HID driver's side doesn't work.

hi guys,

I bought a 6000k HID kit and installed it on my 2003 explorer. looks awesome. I did have issues when installing it, flickering ect.

So I bought a HID wiring harness and installed the kit directly to the battery.


A few weeks ago I turned on my high beams and they wouldn't turn off, so I pulled the fuse on the HB. Now I have an HID kit which is pretty slick, but had to sacrifice the use of high beams. I can live with that.

recently I have been having to deal with the driver side HID light not coming on all the time. I turn on my headlights and every once and a while the driver side doesnt turn on, wtf is going on? any ideas? I checked the wiring again, every seems fine.

 

[symon_say]

Try ballast and bulbs on the other side to see where is the problem, this is cause by defective elements, i had this issue in my previews car, sometimes one of my fogs didnt turn on, but i turn then off and on and it works, it last for about a year with this, until the bulb die completly.

 

[Bill Kemp]

First test is to double/triple check the ground. Then move the bulbs & the ballasts from side to side and you can usually find the problem item.

 

[BrianDye]

try flickering the light swich a couple times, someone on here said that his passenger side wont turn on (HIDs) til he flickers his switch on and off 3-4 times

 

[bighunt08]

Im havin the same problem with my lights but on the opposite side what u can do is switch the ballasts around and then if the other sides light doesnt come on then it could be a defective ballast.

 

[PedroDaGr8]

Yep, HID kits are known for having one side or another failing. They just don't have the quality control that the OEMs do. Partly, because they don't do near the volume so the margins are MUCH tighter etc. In general with kits, you will get around 80% of the ballasts work fine, but the other 20% or so die within a year or so.

As for kit HID bulbs they are no where NEAR decent quality. They run hotter, due to using either an improper mixture of salts or scrimping on the amount of salts in the bulb; both of which are to save money on the really expensive high purity transition metal halides. Also, NONE of the kit companies use Thoriated Tungsten electrodes. This results in a drastically shorter life span, a less stable arc and a less well formed arc. Essentially NONE of the bulbs on the market are rebased Philips bulbs (despite what they say), they are usually just Chinese bulbs (despite claims of being made in Germany, Thailand, Japan, Timbuktu or where ever else) or at minimum the Arc tubes and outer surrouds . One example I can think of is Morimoto bulbs, some sellers claim they are made in Japan, but the bulb has been actually traced to a maker in China. It has the same style, the same metal supports, etc. etc.

As for having a relay harness. Good job on that, I just helped out someone who had one of his HIDs go out (the kit was $400), when he put the halogen bulb back in it BARELY lit up. Turns out he had burned up his stock harness with the hid ballast. What people don't realize about HIDs is that once "warmed-up" they use significantly less power than xenon bulbs, but DURING warm-up you can see Amperages of up to 100-200Amps for milliseconds in time. WIth the garbage THIN wiring found in most stock wiring, overtime this can result in a harness that eventually burns out.

Good luck with this. The other posters are right on. Change one thing at a time until you can isolate the problem. Just like any other problem on a car. I usually start with the ballasts, as they are USUALLY easier to access. If it stays on the same side still, switch the bulbs. If it STILL stays on the same size, start looking at your connections and checking everything with a DMM.