Ballast or bulb?

[eightfour7two]

Hey all,

Started getting some funny behaviour from one of my HIDs: It sometimes doesn't light up when I flip the switch, although fires up when I re-turn the dial. Once it's lit, the bulb doesn't drop out. Also, there is sometimes a faint flicker during the first 5 minutes or so when the light is first lit.

I don't know enough about the HID technology to figure out if it's the bulb that's duff or if the ballast is on it's way out. Anyone got any insight?

Cheers!

 

[Nick101]

Hello fellow Swansea member!

I have a similar problem with mine, albeit I an running am aftermarket HID kit.

I swapped ballasts today with one that was running 8k bulbs.

I am running 4300k (standard colour) and it seems to be working ok at the moment, except the bulb is bluer on that side now.

A bit strange as i always thought the colour was dictated by the bulb. I am gonna do some swapping about and see what works/looks best if its dry Sunday.

Has the one that's not working with you changed colour or anything?

When I had a HID bulb die before, it went purple and was flickering.

It could be as simple as a dodgy earth on yours, cleaned all mine up that are located under the battery tray, and it seemed to help.

 

[Tooks]

Swap the bulbs over, if the failure follows, then it's the bulb. If it stays on the same side, then it's the ballast.

They symptoms you describe of not always firing up first time once occurred on a car of mine, and it was the bulb on its way out.

But, it could be the ballast too, hence the need to switch bulbs to diagnose.