Xenon bulb working but looks halogen?

[cam87]

Hi guys,

I have changed one of my xenon bulbs for a genuine osram like the other side but its lights up like normal (xenon) when your turn it on but with in 30 seconds it goes yellow like a halogen bulb. The other side stays as it was but the bulb works so I'm confused. Any ideas please?

Thanks

 

[hondamad2204]

What colour temperature did you purchase? 4200k looks very similar to halogen in colour, but is more pronounced if compared to one that‘s a crisp white/ blue.

 

[cam87]

Thanks for the reply. Both are exactly the same osram xenarc original they are called with up to 4500k.
The strange thing is the other bulb is exactly as it should be and they are only a month at best age difference.
It starts off as a xenon colour and goes yellow. Google mentions a break in period but I've never heard of that

 

[hondamad2204]

Naa neither have I. , it‘s all to do with gas and pressures inside the glass itself m to get different colours of light...quite possible there is a minute difference in batches etc.

I‘d always change both headlamps at the same time to remove the risk of this happening. But 5k upward will always be a true brighter white light, 4.2/4.5k is always going to look less blue/ more halogen compared to others.

 

[cam87]

There is quite abit of difference between the 2 though. The thing that gets me is it starts off the same colour and then goes yellow. Seems a common issue on the bmw forum e46/e90s etc. I suppose I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy 2 at the same time or maybe try to swap the bulbs and see if it's the same in the other headlight.
They all claim they need 50-100 hours break in but the other side has been in nowhere near that and is fine. I even checked it was genuine on the osram site.