HID's not working in cold

[FOMOCOTOSHO]

Anyone up here in the northern hemisphere have troubles with aftermarket HID's not wanting to turn on when it gets really cold? I am having trouble with mine when it drops below 15-20 degrees and they don't want to turn on. They work fine when it warms up.

Is this a common issue with aftermarket HID's or is there a problem with mine? I've had several issues with this brand/vendor already and they have tried to accommodate me with help solving the issues but I'm getting tired of more and more problems.

Any thoughts?

 

[Eric VerValin]

Intresting... I can tell you from being an electrician, it sounds like the ballasts aren't a "cold start" type. I don't know much about HID's but I would imagine this is a bridge someone has crossed over before.

I have some "regular" flourescents in my garage area, and when it's cold they take a while to get bright, for the same reason. Would easilly be fixed with a different ballast, but I don't wanna pay $50 a ballast.

 

[Art5]

I think you better off going with a different vendor. the only problem I ever had when temperature dropped below 15 degrees is in american cars, especially with automatic lights you need to turn off and then turn light on again for both bulbs to light up. But I would never have to wait until it gets warm. If you dont want to change ballast, try to use house insulation and wrap it in it.

 

[Ishodu]

I have sylivina x1010 on my CRV as well. Its been quite a bit below 0f and they have had no issue lighting up.

 

[_JR_]

I dont wanna take away from the thread, but i've noticed alot of those HID conversion kits seem to burn through bulbs very quickly. Like within months. Anyone else encountered that issue?

I was looking into an hid conversion with my 2007 malibu but sorta noticed that anyone i know that has them, replaces bulbs on a very regular basis. I was told to just get my iring redone instead. I was told of a guy that does automotive electrical consulting work for my province and he did my gf's dads kawaski. He said its a huge difference of light output. The guy adds better gauge wiring and cleans up the crappy factroy electrical set-up.

 

[FOMOCOTOSHO]

I installed mine in May and I had one burn out in October already. It was replaced under warranty but I'm not so sure of them either.

 

[gmail]

you guys need to install correctly... if you run cheap ballast that dont have protection to the bulb then even low current can **** bulbs and not let them start in cold or even warm conditions...

what you need to do it wire in relays to them if you have them flicker or the cold start or even buring out early then you are not suppling enough power to them and need to install relays.

one thing to watch tho.. the claim HIDs dont require as much power when they are up and running but ive had my car stall out dead from running at idle for like 20 mins with them on.

now i also have 4 piece UDPs but i have almost 15 volts at idle without lights on.

 

[_JR_]

Well how do you know if its a cheap ballast or not? All the crap on ebay goes fro 50-350 bucks and all claim to have german made ballasts and japanese bulbs.

 

[FOMOCOTOSHO]

you guys need to install correctly... if you run cheap ballast that dont have protection to the bulb then even low current can **** bulbs and not let them start in cold or even warm conditions...

what you need to do it wire in relays to them if you have them flicker or the cold start or even buring out early then you are not suppling enough power to them and need to install relays.

one thing to watch tho.. the claim HIDs dont require as much power when they are up and running but ive had my car stall out dead from running at idle for like 20 mins with them on.

now i also have 4 piece UDPs but i have almost 15 volts at idle without lights on.

Well I installed them exactly the way the instructions told me & as the selling vendor told me to. This is the company that is listed under our Group Buy section so I assumed they were quality products but apparently they are not.

 

[hawkeye18]

Well I installed them exactly the way the instructions told me & as the selling vendor told me to. This is the company that is listed under our Group Buy section so I assumed they were quality products but apparently they are not.

Crap, I just bought a set of those too... well, we'll have to see how they work out.

 

[gmail]

Well how do you know if its a cheap ballast or not? All the crap on ebay goes fro 50-350 bucks and all claim to have german made ballasts and japanese bulbs.

when i say cheap i refer to the ones that dont have the surge protection or low power protection etc.

also for anyone who decides to put a set of HIDs in their car..

dont use the 50 watt bulbs and ballasts they are ******** bright and people will hate you haha its a bit of overkill
i used the 50 watters and i had 4300k, there wasent anything i could see the light on, in daylight you could see it on the road, street lights didnt effect the output there were brighter when aimming on the road, if someone high beamed me it didnt seem to effect me as much..

what im getting at is its just silly bright.

30 watt kits with high low will work just fine
stay away from any colors beyond white or light blue as they will not give much light as you hope for

 

[thepawn]

50watts are fine if you have housings actually MADE for HID's and are not stuffing them into an incandescent bulb housing because it will cutoff the beam and not blind folks. If you are sticking them in stock housings, anyone will hate you at any wattage as you bleed glare light all over the place because the focal point is off from the bulb center.

Not starting when cold or flickering does mean they are not getting enough juice. The wiring harness you are running them through (or if you have them connected to your stock harness rather then a relay and battery tap) may not be able to put enough current to them. You might want to look into getting a relay, using the headlight hardness from the car as the power signal and running a direct fuse line of larger gauge from the batteries to each ballast.

On my lightning I had trouble with an aftermarket kit that tried to power itself off the stock car harness. My Xenarc kit (a real HID replacement) use the stock headlight only as the relay toggle and ran its own fuse/harness directly of larger guage to the battery - never a flicker or non-start issue with them ever.

--Daniel

 

[gmail]

50watts are fine if you have housings actually MADE for HID's and are not stuffing them into an incandescent bulb housing because it will cutoff the beam and not blind folks. If you are sticking them in stock housings, anyone will hate you at any wattage as you bleed glare light all over the place because the focal point is off from the bulb center.

Not starting when cold or flickering does mean they are not getting enough juice. The wiring harness you are running them through (or if you have them connected to your stock harness rather then a relay and battery tap) may not be able to put enough current to them. You might want to look into getting a relay, using the headlight hardness from the car as the power signal and running a direct fuse line of larger gauge from the batteries to each ballast.

On my lightning I had trouble with an aftermarket kit that tried to power itself off the stock car harness. My Xenarc kit (a real HID replacement) use the stock headlight only as the relay toggle and ran its own fuse/harness directly of larger guage to the battery - never a flicker or non-start issue with them ever.

--Daniel

if you have the halogen housing setup for HIDs they will stay focused the way they should and not glare out into peoples windows.

the fluting on the stock headlights does throw the light around some but not enough to cause issues the real problem they stock housings have is the reflective coating inside the lights its made to reflect the halogen beam all over.

i agree tho with all you say

 

[mosho93]

I'm running 35w 4300k's and they put out a lot more light then stock halogens. I have them aimed a little low to not blind the oncoming traffic 'as much'. They've been in for a couple months now and never been flashed once and they haven't given me any cold start issues. And yes its cold here, Below 10* F tonight...