Another HID problem

**tubby** · 9th February 2013, 18:19

Hi I had a problem with one of my ballasts, so I bought a replacement one from hids direct which is the slim 50w ballast, now I have one light brighter than the other, I can't get in touch with hids direct til Monday and was wondering if anyone could shed a light on what it could be? Going to try swapping the bulbs over see if it still does it, just seems strange.

**rushy** · 9th February 2013, 18:25

One ballast 35w and one 50w??

**tubby** · 9th February 2013, 18:31

Nope both 50w. Could it be faulty ballast?

**rushy** · 9th February 2013, 18:40

I just find all these HID kits and separate parts just to be substandard mass produced Chinese tat to be honest mate. I've had them fitted for years, I can buy a set of bulbs and one could be brighter than the other or the ballasts are different. I think theres just too much variance in working tolerances tbh mate.

**tubby** · 9th February 2013, 18:55

Yeah I know what you mean, I bought the original kit from hids direct and the replacement ballast from them also, getting fed up with this car now time for a change. Cheers rushy

**merikiito** · 9th February 2013, 19:30

Hmm, its not he cars fault that the HID's do not work.

First off is that you are fitting a non oem product so you should expect issues.
Problem is that HID's have to have a minimum 15 minute burn in time on first use, failure to do this can result in poor perfomance. This might explain the difference in light output.

Next is the fitting, there is no need for Cancellers (HID Decoder) on the Vectra C all you need to do is enable HIDs in the UEC (do this BEFORE you fit the HIDs). If you fit cancellers and they go faulty then this will have a negative effect on the ballast and will damage them if you have not enabled HIDs in the UEC.

So the answer to your issue is to get the correct kit for the car and enable HIDs in the UEC (£28 on ebay), job done.

**Neve'o** · 9th February 2013, 19:45

Xenons have already been activated as I done it for him.

The problem as mentioned is cheap Chinese parts and different components, I've had the same problem before and as a result I replace ballast and bulbs in pairs, seems to avoid these issues for me at least.

**merikiito** · 9th February 2013, 19:51

Originally Posted by Neve'o

The problem as mentioned is cheap Chinese parts and different components, I've had the same problem before and as a result I replace ballast and bulbs in pairs, seems to avoid these issues for me at least.

Makes sense to do what you suggest.

**tubby** · 9th February 2013, 20:01

I've had the hids fitted for 2years and had xenons enabled last year, one of the ballasts stopped working and hids direct sent me a different ballast compared to the original set as they no longer sell them. Never had any issues before so I think it's just strange that its not a bright, could the ballast take a little while to work properly?

regarding changing the car I've had a few problems with it since the new year where things keep going wrong and feel its time for a change, been looking at vxr's but can't find any in or around my area.