why do some cars xenon lights look blue?

[chowwie]

i have xenon lights i believe? (a ball for a bulb)

but shine white

is this the hid thingy?

i thought hid meant a ball type bulb

[Duncan]

Xenon/HID bulbs come rated by colour temperature in Kelvin e.g. 5000, 6000, 9000 being a few values. The higher the number the bluer the colour of light, with some looking almost purple with the really high values. Some people think the bluer light looks 'cooler' but the downside of the higher K bulbs is that they don't project the light as far - so kinda defeating the purpose - plus they are more likely to attract the attention of Mr Traffic Cop.

The most common K is 5000 as it's closest to daylight and has a good projection distance.

[chowwie]

Xenon/HID bulbs come rated by colour temperature in Kelvin e.g. 5000, 6000, 9000 being a few values. The higher the number the bluer the colour of light, with some looking almost purple with the really high values. Some people think the bluer light looks 'cooler' but the downside of the higher K bulbs is that they don't project the light as far - so kinda defeating the purpose - plus they are more likely to attract the attention of Mr Traffic Cop.

The most common K is 5000 as it's closest to daylight and has a good projection distance.

so mine will be a 5000?

and mercs and mini coopers etc will be 6000?

[Duncan]

If they're standard Vx lights then they will probably be 5000K. No idea about what's in a Merc/Mini.

[Penfold101]

And unless you have an aftermarket kit fitted mate, you don't have xenons...

[pricey]

A lot of it is to do with the tint of the actual lens. Most factory fit HID's will be 4300k as they are in the Vectra but if you look you'll notice that the pre-facelift xenons have more of a blue tint than the facelift, both rated at 4300K just a different lens.

[chowwie]

And unless you have an aftermarket kit fitted mate, you don't have xenons...

mine just look like a glass ball and shine white

so would not change colour then if i got 6000k?

i thought xenons were the golfball type bulbs? which mine has

[pricey]

mine just look like a glass ball and shine white

so would not change colour then if i got 6000k?

i thought xenons were the golfball type bulbs? which mine has

All the Vectra's have 'projector' style headlights like yours, you'll know f you have xenons if you have headlight washers and no height adjustment knob by the light swich.

[Penfold101]

On the older Vectras, yes - the Xenons had the spherical lens. On the C, EVERY car has the spherical lens, jsut with a normal bulb behind it. If you had proper xenons, you'd have headlight washers and auto-levelling of the headlights themselves...

You can buy the blue bulbs off eBay or in Halfords that give off a white light, just at a much reduced light output...

[chowwie]

cheers all i think i understand now