[slick101]

does anybody know y the 335 xenons dont look as blue as they should? or is it just my e 92 xenons that doesn't have a bluish tinge to it? evrytime i turn it on it has a nice shade of blue to it but doesn't stay for long...?

[KevinC]

Because blue is not good for vision. If you want to look "cool", there are bulbs with higher color temperature, which WILL reduce the quality of your illumination, but will make you look "cool".. if having lights that are more dangerous than stock is what floats your boat.

[Gquie]

How old is your car? Xenons require a break in period before they get the most colorful. I believe the standard bulbs are 4100k which is the optimum for white light output. I believe its after 160 hours that your bulbs begin their colorshift and you start to get more color out of your bulbs. There are ways to mod your lights so that you can get more color but it would require you to take apart your headlight assemblies. For instance you can bend your cutoff shield a bit to increase the color of your xenons but it makes your cutoff less sharp. You can add washers to the contact points of your xenon housings to create more color but once again you lose the sharpness of the cutoff. Color also has to do with the type of projector that is used along with the type of lense that is used in the projector as well. Newer cars, to conform with DOT regulations now mostly use fresnelled lenses or basically lesnses that are not clear. Some of them have a metal bar in it, some others have grooves in it... all designed to cut the amount of color and fliker that the xenons produce. Right now probably the best projector lense and assembly on the roads are the old e46 lenses, the TSX lenses or the S2000 lenses.

In short there are ways to get more color out of your xenons but if your car is pretty new I'd give it a while before you try to get more color out of your lights. Give it some time and your lights will get more colorful on their own. Heres a pic of what my lights look like today. I just picked up my car maybe 15 hours ago and already took some pics of the cutoff. As you can see there is definitly color there but you can barely see it if you're looking directly at the lights. I'll give it a few months and then see if I need to do any modifications.

[John 070]

Originally Posted by Gquie

How old is your car? Xenons require a break in period before they get the most colorful. I believe the standard bulbs are 4100k which is the optimum for white light output. I believe its after 160 hours that your bulbs begin their colorshift and you start to get more color out of your bulbs. There are ways to mod your lights so that you can get more color but it would require you to take apart your headlight assemblies. For instance you can bend your cutoff shield a bit to increase the color of your xenons but it makes your cutoff less sharp. You can add washers to the contact points of your xenon housings to create more color but once again you lose the sharpness of the cutoff. Color also has to do with the type of projector that is used along with the type of lense that is used in the projector as well. Newer cars, to conform with DOT regulations now mostly use fresnelled lenses or basically lesnses that are not clear. Some of them have a metal bar in it, some others have grooves in it... all designed to cut the amount of color and fliker that the xenons produce. Right now probably the best projector lense and assembly on the roads are the old e46 lenses, the TSX lenses or the S2000 lenses.

In short there are ways to get more color out of your xenons but if your car is pretty new I'd give it a while before you try to get more color out of your lights. Give it some time and your lights will get more colorful on their own. Heres a pic of what my lights look like today. I just picked up my car maybe 15 hours ago and already took some pics of the cutoff. As you can see there is definitly color there but you can barely see it if you're looking directly at the lights. I'll give it a few months and then see if I need to do any modifications.

So the OP can just leave his car running with the lights on for 8-9 days to meet this 160 hr. qualification? I've never heard of that.

[Joe Bimmer]

Originally Posted by slick101

does anybody know y the 335 xenons dont look as blue as they should? or is it just my e 92 xenons that doesn't have a bluish tinge to it? evrytime i turn it on it has a nice shade of blue to it but doesn't stay for long...?

Headlights aren't supposed to be blue. Don't forget to rice out your turn signals with clear bulbs while you're at it.

[bronco]

Originally Posted by John 070

So the OP can just leave his car running with the lights on for 8-9 days to meet this 160 hr. qualification? I've never heard of that.

[BK]

Originally Posted by Joe Bimmer

Headlights aren't supposed to be blue. Don't forget to rice out your turn signals with clear bulbs while you're at it.

+1

Besides, go for purple. Much cooler than blue.

[canucklion]

I love Ting too man, it's delicous and refreshing

Originally Posted by slick101

does anybody know y the 335 xenons dont look as blue as they should? or is it just my e 92 xenons that doesn't have a bluish tinge to it? evrytime i turn it on it has a nice shade of blue to it but doesn't stay for long...?

[LXG]

Color Temp above 4150k will not help you on wet roads. Yes your lights will be bright, but useless. Too me that defeat the purpose of xenon projector headlights.

Just leave it alone and save your money.

[Captain Oblivious]

Originally Posted by LXG

Color Temp above 4150k will not help you on wet roads. Yes your lights will be bright, but useless. Too me that defeat the purpose of xenon projector headlights.

Just leave it alone and save your money.

How do you figure?

[Gquie]

Originally Posted by John 070

So the OP can just leave his car running with the lights on for 8-9 days to meet this 160 hr. qualification? I've never heard of that.

Where did I say that he should leave his lights on for 8-9 days? I never said they had to be continuous.

[LXG]

Originally Posted by Captain Oblivious

How do you figure?

Just my observation from trying so many GOD DAMN bulbs. I spent alot of $$ on my previous car's xenons and I found 4000K to 4150K was the perfect intensity and Luminance on a dark, wet road. At higher temp, I notice by observation a loss in my Luminance onto the road surface. Very minor, but a loss by comparison. Since my concern is for visibility in all road conditions, I stick to 4000K to 4150K. I probably should not have use the word "useless" in my last post.

[homerunball]

There has been a recent move by the manufacturers of HID systems (Hella, Piaa, Phillips, etc.) toward making HID's not as blue. As most of you know, 4000k is the best because it most closely resembles natural white light. Anything deviating from this color temp, will reduce the lumens or light output.

Inside the HID projector assemblies, there is a metal part that covers roughly half of the lens. This piece is called the cut off shield. If you move the shield slightly closer to the focal point of the reflector lens, the prism effect from the projector will yield you a bluish color at or near the cut off line. It will tend toward the redish color if you move the cut off shield away from the focal point of the reflector lens. The cut off shield is the part that provides that distinct cut off line; slightly lower on the driver's side and slightly higher on the passenger side. (The cut off shield for UK cars are exactly opposite.) This cut off shield geometry is magnified 1000x times when projected through the lens, so modification to the cut off shield must be highly accurate. As a cheap experiment, (if you can manage to pull it off) try pushing the cut off shield toward the focal point of the lens, aft direction of the car, and just the effedts of the pressure of your finger on the shield will change the cut off color to a much more bluish tint. Most Acura's and Honda's still use the old blue cut off shield while BMW has moved to a whiter one. The adjustment of the color by the way of manupulating the cut off shield distance to the focal point has the added effect of "bleeding" the razor sharp cut off on late model cars as well. A razor sharp cut off may look cool but it is actually more dangerous on the road. I disagree that S2k and TSX's are the best due to their sharp cut off. A bleeding cut off partially illuminates elevated road signs without blinding on coming traffic. A razor sharp cut off has no benefits whatsoever except for looking cool when facing a white wall.

Just as a side note, on bi-xenon's, when you turn on the high beams, the only thing that is happening is that the cut off shield slides down to reveal the entire reflecting surface. The low beams are just the bottom half, (or top half depending on how you look at it because optics switch everything top to bottom) of the projector light. The rest is just being covered by the shield, there is nothing else that turns on(bulb wise) when the highbeams are engaged.

Xenon bulbs will tend to be more whiter/bluer over age due to the degrading halide crystals in the bulbs, however, it is not a noticible difference.

[Azrielsc]

Really interesting information guys! Learnt a lot about how xenons work! Cheers!

[brianlamar]

I have also observed that the e92 headlights point downward more than other cars with xenon headlights. On the 5's, the headlights point at a slighty upward position. Because of this, it seems that almost all headlights are "brighter" than the e92 headlights.

[visor]

Originally Posted by homerunball

There has been a recent move by the manufacturers of HID systems (Hella, Piaa, Phillips, etc.) toward making HID's not as blue. As most of you know, 4000k is the best because it most closely resembles natural white light. Anything deviating from this color temp, will reduce the lumens or light output.

Inside the HID projector assemblies, there is a metal part that covers roughly half of the lens. This piece is called the cut off shield. If you move the shield slightly closer to the focal point of the reflector lens, the prism effect from the projector will yield you a bluish color at or near the cut off line. It will tend toward the redish color if you move the cut off shield away from the focal point of the reflector lens. The cut off shield is the part that provides that distinct cut off line; slightly lower on the driver's side and slightly higher on the passenger side. (The cut off shield for UK cars are exactly opposite.) This cut off shield geometry is magnified 1000x times when projected through the lens, so modification to the cut off shield must be highly accurate. As a cheap experiment, (if you can manage to pull it off) try pushing the cut off shield toward the focal point of the lens, aft direction of the car, and just the effedts of the pressure of your finger on the shield will change the cut off color to a much more bluish tint. Most Acura's and Honda's still use the old blue cut off shield while BMW has moved to a whiter one. The adjustment of the color by the way of manupulating the cut off shield distance to the focal point has the added effect of "bleeding" the razor sharp cut off on late model cars as well. A razor sharp cut off may look cool but it is actually more dangerous on the road. I disagree that S2k and TSX's are the best due to their sharp cut off. A bleeding cut off partially illuminates elevated road signs without blinding on coming traffic. A razor sharp cut off has no benefits whatsoever except for looking cool when facing a white wall.

Just as a side note, on bi-xenon's, when you turn on the high beams, the only thing that is happening is that the cut off shield slides down to reveal the entire reflecting surface. The low beams are just the bottom half, (or top half depending on how you look at it because optics switch everything top to bottom) of the projector light. The rest is just being covered by the shield, there is nothing else that turns on(bulb wise) when the highbeams are engaged.

Xenon bulbs will tend to be more whiter/bluer over age due to the degrading halide crystals in the bulbs, however, it is not a noticible difference.

Most concise and excellent info here, homerunball!

[visor]

Originally Posted by brianlamar

I have also observed that the e92 headlights point downward more than other cars with xenon headlights. On the 5's, the headlights point at a slighty upward position. Because of this, it seems that almost all headlights are "brighter" than the e92 headlights.

Aaaahh! This is where you need to look at the DIY for raising your lights' aim, the thread which was started by yours truly. :rocks:

[brianlamar]

Oh didn't know that you could change the aim on auto leveling headlights!!! Does it mess with that feature to where they don't auto level anymore?

[visor]

Originally Posted by brianlamar

Oh didn't know that you could change the aim on auto leveling headlights!!! Does it mess with that feature to where they don't auto level anymore?

No, auto level is independent of this adjustment.

Here's the link:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...ight=headlight

Just be careful not to aim them too high!

[KevinC]

Originally Posted by canucklion

I love Ting too man, it's delicous and refreshing

Awesome meal consumed last year at Scilly Cay off Anguilla (both HIGHLY recommended if you're searching for a Caribbean destination). A bottle of Ting to wash it down was the obvious choice. :rocks:

[dmboone25]

This thread is funny...

The stocks are fine by me--you want a little more "blue", spend $30 and change your angel eyes out. Then you get the tinge you are looking for without sacrificing the light quality of the Xenons.