xenon bulb help

[LBeard87]

On my way into work this morning, a co-worker told me my passenger side headlight was out. Tried to diagnose potential problems and trouble shoot a bit but it was dark out and i was in dress clothes that needed to stay clean for work.

My question is can you disconnect the balast and ignitors and just run a stock bulb and basically not use the xenon kit at all but still have power running from the battery to the xenon kit? ie leave the ground and the positive attached and just not use the kit?

I would normally just disconnect everything but I'm leaving for Mt. Snow Vermont directly after work and don't really have time to take the whole kit apart. any hazards that im not thinking of at this moment?

 

[ecrew16]

Just to be safe I would temporarily run whatever stock bulb you have to the regular +/- leads. I wouldnt try to run it off the ballast. Not sure if it will blow the halogen light up. :hiding:

 

[LBeard87]

Just to be safe I would temporarily run whatever stock bulb you have to the regular +/- leads. I wouldnt try to run it off the ballast. Not sure if it will blow the halogen light up. :hiding:

Thanks,
I actually ended up just disconnecting the xenon bulb from the harness and the stock connector from the harness and plugging the halogen bulb into the stock connector and bypassing the ballasts and ignitors all together. I was more asking if I should be concerned still running power to the ballasts and ignitors even though i wasn't using them.

 

[Uneek]

Thanks,
I actually ended up just disconnecting the xenon bulb from the harness and the stock connector from the harness and plugging the halogen bulb into the stock connector and bypassing the ballasts and ignitors all together. I was more asking if I should be concerned still running power to the ballasts and ignitors even though i wasn't using them.

Depending on the wiring harness you have, you can pull the fuse too. The older kits' wiring harness had one fuse that powered both ballast and HID together. The newer kits' wiring harness has two fuses (essentially, two seperate wiring harnesses) that power each ballast and HID seperately.

It sounds like you have the newer harness since you're able to unplug the OEM headlight socket from it. It shouldn't be getting power to the ballast or igniter since the OEM headlight socket is unplugged from it, thus no power to the relay to power them. Pulling the fuse would definately kill any power to the components.

(I've heard from a HID retrofitting guru, never to power a ballast without the HID capsule in place because the arcing will damage it.)

 

[LBeard87]

Depending on the wiring harness you have, you can pull the fuse too. The older kits' wiring harness had one fuse that powered both ballast and HID together. The newer kits' wiring harness has two fuses (essentially, two seperate wiring harnesses) that power each ballast and HID seperately.

It sounds like you have the newer harness since you're able to unplug the OEM headlight socket from it. It shouldn't be getting power to the ballast or igniter since the OEM headlight socket is unplugged from it, thus no power to the relay to power them. Pulling the fuse would definately kill any power to the components.

(I've heard from a HID retrofitting guru, never to power a ballast without the HID capsule in place because the arcing will damage it.)

I actually have the older one with the single fuse. I disconnected the whole system last night when i got home from work. I don't plan on reinstalling it again. I was starting to notice some cold spots there were in critical places and the usable light output was fading. The reflectors just scattered too much light everywhere and although the light that was put down on the road itself was very crisp and bright, it wasn't as good on the sides and there wasn't a clear definition of the beam pattern. something i wouldn't have noticed if i didn't put the stock bulbs back in. I really miss them but i think im going to have to do either a retro fit or get 06-09 headlights before i put HIDS back in again.

 

[mikehinthehouse]

been thinking of getting HIDs and running in stock housing of my 03, after reading your last post not sure if I wanna do it.... How long did they last before they blew out? and how was the lighting when they worked?