HID headlight out but only on one side.

Hi everyone

I have a problem that I am completely stuck on, one of my HID light is burn out (not really burn out, the bulb is still working and the ballast is still good), but I can't hear the ballast hum or get the light to turn on. In order to explain how it happened let me start at the beginning.


About a month ago my driver side headlight just died, I am not completely sure if it actually burn out or if it is some other electrical problem. So I figure I may as well get my headlight replace with HID.

I got an HID system from DDM locally here in San Diego and installed the set. At first both light work great for a few days, then the driver side light start to turn off intermitently. If I turn off the light and wait a little bit then turn it back on, then both light turn on.

Fast forward about two weeks, now the driver side headlight work great, but the passenger light is completely dead.

I already checked the wiring and they seem to be snug. I brought the Ballast into DDM to have them check and the ballast is still working just fine.

What else should I check? I already checked the 4 fuses and they are in good condition - none of them seem burned out.

Is there anything else that I am missing that could be causing this?

Thanks everyone.

 

Usually mine is fixed by reflicking the lights,but as going out intermitently I think theres something wrong with the ballast. By chance,you didnt touch the light bulb when you installed it,right?

 

No, I didn't touch any of the light bulb when I was installing it so there shouldn't be any hand oil on it to kill it.

I brought the ballast into DDM and they test it with their system to show me that the ballast was still working. They were willing just to do a swap with me if it wasn't.

Is there any good way to measure and trace down where I lost electricity?

 

sounds like the ballast is starting to go out. from my experience with utv/ atv kits I've installed at work, low quality kits seem to act the same way. some times they work, sometimes they don't. if you flick the lights on and off they both seem to work, but then one will go out. eventually it won't come back on at all.

 

Other than the ballast could it be anything else? The passenger side ballast was tested today and it was working in store on their system, but it seem like I wasn't getting any power to it in the car (I couldn't hear the electrical hum).

 

with an HID system, the ballast is the weakest link from my experience. if there is no power going to the ballast though, then that is a problem. start there, cause something isn't wired correctly. usually what we see is power to the ballast, but none coming out aka bad ballast

 

Thanks, i'll check the power tomorrow morning.

Is there anything beyond the ballast that could have cause the issue?

 

well the only thing beyond the ballast should be the bulb. so if you have power on both sides of the ballast, make sure the ground side of the bulb/ wiring harness is good. but i'm doubtful that is the problem. thought the bulb itself could be bad too. from what i've seen thought, that usually isn't the case. start swapping from passenger to driver side components until you figure out which one has failed

 

Could be a wire connector arcing with something. Mine do that from time to time

 

What about before the ballast? I am just wondering if there was a loose wire (before I installed the HID system) that was simply covered up when I installed the system.

The other thing that I noticed is that there were 2 plugs, 1 for each head light. But the HID system only use 1 (which is connected to the ballast system), is this the correct way to do it?

I am new to this, what is a wire arcing? As in short circuiting with something?

 

never done a kit for our trucks, but you should have a ballast for each side. that may be your problem. one ballast is trying to power both lights and it can't handle it. my guess it the side that power can flow through easier is the one that stays on

 

Yeah, HIDs run at super high voltage when the are first heating up. If there is any exposed wire it can arc (short circut) with anything grounded near it. Usually the only places that will have exposed wire are at the wire connectors. Easy fix, get some liquid electrical tape and seal up the connectors. At least thats how it is with mine

Edit: If you have one ballast, thats most likely your problem

 

Triple check your grounds.
Every time I've had a problem with intermittent sparking, it was a weak ground on the harness.

Those forks at the headlight ends... cut them off, solder the wire to a 12ga wire, and route that back to the battery ground.

 

Thanks

So to clarify:

I have 2 ballast, but it is only connected to one end of the truck and not 2.

I'll get some photos in the morning to explain this better.

For my ground it was grounded to the frame of the truck. Is it better to re-ground them to the battery negative terminal?

 

I'm assuming you mean the 2 ballasts plug into the harness, and the harness only plugs into the headlight plug one side of the truck. That is normal.

Frame should be a good ground, but I've had issues on body and frame parts before... paint, oil, etc... Any weakness in the connection will cause problems.

 

Ok, so it seem like I am good on the first part.

I'll measure the voltage tomorrow on the harness to make sure that I actually have power going through in addition to cleaning where the ground is.

 

so a little update:

This morning when I turn off my car then turn on the light, both side turn on.

Have anyone experienced this before? It seem that when I tried this before it didn't work, but now it does.

I am going to try to replicate it again this afternoon to see.

 

I'm having this very same issue with my retrofits headlights as well -.- what a headache trying to figure this one out.

My drivers light keeps coming on and off at random times when it wants to lol

 

Order a new relay kit ddms are garbage... Had the same problem with mine before I switched to projectors. One side would go out or a ballast would blow then theyd send me a new one and finally I figured it was probably the relay harness

 

So a little more update. I measured all the wiring and the power was coming through except for this wire. Is this related to the relay control?