Edit: found this link that might be helpful. http://faqlight.carpassion.info/hl-hid-bulbs.htm