55w HID's & voltage draw?

[Steve_N]

Just completed my TSX HID Retro Fit this weekend. Wright up will be posted in a few days. I got a bug I neeed to get worked out with the lights flickering with heavy amp draw. I'm running 55W 5000K D2S kit. When I just have the headlights on they are fine with the volt reading of 12.9+. (Read using Blitz FaTT Turbo Timer) Once I turn on Fogs, or A/C-Heat, Stereo my VOLT reading drops below 12.8- They flicker. Depending on the load I'll see 11.8-12.5 volts which I thought to be normal. Anyone else with 55W HID's have this happen? I swaped over to a 35W Ballist & dont have any problems but would rather stick with the brighter 55W set up. Also FWIW I have a brand new battery but I admit my Alternator has several years on it.

 

[sneakypete]

i am running 55W 6000K hids and at idle im running about 14V, when i turn on the hids the voltage drops to about 13v for a few seconds and then climbs back up to 14v.
your voltage sounds pretty low. i would check out your grounds and the alternator.
what fuses are you running on the hids? one or two fuses?
-pete

 

[GrimJack]

Where did you hook up power and ground for the HID ballast?

Flickering is usually a sign of a bad power or ground connection.

 

[supraman666]

i have the 55w hid bi bulb setup and no flickering at all always turns on first try. i do have a 35w set for my fogs and they wont turn on unless the car is started and at about 1500rpm but the wiring job was done real shity. the 55w kit came with nice harness the 35w kit had nothing. check your wires for good connections that might fix it.

 

[sneakypete]

grim has a good point.
my last hid kit had a bad ground on the passenger side and i eventually blew a ballast

 

[figgie]

55w HID when stock OEM is 35w?

Anyway on to your issue

HID pull MORE amperage as the voltage drops. If the wire is not already thoroughly cooked by now, it more than likely is going to be.

The HIDs.

Who makes the ballast? What is the current draw at 13.8? 12v?

 

[Steve_N]

I chose the 55W because they are brighter & would like to stay with them. As far as my wiring I did that upgrade 2-3 yrs ago per dan Sterns wright up with Bosch relay & 30 amp fuse. From that I just hooked the ballast to the stock connector. The kit is a DDM Lighting HID kit. Would have gone back with CK's but havent seen him on the board for a bit. So I'll get the Alternator tested then replace it if needed & check my ground points accordingly. I think the Ballast pwr & grnd connections or ok because the flickering happens when voltage drops below 12.9 but I will re-check it.

 

[figgie]

Steve

the issue with your logic is that unless the battery is completely DEAD, it should supply the current needed until it can't anymore. No different than the battery suppling 100+ amps to the starter prior to the alternator coming online.

The wiring upgrade. No clue who that guy is but I don't look at the person. I look at what was used.

With that said,

AWG/MWG of the wire?
Metal of the wire? (Copper, Aluminum, nickel plated etc)
Jacket composition? (PVC, PTFE, Kapton etc)
Length?

And on the ballast, Operating voltage range?

edit:

are you using the 35w/55w kits from them?

This is what I see for the 35w kit...

Vin 9~16VDC
Vnorm 13.2VDC
Inorm 3.2A
Imax 15A
Pout 32~35W

No info on the 55w kit but with that said, my guess is that it is pulling 6A at 13.2 and double that at start up.

 

[Steve_N]

The wiring upgrade. No clue who that guy is but I don't look at the person. I look at what was used.

Thought everyone was familer with his work http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...ys/relays.html

AWG/MWG of the wire?
Metal of the wire? (Copper, Aluminum, nickel plated etc)
Jacket composition? (PVC, PTFE, Kapton etc)
Length?

Wire used was 2lf 10gauge copper with PVC jacket for battery to Relay.
3-5lf of 12 gauge copper with PVC jacket from relay to H4/9003 connector

And on the ballast, Operating voltage range?

edit:

are you using the 35w/55w kits from them?

This is what I see for the 35w kit...

Vin 9~16VDC
Vnorm 13.2VDC
Inorm 3.2A
Imax 15A
Pout 32~35W

No info on the 55w kit but with that said, my guess is that it is pulling 6A at 13.2 and double that at start up.

My Ballast
VIN 9-32v
Vnorm 12 0r 24v
In max 6A
Pout 50-55w

Thanks for the input figgie & everyone. I had my Alt tested & it was within spec. Thinking about it I remember my headlights & dash lights dimming a bit at Idle before I ever swapped in these HIDs. I installed the 35w ballast & I'm not having any problem with them so far. I'm going to re inspect the relay, wiring & stock grounds as I get time.

 

[dbsupra90]

steve- due to the age and your car sitting outside, you may have some corrosion going on. i'll help you look at it at the indy meet if you are going. if not, whenever you have time.

 

[figgie]

steve,

Imax 6A? On the 55w unit?

That is imposible! No, I mean it! Not enough voltage at that level to cause that regardless of requency. No different than how TiG/GTAW welders achieve an arc. High frequency plus 22kv to jump the gap then adjust all the way down to 5A at 18v. But that initial just requires juice.

 

[Steve_N]

I duno..Thats the specs on that Ballast. I disconnected the aged Relay wiring & went back to stock wiring so I could try to hook up the lights like viper92086 posted in his thread. Thats not working out very good. Any help on how to correctly wire these up would be greatly appreciated. I searched the forums on HID wiring but all I could find were wiring wright ups on Hi/Low PnP kits. I need to get this sorted out.

 

[IJ.]

Now and again one of my 55w won't fire up if the battery is a little low.

 

[Steve_N]

Yea IJ initialy that was my problem. My battery was bad & they wouldn't fire. Replaced that & got them to light up but started the flicker problem at Idle. I think I may have gotten a wiring plan drawn up that may work. I'm basing this on our (USDM) system being Ground Switch set up. Does anyone know for sure? Dont want to get out the multi meter & test the socket in the rain we are getting now.

 

[IJ.]

I got to the point that I ran 3 Relays to each light trying to solve it!

1 power and 2 to ground.

Still did it now and again, I'll let the MoTeC PDM drive them for this build and see how they behave, all in all can't say I'm impressed by HID's over a good set of 100/140w Halogens.

 

[Steve_N]

Well Got it done. I built my own Harness with 30 A Relay & Fuse using 12 AWG on all the +/- wire. Kinda over kill since 16 AWG would have worked. Since my A70 is a weekend worrier I just went with aftermarket HID KIT. I'll see how that works out & may go with an OEM ballast & Bulbs down the road. Here are some pics.

Still Need to Aim the Lights & Clean Up the wiring.

 

[GrimJack]

Steve, couple questions - can you post a wiring diagram for how you built your harness, and are yours the hi/lo bulbs? How are they on high? Does your high beam indicator in the dash still light up?