H.I.D.LIGHT CONVERSION HELP

[mrlee87]

hI,

i recently purchased a h.i.d. light conversion kit on ebay.

i installed the current kit onto my ninja 250r, and the low beam lights came on, turned the bike off, and turned it back on within a minute and the low beam lights didn't come on, turned the bike on and off 3 times, then the lights came on, the high beam light however turned on every time i flicked the switch.

i swapped the ballast over so that the high beam ballast is now controlling the low beam, and the low beam is controlling the high beam, every thing seemed to work fine, every time, except yesterday, i pulled up at the shopping centre, it looked like it was going to rain, so i hoped back on the bike, and moved it to the under cover part, however the light didn;t come on, i turned the bike off and on again and the lights came on and so far it hasn't missed a beat.

I didn't leave the engine running to see if the lights would turn on later.

I have read on other post, that the hid lights don't like to be turned on and off, so given the fact the lights had turned off and were put back on a minute later may have put the ballast into some sort of protection mode.

I have also read that i should look into a delay start for the hid lights, as the lights automatically come on everytime i start the bike.

can anyone advise me what i'm doing right or wrong? what to do? or if this is normal?

[mrlee87]

or if i have a faulty ballast?

[Wattie]

no idea mate,

HID is one thing i have stayed away from, they blind everyone on the road.

[tomithy]

HID's use a lot of battery power to start up. Notice the bright flicker, then the slow brightening of the beam? The initial flicker takes a lot of charge to do.

I reckon you're not getting enough battery power with the bike off, but the switch to 'ON'. Maybe upgrade the battery to a higher CCA one?

And I agree with Wattie. HID's in non-projector lights are not cool - the beam goes EVERYWHERE.

[Dafuzz31]

Atleast they can see u cumin hehehe

[Wattie]

It's more of a problem when following cars...

[JonW]

I have HID lights in my shed and they need 10 minutes to cool down/reset/whatever before they will restart.
Pain in the arse when welding as the initial surge to the welder will turn them off.

Can anybody clarify this- The difference between hi and low beam in a hid is the focal point. I have heard the whole bulb/element drives back and forth depending on hi or low beam requirements. I imagine this avoids rapid restart requirements.

[mrlee87]

THERES A GUY IN THE US THAT HAS HAD THE SAME PROBLEM FOR OVER 2 YEARS HASNT SEEMED TO WORK IT OUT EITHER SO I GUESS I;LL JUST GO WITH MY HUNCH,,,

[drewboy]

I avoided HID's aswell, mainly cos i didn't like the idea of possibly being hours from home with no headlight, and no option to simply buy a replacement bulb at a service station. Instead i bought a white/blue coloured halogen bulb for low beam, and a 30% brighter normal coloured bulb for high beam.

If i had to run HID set up, i'd run it in the low beam side (as it's constantly on while the bike is running) and run a standard halogen bulb for high beam so it can handle being switched on and off as often as you like.

As for your low beam HID playing up, sounds like possibly a faulty Ballast, but could also be not getting enough power when the battery is turning the engine over. I'd suggest putting a little switch on the power wire between the standard headlight wiring and the ballast, once the bike is running, hit the switch so the ballast gets full battery power instantly instead of sharing with the starter motor. Just a suggestion.