I'm in the process of installing some 55W HID's in my lows/side lights but when I switch them on they come on then go straight off. Everything is wired correctly and I'm using a relay so the standard light wire is just doing the switching. I've tried 2 other new 55W ballasts with the same result.

Any ideas before I go crazy?

thanks

 

Check the polarity of the connectors going into the ballasts. That's what hid's do when the polarity is reversed.

George

 

I also installed HID's on the low beams of my S type and didn't use a relay. No problem so far. I leave the knob on auto, and in the eve when i crank up the car they just come on. So far no issues, been a few days. Double check the connectors and your +s and -s as its easy to confuse them in a rush plugging stuff together.

 

Did you have to pull the bumper and pull the headlights out, or did you manage to get them in there just from the back of the headlight housing? I've heard conflicting reports. My two kits (head and fog) should be there tomorrow.

Also what color temp did you get? Any pics?

Thanks,

George

 

I didn't take bumper off. I managed to install the ballasts right behind the headlights, between the metal bar and the air box, and same on the other side behind the front upper metal bar. I didn't see a reason for taking of bumpers. Its fairly easy to do. I'm waiting on my fog kit and will be isntalling it from the bottom by removing the cover from the bumper. I wont pull the bumper out for fogs either. I went with the regular 35W Hid kit not the 50W and the color temp of choice is always 8000K for all my cars, bikes etc.
Sorry for the Huge pic..

 

Ok cool...

How long did it take you? Do you have any pics of where the ballasts went? Did you use the slim ballasts or no?

I know the fogs are easy enough just by removing the belly pan. I went with 35w 6000k, as I find the bluer ones (even 6000k to some degree) just wash out to nothing in the rain.

I'm wondering how involved a project it's going to be.

Thanks, the car looks great.

George

 

George, I will take some more pictures as soon as i get a chance from the inside of the hood to show more in detail.
They're the regular ballast not the slims, as i always noticed a bzzzzing sound from the slim ballasts for the first 10 seconds of the lights being turned on each and every time, plus they come with an extra box on the wires which i think makes up for the regular sized ballast without the buzzing noise. Just my 02
I like the 8K because of its color, even though yes they're less lumens then the 6K's but in the night, the ones i got on are very very bright. They light up the whole road like daylight. Just make sure to adjust your headlights down a bit so you wont blind oncoming traffic as the retro fitted hid kits don't use a projector which has the cut off line and doesn't effect oncoming traffic.
The job was very easy to install, and the ballast i just wrapped them in a hard sponge material and stuck them in there. As long as they're held tight, they're not going anywhere.
Also the side running little lights, they look very yellow comparing to HID's. So i replaced them with LED's but soon found out that with the car off, and lights off, just sitting in the garage, the LED's are still on, low voltage current is being drawn into them and they're not on like when powered on, but you can see a dim light in them. So what i did is i took them off, got the original bulbs, cut off the one side of the leg metal connector on the bottom, and put them back inside just to not leave an empty hole in them, but they don't light up anymore. I prefer to keep them off anyway, as i don't see the point next to HID's.
Thanks on the comment of the look of the car, im in the process of figuring out the issues on this car as we speak lol "restricted performance" .. Well see what happens.

 

Hey,

I was just planning on disabling the little corner parking lights, I really don't see a purpose to them personally. I took a look in there and things seemed remarkably tight. I'm going to try to do it without removing the headlight. I have pretty big hands though so we'll see if i pull it off.

Unfortunately, I got my hid's from ebay, and I ordered one h7 kit and one h11 kit, (head and fog lamps) but the seller sent 2 h7 kits. Grrrr... Hopefully he will make it right (not expect me to ship one back first at my expense etc), otherwise I guess I'll have to sell these off, and go from there.

I need to get a fog kit now... again, so it looks like my car will look like yours (just headlights) for a while. We'll see how it goes.

I'd appreciate the pics. The other thing I noticed is that these didn't come with gaskets to seal the back of the headlight cover from the wires poking through, I guess you get what you pay for...

Thanks for the advice. And good luck with the restricted performance. Its prob just moisture, seems these cars are retardedly picky when it comes to anything to do with the electronic throttle body.

George

 

Ok so I got the kit in.

Everyone's fears were unfounded as far as not being able to do it without pulling the headlight and bumper. There is room. My ballasts are off to the sides of the headlight between the fender and the headlight housing.

I don't think I got the best quality HID's. When they are up against the garage door you can see a bit of flicker on the edge of the beam. But once again, you get what you pay for. I think I may just keep this kit as a spare (the duplicate H7 one) in case I need extra parts.

(I still haven't heard back from that ebay seller).

I think he may have set 8k instead of 6k because the light seems bluer on the road than I remember 6k being, but the light output is night and day It's like the old headlights were those 194 bulbs I pulled out.. Honestly fog lights especially HID ones on this car would be an exercise in futility and overkill. (Although I still want them ).

I just pulled the two little wedge bulbs out, and put the holders back in the headlamp, they were pointless...


Can you tell me off hand which adjuster will aim them down? I didn't touch the aim, but it didn't seem too bad. I took a crappy blackberry pic of the lights against the garage door (albeit the car is on a bit of an uphill angle due to my driveway).

George

 

I don't think i've seen a kit so far that has a modified per car specific back covers to support sealing the back of the headlights. Unless i've been missing out lol. But yes mines are open on the back as well, which i don't like either, that could suck in dust and dirt not to mention water from washing the from in between the fender/hood/headlight corner, because i saw a tad water siting there on top of the headlight when i opened my hood, and that was a day after washing my car but not driving or moving it.
Some sellers kits of 6K's are deeper, bluer then the others which might be more purplish, it all depends on the kit. The best thing is to stick to the same seller that supplies the same brand where the color temps will match at least for the fogs/headlight combo, and i didn't follow the rules myself this time lol. Getting the fog kit elsewhere from ebay vs. my headlight kit. Hoping for the best.
The two little wedge bulbs you're referring to, i took them off too and put them back with the metal legs ripped off one on each side, just to have them for decoration vs. an empty holders...
The adjusters for up and down are the ones located on the top of the headlight towards the fenders.. I adjusted my right side up it was shooting too low, and i tried to adjust my left side headlight towards left outwards, but my adjuster was just spinning without adjusting it, guess its busted so i left it alone since it's not that bad at all.
Hope this helps.

 

PS: Sorry i can't view your picture yet as admins haven't given me the privilege yet.

 

Oh I didn't leave my backs open, I drilled a 3/4" (1/2" would work) hole to pass the wires through, and tried to seal it up as best I could with high temp hot glue. Other hid kits, in other cars I've had have had a Rubber grommet that when you drill a hole into the back of the headlight cover, then the grommet fits into the hole and seals it all up. These just had the 9006 to two tabs harness between the ballast and the h7 factory connector, and the bulbs just had the amphenol connectors on the back of them to connect to the high voltage outputs of the ballasts.

see these bulbs -
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-HID...item27af9ca810

See how they have the rubber grommet on the wiring?

I wouldn't leave them wide open at LEAST for now take some duct tape - which has waterproof adhesive, and seal up the back of the headlight as best as possible. Let me see what I can do about sourcing a grommet of some sort.

I think I'm just going to order a set of h11 hid bulbs for the fogs, I actually have another set of ballasts here that a friend of mine gave me, so I would have 2 extra ballasts and 2 extra headlight bulbs, so I wouldn't have to run without a headlight long if I was to experience a failure.

For the price of these hid kits they have become as disposable as regular halogen bulbs.

George

 

George, i see what you mean, and you know what? I never paid attention to those, and never wanted to drill the backs of the covers so actually mine came with the rubber on and i cut it off as I figured i had no use for LoL.. I will have to go back to it and duckt tape it or do something so i can protect them for now at least. Or i might just order a new set of bulbs and go back redoing it all the way it's suppose to be done with drilling the back covers. Other cars, even bikes i've done hids on didn't pose any threat to water or dust as bad as the Jag does in the back of the headlight when left open IMHO. You're right, it's only going to be a matter of time before inner hadlights become all dirty and nasty looking with dust and dirt and that would be visible from the outside of it.
Thanks for the heads up on this issue, appreciate it.