Well, I bought a set of H7's retrofitted into He4lla 90mm from Milan, the contour resident expert on getting these done for our cars.

I screwed up the bulb on the drivers side and scraped off the paint on the returning wire; Milan helped me through it, and we decided on repainting the area with a ceramic paint that should've help about 1200-1500 F. The paint I chose was orange. Well, this is what I got:

and


Notice the orangish nature to the drivers side? Well, it got worse over time, so I assumed, fine, it must be the bulb. So, Milan helps me out, hooks me up, I purchase a brand new D2S.

Same problem. I haven't taken pictures yet, but basically, from head on, it's orange on the drivers side. From the left, and from the right, it has the infamous bluish-whitish sparkle (that my passenger side has). . .but from head on, it's just orange.

My question to all of you, and I'm here because Milan's chilling from the contour forums and I didn't want to bother him:

Do you think the orange paint, that is no longer on the old D2S bulb that I replaced, dripped off the wire and destroyed my projection lens?

Do you think that the orange paint dripped or burned off on to some other essential area in the optics and caused this problem?

What do I do? I was competent enough to install these, but I'm not junkie, I'm mechanically retarded. . .should I attempt to take the one side apart and see if I could clean the shield? This is a real pain, and my visibility isn't that greatly affected, it just drives me nuts to know that one side is adversely affected because of my stupidity. . .and now that I'm out $150, I'd like to get it fixed!

BTW, I'm new to the boards, would appreciate any help from you guys. . .

Did you cure the paint prior to firing up the light? If not, it's possible that your paint burned-in and smoked inside the fixture, and I've seen what that does; smoke rises and it made and old set of reflectors on my stock fixtures turn goldish smoked color, and output was very yellow/orange. I'd take apart your Hella unit and visually inspect the relector to make sure it is nice and shiny clean chrome color all the way across. That's my take on it

Also just as a precaution to rule out the bulb as a contributing factor (since colorshift/SDCM may be a factor- since you only replaced one bulb), swap your two bulbs from side to side and make sure that yellower side doesn't move to other side. You could swap ballasts too, if you suspected a power problem to the bulbs that might be causing a difference in color. These are just other slim possibilities to make sure and factor in if necessary

Is it possible you moved, (bumped) that cutoff shield or the bulbs base isn't sitting flush for some reason?

If the reflector isn't fogged from paint vapors and the ballast work the same from one side to the other, then slightly move the cutoff shield in towards the bulb more.

Josch-
I'll see if that's what happened. I did cure the paint, they said a minimum of 15minutes, but I let it sit for nearly 4-5 hours since I decided to install the other side. BUT, when I pulled the old bulb out, the orange paint was burnt off and a grey residue was left. Maybe I smoked 'em? Is there anyway I could take some isopropanol and just clean off the gunk?

I guess I'll see what it looks like in there, I guess worst case I'll have to send 'em back and get another set. . .DAMMIT!

I'll post pics of what the old bulb looks like tonight, hopefully. . . thanks for the pointers so far guys!

Suneil

By cure the paint I mean did you bake it at 500 degrees for 1-2 hours (using BBQ/ high-heat paint of course)? I'm sure you couldn't do that, since you probably can't put a bulb in the oven for that long at that temp. I always use this curing procedure for shields where temp doesn't matter. But it IS important at any rate, to use high-heat paint when the object will be subjected to higher temps, or it WILL burn off (inside your nice clean fixture). You may be able to clean the haze off your reflector maybe, since it is metal chrome I think? Ask Herman for sure, he's the 90mm man. I don't even know what material the 90mm reflector is made of for sure, but I'd try cleaning it first before you replace it

That is, if you find that to be the cause of your problem

well, in that sense of cure, NO, I didn't bake it, because the bulb would've melted, though I did think about it since I was worried the paint would burn off. . .which is what I think what happened. I guess the damage couldn't be THAT bad considering I can still see, etc., so I guess I'll try taking it apart and seeing what I can do, I hope I'll be able to get the 90mm apart, since Milan put it together and stuff. . .

Yes, the Hella 90mm can be cleaned off with rubbing alcohol. But only AFTER you have gone through a full clean cycle of the unit itself.

A full clean cycle of the Hella 90mm means submerging it in several bowls of hot tap water. Rinse off the outside (red color) first for all minor particles, use dishsoap if needed. First bowl is used for shake rinse only. Second/3rd/4th bowl is used with dish soap and soft paint brush. Yes, use the paint prush to gently brush reflector. 5th bowl is with destilled water. Then you can clean reflector with rubbing alcohol and 20-30 sheets of photo lens cleaning paper.

This procedure obvieslsly has to be done to inside of front glass as well, inside/outside of curved lens in addition to the reflector.

I have done it, it worked for me. It is not easy, it requires patience, and potensial for destruction of some parts are definatly there.

I'd say weigh up your time/effort against cost/waiting time of new unit. (Hella does not sell any parts, it is sold as complete unit only)

Hope this helps.

Wow, Suneil sounds like you just can't win with these...

Is it possible that you are seeing the big orange spot right in the center of the light? If the light output is pure white on the ground, than this would indicate just that.

Due to the design of the 90mm, there are blue/purple color bands visible to the right and left of the hot spot, and yellow/orange in the middle, above the center hot spot.

Should you decide to take the lights apart, I do have spare parts. Taking them apart is going to be a very tedious task however. Let me know if I can assist you in any way.

The best thing you can do for all of us is to post a pic of the lights projected on the wall. If the output is orange all around, than that would mean that reflector may be to blame. If the light output is white, than the phenomena I described is to blame.

Until you post pics for us, answering these questions is almost impossible...

Assuming that the against the wall pic is on level ground, it appears your driver side projector needs to be rotated about 5-10 degrees. I know this has nothing to do with your color problem, but I would be more concerned that the misalignment is causing some unwanted glare to oncoming traffic.

my 2 cents

Due to the structure of the Contour, the left headlight always does that. The headlights on the Contours sit slightly raised from the turn signals, in to the grill.

I have a very sophisticated machine that helps me level the lights that I make, but it is only after the first 10 pairs that were made that I was able to correctly "predict" the degree to which this tilt would occur...

But not to worry, the glare is not as bad is may appear. In the real world, there is an extra foot or so of the light when compared to the totally leveled lights that I made after I revised the design.

Milan-
Just got a digital camera, so when I get the car back (transmission work, it's been there for a week), I'll take pics, and even a pic of the bulb, and show y'all what it looks like.

I was hesitant about opening up the projector, so depending on what you guys think, especially Milan, since you created these works of art, I'll decide what i can do. . .

BTW, the light output is just sick crazy on these, I love driving in the evenings now, best upgrade you can get on your car in terms of safety, comfort, and looks.

Suneil

Suneil, you know that I stand behind my work. Don't ever hesitate to ask for help. See what you can do, and if you are not successful, I will be more than happy to attempt to fix them myself.

Milan-
Thanks for offering, once I get pics up (and my car back) and we figure out if/what's the problem, I'll see how I can fare with the task at hand.

A techinical question: When I pull up behind a car at night, the passenger side has the lightish blue color to it, and the drivers side is yellow/orange. Does that mean that the hotspot is where the yellow/orange is?

It almost looks like what you see in the pic, with the bluish tint on one side and the yellowish tint to the other. . .of course, I can't really remember if it's white light below the drivers side. . .

Suneil

What you should be seeing is Yellow/Red/Orange at the center and blue/purple bands on either side of the hot spot. This should occur on both projectors... If not, it still does not mean that there is something wrong.

As I said, Is the road also orange/yellow, or is it just looking at the projector that you see this?

You can tell the orangish color in this pic




Light distribution seems ok right here, but you can tell on the driver's side there is a little more yellow than the other side.

I haven't ventured into taking out the assembly and looking at the actual lens yet. Waiting for ideas. . .if the driver's side is supposed to look orange because it's cut off is lower, than it's cool. . .I don't think there's diminished visibility, per se, but as you can tell, the left side of the driver's side seems to fall off more than the right.

I think your aiming is off. That will DEFINITELY make one side look more yellow than the other:



In the above pic, you can see that it looks like your driver's side beam's flare-top is possibly set to the same level as the passenger side lower cutoff. This is not right. You want them both exactly level, so the cutoffs of the lowers, flares, and uppers are all to the same level. On my car, to fine tune my vertical adjustment, I set the driver's side one to be optimal, then I set the passenger one to have the exact same 'hue' of blue/purple to it as viewed from really far away in the ONCOMING CAR lane position. I even kicked the passenger side projector IN just a fraction of a degree to sync with the driver's beam (horizontal adjustment), just so that when you are directly in front of the car then the driver's side light didn't look brighter than the passenger side one. I only kicked it in far enough to since the beams ONLY AT THE FAREST VIEWABLE DISTANCE. Anything less than that distance and the beams look like they are separate. Does this make sense? It's because you must remember that if you shine your lights on a wall, and see a blue stripe and a yellow patch, then if you walk over to that wall and put your eyes right at that blue stripe area and look back towards the fixture, you will see pure blue. Then if you duck down so that your eyes are in the area of the yellow patch and look back to fixture then you will see pure yellow, so remember that aiming is important so that both units (driver and pass) paint the same beam onto the whole area in front of the car. This is just one possibility that MAY be contributing to your problem. Not saying that is your cure. Just something to check

And tell us it's not smoke damage!
I'm in suspense here!!!
I've seen this color with the stock 90mm H9 w/halogen, and shield in stock location. it is corrected by moving the shield towards the bulb. It works even with halogens, from yellow to blue.
You need to eliminate all these loose question.
Smoke damage
bulb, rt. to lf. swap
bulb seating
then shield possition

I don't have to swap bulbs, because I bought a brand new 4100K D2S bulb, so I'm set there.

I collected a bunch of supplies from my lab (lens paper, isopropanol, sterile cotton qtips), so I can check and see tonight if there's smoke damamge.

I guess when I'm taking things apart I'll figure out how to move the shield back, if that is indeed the problem.

What I've noticed, is that if I drive head on towards glass, the driver's side reflects the orange/yellow color and the passenger side reflects the purple/blue hue we all love so dearly. Interestingly (I must look like an idiot when I do this), if I drive towards the glass (or reflective object, like a freshly waxed car) at any angle of incidence of like 22 degrees or something, BOTH sides will have the purple/blue hue.
This means two things:
(1) If it's smoke damamge, it localized ONLY to the portion where the exposed return wire was painted (which is the TOP portion of the lens) or
(2) The shield is off, like previously mentioned, so that head on, you only see the yellow/orange and not the purple blue.

I'm less inclined to believe (2) becase Milan knows his stuff and wouldn't screw up. (1) is believable primarily because that's where the bulb would've burned, and even a small/quick burn could've charred these lenses. What sucks is I should've just ordered a new bulb and waited instead of painting the return wire. . .UGH!

I'll post comments after I've dived into this. . .

Well, I took the projector apart as far as I could (given my limited technical knowledge), but I went ahead and cleaned it out thoroughly with double distilled 18.1micron filtered water with lens paper wrapped around sterile cotton tips. . .and then cleaned with isoprpanol inbetween, and finished it off with a dry sheet of lens cleaner paper.

There was no VISIBLE smoke damage, and the shield looked like it was in the right place. The bulb is new, and I check the fuses as well to see if they were faulty. I even checked to see if the ballasts were screwed up by switching them (obviously I was checking for a change in the lighting in my garage).

Long story short, with the lens cleaner, the driver's side has a "cleaner" beam pattern. As for that yellowish thing I see? Well, after thinking about what Milan said, I realized it's the "hotspot" for the cutoff on the driver's side, so when I pull up to a car, or near something reflective, it appears yellow because I'm looking at a reflection of the bulb at LESS than the focal length. When I step back almost 10 or 20 feet, the "yellow" is gone. I don't know if you guys experience this as well, my only reference point is an ML55AMG, which I know uses bixenon's at 4100k, and they have a flat cut off (unlike mine, which is flared to the right for GREAT road side viewing). BOTH sides of the ML look the same color when you see them in a relfective object because their shields cut off at the same point.

And like Milan said, it's blue and white on either side, just yellow UP close. I'll post pics on Sunday night or something.

I'm just happy I figured out it was the shields cut off that gave it the yellow look on the driver's side (So as to not bling oncoming traffic) and the blue/white on the passenger side (so as to illuminate the road signs).

Suneil

Forgot to mention, in my myriad comparisons, I also realized the left side (driver's side) is a bit dimmer than the right, possibly because the bulb isn't in the right focal point (ie shield needs repositioning), but after looking at pic's of Milan's bulbs as well, I think that's inherent to the design since the bulbs are inverted and the return wire is on top (when looking head on), which limits shield positioning. . .I am by no means an expert, just a scientist with perspicacious observations. . .and I just realized I haven't been taking pictures according to forum standards, so I'll try to next time. . .

there you go.. having return wire up in any projector unit fixture gives lower output and possibly a visible shadow on the road. More info on that topic is here: http://faq.auto.light.tripod.com/hl-hid-bulbs.htm

Glad that you are at least getting somewhere with this...

Also, don't forget that that the top of the H7 projector reflector is modified so that it can take the H7 based HID capusule. In order to insure that there are no spikes, the H7 projector reflector is cut at the top into a half circle that is about 5-6mm in lenght. So thus, you lose reflective surface area and therefore light output is decreased.

Now, the reason that the H9 does not lose this output is that the return wire is at the bottom, where the light output is blocked anyhow.

But as it has been stressed numerous times on here, you can never achieve OEM ligthing whenever you retrofit HID into Halogen housings...

Well, I thought I'd post pics of what she looks like after I cleaned the lens. . .the driver's side has a cut near the H7 tab, as Milan said, to prevent spiking, but the passenger side doesn't, hence the difference in the intensity of the beams. . .but, as you can tell, this is a NIGHT and day difference from an OEM Contour SVT setup. . .