What makes headlights look blue

As we head into the fall season, many children across Mississippi are looking forward to another exciting Halloween where they can Fatal Crashes by First Harmful Event When reporting a car accident of any nature, the police or motorist is expected to record the November 04, Categories Personal Injury.

Plus, car headlights have evolved in more ways than just their bulbs. Want to add LED headlights to your classic car? But a few automakers are working on it. Adaptive headlights are an increasingly common feature on US-market cars. Instead, the car darkens the LEDs that would otherwise shine on the car. Now, many cars have light blue colored headlights. Some cars come with those headlights from the factory and other times, owners will install similar systems or similar looking systems.

The factory blue headlights are known as HID high intensity discharge headlights. Traditional lights heat a small metal filament to produce light while HID lights create a plasma discharge arc between two tungsten electrodes. It is this plasma discharge that creates the blue color. The brightness is the main advantage of these lights. Like rear fog lights , these headlights were popularized in Europe where fog, rain and curvy roads create demanding driving conditions. Because HID lights are brighter, they penetrate fog, rain and snow better than halogen lights — an advantage when the conditions are not ideal.

I mentioned that they are similar to stadium lights, except stadium lights require a lot of warm up time before they are really bright. This quick start-up is made possible by a ballast and ignition control module in the vehicle that provides a 20, volt pulse to initiate the arc.

These components along with the bulbs themselves increase the cost for manufacturers to install these types of lights. In the US, it is illegal to change the type of bulb that your headlights were originally approved for by the Department of Transportation DOT and similar laws exist in most other countries.

Approved headlight fixtures have a very sharp projection pattern that keeps the light out of oncoming eyes. In some European countries, HID system are required to be auto-leveling so that heavy loads in the rear of the vehicle do not pitch the light up into oncoming traffic.

For left hand drive vehicles, the right headlight is actually aimed slightly higher than the left to improve visibility on the right side of the road street signs, peripheral dangers…etc while the left side is aimed lower to keep it out of oncoming eyes. There are also tinted bulbs available that look similar to HID systems.

They are not as bright as HID headlights, but they can often be installed legally. Many bulb manufacturers have introduced brighter and whiter halogen bulbs to give buyers a reasonably priced alternative to traditional bulbs. Subscribe on Kindle. Photo: MSVG creative commons. Entry filed under: Automotive , Be Efficient , Demystified. Tags: Automotive , blue , bulb , car , green , halogen , head , headlight , hid , light , purple , tuner , tungsten , white , xenon.

Foggy Morning. Dolphin Motorsports July 16, at am. Addierun March 15, at pm. Xenon helps solve the start-up problem, as does a special controller. All of these tricks mean that these headlights are expensive now, but mass production should bring the cost down eventually. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots.

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