Hey guys, hope everyone's been doing great Now, onto business..

So thinking it was the low beam bulbs going out (which one did, due to the discoloration it had [purple] prior to going out), my HID bulbs would often have only one bulb start up. Sometimes both didn't even turn on when I had my car started up.

So, I changed both my light bulbs and they started great - for the first few times. I noticed that when I started my car, the one side would only flicker but failed to stay on. I also noticed that the small lights in the high beam lamp section (if you guys know what I'm talking about, I don't know what they're called) are usually on, but sometimes one would go off.

I'm thinking maybe this is an electrical issue or some sort of circuit that may cause this to happen, but all I'm hoping is this isn't anything too serious.

Thanks in advance for your time and help.

 

Fezz, based on what you are describing, it is sounding like the ground wires are getting loose or you have a ground wire that is going out. You would need to look at the ground wires and their mounts to make sure all is good there. Keep in mind that HID bulbs like as much voltage as possible, especially on start up. So, if you have a ground wire that is not playing nice and dropping say 1-2 VDC, on start up, you are then only feeding the HIDs 11 VDC or so, which is less than they need to remain working.

If you need me to go into more detail, let me know. How are you with a multimeter?

 

Hey Thermo thanks for the reply! I'm fairly new with electrical conflicts, therefore I have no clue about the ground wires in the car. As for the multimeter, I don't have one as I moved recently to a new location (apartment), thus having no clue on the info about that. I would like it if you went more into detail though, and maybe I could arrange doing something about it myself.

Also, there is this strange buzzing noise coming from under the hood near the engine compartment.. it sounds like it would be electrical but it may be a different problem to the topic we're on.

Sorry for being too vague.

 

Fezz, first off, look on e-bay and find yourself a quality multimeter (kinda like LCD Digital MULTITESTER Multimeter AC DC Ohm VOLT Meter NEW | eBay). They can be had for cheap. Next, you will put the multimeter on the 20V DC scale and measure from the black wire on the plug for the headlight in question to any bare metal spot on the body or motor. With the headlights on, you should see 0 VDC. In reality, you will see something like 0.1 VDC or something of the like. If you are seeing over 1 VDC, then you have a bad ground wire. You will probably need to take it to a shop to have them fix it since you are not electrically savvy.

You may want to also disconnect the plug and look at the terminals on both the plug and on the connector on the back side of the headlight. You should see silver terminals on both. If you are seeing rust discoloration, that is your problem. A small flat bladed screw driver to scrape the rust off will fix your problem in a lot of cases. Something like a jeweler's screw driver is what I am talking about in this case.

Beyond this, it would probably be a good time to see a shop that can diagnose your problem and get it fixed for fairly cheap. They should be able to fix this with an hour of labor to both diagnose and repair. Cost you about $100.

 

Thanks for the help Thermo, +1