Is this normal for HID bulbs?

jp1170 · November 4, 2015

So I just put a Xenondepot HID extreme kit in my Sierra over the weekend. Bulbs have maybe an hour or so of run time on them and tonight I pulled one bulb out to try and rotate to a different position just to see if made a difference on the output and when I did I noticed a large yellow spot in the bulb. Looks kind of like powder residue like the remains of something burning. Is this normal for HID bulbs to do this or should I be requesting some new bulbs from Xenondepot? I've already sent them an email with a picture but thought I would ask on here as well. Thanks for any help! Here's a picture:

silveradosid · November 4, 2015

two reasons for yellow spot are cycling the hid bulb off and on too many times or the ballast voltage is low and hid bulb is having a hard time igniting

jp1170 · November 4, 2015

two reasons for yellow spot are cycling the hid bulb off and on too many times or the ballast voltage is low and hid bulb is having a hard time igniting

Thanks for the response...by cycling them off/on too many times what kind of time should they remain on before being turned off again once ignited because they get cycled a couple of time in the morning like when I unlock my truck they come on but usually turn off before I get in and start the truck up. Also I keep the lights in auto position so they may come on and go off a couple of times on the way to work depending on if I'm facing the sun or not.

brendan_mungovan · November 7, 2015

So I just put a Xenondepot HID extreme kit in my Sierra over the weekend. Bulbs have maybe an hour or so of run time on them and tonight I pulled one bulb out to try and rotate to a different position just to see if made a difference on the output and when I did I noticed a large yellow spot in the bulb. Looks kind of like powder residue like the remains of something burning. Is this normal for HID bulbs to do this or should I be requesting some new bulbs from Xenondepot? I've already sent them an email with a picture but thought I would ask on here as well. Thanks for any help! Here's a picture:

How was the install and How's the output from the xtreme kit? I'm guessing that since you were trying to rotate the bulb it's not great. I had their leds in my headlights but didn't like the output so they are sending me the xtreme kit. Should be here Tuesday.

jp1170 · November 7, 2015

How was the install and How's the output from the xtreme kit? I'm guessing that since you were trying to rotate the bulb it's not great. I had their leds in my headlights but didn't like the output so they are sending me the xtreme kit. Should be here Tuesday.

So far they are great! The only reason I was trying to rotate the bulbs was because there was a very slight hint of a hotspot above the cutoff line and I was checking to see if rotating them made a difference with that but it didn't. I think it's just the gm projector that's causing it. I too had the LED kit and while it is an improvement over stock the HID kit is worlds better than the LED. I went with the 5000K color because I just didn't care for how blue the 6000k color of the LED lights looked. Install went well...took me probably a couple of hours to install but I took my time and removed the plastic cover that runs the width of the truck across the front and mounted everything under it to hide it all. The only thing you can see now is the wires coming out of the drivers side light and the leads connected to the battery. Make sure you do like the instructions say and rotate the connector from the canbus harness that plugs into the factory connector. If you don't polarity will be backwards feeding that harness. Everything seems to be really good quality components. I guess only time will tell how well they hold up.