HID problems / rather disappointed in oznium.com

Everyone:

I need to get some expert advice -

Recently, both of my PIAA low-beam (9006) headlamps decided to give up the ghost. Like any other member here, I said "perfect time to upgrade to HIDs!" So, since I've read so many favorable reviews about the Flowlighting HID conversion kits from Oznium, I plunked down nearly $240US to get a 9006 bulb HID conversion set with 6000K HID lamps.

I was excited to receive my purchase in about a week. Despite was was touted to be a "plug-and-play, 5 minute perr side" install, I sat down and looked over all the components and read the instructions.

Basically, what you get is a set of bulbs in bases that fit into your stock housings. Okay, the fit was a bit tight, but they fit. Now, the power connector that would ordinarily connect to your 9006 bulb hooks into a "jumper harness" which routes through a rubber grommet, along with the two leads running to the HID bulb. This connector was a VERY tight fit, and took a lot of force to snap into place. The grommet (and the wires that pass through it) is supposed to fit into a 22mm hole you drill in your headlamp housing to seal everything up. Since we have that rubber cap behind each headlamp bulb, I bored a hole in that.

So, I go to hook up the "jumper harness" to the HID ballast....the connector doesn't fit.....it can't. There are two guide grooves in the female connector on the jumper, and one guide on the male connector which feeds the ballast. $h!t.
Okay, fire off an email to Oznium customer service. They recommend bypassing the jumper harness completely and plugging the factory headlamp power lead directly into the HID ballast. Okay, might work buit the design of the whole thing (and clean wire routing) goes out the window. I say that it wont work. Onzium responds again to cut the wires out of the rubber grommet to remove the jumper harness.

Like a fool, I do this to one side, hook everything up to my car and test it. A big fat goose egg. Nothing....nada....not even a flicker. I put regular halogens back in to confirm that the factory wiring in the headlamp housing didn't get damaged, and everything works okay.

So now Oznuim won't return my e-mails or calls requesting assistance or a solution. Oh yes...they have that 1 year guarantee, where you can return the kit for a refund (minus shipping, of course)....but the kit must be in like-new, saleable condition - remember that grommet I was instructed to cut off? I think I'm screwed and like I said, rather disappointed in a vendor whom I thought was reputable.

So I'm looking for any suggestions on how to make this work. I have a fully-charged battery, and the ballasts are isolated from the metal body (since our headlights have a negative-ground system). I have my DRLs disabled, and have for many years.

Help! Please....

[Cliff8928]

Matt, I think i remember having to reverse the polarity for my Hella ballasts. That could be your problem. Oh, and you mean they're positive ground (negative switched).

[AftermathAlero]

what cliff said!

yea, you need to reverse the leads. Since our cars is negative trigger lights. It will work!

As far as bulb fitment. Swap out the bulb o-ring w/ the piaa's. I noticed HID's bulb comes w/ thicker o-rings which our housing don't like. But swapping out the o-ring w/ the OEM bulbs will do the trick cuz that o-ring is smaller.

[Naich]

Exactly what the others said. I had the same problem with my old Mr. Jung kit back 5 years ago. It took me like 3 days of digging to find the solution then

[clutch1]

That's odd that Phil isn't returning emails/ calls. Not like Oznium at all to have issues like that.

If you can't get it workin I'd keep pestering them.. even sign up on the forum there and make a topic about it.

[AftermathAlero]

Originally Posted by clutch1

That's odd that Phil isn't returning emails/ calls. Not like Oznium at all to have issues like that.

If you can't get it workin I'd keep pestering them.. even sign up on the forum there and make a topic about it.

Its more than phil that works there now. They've grown so big, he has like 2 -3 other guys help him. Last few emails i got responses from another guy. when the bulbs brokes in my order during shipping.

Well, I received a voicemail from someone (I don't think it was Phil) at my office this morning, so hopefully we can get it working.

[cavaliers60]

I've always had great service with them, so don't be too discouraged by this. It's a great company!

I want to thank Cliff, Richie and Nick for suggesting that I reverse the polarity. Also, I got in touch with Jason @ Onzium who let me in on the trick to get the jumper harness connected to the ballast.
That said, my HIDs work. They seem awfully blue, but it may just be my being used to standard halogens.
One last question....where the heck do you mount the ballasts? There no room under the hood that I can see. Screw them into the sheetmetal or just use really strong velcro and/or zip ties?

[Cliff8928]

I used a double sided tape and zip tie to the edge of the header panel.

Originally Posted by Cliff8928

I used a double sided tape and zip tie to the edge of the header panel.

I 'm having trouble visualizing this.....can you per chance supply a photo?

[Naich]

I used zip ties to hold them in, and I found that a good place to mount was to the sides and down into the engine bay, there's a metal plate that you can get to if you have a CAI. I also got plastic cases to house the ballasts so they didn't make a metal-metal contact.

[Cliff8928]

Originally Posted by mfuller

I 'm having trouble visualizing this.....can you per chance supply a photo?

Not the best, But it's what I had for now..

[Rexter9x]

Does anyone have any pics of what the beam pattern looks like on an Alero with hids?