HID Light problem

[conman]

Hey guys, I've had my HID's in for a few months now and last night when driving home the bulb error light came on and my driver side bulb was out. I then turned the lights off and back on and both lights came on but a few seconds later the same bulb went out again. Tonight I was driving home on the same route and the same happened again around the same length of time which was about 3 mins into driving. The same thing happens when I turn them off and on again, works for about 3 secs and then off again.

Just wondering could this just be a bulb issue or would it be the ballast? I'm going to change the bulbs tomorrow but if it is the ballast they have a 2 year warranty but don't have a spare ballast so will have one light until I get a replacement which is a bit of a hassle although as it ain't working anyways I suppose it's same difference....lol.

[SlowCoach]

Disconnect bulbs and check its clean, vaseline then fit it back on.

With bulbs, i always carefully position and slowly push it in. As if do it quickly, it can bend the sockets and tend to weaken the contacts

Just a thought.

[Big Dave]

don't have a spare ballast so will have one light until I get a replacement which is a bit of a hassle .

Can't you just stick a halogen bulb back in? Have you not got the ones your took out when you changed over to the HIDs?

That's what I did when one of my HID bulbs failed a while back. Only had to take the 2 spade terminals out of the headlight socket connector and plug straight onto the H7 bulb.

[conman]

I tried 2 new HID bulbs in and the same thing is happening so I guess it's a faulty ballast after all. Just put the old halogens back in and they work fine and took the faulty ballast out and contacted Hid's Direct to sort out a replacement, no word from them yet but my guess is they are closed for Easter. Hopefully there shouldn't be any problems getting it sorted.

Cheers

[Ben50n]

Have you had HIDs activated?

I understand that even with canbus cancellers etc, you can still have issues with some cars.

[kentish_bloke]

Have you had HIDs activated?

I understand that even with canbus cancellers etc, you can still have issues with some cars.

I have a pre-facelift with HIDs fitted. Not had them activated and have had no problems. I have the CANBUS PRO set from HIDs Direct, with cancellers fitted.

I would think it's the ballast at fault, as you've surmised already. HIDs Direct were pretty good when I exchanged my original ballasts for the CANBUS PRO ones, just be patient, they seem to be a 1 man band.

[jodiexii]

Faulty ballast mate

[Handyandy-UK]

The standard fault-find for this kind of problem is to move individual components from one side to the other and when the fault suddenly follows, you've found your dodgy component.

But given all that's been said it's certainly sounding as though you have a faulty ballast.

[conman]

I have the HID's set to "Present" and had no bulb warnings. I noticed if I did switch it to "Not present" I got bulb failure errors until I changed the setting back again regardless of them coming with cancellors. I think this depends on which model of Vectra you drive so hit and miss whether or not you have bulb warning problems no matter what kit you use as I put in a set off cheap balasts with no cancellors and had no error with them either as long as the car had Xenons set to "Present"

Anyways, I have since had the faulty ballast replaced by HIDS Direct with no questions asked but just haven't got around to putting the good ones back in as it's done nothing but rain over here, so next half decent day I'll whip the bumper off and get the lights back to normal

Cheers for the replies, much appreciated guys