Questions to those running HID kits

[bamflee84]

Hello,

I wanted to know what HID KITS people are running ( brand/ hi lo or just lo/ wiring)?
If you have noticed any problems with your electrical?

I am asking this because I have been running apexcone ddm slim ballast , hi/lo with the direct wire harness to the battery for more then a yr now. I have always noticed that when I turn on my headlights the initial draw from them will be strong enough to stall out my car at times unless i rev the car a little while turning them on. I have dealt with it long enough and wanted to know if anyone was suffering same symptoms as me.

I have taken them out and put the stock bulbs back in and have no problems with them.
I am also wondering if these hids are causing my cars battery to die after about 4 days of no use. My car while on at idle is about 13.9 and while driving about 14.1-14.4. Car is off it drops and holds around 11.7. Might not be the case but wondering if that and something else is drawing power.

Thanks

 

[Silverspeed2015]

im using the apexcone 4300 35W low HID wired to the stock wiring, ive had now problems at all beside getting high beamed

 

[blkspdfreak]

yea. people think i have my hi beams on at all times.

 

[Ricktalife]

I've got a set of retrofitted projectors with a Morimoto kit and it never caused my car to stall when turning them on.

 

[super1chow]

Retrofit or you glare the s*** out of everyone. I have ddm tuning ballast and bulbs and i haven't had any problems.

 

[bamflee84]

Yeah not sure what it is. I grounded the relay harness directly to the neg side of the battery and same issue. I'm at a lost unless I need a different kit that will control the draw more but i'm done investing in my protege so i might just deal with it.

Are you guys running the hi/lo set up or just low beam? There might be a difference there.

I have a cap wired up to my battery as well, that shouldn't affect my headlights though?

Just throwing things out there

 

[Jo060]

The best route to go is with HID kits that use the stock wiring. It's plug and play.
Check out mod-express.com. The guys are very helpful there, quality products and great prices.

You can get a HID slim conversion kit (with bulbs) for less than $75.

Also...don't use HID unless you've retro fitted your headlights. It's rude, annoying and you look like everyone else out there.

 

[haveahotcarl]

The best way to tell if the HID's are causing the problem is to disconnect them and see what happens. If that doesn't work, disconnect your amp and capacitor. The cap will affect your headlights and should actually help with a current surge like turning on the headlights (if wired in correctly).

As for the huge current draw when turning on your headlights, it is probably in the wiring but not necessarily the HID wiring. Check the connections between your battery and alternator for corrosion or a general poor connection. You should also check the negative to chassis wiring. There should be little to no resistance between the negative terminal and the body. Check the relay for the HID's for any voltage across the contacts when the headlights should be off.

 

[Jondar]

i use to have the same problem on a cheap hid kit i used. what i ended up doing, before i scrapped hid's all together, i would turn on the lights first then turn on the car and it would be fine. i would also shut off the car before turning off the lights. then i would never have a problem. they never drained my battery though.

 

[bamflee84]

Good call jondar i'll try that. I pulled the hids and put the stock back and had no problem. I wouldn't mind retrofits but not worth the money, just running them low and some eyelids to cut the top off a little. Next car will have some projectors in it. my girls mazda 3 hid kit ran off of stock harness. I wasn't sure if it was just because i had the h4 hi/lo that it needed the separate harness.

the way mine is set up, is that only one stock harness (plugs into back of bulb) is a switch for high low. both hid ballast are wired to the same large block which is then wired to my battery.

 

[bamflee84]

Does anyone know of any hid kits h4 hi/lo that use the stock harness only. Mine only uses one of the stock h4 harness as a switch

 

[bamflee84]

My installation diagram lite model and link to other diagrams from apexcone

The large relay over to the right has one additional set of wires that also power the second ballast not shown in the diagram.

http://www.apexconehid.com/installation.html

 

[Valk]

your hids shouldn't be drawing enough power to do anything to your car if its running. even a 55w kit uses half the wattage of a standard halogen bulb. either your battery or alternator is crapping out, or you have some kinda of short in your lighting system cause you shouldn't drop that much voltage either.

i run the kit protephile sells. its a cheap kit for sure but i have a custom wiring system in place with a relay and haven't had any problems with it. at 35watts the light output isn't enough to piss off TOO terribly many drivers either. certainly not like some of the newer xenon suvs ect.
my next step is to put a 100w 12v dc/dc regulator cause voltage sags are what kill ballasts.

 

[SCMP3]

I've got a set of retrofitted projectors with a Morimoto kit and it never caused my car to stall when turning them on.

any pics of your setup? im thinking of doing a similar setup.....

 

[littlemimus]

i had a question as well sorry to thread jack. but i really need some new lighting and i was wondering if i get hid's can i upgrade to the projectors later on? i jsut dont have all the cash i need for the projectors and i really need new lights.

 

[haveahotcarl]

i had a question as well sorry to thread jack. but i really need some new lighting and i was wondering if i get hid's can i upgrade to the projectors later on? i jsut dont have all the cash i need for the projectors and i really need new lights.

You usually can reuse the ballasts and ignitors but not the same bulbs. Aftermarket or Retrofit projectors use D2S bulbs that are considerably different from the H4 "plug & play" kits out there. Honestly, you will probably spend less money buying all the pieces to do a retrofit at once. That way you don't run into strange electrical problems with the projector solenoid (if you go bi-xenon) or anything else.