Passenger Side H.I.D Goes Out

[stevenlyyy]

I've had a set of H.I.D.s for awhile now i believe the brand is Xenon Vision or something along those lines anyhow, Ive had this set for about 2 ish years now and my driver side bulb has never went out yet im on my 4th passenger side bulb. It seems like my passenger side bulb keeps going out and its never the ballast it seems that it's always the bulb that burns out. I do NOT have a H.I.D harness that people keep mentioning to use whenever using H.I.Ds in a vehicle. Would the harness fix my issue ? Possibly the passenger side is struggling to get the proper voltage ? Any help is appreciated and thank you in advanced !

 

[fg3_colton]

Could you send a picture of the bulb? I feel like if i'm able to see it, I can further diagnose your problem. As far as the harness goes; I have had HID's on my car since the week I bought it about 3 and a half years ago and have yet to go through a ballast or bulb (for the headlights that is, the Fog lights are another story) and have not had a single issue, or needed to buy any special harness.

 

[stevenlyyy]

Could you send a picture of the bulb? I feel like if i'm able to see it, I can further diagnose your problem. As far as the harness goes; I have had HID's on my car since the week I bought it about 3 and a half years ago and have yet to go through a ballast or bulb (for the headlights that is, the Fog lights are another story) and have not had a single issue, or needed to buy any special harness.

Do you mind if i ask what brand you have ?

 

[fg3_colton]

Do you mind if i ask what brand you have ?

To be honest, they are some generic HID's I bought from a store local to Florida (based off what one of the employees told me) called HID Unlimited.

Sent from my LG-LS993 using Tapatalk

 

[stevenlyyy]

To be honest, they are some generic HID's I bought from a store local to Florida (based off what one of the employees told me) called HID Unlimited.

Sent from my LG-LS993 using Tapatalk

Oh dang, impressive for an off the shelf item ! I still have to take out the bulb but when i do ill be sure to post a picture ! thanks for the help though !

 

[fg3_colton]

Oh dang, impressive for an off the shelf item ! I still have to take out the bulb but when i do ill be sure to post a picture ! thanks for the help though !

No problem! Let me at least share the steps id take if i were in your situation. Id first check to make sure that the Automatic Headlights option (If equipped) is not selected. If it is, try toggling the headlights manually after replacing the ballast. The problem with using the Auto function for the headlights is that in some cases, like if you were to pass under an overpass, or through a tunnel, the car will tun on the headlights just for them to turn off within the minute. This constant On/Off cycle does not give the ballast and bulb enough time to warm up which can cause this issue (Yes, even if just one ballast is affected it happened to me with my fog lights when i was running HID's in them. Although, it was caused from me having to flash my high beams- which turns off the Fog's while they are on- in some situations). Think about it this way, its the same theory that tells us that warming up our cars before driving is better for the engine, because we're letting oil circulate to all the moving parts and lubricate them, than short trips in which the engine does not fully warm up and allow oil to touch every part of the engine. My rule of thumb (since my car is not equipped with automatic headlights) is to leave them on for the duration of my drive even if they are no longer needed. Hope this helps! it may sound stupid but i have tested this out on many of my friends cars and have seen positive results so its worth a shot at least!

 

[webby]

and you're not touching the bulb at all when installing them correct? Oil on your hands can kill a bulb. A a huge majority of the hid kit sellers are using kits made in china that literally cost around 8-12 dollars to import. It could literally be just a bad string of bad quality.

 

[stevenlyyy]

No problem! Let me at least share the steps id take if i were in your situation. Id first check to make sure that the Automatic Headlights option (If equipped) is not selected. If it is, try toggling the headlights manually after replacing the ballast. The problem with using the Auto function for the headlights is that in some cases, like if you were to pass under an overpass, or through a tunnel, the car will tun on the headlights just for them to turn off within the minute. This constant On/Off cycle does not give the ballast and bulb enough time to warm up which can cause this issue (Yes, even if just one ballast is affected it happened to me with my fog lights when i was running HID's in them. Although, it was caused from me having to flash my high beams- which turns off the Fog's while they are on- in some situations). Think about it this way, its the same theory that tells us that warming up our cars before driving is better for the engine, because we're letting oil circulate to all the moving parts and lubricate them, than short trips in which the engine does not fully warm up and allow oil to touch every part of the engine. My rule of thumb (since my car is not equipped with automatic headlights) is to leave them on for the duration of my drive even if they are no longer needed. Hope this helps! it may sound stupid but i have tested this out on many of my friends cars and have seen positive results so its worth a shot at least!

alright i dont have auto headlights but i will give your theory a shot and share what happens thanks !

 

[stevenlyyy]

and you're not touching the bulb at all when installing them correct? Oil on your hands can kill a bulb. A a huge majority of the hid kit sellers are using kits made in china that literally cost around 8-12 dollars to import. It could literally be just a bad string of bad quality.

i dont touch the bulb at all when installing them and im always wearing a clean pair of gloves as well. I'm thinking I may need to upgrade to a more expensive kit possibly off our vendor here

 

[stevenlyyy]

also webby do you think the harness may possibly solve this issue or would that not even play a factor in this kind of scenario ? I know it differs from some peoples experiences just wondering what you know about it

 

[webby]

http://9thcivic.com/forum/threads/why-you-should-use-relay-harnesses-with-hids.7305/
it's a good thing to have for your wiring. I know others have gone without them, but it's a very cheap insurance policy. You can get a harness for like 8-10 dollars on amazon/ebay etc. I can't really guess if it's causing your issue.

waterproofing the harness is also a huge help. You can see pics in that thread when water gets in
http://9thcivic.com/forum/threads/hid-wiring-harness-weatherproofing.8848/

I know @XenonDepot has kits with philips bulbs, and I know some hid kits they sell have 3yr warranties.

 

[fg3_colton]

http://9thcivic.com/forum/threads/why-you-should-use-relay-harnesses-with-hids.7305/
it's a good thing to have for your wiring. I know others have gone without them, but it's a very cheap insurance policy. You can get a harness for like 8-10 dollars on amazon/ebay etc. I can't really guess if it's causing your issue.

waterproofing the harness is also a huge help. You can see pics in that thread when water gets in
http://9thcivic.com/forum/threads/hid-wiring-harness-weatherproofing.8848/

I know @XenonDepot has kits with philips bulbs, and I know some hid kits they sell have 3yr warranties.

This is going to sound like a dumb question but I'm genuinely curious. But why would one need a harness for the HIDs? I feel like its rather redundant adding a set of relays and fuses on top of the OEM relays and fuses. (EDIT: didn't see the explanation post you linked, Webby, until after posting this question, but seeing as how I know literally nothing about what I was staring at, a dumbed down version would be appreciated lol. I can tear apart and rebuild an engine but I know nothing about wiring and anything electrical lol)

Sent from my LG-LS993 using Tapatalk

 

[webby]

This is going to sound like a dumb question but I'm genuinely curious. But why would one need a harness for the HIDs? I feel like its rather redundant adding a set of relays and fuses on top of the OEM relays and fuses. (EDIT: didn't see the explanation post you linked, Webby, until after posting this question, but seeing as how I know literally nothing about what I was staring at, a dumbed down version would be appreciated lol. I can tear apart and rebuild an engine but I know nothing about wiring and anything electrical lol)

Sent from my LG-LS993 using Tapatalk

You're putting a fuse/relay in front of your oem wiring to protect it. If there is an issue it'll pop your relay fuse before getting to your stock wiring. The stock wiring was done to run halogen bulbs, and not meant to fire up hid ballasts/hid bulbs. I'm not saying all hid kits are garbage, but they are extremely cheap. You can get countless factories overseas to sell them in quantities of like 10 kits or whatever for under $10 a piece. That's 2 bulbs, 2 ballasts, a wire harness, and retail packaging per kit for around $10. If they're selling them for that price, you have to imagine what it costs them to make them and sell kits at a profit. If you do high volume purchases you can get pricing even significantly lower. You can't expect a whole lot of quality out of that. Probably makes sense why you see a billion "hid companies" selling kits on ebay and online. A huge percentage of them are selling almost the same kit as the other "brands". They'll slap a sticker or whatever on the same product to make it their own and maybe change the retail box with their logo on it.

The author tested a few ballasts under warm and cold start conditions, just to show the amperage spike that happens when you first turn them on. Though he notes that the spike is too short in duration to blow a standard fuse, you are still pushing far more power through the wires than intended and it can cause a repeated fatigue situation where eventually you will develop issues with the stock wiring.
^ http://9thcivic.com/forum/threads/why-you-should-use-relay-harnesses-with-hids.7305/

If you'd ever have an issue and your hids are directly plugged into your oem wiring harness, you could be in for a massive mess trying to replace oem wiring. If you have issues with the aftermarket relay harness, it's a simple fix and like $10 or so to replace it. I've had it happen on a relay harness and my stock wiring was all fine. I swapped out the damaged hid harness and all was fine again. That's why I always say it's a cheap insurance policy for your stock wiring.

You can even view how fuses melted in the diy nix did that I linked in the previous post. I've had the same happen, and I've had relays go bad due to the elements just corroding things over time. I had one die in a few years after installing it. Since I waterproofed my last harness, I've run it for like 7yrs or something without a fuse or relay blowing. I've installed and waterproofed a few hid harnesses for friends and they're still on theirs after 6+ yrs without a failure.

fried fuse and toasted wire -

fried relays -

 

[Nix]

TL: DR

Run a relay harness. It pulls power directly from the battery. The stock wiring cannot handle the increased draw of an HID kit especially at startup when the amp draw is extremely high.

A $20 harness is way cheaper to burn up than stock factory wiring. Chasing down an HID issue with a harness limits the areas to inspect. Plus tossing a $20 harness and swapping in a new one if you can't find the issue is way easier than undoing wire looms and chasing a short in the factory stuff.

Trust us. Just run a harness. It eliminates a ton of possible issues.

 

[fg3_colton]

I did a little digging today, and managed to find out some information regarding the the type of ballast I am running and why I was having problems with the fog lights. When I first bought the set, I knew nothing about working on cars and even less about their electrical systems than I do now which is why I didnt know a whole lot about the ballasts. Called the store (The one I went to originally, and their other locations to see if their answers were different- they weren't) today and asked and turns out that they usually sell 35W ballasts for the headlights in the 9th gen civics as it is more reliable (Their claims, not mine) than the 55W set. I think this explains why I have yet to have a problem with them. As far as the Fog lights go, they sold me the 55W ballast for those which explains why they kept blowing out on me. I thought this information was rather useful so I felt the need to share it with y'all.