HID Issues..
 

Hey guys, So I had a buddy install my aftermarket HID's on Tuesday (Low beams and fogs). Naturally with my luck I noticed they all flicker a tiny bit when stopped/driving and It is very annoying while driving, I'm going to attempt to describe this the best I can for now untill I can get a video of it so please bear with me. The drivers side is the most annoying because at start up the beam seems to move side to side a tiny bit.. and then it flickers while driving and it's noticeable when stopped aswell, the passenger side does it as well and also the fogs but I have no idea what the problem may be. I upgraded the fuses on the headlight and fogs to 20's and that didnt help, I checked the wiring and it seemed fine.. is it possible there is a bad ground on all of the connections? My friend installed them through the stock wires and I didnt get a harness because I didnt think I needed one but now I'm second guessing if I should put one in. Hopefully someone can help me out or give me any idea's as to what the problem may be because I dont want to regret having them put in now, any help is greatly appreciated and thanks in advance. :icon_beerchug:

It could be the ballast, if you got your kit of ebay this could be your problem. Sometimes with the cheap $50 ebay kits you can get a bad ballast. I went through 3 kits before I finally bought the better quality slim ballast in hopes that I would have these problems anymore. As far as the ground connections, I just wired mine up to the battery.

Yeah I guess you get what you pay for, Looks like I'm going to have to order some replacement ballast's.. know of any good decent manufacturers?

I'm pretty sure you could find some decent ballasts on ebay, but remember you get what you pay for. I believe the brand I have for my fogs are Xentec or something like that - they haven't failed me in 2 years (knock on wood). For my main beams, I didnt know much about HID's so I went through the local Bay Area California company www.umnitza.com for the kit. It was pretty pricey, but they have lasted 4 years now.

Good Luck!

BlackJag, something that you may want to take a look is is whether the reflector part of your main beams is still solidly mounted or not. If by chance during the work you hurt the HIDs (normally when trying to install things without removing the headlights), you can break the mounts inside the headlights and this could possibly cause a flickering like you are seeing (headlight is actually bouncing up and down, making the light change intensity in any given point.

Unfortunately, the ground wires are buried under the headlights, so, the only way you are going to be able to tighten these is to remove the headlights. You can do a voltage check of the ground wire to see if you have a high resistance connection or not. ANything over 0.5 VDC I would be looking to improve that connection. You can also measure the power wire, but trying to see how this is doing is more easily done with an older analog meter with a set of wires run into the cab of the car to measure as you are driving down the road. That will tell you if the problem is wiring related or ballast related.

If you need more info on this, let me know.

Gotti both kits are Xentec lol guess I just got the bad ones. Thermo he took off the front bumper and we took the lights out to install the HID's, Ive read on here about the broken posts and It was inspected by me before they were even put back in before installing the bumper again. The drivers side pattern (beam) goes up and down like there is a little voltage issue atleast thats what it seems to me and you can notice it when stationary and a little flicker from the passenger side aswell.. so idk im confused. Ill try to shoot a video tonight and post it up hopefully the camera will be able to catch what it does but knowing my luck it wont.. :icon_doh:

Heres the update: Double checked the wires again by disconnecting everything and hooking it back up and now the headlight wont even go on so now I'm screwed and I cant drive my car at night. I now regret having HID's put it. Ughh I hate my life, thanks for trying to help guys I give up. Mods feel free to close the thread.

I can second that on the Umnitza brand, I have heard they are pretty good as my friend has their angel eye kit for his bimmer.

BlackJag, do you have access to a multimeter? If you do, I will help you get down to where you can prove parts good and parts bad. It is a bit tricky with HID systems as they are high voltage systems and you can not use just any item to test them. BUt, we can get you taken care of.

Keep in mind that if you plugged in the plugs to the ballasts wrong, it can cause the HIDs not to come on at all. So, check those connections first. Even an experienced electrician can install them backwards every now and then. TRUST ME!!!!!! I did it on my car.

Ok so after taking a break I decided to have another go at it, So after messing around with wires and connections I got the driver side headlight to work.. I raced over to the parking lot near my house to get a video of how the driver side headlight moves side to side when the car is parked and driving. So finally some luck involved I got it on video.. to see what I'm talking about your going to have to look at the drivers side beam and you will be able to see it moving, I zoomed up on it so you can be able to see the movement and also tried to zoom in on the fog light's tiny flicker at the ending but couldnt get that on video but atleast I got the drivers side headlight. Chris I dont have a meter currently but I will have to get one..

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TP7L9uJfmU

BlackJag, the light movement, I am willing to say is from the level sensing pieces located on the suspension. If you look at the rear end of your car, you will see an electronic box where one end is connected to the lower control arm (the one with the coil spring) and the other end is connected to the body. This is simply a variable resistor that is measuring how high the body is in relation to the lower control arm. As you put more weight in the car, the back end tends to drag more, which would cause your lights to point up more. But, because of this variable resistor, as the back end starts to drop, the self leveling system in the headlights would adjust and push the light beam back down. In your case, if that resistor is not making good contact, the circuit can be thinking that the car is being loaded down and tries to adjust the headlights accordingly.

You can disconnect one end of the rod to these resistors and then connect up the multimeter across the pins (polarity doesn't matter with these). You can then move the resistor through its normal range and you should see the multimeter make a nice smooth change as you move it. See the multimeter jumping around, that is your bad resistor.

As for the HIDs not working, what did you do to your one headlight to make it work. Odds are, the same needs to be done to the other side.

Definitely with Thermo on this...you've got a grounding problem. Where did you ground the ballast? When I installed my lows, I crimped a ring terminal on the wire, drilled a pilot hole in the radiator support cross-member, and attached the ground lead with a small sheet metal screw.

Chris, I cant find the box I dont know if its because I'm stupid or I'm just not looking hard enough but I went underneath the car and looked by the control arms and cant find any box. I didnt touch the passenger side light it worked ok just minor flickering but no beam movement what so ever so I never touched it and just left it alone, I just worked on the drivers side headlight last night hoping that the beam wouldnt move and thats when the ds headlight stopped working before I fixed it and shot the video. Is it possible that there is a bad positive connection? my friend installed the positive wiring with wire connectors (see pic below) maybe it has to be wired straight to the positive wire instead of the connectors?? I'm not good when it comes to electrical so I have no idea thats why I ask. Umm PreJag I mounted the ground straight to the battery hoping that maybe it would cure it but it did not.

Connectors: http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/4...nnector.th.jpg

Hello Mr. Jack,
I had the same issue with the same lights and I tried EVERYTHING! Direct connecting to the battery, changeing the connecters a couple times, etc. I was just refusing to admit that the balasts were what was wrong. Finally I got tired, I picked up everything, and returned them. Now im waiting for new ones from another company. The first time I payed $40, the second time, $60 for HID kit. Trust me, stopm bothering yourself, if your lights were working properly before, there is nothing wrong with you connection, or with your wires. You are fine. Those morons even sent me the wrong light bulbs twice. I asked for 6,000K and the first time they send me 12,000K and the second time it was 10,000K. And the lights were flickering all the time. Save yourselves and return the garbage.
Tony

The Umnitza brand is top notch. I have 8,000K HID's in the mainbeam from them and they run much brighter and stronger than other brands I've seen. I wish I wouldve bought the kit for my fogs from them.

Yeah Tony I'm probably going to have to end up getting new ballasts but trying to see what Thermo says. Does anyone notice that the HID's shake when you hit a bump? Is this because the HID bulbs are more heavy then the reg H1's?? My posts arent broken so the headlights are stable but the beams shake when I hit bumps. I went and shot another video from inside the car so you guys can see what I see.. If you look at the drivers side beam right above the tip of the rock you can see the beam move.. you can also see the passenger side kind of get brighter and then regular.

VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2c27ze1UcI

yeah, totaly the same problem We just need to warn people about these problems. I bought my HID pacage from the PROXY STORE for about $40. The lights were totally worthless. Good luck with the next one buddy.

BlackJag, based on your flickering issue, if you have verified all the connections are good, then I would say that you have bad ballasts. I know that may hurt to say, but that is the short of it. Granted, I would see if you can first talk with the people and have them send you another set of ballasts only. That way you shouldn't have to redo all the wiring in the car. If that doesn't fix your problem, then odds are you are going to need to get a better set of HIDs. The saving grace will be that you can pull the harnesses out of the new ones and use the current harnesses as I have seen most of them use the same harness and bulbs, just different ballast boxes.

Ok I'm going to try to get new ballasts this week and hopefully that will help. I'll update to let you guys know what happens, I want to thank everyone for trying to help me out to the best of their abilities with solving my problem it's much appreciated.. and Tony goodluck to you too let me know what happens. Thanks again guys!