HID Problem.. help me out plz!

[Freyspath]

So I bought from carhidkits.com a 6000k HID system for my headights. The problem I have is that after I installed all of it and mounted everything.. Only one (the driver side) worked.. the other would turn of for like a 1/2 a second and then turn off...

Whats wrong?

[Freyspath]

Do I need a relay wiring system?

[JonathanPrem]

It should be plug and play. I think you might have bad blast or loose wiring. Then again im no electric guru.

[miamiheat3332]

ok i recently installed an hid kit from HIDextra. and i had the same problem

if you still have your old normal way on one side, and the ballast installed in the other, the normal one, or both wont work, unless both of the ballasts are plugged in,

also could you post a pic of your ballasts because another solution i had to do for my fog HID's is switching the polarity, it should be the plug that plugs into the ballast, and flip it around then plug it in.

hopefully that helps

EDIT: i totally read your question wrong and too fast lol, but on the light that doesnt work, try to switch the connector like i said, so it switches the polarity, most likely your problem.
Modified by miamiheat3332 at 9:02 PM 1/11/2010

[UndeGuy]

If you have an H4 connector, then you can't get the polarity mixed up.

Most likely it's not enough juice from the system.

So yeah, you probably need a relay. I personally would've gotten a relay anyway, just to be on the safe side.

[miamiheat3332]

i think he should definatly have enough power if the HID kit is good, because atm im running 2 35w ballasts for headlights, and 2 35w ballasts for fogs, so thats 140w, but i used to have the tinted normal bulb thingys and they each took 65w for the headlight, and for fogs i think i had 35w bulbs so that would be around 200w, so im thinking he definatly should have more than enough power.

[Slaxl]

I have bought 2 JLM HID Kits - they were completely plug and play with no problems whatsoever - maybe a bulb came faulty or the ballast for that bulb is bad. But i'm no electric guru either

[Freyspath]

I ended up ordering a relay kit off eBay for the H4 system.

I think the issue I had was because it wasnt getting enough power. I say that because at first after I installed everything.. BOTH didn't work because the ballast connectors had the black and red symbols mixed up.. Once I fixed that and reversed the polarity, the left one (driver side) worked, the other right one would just come on for a quick 1/2 a sec and then shut off. So I swapped the ballasts thinking it was bad, but it worked on the left side. So I then decided to see what would happen if I turned the car on and then turn the lights on..... Result: left one was on (like usual) and the right one was flickering! So my assumption is that it needs more power. Because the relay and fuses to the headlights are on the left side of the car, so when the wiring was done to the headlights, the first light to get access to power is the left side, and then whatever is left goes to the right.

Hopefully this theory of mine works, ill keep u guys posted.

BTW! -- on our Nissan headlights we have like a flexible circular plastic thing that covers the back of the headlight, and what looks to also repel water from getting into the headlight. what do we do though when we run HID's into our headlights? Did you push the HID wiring through it, and then tape or silicone the gap the wires left? Did you just throw it away?

[Slaxl]

Well if i remeber correclty all i did was put HID bulb in place first and then u kinda have to stretch that little black rubber thing. Kinda hard to do but with a little help from a third hand it shouldnt be any problem.

I think i did it that way becuz if not u wouldn't be able to secure the bulb in place - so u pass the wires thru first then try to stretch it over the back of the HID bulb. Sorry if it isnt very clear becuz i did this about a year ago

And luckily i had just replaced the headlights so the rubbers weren't rotten or brittle. They went right back to the original shape while still holding in the HID bulb.

and definitely couldnt throw them away - didn't want moisture or water to get in. And i didn;t have to use silicone or anything like that

[Natedogg1701]

ok frey for your issue im really not sure. it shouldnt seem like a power issue because a standard halogen bulb draws around 60 watts where as a hid balast draws 35, give or take a watt.

now if you got a single beam kit it would be plug and play on each side. if you got a bixenon kit, like you should so you have highbeams, you would get a relay harness that uses a seperate power that you connect directly to the battery. the harness would have a seperate wire for power, that goes to the battery, a long harness that is made to run to the driver side, and short harness for the passenger side, and a connector to attach to the factory headlight socket. (you are only given one connector to connect to the factory socket because it only needs that to power the relay that controls the telescopic bulbs, so you get high and low beam) now on each harness there is a connector for the ballast, a seperate ground (silver hoop connector) for each ballast, and a small 2 wire connector, that small wire is a signal wire that attaches to a special telescopic bixenon bulb. it powers a magnet that recesses the bulb to angle the light differently.

surprisingly these kits angle the light very well, for not being in a projector housing. my kit has a very sharo cutoff point and i dont bling people.....well i do because i have my lights angled high on purpose, but when i switch from low to high beam the cutoff point is very sharp, like a perfect line to seperate the hight the light is angled at. and i have an ebay kit, the seller has a very good rep, 22000 sales w/ a 99% feedback rating, and he does hold up to warrantys.

sorry 4 ramblin on, just think pathy owners shud get the correct kits, the single beam kits spray light everywhere and do a horrible job IMO, and oh ya about that black rubber gromett, the bixenon bulbs are 2 peices, the cradle locks into the headloght housing, then i can put the gromett on correctly, then i can insert the bulb itself, and it twist locks to the cradle, works great.

[Slaxl]

i forgot that those bixenon bulbs were 2 pieces - its like a magnet in the back the pulls the bulb to the rear when you activate your high beams.

And like natedogg1701 stated - they do have a good cut off point even though they are not projectors. Bixenon is definitely better than the single beam that i see alot of people with. Not only is the angle terrible and just sprays light everywhere it is quite inconsiderate for the oncoming driver because you are temporarily blinded by this "hot" beam of light.

[Natedogg1701]

thats exactly what it is, a magnet, very low powered magnet but it does the job. and i believe its the fact that the cradle that holds the bulb keeps the light from hitting the lower reflector inside the headlight housing, doing so keeps the light from being relfected high and into the faces of traffic. when its foggy out i can see the beam very well, and it shoots out a very sharp, clean cut beam, and when i bit highbeam it changes to a wide spread angle, but still has a specific beam abgle, not just a spray of light. i spend 80.00$ for my kit shipped, and it was well worth it.

[UndeGuy]

thats exactly what it is, a magnet, very low powered magnet but it does the job. and i believe its the fact that the cradle that holds the bulb keeps the light from hitting the lower reflector inside the headlight housing, doing so keeps the light from being relfected high and into the faces of traffic. when its foggy out i can see the beam very well, and it shoots out a very sharp, clean cut beam, and when i bit highbeam it changes to a wide spread angle, but still has a specific beam abgle, not just a spray of light. i spend 80.00$ for my kit shipped, and it was well worth it.

I just installed my THIRD hid kit, since June.

The first burned out a bulb. Second one is spraying too much light up. No cutoff.

And my third? Well, we'll see. I literally just finished installing the bulbs and ballast before coming online. Unfortunately, I didn't swap out the relay wiring harness... and the plug that controls the magnets are different.... so, for the time being, I have no high beam.

In any case, I noticed immediately, the bottom portion of the headlight housing is darker than with my 2nd kit. So, I'm hoping it's like my first kit. It was BEAUTIFUL, just like yours Nate. It had a very sharp cutoff.

In another post on the forum, I wondered if it was because of the shape of the "shield" around the bulb... my first kit had flat sides to the shield. the second was completely curved. The third is also completely curved.

But there is one thing different from the 2nd to the 3rd... the opening in the shield for high beam. In the 2nd, the opening is bigger (simple rectangle). The 1st and 3rd are almost as big in the middle, but the sides are smaller (kinda like someone put a tall square on a short but wide rectangle).

[Freyspath]

Thanks so much guys for your help/advice! I just wanted to show you the kit I bought for the pathy:

http://www.carhidkits.com/xeno....html

What do you guys think??

-- Also I am coming home from school today, hopefully the relay kit I bought has arrived, or arrives this weekend. Once I get it, ill put it in and let you guys know what happened.

THANKS!James

[UndeGuy]

One thing I didn't see... did you swap the bulbs also? left to right.

It's a bit late now, but if you swap the bulb and the same bulb flickers, it could be a bad bulb. If the same SIDE flickers, it could be just as you said, all the power going to one side and not both. It's possible you could have bad wiring too... just leave the one side out and see if the other works by itself.

[Freyspath]

Ya I should have tried that when I had that all in the car... Im going to give it a try again tomorrow, since today I took it in for new brakes, alignment.