2008 Explorer hi/low HID kit error messages

[MonsterGarage]

OK, I'm new to the forum and before I get flamed, yes I have searched this topic extensively for a couple of weeks already, both here and searching HID vendors and talking to people. I have gotten so many different answers that I am unsure which way to go with this..... I have installed several aftermarket HID kits into other vehicles, but this install is not working as planned and is throwing bulb codes at me, that I cannot live with.

I currently have a black, loaded-up 2008 Ex with Adrenaline wheel package and a "mini-lift" for added ground clearance on the front end. I have tried installing a high / low HID kit into the truck that uses a relay triggered by ONE of the stock headlight pigtails; the other one is taped off and tucked out of reach.

The kit functions great EXCEPT for the darn bulb warning message I keep getting.

Searching around, I am unsure of the ways to solve this.

I have so far:

- Add capacitors to the system (I am unsure of how these cancellors work with my set-up when they are sold in pairs. What do I do with the stock headlight pigtail which has nothing on it? Are these only good for the HID kits which piggy-back on the stock headlight wiring but use no relays? I am unsure of how to wire up a high/low kit this way, they all seem to use a switched relay.)

- Add resistors to the abandoned stock headlight pigtail. One for high beam, one for low beam. I do not like idea of having hot resistors under hood, but it might be the only option. Do I need resistors for the stock headlight pigtail which is in use with the HID kit also, or does the HID kit provide enough load to not get bulb out warning from this side?

- Fool / disable the bulb out warning somehow. I can't remember, but someone on the board has done this to their Explorer. I remember it was a couple years older than mine, and I'm not sure if this works or not. I am not a fan of disabling vehicle systems, but it might be the best option as I frequently mess about with LED bulbs and PIAA lights, etc. to get the "right look" on my vehicle lighting.

- Other options?

I really want to stick with a high / low kit so I can minimize extra glare to oncoming drivers. I will aim the headlights down and to the right a little bit, but not too much. What's the point of turning the light away from where I need it, just to avoid blinding people? That's why I like the high/low kits; because the low setting reduces the intensity of light while allowing me to pretty much keep the light where I need it and still yield more lighting performance than stock halogen.

Surely someone has a newer model Explorer running their high / low HID kit by now with no error codes.

If you are one of these people, please help me out.

Please post up, PM me, or e-mail me with information. Pictures and/or wiring schematics would really be an asset, as I'm kind of a visual guy. If I see pictures or wiring, it makes a lot more sense to me than several paragraphs of explanation.

I'm at my wit's end with this and just want to solve the problem once without resorting to blindly purchasing different products to try to get rid of the warning messages.

Thanks in advance.

 

[BrianDye]

Well I have them on my 92, and soon ill have them on my 95.
My 92 uses all switches, and not the computer to trigger lights and all that, like the newer ones do, i think some of the 2nd gens too.

What I usually hear people doing, is adding the relay.

On my 92, I have 2 ballasts, ONE relay, and the 2 bulbs, only ONE stock headlight plug is used, the other like you said is taped off. And its only used for power on/off, it doesnt actually take the power from the headlight plug, mine at least. Mine plugs into the battery.



Do you have the relay on yours? My kit came stock with it...
I have the 10,000k Bi-Xenon HID kit

 

[MonsterGarage]

Well I have them on my 92, and soon ill have them on my 95.
My 92 uses all switches, and not the computer to trigger lights and all that, like the newer ones do, i think some of the 2nd gens too.

What I usually hear people doing, is adding the relay.

On my 92, I have 2 ballasts, ONE relay, and the 2 bulbs, only ONE stock headlight plug is used, the other like you said is taped off. And its only used for power on/off, it doesnt actually take the power from the headlight plug, mine at least. Mine plugs into the battery.

10,000K?

Wow, that must be very blue.

I need to see as much as possible and attract little attention from the police or other drivers, so I stick with 4500-6000K kits for more white light.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Anyone have any experience in what it took to SUCCESSFULLY get rid to the bulb out warnings? Especially if you have a high / low kit....

Thanks



Do you have the relay on yours? My kit came stock with it...
I have the 10,000k Bi-Xenon HID kit

Yes, it is set up with a relay, as stated above.

While the lights function just fine, the bulb out warning is the real problem..... I need to find a way to satisfy or defeat the computer so I do not get the warning. It is so annoying and very distracting.

I can not live with it and have returned to stock lighting for the time being, as my wife was very unhappy with the idea of driving the truck with the warning message until a solution could be found.

 

[jupiterak]

I picked up a set of h13 hids off ebay last year. It wasn't the bixenons but the 35w hid and regular halogen bulb for the highbeam. It came with the Dash Error Cancellation kit. Anyway, I never had any error messages.

 

[BrianDye]

I just looked that kit up on eBay....150$!

 

[jupiterak]

I haven't seen any bixenon kits that include the error harness. But here's the error cancellation harness.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HID-...c0.m245&_trkparms=65:12|39:1|72:1205|240:1318

I don't know why they spell it canceller or cancellor?? But do a search on either one

 

[MonsterGarage]

I haven't seen any bixenon kits that include the error harness. But here's the error cancellation harness.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HID-...c0.m245&_trkparms=65:12|39:1|72:1205|240:1318

I don't know why they spell it canceller or cancellor?? But do a search on either one

I have searched, and several people have stated that they've tried these modules only to find they do nothing to fix the bulb out warning.

It is looking more and more like these are snake oil and that the best way to fix this is to add resistance of some sort such as a resistor or small wattage bulb.

After abandoning my research into the Ford-specific solutions to this problem, I have found some answers, I think. Some of the German car owners with this problem have pioneered the way (their cars have had bulb out warnings for many years now, and there are a few ideas out there:

- Disable the module. We all figured out when bulbs were burnt out before. If you need a warning light on the dash to tell you a bulb is burnt out, you are probably too incompetent to notice any other car issues either.

- Get rid of the message through custom programming on your car's computer. Especially easy on cars using VAG-Com (VW-Audi.) Sometimes there are headlight settings for xenon that can be input into the computer so it doesn't look for open circuits on the headlamps.

- Cut the wires to the idiot light on the dash. Most newer cars have multifunction display there, so this isn't an option for most people unless you want to disable ALL of your information.

- Get a newer, high end HID kit that has the intelligent technology built into the ballasts to fool car's computer into thinking that there are halogen bulbs still installed. These kits I have found to be $150-$400, per kit. Very expensive. Wow!

- Install resistor or small bulbs accross high and low terminals of unused headlamp pigtail. Also must run some in parallel to the HID kit trigger wires on the other pigtail. This seems to be the most popular fix, but as one guy on a BMW site stated, why would you convert mechanical energy to electricity in your alternator, only to convert it to heat under your engine hood? Might as well make it do some work and put in a light which can do something for you. City lights, accent lights, engine bay lights are all possibilities here. Some people have figured out that BMW only looks for open circuit when headlights are off, and have set this resistance load up with a normally closed relay which changes the test circuit to the high beam (cars with quad beams will still have halogens for high beam use.) This is very clever!

Some links:

http://www.bmwtips.com/tipsntricks/CheckLowBeam/lowbeamfix.htm


http://www.bbesound.com/bmw/HIDinstall/

http://faqlight.carpassion.info/headlamp-harness.html

If I don't hear answers that make sense to me, I keep looking until I do. All of these make sense to me, and I will be trying out the bulb/resistor solution. It is probably one of the cheapest and easiest for me to do, and seems to address the issues of the latest generation Explorer better. I might get fancy and use the relay solution to make the computer look at the resistance on the fogs when the lights are out, but I need to experiment with the way the error codes are generated first to see if it is even possible on a Ford.

I hope to have some answers for you all in the next few weeks.

Stay tuned, and check out the links. They were really good for educating me on how the bulb out warnings function and thus, how to eliminate them yourself without buying $40 cancellors from FleaBay.

 

[jupiterak]

Well the kit I picked up last year from from this guy below. It's only hid-low/halogen high but it came with the dash error harness and it did work. I ran the light for about six weeks and never had any error messages come up. I later took them out cause the 8000K doesn't light up the wet roads well. I wished I went with the 4300k-5000k.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BMW-...c0.m245&_trkparms=65:12|39:1|72:1205|240:1318

I like to get a the 55w bixenon kit with a relay system that hooks up to the battery and come with the errro harness. But I haven't found anyone that sells it. Keep us informed.

 

[Speedy350z]

update to your problem

Did you ever come up with a working solution Monster?
I just bought http://www.xenonhidworlds.com/lights/catalog/Bi-Xenon-HID-Conversion-Kit-Hi-Lo-p-22292.html
for my 09.

 

[MonsterGarage]

Did you ever come up with a working solution Monster?
I just bought http://www.xenonhidworlds.com/lights/catalog/Bi-Xenon-HID-Conversion-Kit-Hi-Lo-p-22292.html
for my 09.

No. Wife thought it was too much hassle and I ended up upgrading her halogen bulbs and installing piaas on the truck for her. she was content with that, as the look was the same as what she wanted.

 

[IRONMAN-EX]

Go to XenonHIDWorld.com and order the HID Decoder - HID Warning Canceller - HID Anti Flicker Capacitor - HID Canbus Killer. Its $34.00 and the only way to fix the problem. I work part time at a custom car shop and install HID kits all day long.

 

[IRONMAN-EX]

sorry the sku for the part above is HID-Decoder. Hope this helps.

 

[spencer785]

Are you sure this will work Ironman or has anybody else tried it does it work well with no light out errors or anything. Thanks in advance

Go to XenonHIDWorld.com and order the HID Decoder - HID Warning Canceller - HID Anti Flicker Capacitor - HID Canbus Killer. Its $34.00 and the only way to fix the problem. I work part time at a custom car shop and install HID kits all day long.

 

[Speedy350z]

Are you sure this will work Ironman or has anybody else tried it does it work well with no light out errors or anything. Thanks in advance

That is where I bought my Bi xenon hi/low kit and when i asked if I need that they said it wont work with the hi/low kit.

 

[spencer785]

hey speedy does your hid kit work fine but just with the bulb out errors or what did you do to fix it. thanks

 

[spencer785]

i was looking at this kit http://www.xtralights.com/xetronicdigitallightingsystem-h13typepair.aspx because it said it can disable on board computer to make it look like the stock bulbs are in but they wont respond to my emails to confirm this.

 

[ExpoSittinLow]

Has anyone else with hids on a new gen explorer figure out how to fix the bulb out warning indicator? I've hear that installing a capicator would work, but I have no idea on where to start. Any help would be appercaited.

 

[dx650sc]

'07 error message problems...

I have an '07 Eddie Bauer. I installed BiXenon HIDs over the weekend. They work great. The only problem is the error message. I ordered "error canceller" from eBay. They were an easy addition, but did nothing to fix my problem.

I too am hoping for more feedback...

Thank you!

 

[Alienman8]

I had to install resistors for it to not throw a warning message. I have an 07 explorer sport trac and really the only way that I was able to get it to not throw the message was to have resistors. You can find the ones I used here (its the 50 watt ones)

 

[matt06906]

thanks for all the info. i ran into the problem with my 07 with the code and getting the high beams to work. i need to switch the wires i just need to know how if you have a diagram it would be much help