HID Problems

bratch15 · 10-12-2007, 12:48 AM

I bought a Wiz HID kit and tried installing them last night. I hooked both of bulbs and ballasts up and they both worked. GREAT! So when I went to mount the ballasts, one of the bulbs quit working. Ya da ya da ya da, determined it was the ballast. For some reason when I went to hook up the drivers side, it didnt work. Hooked it up to the passangers side, worked. My concern is that I had both working tonight. When I went to mount the passangers side ballast, electricity was jumping from the actual ballast box to the body of the car. Is that a factory flaw or is the ballast supposed to flow electricity through the box and ground with the body of the car? Osram ballasts suck!

billytheman1188 · 10-12-2007, 12:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bratch15

I bought a Wiz HID kit and tried installing them last night. I hooked both of bulbs and ballasts up and they both worked. GREAT! So when I went to mount the ballasts, one of the bulbs quit working. Ya da ya da ya da, determined it was the ballast. For some reason when I went to hook up the drivers side, it didnt work. Hooked it up to the passangers side, worked. My concern is that I had both working tonight. When I went to mount the passangers side ballast, electricity was jumping from the actual ballast box to the body of the car. Is that a factory flaw or is the ballast supposed to flow electricity through the box and ground with the body of the car? Osram ballasts suck!

you should have went with the HIDs off oznium.com

Idk if thats just cheap HIDs, or theres some shit wrong with your car. But when i got my oznium HIDs, the hooked up fine, no problems. mounted one on the metal part near the battery. The other one is zip tied to the coolant holder and some other part

(again, im talking too much)

Cliff8928 · 10-12-2007, 01:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bratch15

I bought a Wiz HID kit and tried installing them last night. I hooked both of bulbs and ballasts up and they both worked. GREAT! So when I went to mount the ballasts, one of the bulbs quit working. Ya da ya da ya da, determined it was the ballast. For some reason when I went to hook up the drivers side, it didnt work. Hooked it up to the passangers side, worked. My concern is that I had both working tonight. When I went to mount the passangers side ballast, electricity was jumping from the actual ballast box to the body of the car. Is that a factory flaw or is the ballast supposed to flow electricity through the box and ground with the body of the car? Osram ballasts suck!

How about this. Your headlights receive +12v all the time. They are switched on the ground side of the connection. So if your ballast touches metal and grounds out, it will turn the light on. Osram ballasts are not junk if they're the ones I'm thinking of (like the Hella Gen III).

bratch15 · 10-12-2007, 01:09 AM

I had the ballasts laying on top of the battery when I was testing them and they worked ok. And as for the ballasts grounding to the body, it didn't work at all after it sparked. I'm guessing the ballast is shot now or maybe not. Anyone think there is a problem with the ballast? The problem is that Wiz is from Australia. Expensive to ship back.

antichrysler · 10-12-2007, 09:39 AM

It sounds like a bad ballast to me. I don't think you're supposed to have them touching metal. It's sorda like mounting your amp to metal. One thing I will tell you is the ballast is a bit different from a constant 12V signal. The ballast is supposed to raise the voltage to something like 12,000V before it ignites the bulb. So if you saw any sparks when you were installing it, odds are the ballast is shot.

For future reference though in my car I put one ballast on top of the fuse panel cover and the other one has the mounting tabs attached to two holes near the back of the engine bay so it's kinda just floating. No contact with metal.

Cliff8928 · 10-12-2007, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bratch15

I had the ballasts laying on top of the battery when I was testing them and they worked ok. And as for the ballasts grounding to the body, it didn't work at all after it sparked. I'm guessing the ballast is shot now or maybe not. Anyone think there is a problem with the ballast? The problem is that Wiz is from Australia. Expensive to ship back.

It's also possible that the polarity was reversed and you blew the headlight fuse. Check that first. There are separate fuses for the headlights and they're in the electrical center under the hood.

bratch15 · 10-12-2007, 12:23 PM

I did blow a fuse and replaced it and put the old bulbs back in to make sure there wasn't a short. After that I tested the ballast and bulb and nothing. I don't know if maybe there are built in fuses inside the ballast. I'm a little shaky about taking apart the ballast because they might not acknowledge the warranty then. I just should have bought an HID kit from an American company. Keep the ideas rolling fellas. I will test the ballast again today. Maybe there is an overload switch or something built into the ballast, so maybe it might work again. But I don't see why the ballast is conducting electricity through the cover. That is definitely a hazard.

billytheman1188 · 10-12-2007, 12:35 PM

hold on, antichrysler why did you say you cant have the ballasts touching metal? i have one of mine mounted on the metal right next to my battery..... no problems with it either. I dont think mounting it on metal really matters, he might have just effed the ballast up cause he connected the wires wrong....

bratch15 · 10-12-2007, 12:39 PM

you cant connect the wires wrong...It's plug and play. The kit is foolproof. Trust me, there is absolutely no way to connect the wires wrong. The positive from the ballast to the bulb can only connect to the positive on the bulb, and so on...

billytheman1188 · 10-12-2007, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bratch15

you cant connect the wires wrong...It's plug and play. The kit is foolproof. Trust me, there is absolutely no way to connect the wires wrong. The positive from the ballast to the bulb can only connect to the positive on the bulb, and so on...

haha, alright dude. That sounds like a WEIRD problem you have there. Sorry i cant help, but i was just wondering, how much did you spend on the HIDs?

steve-o · 10-12-2007, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bratch15

you cant connect the wires wrong...It's plug and play. The kit is foolproof. Trust me, there is absolutely no way to connect the wires wrong. The positive from the ballast to the bulb can only connect to the positive on the bulb, and so on...

there are some kits where it is suppose to be plug and play, but they are not(mine wasn't). where the ballast plugs into the harness, it was backwards. But for the ballast not being able to be mounted to metal, I do and have no issues.

Naich · 10-12-2007, 02:28 PM

Back when I installed my HID's, I bought plastic ballast cases and mounted the whole thing to the frame. The plastic insulated it.

I have no idea whats wrong man. Sorry to hear about it.

bratch15 · 10-12-2007, 04:26 PM

Plastic case is a good idea. Anybody else ever have this problem? Oh, and Billy, I paid $80 off of an ebay power seller. The kit is made by Wiz, which is from Australia. The ballasts are osram and I'm pretty sure the bulbs are too. The thing is, I bought it from a distributor in China. Go figure, but the parts are probably made in China just like 95% of everything sold in the US. But Wiz seems like a legitimate company.

antichrysler · 10-12-2007, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billytheman1188

hold on, antichrysler why did you say you cant have the ballasts touching metal? i have one of mine mounted on the metal right next to my battery..... no problems with it either. I dont think mounting it on metal really matters, he might have just effed the ballast up cause he connected the wires wrong....

Well I'm not saying you can't, it's just that if it ever shorted out you could end up with with alot of static electricity working its way in to other electronics. By putting it on an insulator if something did ever go wrong chances are you'll only wreck the ballast and the one fuse it's connected to.

I like the idea of plastic cases for them.

billytheman1188 · 10-12-2007, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by antichrysler

Well I'm not saying you can't, it's just that if it ever shorted out you could end up with with alot of static electricity working its way in to other electronics. By putting it on an insulator if something did ever go wrong chances are you'll only wreck the ballast and the one fuse it's connected to.

I like the idea of plastic cases for them.

Oh ok, well i will take my chances, i hope something doesnt go wrong

Cliff8928 · 10-13-2007, 12:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bratch15

you cant connect the wires wrong...It's plug and play. The kit is foolproof. Trust me, there is absolutely no way to connect the wires wrong. The positive from the ballast to the bulb can only connect to the positive on the bulb, and so on...

Talking not about the connections between the bulb and the ballast, but between the ballast and the existing wiring in the car. Either way, just buy a new ballast. They're not that expensive. I have a spare one lying around..