HID LIGHTING TUTORIAL

Why do BMW & Audi lights appear blue when they use a white bulb?

MISCONCEPTIONS

There are many companies and private merchants out there that will advertise 7000K, 8000K, and even 12000K HID kits. Most of these vendors lurk around on ebay, online car forums, websites, and ricer accessory shops. 100% of the people that buy these kits do so because they are uninformed, uneducated, or misguided in the field of lighting, and will buy these junk kits thinking three things: that these bulbs are brighter, that these bulbs should cost more money, and/or that they will perform better. All three statements are completely false. Perhaps this misconception and frenzy for purple lights originates from BMW and Audi's infamous Hella projector HIDs.

Philips is the number one manufacturer of HID bulbs. The Philips OEM D2S bulb is rated at 4100K at 12.8 volts and produces 3200 lumens of light. The Philips Ultinon D2S is 5800K at 12.8 volts and produces 2400 lumens of light. As you can see, with all other factors remaining constant, the brightness of an HID bulb declines the higher up the color index you go. Vision, a Korean bulb manufacturer, makes an 8000K bulb, which they used to advertise on Acura-Forums as 2000 lumens bright. This is barely a marked improvement over halogens, and will produce more glare and eye fatigue than it is beneficial. 4100K has been proven through tireless independent research by the Germans, Japanese, and Americans to be the most functional, truest white and thus the brightest possible color temperature.

Every car manufacturer in the world (including BMW and Audi) uses none other than a standard 4100K gas-discharge bulb. No exceptions. The reason being is that 4100K is daylight white in color and produces the same color visible light as direct sunlight. This is least fatiguing functional color on the eyes and produces the most comfortable contrast on the road.

So the million dollar question is now: Why do BMW & Audi lights appear blue when they use a white bulb?

Well, this coloration is the result of the light projectors; the lenses: it's transparency, it's curvature, the tiny grooves etched into it; the projector assembly, the shield, and the reflector bowl. All these components work together to produce a signature of light unique to that particular optic's design. On the Audi and BMW projectors, the lens curvature at the edge bends the white light producing a "prism effect". White light is broken down to it's fundemental colors. Since blue lights is high energy, it is absorbed last and thus travels farther. So with this prism effect, you'll notice that BMW HIDs are only purple and blue from the sides, the top, and the bottom edges, but are always daylight white on the road and in the beam pattern. This phenomenon can be demonstrated when you watch an oncoming BMW hit a pot hole or speed bump in the road and the car's nose pitches up and down. The headlights will flicker and "throw colors off", but returns to a solid white beam pattern directly on the road.

Trying to emulate this color-flickering effect with a solid-state blue or purple bulb is only detrimental to lighting performance, it doesn't fool anyone, but most importantly it endangers other motorists around you. Blue light has what we call a very high diffuse density, which causes it to radiate outwards as opposed to forwards. What results is a wide glow of light outside the beam pattern that is blinding to motorists you share the road with. A blue HID bulb will produce color bleed around the headlight, around the objects it lights up, outside of the beam pattern, and around the cut off line. This is effect is known as "glare", and these illegal and improperly installed HID kits are the reason why HIDs get a bad wrap. As common evidence of glare, observe a traffic light at night in a dimly lit area. There is red light and green light. Red is opposite blue and green is next to blue, thus we can substitute green for blue. If you observe the aura, or glow, of light around a red light and compare it to that of a green light, you'll notice that the green light produces much more glare than red. Blue is even worse. Purple, the worst.

Some examples:

below two 8000K HID low beam and fog light kits installed on a GS300. One of the foglights retains the orignal halogen bulb for comparison purposes.

below to illustrate here is the glow of blue light (or glare) that radiates off 8000K bulbs. This glow breaks out of the beam pattern and blinds oncoming motorists. Also note how small the actual brightness gain is when you go from factory halogen to 8000K HID. Is it even worth your while?

below an 8000K HID kit conversion installed on a GS400 with typical poor cut-off and severe color bleeding above and around the cut-off line, and even in the shadows of the railings. This is just one example of blue light's high-energy wavelengths. All the light above the poorly defined cut-off can be translated into "glare" by other motorists.

below is a 4100K OEM HID retrofit with sharp, clean cut-off as well as sharp defined beam pattern. The very well defined bounds are created by properly engineered optics used in their intended design. This is a perfect beam pattern. Notice that only the driver-side headlight is on and this is merely half of the light this car will end up producing.

below and notice how the cut off is below all the surrounding cars' trim lines (side mirrors, windows, and trunk lid) so that the brightness of the HID light does not effect their ability to drive. Yet it still manages to illuminate a considerable amount of road.

below: Everything on the road appears blue. After extended use of these 8000K lights (road trips), your eyes will fatigue.

below: pictures of the blinding glare other motorists must endure from these plug-and-play 8000K HID kits. Both photos are taken at a standing position. Imagine how bad the view would be to a motorist sitting in a car eye-level with the light beam.

Credit: Rich Wang