Any HID/wiring guru's??? Help!

[R-Audi]

Okay... so I have had my HID kit for a few years now.. (but bulbs are ~1yr old) and its starting to give me troubles. They have been on as my DRL's, and untill about a month ago I haven't had any problems.
But now.... One hasnt been turning on... until last night I thought the bulbs was burnt out (hadnt turned on in weeks) and finally went on yesterday..

Anyways... any suggestions? I was close to just buying another HID kit... but if it works.. and something can be done... I would rather save the cash.
(Its a plug and play kit.. plug into existing OEM harness... and plug in bulbs)

[R_Ethug]

Re: Any HID/wiring guru's??? Help!

do you have the light switch up just 1 position or two?

if its just 1 thats the culprit as it only gives partial voltage causing them to act up

[R-Audi]

Re: Any HID/wiring guru's??? Help!

I've done everything... no switch, pos. 1, pos.2

Originally I would leave all switches off and they worked fine.. now I get nothing with pos. 2! (except for the odd suprise)

Kinda pissed me off because I almost pulled the trigger yesterday on a new set... couldnt decide between 50w ones and the new slim ballast ones.

[R_Ethug]

Re: Any HID/wiring guru's??? Help!

hrmm.. dunno did you do the relay crap to disable the drls? maybe you have a bad ballast.. i killed 2 ballasts with washing my engine bay now.. thank god got replacements under warranty

[The Brice]

Re: Any HID/wiring guru's??? Help!

Sounds like a ballast issue. If you've been using them as DRL's and underpowering them a ballast might have crapped out on you as Ryan said. If you know much about electrical you could meter the ballasts out to make sure they are getting required power, have a good ground, etc. etc., but if not watch out as a ballast has the potential to dish out a nasty shock.

[R-Audi]

Re: Any HID/wiring guru's??? Help!

Ok.. from Beyond:
Apparently I need some sort of harness to use the HID's as DRL's then wire them straight to the battery. Something about not getting enough volts through to power them. My other option (which is cheaper and easy) is to disable my HID's as DRL's, and wire up my city lights.... For some reason I hadnt gotten around to doing this on this car... shouldnt be too bad I dont think! Certainly better then buying a new HID kit...

[The Brice]

Re: Any HID/wiring guru's??? Help!

If your not getting light all the time with the switch in pos. 2 (full voltage) then you've got issues. Try swapping sides with the ballasts if possible and see if the ltg. problems change sides too. I think you've got a pooched ballast that will need replacement IMO.

[The_Jerbel]

Re: Any HID/wiring guru's??? Help!

Mark,
I've gone through this a few times. I'll tell you right now that you probably have a $100 HID kit and your ballast is dying. It's happened to me twice now. You need to either wire in a relay circuit for the HID's alone directly in circuit with the battery, and the stock wiring would activate the relay (I've done this numerous times on various cars, so I could help you with it if you want),

OR

option 2 that you mentioned. If if were me, I would go with option 2, disable the HID's as DRL's, wire up the city lights for DRL, and get the 50W HID kit for your low beams. That's my ideal setup. Right now I've just got the DRL feature for the HID's disabled and use the side markers as DRL. Next step is the 50W kit when another one of my ballasts croaks (which is sure to happen).

[Aleks]

Re: Any HID/wiring guru's??? Help!

Sounds like a ballast issue. If you've been using them as DRL's and underpowering them a ballast might have crapped out on you as Ryan said. If you know much about electrical you could meter the ballasts out to make sure they are getting required power, have a good ground, etc. etc., but if not watch out as a ballast has the potential to dish out a nasty shock.

I second this....should not be used as DRL's