Weird HID occurance

Well it was dusk and i got home and noticed my flowlighting HID headlights wernt as bright as normal....So I checked them out and saw that my left headlight was burnt out or so I thought...So I turned my headlights off and back on and everything was fine as normal...and have been for a few days now...Does any1 kno wut might have caused this or any remarks about it??? Thanks

It's fairly common. Every now and then the ignitor inside the ballast just won't quite kick out enough to light the bulb. Usually a simple off-on flick of the switch will fix it.

Is this a problem I should be worried about??? Like getting a new ballast or not really??

Only if it gets really bad and happens constantly, or if it takes 2-3 times of switching your headlights off and on before it ignites. Both mine and Phil's do it occasionally still, after over a year of being installed.

had that happen to a car at work awhile back... a 2002 acura cl or tl with factory hids... one side just plain didn't ignite.... thought "o crap this sucks cause my manager won't be happy about replacing that expensive bulb".... turned the lights off and back on... and they both ignited all was well

mione does it sometimes too but it comes on after ******* it off then on

The same thing just happened to me. Except now the bulb doesn't come on at all. I used a test light and I'm not getting any power after the ballast. I'm going to swap it out and hopefully that will take care of it.

The other night the left bulb took a good minute - two minutes to turn all the way on. Only had one headlight on and then the second came on two minutes later. Hmm...

...change the headlight fluid

...go **** yourself

thanks

obocecha wrote:

The same thing just happened to me. Except now the bulb doesn't come on at all. I used a test light and I'm not getting any power after the ballast. I'm going to swap it out and hopefully that will take care of it.

the voltage going to the bulb is wayyyy too high to use a test light on. if anything it is working and you just fried your test light.

I grounded the test light on the negative post of my battery. I then turned on my headlights and touched the positive wire going to the harness. The test light came on no problem. I then touched the positive connector coming out of my ballast and there was no power at all. Just to make sure I touched the positive battery post and the test light lit up. So there was no power whatsoever coming from the ballast.

No, see the current coming from the ballast to the HID bulb is completely different than a standard 12v DC car system. Your light probably didn't light up due to that.

The best way to test if an HID ballast is faulty is to hook it up to your other HID bulb. If that one doesn't light up too, then your ballast is kaput.

or just lick the positive and negative terminals while the switch is on

DO NOT ACTUALLY DO THIS!!!!

Hey, my question seems to fit in here so here it goes. I bought a set of HID's and they worked great, then I took a roadtrip to North Carolina, I was amazed by the brightness of them all the way down. Somewhere in Virginia, the passenger bulb just gives out. So I figure it's a connection problem, I've check all the connections and everything is tight.

I was having the same problem a couple times with this light not firing like all those described above, but it was only on the passenger, drivers works perfect. When the light first starts, it lights up for a split second, but not at full brightness, which means it's getting power.

My question, what needs to be replaced? Is it a faulty ballast or a bulb?

One more thing, this bulb burnt more purple than the passenger side when it worked, and they're both 6k bulbs.

Switch around the bulbs and ballasts to figure out which one is being difficult. IE plug your driver side bulb into the passanger side ballast. If the bulb lights like normal, the passenger bulb has an issue.

Ok, finally warmed up here so I got out and switched them around. Looks like its the bulb, the little round glass part inside the casing is kinda black, but the one that works only has little bubble like things on it.

What would have caused this bulb to fail? Should I change something to make sure this doesn't happen again? As I look up this topic, I'm pretty sure this is Tim's old kit, not sure how long these bulbs were on your car for, but they lasted about 14 hours after I installed them on mine.

Please tell me you did not touch the bulb itself. That would most cetainly shorten the life of the bulb.

Nope, at least I can't remember touching it. I tried very hard not to. Perhaps it rubbed against headlight casing when I installed it? Remember that this was the bulb that was purple compared to the one that was working fine, not sure if that means anything.

Any suggestions?

get a new bulb and hope for the best is my only suggestion.

Alright, sorry for the delay. Finally done school and working so I can buy a new bulb. Now my question is, could my package be marked 'gift' when it's shipped? Anyone had good experience with cross-border shipping, how did you do it?

My HID kit got dinged with 125 bucks in broker fees. Looking to avoid it this time on the bulb.

well if you're ordering it from Oznium,

Put a note in the order comments reminding us to lower the invoice cost. We'll do our best to reduce the duty costs for you.

*cough* Loyal customer, even more loyal Customs Officer *cough*

The brokerage fees will still be the same if you use UPS. If you want to avoid them, you have a few LEGAL options. The first is if you are going to use UPS, use anything but ups standard. They don't really advertise it, but every other level of service is a.) faster (duh) and b.) no brokerage fees. Standard is a cash cow for UPS. You pay more for shipping, but you will end up saving in the long run compared to the brokerage fees.
http://www.ups.com/content/ca/en/shipping/cost/zones/customs_clearance.html

The second option you have is shipping with another courier, Fedex charges no brokerages, neither does DHL, cheapest of all is USPS.

You will still have to pay the PST and GST, you can't avoid that. Phil, don't assist in evading duties and taxes by lowering the invoice cost. When it is found, that will then subject future shipments to examination, causing delays to your other canadian clients, like myself. That, and under customs law, if we think the invoice value is low, we can reassess on current market value.

you guys believe i read this top yesterday and now one of my headlights is out....this sucks

Phil wrote:

well if you're ordering it from Oznium, Put a note in the order comments reminding us to lower the invoice cost. We'll do our best to reduce the duty costs for you.

I'm for sure ordering it off you guys. I was very happy with my HID's till this bulb went, guess thats what I get for buying a used kit. Hoping it was just a bulb fluke, so I'll be placing my order right now.

Not trying to get around fees and do something illegal in the slightest. Just wondering what my options were, thanks for the info.