Do I need a relay harness for my HID kit?

[speedracerlo]

I installed a cheap HID kit some time ago and the driver side headlight seems to be slightly flickering. It's not flickering like a strobe, but I can see some kind of vibration from the light and it's not as bright as the passenger side. The color from the flickering light is also not as fully white and has a bit of green tint. I also switched out the bulbs too and it displays the same thing. Has anyone had this kind of problem from an aftermarket HID kit?

The only thing I can imagine is the problem would be the stock headlamp wire not providing enough current to the ballast.

I've switched out the ballast twice, but it also proved to be a waste of money.

[ramprun]

what do you mean by display the same thing? what did you switch the bulb out with? is it the bulb that was originally from your passenger side to your driver side? If you could, describe it in more detail. i had my installed without relay harness and from what i understand, if you installed 35w, you don't have to install relay wire unless you have problem like this. I had a 55w kit installed and that was too much of a current draw so i have to manually switch it on and off after starting the car.

[pwlorraine]

I installed a cheap HID kit some time ago and the driver side headlight seems to be slightly flickering. It's not flickering like a strobe, but I can see some kind of vibration from the light and it's not as bright as the passenger side. The color from the flickering light is also not as fully white and has a bit of green tint. I also switched out the bulbs too and it displays the same thing. Has anyone had this kind of problem from an aftermarket HID kit?

The only thing I can imagine is the problem would be the stock headlamp wire not providing enough current to the ballast.

I've switched out the ballast twice, but it also proved to be a waste of money.

I had this problem on my e36 BMW - common on the passenger side as that is a longer run and worse after the rain when the leakage would increase. There are usually three causes to this - you've likely ruled out the bulb. The second to check is the ballast by swapping ballasts across sides and see if the behavior swaps as well. The third is that you aren't able to get enough current for the high draw during ignition. The common solution to this is to put a relay in place - use the existing wiring to engage the relay and run a second lower gauge wire for the actual power - with a fuse in line mind! Everyone has the same wiring and I doubt there is much aging at work here yet. You might be able to clean the contacts and get better ignition. A stupid test for this (that will work) is to run a high current pair from the engine positive and chassis ground to the balast input and see if it fires up cleanly.

One of the issues when you do this on BMW's is that they measure the voltage drop across the bulb to assess whether the bulb is still good and the relay will provide the wrong drop so the car computer announces a "bad bulb" - I don't know if Infinitis have this check or not.

Peter

[speedracerlo]

I actually tried switching the ballast, purchased a new ballast and set of bulbs and ruled everything out.. so now I suspect there is not enough currentthese are not 55w, they're 35w bulbs/ballasts and I really can't seem to figure out what is causing this lack of currentI also cant find where the fuse for these headlights are... I checked next to the battery and the fuse labeled H/L Washer doesn't seem to have a fuse, perhaps that's actually the headlight washer? cuz I dont have that

[ramprun]

i think he meant the fuse on the relay. There should be one on the relay to save your oem wiring from meltdown if your car can't handle it but i think the headlight wiring for the EX is rated pretty high. it should be enough to support your 35w hid kit.

[Punjab]

I would check all connections, Hids work of an arc principle that is very high voltage, so a small prick or gap in the wire can result in a loss of voltage in the bulb. As far as a currant issue i dont see a problem since most cars are controlled by relays as well, double check the grounds and insulate all the connections with dialectic grease to make sure water/ moisture is not getting in .

[speedracerlo]

I tried connecting the ballast to the existing wires with just the pins and made sure to shove them in as deep as possible, but it still gives me the same flcikeringI'm going to order a relay harness and see if that solves it... Does anyone have any tips on how to wire the relay harness? I've read that some cars you could just connect the wire to a + fusebox?