SL/R230: Do our cars' headlights deliberately make white xenon light yellow?
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Joined: Oct 2015
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From: Taipei, Taiwan
Camry 2.0, CLK320, SL350, SL63
Do our cars' headlights deliberately make white xenon light yellow?
Two months ago I decided to replace my Philips 85122+ bulbs (color temp rated at 4300K) with Osram Xenarc CBI (rated at 5500K). It turned out that the color of CBI, when looked at the headlight assembly, was as yellow as the 85122+ bulbs 
. Please see:
https://i.imgur.com/xuAmKPR.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/0oNsuwO.jpg
The photos were taken when the CBI bulbs have been burnt for 70 hours. I kept using them until the 100 hour mark to ensure they are fully broken in but the color remained the same
.
Then I gave up and installed Philips 85122 WX ultinon bulbs (rated at 6000K). The light projected out is indeed white, as illustrated by that E class’ rear bumper:
https://i.imgur.com/hQoLdda.jpg
BTW, please excuse this W212 driver for putting on an AMG badge lol. Nevertheless despite the emitted white light, headlight assembly still looks very yellowish and even a little bit green in it. Picture:
https://i.imgur.com/ya2HoMn.jpg
From some certain angles, the part surrounding the clear lens appears as yellow as a typical sticker note
.
I checked with local Mercedes stealer as well as xenon light shop, they have confirmed that my ballasts are working fine. It is also not due to cloudy headlight cover or foggy lens as I just had my headlights cleaned inside out.
I also compared against my friends’ E46 E92 3ers, E63 6er, Audi A4, 986 boxster which have 4300K, 6000K Philips or 5000K Osrams installed. All of them got white or even blueish xenon output.
All of these lead to my suspicion that our headlight assembly was (intentionally
) designed to have reflectors (or some components of it) somehow produce some yellow light out of white light. So… I don’t know if it’s just me or all R230 SLs got this behavior. What are the experiences from you guys? Please share your bulb brand / temp rating and the color of headlight assembly.
. Please see:https://i.imgur.com/xuAmKPR.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/0oNsuwO.jpg
The photos were taken when the CBI bulbs have been burnt for 70 hours. I kept using them until the 100 hour mark to ensure they are fully broken in but the color remained the same
. Then I gave up and installed Philips 85122 WX ultinon bulbs (rated at 6000K). The light projected out is indeed white, as illustrated by that E class’ rear bumper:
https://i.imgur.com/hQoLdda.jpg
BTW, please excuse this W212 driver for putting on an AMG badge lol. Nevertheless despite the emitted white light, headlight assembly still looks very yellowish and even a little bit green in it. Picture:
https://i.imgur.com/ya2HoMn.jpg
From some certain angles, the part surrounding the clear lens appears as yellow as a typical sticker note
. I checked with local Mercedes stealer as well as xenon light shop, they have confirmed that my ballasts are working fine. It is also not due to cloudy headlight cover or foggy lens as I just had my headlights cleaned inside out.
I also compared against my friends’ E46 E92 3ers, E63 6er, Audi A4, 986 boxster which have 4300K, 6000K Philips or 5000K Osrams installed. All of them got white or even blueish xenon output.
All of these lead to my suspicion that our headlight assembly was (intentionally
) designed to have reflectors (or some components of it) somehow produce some yellow light out of white light. So… I don’t know if it’s just me or all R230 SLs got this behavior. What are the experiences from you guys? Please share your bulb brand / temp rating and the color of headlight assembly.Last edited by a32amg; Jul 13, 2016 at 05:06 AM. Reason: Update title
