Today Turbo Kraut and I tried to put one of my sets of VVME HIDs in my low-beams, and had a less than successful day. We got the driver side bulb to light up, and it's in the car and working fine. But on the passenger side, the bulb only lights up when it's hooked up outside of the assembly. I'm pretty sure it can't be a bad ballast, since each light (and we tried all three bulbs - one out of the open set, and two others that I ordered to put in my fogs) worked when outside of the assembly...but as soon as it was setup in the HL assembly, it stopped working.

One possible cause we think could be that I've got either a short somewhere, or a bad ground.

I know a lot of people on here have put in HIDs - has anyone else had this problem?? Any ideas on what it could be??

 

so you just take the bulb out of the HL assembly and it lights up without touching the wiring but it doesn't like up when you put it in the assembly? if so, i'm thinking bad wire somewhere close to the bulb. put up some pix too. also did you try the same bulb on the other ballast? upstatenya4, keith and i haven't had anything like this. also get an ohm meter and check for continuity

 

Maybe a break inside the wire, so that when the wire is turned or twisted a certain way (installed in the headlight) it causes a break in the electrical power circuit. Did you try moving or lightly shaking the wiring harness. I know one of the 2-pin connectors was "faulty" on my VVME kit -that's an easy fix. Good luckKolbs.

 

 

Hope the answers I've given have at least helped a little. I'll probably talk to Jeff later and have him post here so you guys can get a better idea of what's going on.

Thanks for the input, guys.

 

Yep - take a look at the pin inside the bulb harness connectors (the one going from ballast to bulb, and the one going from bulb to ballast). If that pin is bent, it could cause the problem, but I would think it'd happen in the housing or out. Bogie's onto it though with the idea of a broken wire. You can't really probe that with a meter though - you'd need to poke through the jacketing near the ballast to see if the wire is continuous, and with the cable carrying a 22,000VDC surge for startup and a continuous 85-95VDC for running operation, you don't want holes in the cable jacketing. If the wire is broken inside the jacketing though, and you put it in the car in such a way that the wire bends and separates the conductor inside, you'll see the problem you are having. With the bulb installed and the lights on, try slowly bending and moving the wires around and see if the bulb lights up. If it does, it's fairly certain you have a bad cable on the ballast, which unfortunately means you need a new ballast - you can't really just patch up those conductors.

 

nevermind what i said earlier lol. i'm guessing bad wires at the ballast.

 

No, it could be that too - any type of intermittent wiring issue in a system like an HID setup would be enough to cause the bulb to fail to ignite.

 

One of them that we tested outside of the assembly would flicker when lit one time, but stay lit the next...a wiring issue is beginning to sound VERY likely.

 

if needed, I have an extra ballast from VVME, they want $35 shipped for a new one, but i'd toss you the one i have for shipping only. I know it's good, and it's wiring harness.

I pulled all my VVME stuff and went back to stock. they've supplied me 2 faulty ballasts now at an extra charge of $70... I'm done with 'em.

I don't want to sell the bulbs, who knows the condition and i don't want someone to have my problems, but this was a new ballast from vvme that was installed, worked, the other side burnt out, andI pulled everything. Shippping should be like $10 if you need it it's yours.

-Ryan