Ok i have a 2005 Non-ssl with a Prolumen 9006 HID kit on it. Last night i noticed that my passenger side HID bulb was out.. I turned off the head light switch off and back on and the bulb came back on so i didnt think anything of it.. 2-3 minutes later it turns back off again.. I did the same thing again and turn the switch and it came back on.. The light turns off at the exact same time everytime.. I need to replace a part but my problem is that i dont know if its the bulb or the ballasts? Any help would be appreciated!!

 

Easy way 2 determine if is the bulb of the cables is 2 use a tool that measures electricity. I forgot the name but it's cheap and all u do is put the head of the tool on w.e cable u want 2 test to see if it has power.

 

12v tester

 

Since you're only having the problem on one side, why not swap parts from side to side until you find the culprit? e.g. Install your drivers side bulb on the passenger side. If it still goes out, then you know the issue isn't with the bulb.

 

It has power. Its just that within 2-3 minutes it turns off and when i turn off the headlight switch and turn it back on, the bulb comes on again.It does the same thing over and over.. So something is shorting out.. Either the bulb or the ballasts?

 

sounds like the bulb. exact same thing happened on my IS300. bought new bulbs and had no more problems.

 

Im gona swap the ballasts tonight and go by elimination.. I called the shop that installed them and they said it sounds like the bulb but, the kit that i have they no longer sell cause that company went out of bussiness so if its the bulb i have to find a compatible bulb thats 9006

 

My other question is... If i have to replace the bulb, is it gona be a different color or are all 9006 bulbs the same? I have a Prolumen HID kit with 9006 bulbs

 

just get the same K as the other, the color goes by the amount of K.

 

thanks

 

Sounds like the ballast

 

How would you know that?

 

I tend to agree...there's nothing about an arclamp that would cause it to go out after a period of time and then "latch" off.

Since it sounds like you got a retrofitted base kit I would start by investigating the wiring setup. Most of these kits use plug-and-play type setups where you use your stock headlight harness to feed power to the ballasts. I use a retrofit kit for my fog lights and this is the type of setup I had. Within weeks I was having problems with one side as the connections in the wiring harness were flaky, at best.

Start as follows:

1. Find your ballasts.
2. Trace back to the vehicle headlight wiring
3. Power on your lights
4. Shake, bend, stretch the wires at the wiring harness/junction

If your lights go out/flicker here then you know it's the wiring.

If it's not that simple then I would guess that something in the ballast is overheating or shorting once it heats up. As other members sugegsted, try a bulb swap from left to right and see where the problem manifests itself.

I'd guess you're looking at a wiring problem, followed by ballasts, and lastly bulbs.

good luck!

 

My guess is what's turning off the power is the electronic control system you installed with the HIDs. I think that's part of the wiring harness (but not being entirely sure what a harness is...). But it might not be killing the power because the controller is bad; it might be detecting a problem elsewhere, like the change in resistance caused by an overheating wire or bulb. I agree with the idea about switching bulbs. If doing that changes the light that dies, you've got your problem solved. If not, isolating the problem will get tougher.

Let me suggest that you not trust the K-rating of just-any new bulb. I don't know how many manufacturers make HID bulbs, but it shouldn't be that hard. All you do is take a quartz tube, pop in two electrodes, fill it with a coctail of gases, seal it and sell it. But that cocktail of gases isn't too specific, and changing the formula will change the colors of light it produces. That "K" rating doesn't acually have much meaning when applied to light produced this way (by electric arcs in gases), so you can have two bulbs producing two clearly different colors, with both showing the same magic number on the box.

If you can, go through the original documentation that came with your HID kit, looking for the bulb manufacturer. Buy the new one from them. Of course, it could be that only two or three companies actually manufacture the bulbs, or that the formulas are standardized. But I wouldn't count on it.

 

The company that makes my HID kit went out of bussiness so im ****ed. Im putting in a new HID kit this weekend or next week