HID Problems

[Dimes]

I hope you get 'em working mate all the hard work you're doing.

I'm with you on loving the angel eyes, I'm well happy my car came with some fitted.

And you mentioned the words dodgy and Chinese earlier in the tread, IMO I think a lot of these HID's are just that. And even when they are good quality their simply a pain in the arse.

Post some nice lights on Pics when you've sussed it and got 'em working dude.

[Erni902]

Cheerz Olie, yeah they really do complete the aggresiveness of the front end IMO.

Yeah they all do seem to be from the same chinese suppliers etc. Once ive sorted them hopefully all will be good again. Spent a fair bit on my daughter for her birthday this month so will probs wait a couple of weeks before ordering some as I need 2, potentially 3, harnesses to get the whole lot working as it should.

Will defo whack some pics up when she is all sorted

[martin71]

HMMMMM! so the harnesses that i bought wont work for me then...???? im confused...Rikki (Erni902),Thomasz(swinks) so would the ones Mac (Mcosworth) has would they work on mine...?????

[swinks]

HMMMMM! so the harnesses that i bought wont work for me then...???? im confused...Rikki (Erni902),Thomasz(swinks) so would the ones Mac (Mcosworth) has would they work on mine...?????

Martin, IIRC, those offered by Mac are similar to yours, but after such long time I'm not sure. If any chance you can upload some pictures...

[martin71]

Tomasz the pics Rikki put in post #11 are the ones i got,i bought a job-lot of ten and gave two to Rikki....i was hoping they were the correct ones....

[martin71]

Hi Tomasz (swinks) not sure if you saw i put the reply on this thread correct,the hid loom wireing pics is what Rikki put on post #11,as they are the ones i have mate...???? what do you think...????

[Erni902]

Im starting to think these HID's are just not worth the hassle!! Out of 4 units I have only 1 light able to illuminate at any one time, flickering when lit, no high beam at all and one of the angel eyes has given up the ghost!! When they work they are good but Ive not had all 4 units working simultaneously in the 2yrs Ive had them!

£40 for the replacement controllers and looms and an extra £80 for delivery and this may not even solve the problem!

Had enough fiddling around with them, think its time to scrap them and go back to stock!!

[mcosworth]

Hi @Erni902 ,
If you can please bring your headlights to Area52 tomorrow, we can try to resolve the problem out. I'll bring my two sets of harness.
Cheers,
Mac

[Erni902]

They are fitted to the car mate so they will be there lol. Ive a mix of harnesses at the moment but no difference what so ever. Every single ballast works, every single projector works and the ccfl controller works. They just dont work together at the same time lol.

Will demonstrate and explain more tomorrow mate

[Erni902]

Just gone to order a replacement harness from the only place in the world that does them and............................................... .............................

















































.............Discontinued!!!

[Davezj]

Bugger

[Erni902]

Yup

So the options are;

1) Bodge the harnesses etc that I have and try to make it work
or,
2) Start again from scratch with brand new units

[Davezj]

I think the phrase you are looking for splicing the loom. As you no bodger when it come to car stuff.
And yes at least try and create a bitsa loom as long as you know the individual parts work it will be possible to get all to work together.
What have you got to loose.
I think the best bit of advice I could give you is, to draw a schematic of what you want to create with all the wire colours noted down. Then do a dummy run on the bench and connect it all up to see if it works. You don't have to make permanent connection just good enough to make it work.
It is much easier to make changes on the bench than it is on the car.

[Erni902]

yes this is very true Dave, I tend to do a dummy run in my head before doing anything then note everything down then do a rough diagram of everything I need to connect then do a tidied up proper circuit diagram of everything and how it connects etc. Unfortunately I will have to do it on the car as we have had our workshop taken off us at work because apparently we dont need a workshop to build clients and image them and configure routers/switches and make/terminate cables! The dept that have taken it over obviously need the workshop to browse the internet tho!


Ive got manufacturer diagrams to help aswell. Hopefully get a chance this week to have a look at it if it doesnt decide to rain

[Davezj]

i am interested in this HID prjector issue you are having as i have just ordered a bitsa set of projectors and balasts, and wires for a lot less that a full set of 4 projectors, i have balasts and wires already so hopefully it will work for me. i will have the correct angle eye drivers, so that should be the only issue i will have. as i believe any balast car drive any bulb.

[Erni902]

Basically Dave I have 4 HID Projector units.

- All 4 units work separately
- All 4 Ballasts work on All 4 units separately
- 3 wiring harnesses work on All 4 units separately
- The harness that doesnt work has a known issue with the power pin so thats fine
- When any more than 2 of the units are connected and powered at any one time only 1 unit will work
- Doesnt matter what harness/ballast etc is connected to what unit only 1 will work (have tried a separate harness and same detail)
- Also last week one of the angel eyes died but have swapped harness over from a known working one and it works so Im pretty sure that is an issue with the harness itself.

Quite possibly a polarisation issue (on the car connector side) but wont have a chance to check that until weds/thurs. Hopefully a soldering iron will cure the dead angel eye lol.

Will be interesting to see what you bought and what works when connected up Dave. I too am led to believe that the ballasts are pretty much universal, they all seem to have the same connector and from what I can gather its a 2 pin connector with +12v and Gnd.

Some kits also state that you need to swap the existing headlight fuses with 30amp fuses. Although I have never blown any fuses with these lights I will be trying this at least once lol.

[Davezj]

Basically Dave I have 4 HID Projector units.

- All 4 units work separately
- All 4 Ballasts work on All 4 units separately
- 3 wiring harnesses work on All 4 units separately
- The harness that doesnt work has a known issue with the power pin so thats fine
- When any more than 2 of the units are connected and powered at any one time only 1 unit will work
- Doesnt matter what harness/ballast etc is connected to what unit only 1 will work (have tried a separate harness and same detail)
- Also last week one of the angel eyes died but have swapped harness over from a known working one and it works so Im pretty sure that is an issue with the harness itself.

Quite possibly a polarisation issue (on the car connector side) but wont have a chance to check that until weds/thurs. Hopefully a soldering iron will cure the dead angel eye lol.

Will be interesting to see what you bought and what works when connected up Dave. I too am led to believe that the ballasts are pretty much universal, they all seem to have the same connector and from what I can gather its a 2 pin connector with +12v and Gnd.

Some kits also state that you need to swap the existing headlight fuses with 30amp fuses. Although I have never blown any fuses with these lights I will be trying this at least once lol.

it does sound like a power gnd swap in one of the headight power feeds, have you tried setting up an indipendant power and gnd from the battery connected to all the balasts and ccd controlers so you know the power and gnd's are connected correctly to see if the lights all work, it might be the best initial solution.

[Erni902]

it does sound like a power gnd swap in one of the headight power feeds, have you tried setting up an indipendant power and gnd from the battery connected to all the balasts and ccd controlers so you know the power and gnd's are connected correctly to see if the lights all work, it might be the best initial solution.

I havent as yet tried that mate. The weird thing is that when they were on the purple VR-4 only 3 would work (due to harness issue but that was known) then all of a sudden 1 by 1 they started to fail, apart from 1. So the polarisation on the purple VR-4 was no issue as the 3 were working for about 3 months without issue. When I was down to just the one bulb I swapped them over to the silver VR-4 and the fault followed (the exact same bulb was the only one working).

Will have a play when I get back on Weds and change polarisaton etc etc

[Erni902]

Finally I can drive her again, the only chance I get these days is when its dark so lights play a big part.

After using a mixture of the original harnesses and the harnesses I got from @martin71 I now have the 2 outer projectors working on dipped beam and the 2 inner projectors working on high beam.

I had to strip back alot of the wires and start from scratch with new connectors etc. but alas the hard work has paid of (for now).

Just need to come up with some drawings/ideas of what I need to have all 4 on dipped and high beam but for now due to the massive brightness I am relatively happy and am in no rush. So for the time being this will suffice.

[Erni902]

Here you go Olie @Dimes here are some pics for you:

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