HID Problem

Well I have had my HID’s in the truck for a while now … and never had a problem, until tonight. I was on way home from the shop, and I noticed one was flickering … all of the sudden … BOOM … No headlights (thank god I put HID’s in the fogs too)

The fog lights are fine …

Heres what the headlights are doing … You turn them on, they will flicker for a few seconds and then one headlight will go out, the other becomes extreamly bright. Its not dependant though … sometimes the left will go out … sometimes the right.

I un-plugged all of the plugs … checked them, and everything looks fine. The other thing I didnt’ check was the two grounds … I will check those in daylight, but they should be good.

I know that some people have to wire in a resistor type thing … but I never had a problem until now. My kit did come with a relay … and everything looks fine there as well.

Sooooo … WTF??

someone said maybe the batteries are going. diesels charge different then cars also. cars are a constant what ever voltage… 13.0-14. or what ever it is. dont diesels charge when it needs it and then doesnt. i know for the first few seconds on start up they dont charge. posible its getting low voltage causing them to go out.

batteries???

charging system???

your SOL???

Good Point mac. Lights go out and blow shit all the time on big rigs consistency.
but if on a car. probably last years.

Mac,
Batterys are less than 6 months old

hate to sound like a duoche but did u meter at the bulb when it goes out? meaning do u have 12vat the plugs on the bulb when the bulb is out? start there work ur way back to ballast and back to signal cable.

and is that those feebay ones? I just fixed a set for a customer who bought his from feebay & it was the connectors just before the bulbs.

good luck

chaz you know if there is a sudden surge on diesel vehicles electrics?
I have to replace bulbs weekly or monthly on no matter what brand of truck i’m driving. That is less than 2 years old. Just is very odd to replace the same headlight or parking light within a month.

not sure shags, I’d imagine that all genoraters or alternaters are the same, if diesle runs at lower rpm typically then I could understand a surger at 8k or so but what diesle runs at 8 K?? also don’t ur trucks have voltage regulators just after the bat? I wish I knw the deal on that one but seems its an issue with all diesles,? & if that’s the case, I’d say SMOKIN needs to replace the ballast, not the bulbs, cause those HID ballast hate voltage fluxuations

no clue, I’m just a driver who replaces bulbs. not a mechanic.

damn thats gay mike, hope you get figured out asap ! then we can maybe figure out kurts…let me know what you find out

the guy does sell these ones on EBAY chaz, but they weren’t purchased thru eBay

00ultraZ Steve has had his HID’s in GMC diesel for at least 5 ish months now and no issues at all, he also just installed his HID fog lights same time SmokinDiesel installed all his HID’s cuz i ordered them all at the same time…

hey mike must be a dodge thing :kiss::cuddle::moon::grouphug:

Not sure Guffey … I know it wasn’t fun driving home from the shop with no headlights though

hey mike must be a dodge thing

well keep me updated buddy…

also i do know that Steve said something about having to switch a wire around or something on his, Kurt is gonna call Steve this afternoon/this evening and get the details

Let me know when you find something out Guffey. Its just weird that it has happened all of the sudden.

I had some HID probs, a little different from yours though. Im 90% sure it ended up being the ground in my situation. Maybe make 100% sure you have a solid ground and the ballasts aren’t mounted where they will get real hot.

Grounds are good. That was my first thought.

I don’t have too many locations that I can mount the balast … But I havnt noticed any heat from them even right after they acted up.

not that this would help, but I’ve been running them in my diesel for a few months now with no issues what so ever

Yeah I don’t think has anything to do with being a diesel. The foglights work flawless … The headlights on the other hand after around 2 weeks took a turn for the worse

i had problems like this with the HID’s in the vette. I had to swap out the 10A fuses and put in 20a. Worked fine ever since.

Really?
How many fuses did you have? … I just have one fuse comming off of the relay.

I have 2 sets of HID’s… one set for my Supra that was a Phillips kit that I bought 3+ years ago for $500. One of the bulbs went out, thats it. Grabbed one out of a factory Infinity busted headlight we had laying around the shop and its been fine.

The other kit is a ebay kit thats on my Yamaha Rhino. I couldn’t begin to tell you how much abuse I have put that Rhino through and the HIDs have never failed me. I have smashed shit, had water over the hood, balasts drenched, pressure washed them, etc… not one problem. I think they are all built in Japan/China… so why pay more for a name brand kit. I did… and ill never do it again.

I also had this issue in my Denali… but I didn’t wire them into a relay, I connected them to my existing OEM wiring. They blew out once, I put another fuse in… then they blew again, so I put a 15a in instead of the OEM 10a, never had a problem since.

My rhino is hooked up through a relay, im not sure what size fuse is in it.