mani1

Guys I have a brand new 8th gen civic. I recently bought 3 separate HID kits for the fog lights, low beam & high beam. All have slim ballasts and are rated at 55W. Color temperature is 10000K. I have attached pics for reference. I am facing a problem though.

Problem

After almost 30 mins of driving the car (with fog lights and low beam HIDs on) I turned on the factory stereo and increased the vol to 15. After 3/4 mins, the right side low beam gave out. I continued driving (& listening) for almost 5 mins after which I switched off the car and then started it again to see if the right low beam HID has started working or not but it hadn't. Needless to say, I had already turned the stereo off. At this point I was very disappointed that I had spent a big amount and what I get is a faulty ballast within 3 hours of installation. And yes high beam HIDs work perfectly fine. Anyways went home and started experimenting and heres what I found.

Cooled off the car for 5 mins and then started it. Turned on the parking lights and waited 10-15 secs. Turned on the fog lights HIDs and waited for 40-60 secs. Turned on the low beam and viola! both the low beams work!! turned on the high beams immediately and they also work! turned back to low beams and they still work!!

However, If i try any other combination, the right low beam HID refuses to work. Sometimes even the left fog light HID refuses to work. Then I have to start the above process and everything works fine again. I am very confused at this point because it is almost a given that there is no problem with any tubes or ballasts.

The only logical explanation which comes to mind is that it is an issue of ampere dropping/weak battery. Can you guys confirm this? Because I do not want my car opened up again. Would really appreciate any help I can get here

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

are you using a separate relay harness with heavy gauge wire so the ballasts get power directly from the battery? 14 gauge wire and 15 amp fuse is ideal, esp for 50w ballasts. and you need to make a new harness for each PAIR of ballasts. usually the oem honda wiring is not good enough to run hids. if you are running 3 pairs of hid kits, all on the stock wiring, you are gonna have serious problems in the near future if you arent already. and once that wiring melts, you have a big job ahead of you trying to fix it all.

you may also need to research how hid bulbs operate. they require upto 60 seconds of warmup at very high amp draw before they level out at their operating voltage (50w in your case). when you turn off the hid, it must be allowed to cool down several minutes before turning back on, otherwise the ballast may not be able to provide enough power to re light it. you also should never be turning on more than one set of hid at a time, to give each set a chance to warmup separately.

mani1

wow I never knew this. Thanks alot! Explains why after 60 seconds of wait, the HIDs were working fine.

Actually these are chinese HIDs and even though the sticker on it says 55W, I highly doubt that its their correct rating. Yes these are equipped with relays and the guy who did the installation showed me the relays. No I am not using heavy guage wire or fuses.

Can you give me exact specifications of the wire and where it will be used? What about the fuse? Any diagrams/photos to illustrate would be quite helpful

Thanks again!

EDIT: Today the right high beam and left fog light also stopped working. I turned them off and turned them on again after 30 seconds and they started working

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

i think it is a power issue. your wire size is not thick enough to support powering two ballasts at the same time. if you redo all the wiring properly with heavy gauge and it still does not work, its possible the chinese hardware is to blame. ive never had great luck with em. i do not have any diagrams for your car and am not familiar with the different wire colors, but here is an example of how i wired my hids (just one pair of lo beam) by making a separate relay harness that has a trigger wire attached to the oem harness so that the relay knows when to turn on. relay is just a switch that opens and closes to send power from battery to the hid ballasts. basically you are making a replica of the oem harness except with thicker wire to support the higher amp draw of hid.

mani1

Problem solved!

Got replaced the faulty ballasts (right low beam and left fog light). The HIDs are in warranty for a year therefore ballasts get replaced during this period.

The installation guy showed me that previously ballasts were overheating as they were joined together. This time they were installed with a distance between them as shown in the pics