HID Horrors .... might be worth a read!

Greggers

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Holaaaaa Gringos!

Well, as part of the ongoing project I've been unloading a lot of the farkles I've stuck on the 8 over the last months... One of those was the HID kit I installed on the low-beam.

It was a cheap chinese one, but you'll prolly find that every aftermarket HID kit falls into this bracket too so don't feel badly if you've got a 'high-end' kit with the same problem...

Anyway, This is what I found when I took it all apart:


The ballast socket:

IMG_6601.jpg


The plug:

IMG_6611.jpg


It's not great is it? What seems to have happened is that water has penetrated into the ballast casing and has caused the corrosion from the inside - I haven't bothered taking the cover off it cos to all intents and purposes it's fooked even though it still functions - the waterproof connectors are probably ok ...

The end result is that I've reverted to the old incandescent filament bulb simply because I don't want to be stuck with a ballast failure and no light.

Anyone else with HIDs would do well to check their plugs too, and even if they're ok take some precautions like a little silicon grease inside the plug to stop it starting to rust...
 
any holes in the ballast??
sure it hasnt traced down the connection leads, and through to the plug?

iv seen the same on ducati,s, they use this connection type on other stuff non hid related, not always waterproof,
iv seen the seal go hard/rot

a bit of electricly safe grease is always a good idea anyway
 
No, I don't think it's tracked down the lead - the ballast has quite bad corrosion on the bottom edge of the casing, odd really as it was tucked right out of the way behind the RH panel ...

TBH I don't think that grease would have stopped the casing leaking...

G
 
not good then, especially with that sort of power going through it ,
 
Yeah ... well, there was this time when I was messing around with an HID burner and a projector lamp, trying to see if the beam pattern improved if the burner was slightly repositioned in the lamp holder ... the bare end of the conductor must have touched the lamp housing cos all of a sudden everything went very white and I felt this massive 'fizz' in my arm and upper body ... it got dropped pretty quickly lol...

G

how many volts... 10-12k maybe? :blast:eek:
 


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