I've been though a few pairs of HID's now and decided it's time to get some other opinions on what's happening, hope someone can help. So my first pair was a bi-zenon kit that included harnesses for both sides and that worked pretty well for awhile until driver side low beam was putting out a greenish color (supposed to be crystal blue 8000k) so i returned it and decided to just get a cheap low beam only kit without harness'. That also worked ok for a couple of months until passenger side stopped working, but I would just unplug and replug the connectors that go from ballast to bulb and it would work again. Then driver side would go out and I would keep unplugging and plugging back in until that stopped working and when I checked the ballast next it was blown, all melted and bubbled out in one spot.. so i bought yet another kit to see if they were the problem but the new one (another with no harness) worked fine, for a month or so at least and started having the same problem where the passenger side just wouldn't turn on. so i replaced fuses, 23 & 25 RH & LH low beam and 14 daytime running light, all with new 20 amp atm's just in case even though i already had 20's in there and now headlights don't work at all and i've tried completely taking apart and putting backtogether everything. sorry for the long writeup tried to keep it concise but obviously didn't work out.. just wondering if adding a harness on each side will help but i find it strange that lights will not turn on at all now.

 

What kits are you using?

are you already using a relay harness?

check your fuses?

check the relay?

check your grounds?

 

just cheap kits off ebay, pretty sure they're xentec. they're the ones that don't come with a relay harness, plug straight into oem harness so shouldn't have to check grounds right? fuses should be good, bought a pack of six and tried all of them including some 20 amp fuses i already had laying around and none of them worked. lost most of my tools when i moved a couple months back to so no ohm meter anymore.. might just have to hit up an autozone or something and borrow theirs. just think its strange that they don't turn on at all anymore, at least one would usually work most the time and i've been using these kits for about a year or more now.

 

I have a retro solutions 35w 6000k kit in my fog lamps with a relay harness. Works great, even through 2 PA winters. Was about $180. You get what you pay for.

Hope to be able to do a retrofit for the heads so I can run HID heads someday the responsible way.

BTW, innocent mis-reading, but this is not the Lighting section, this is the Lightning F-150 section

 

LightNing is spelled different than lighting

 

Put everything back to factory and take it to your local stealership. Hopefully you never burnt up your light wires when your ballast blew. After you get it all sorted out and if you want to run HID's again get good quality ones and USE a relay harness. I've seen a number of vehicle fires from cheap HID sets in my travels.
Not using a relay harness puts a lot of added stress on the ballasts, which in turns puts stress on your bulbs when trying so get power to fire up. All the added stress will cause premature failure on your setup.

 

alright, just going to go buy a stock bulb and see if it will work and if not it's got to be something besides the kits. will definitely run with relay harness' from now on. thanks for help.

 

so i finally gave up on trying to find my old stock lights and ponied up to go buy one only to find out that it's not the lights. got to be something deeper now. don't feel like the dealership is the best place to go though, might just go to a local electrical/stereo shop unless someone has any tips to figure this out on my own.

 

I used to have those horrible XENTEC HID lights for my 07 Screw. I went direct plug and play. The ballasts and bulbs would only last a couple of months or so, but only one would burn out at a time. It eventually got to me and I went back to stock for a while. Then I went to a site called ddmtuning.com and ordered their stuff, ALONG with their harness. I've been running a 55W 6000k setup for the past just over 2 years no problems. Ironically enough, the XENTEC stuff I got my wife for her 2008 Explorer Sport Trac are still working just fine and they have been in her truck for over 5 years. However, I used a relay harness for hers. If there's anything I learned about PnP HID kits, ALWAYS use a relay harness that takes power right off the battery and is equipped with a plug that goes right into the stock headlight plug. A lot of people shun on PNP kits, but whatever. If it floats your boat, then it certainly floats mine.

 

Well you did the right thing by using a Relay harness, but I bet it doesn't "float the boat" of the oncoming traffic you may be blinding..

 

Oncoming traffic? Not so much compared to red light traffic and the people in front of me in little cars. I do aim my headlights a little low since I did level the front end a bit and the residual lighting is quite abundant to hit reflectors a decent distance away. I have been in situations where even stock HID projector lights have been a huge distraction since the light is not only brighter than halogen but far more focused. This is generally the case with a taller vehicle vs a shorter vehicle, unless the beam is aimed too high (while may be less common still happens unfortunately).

 

I guess before i say any more are these hids in aftermarket heads with projectors or stock reflector? If in stock reflector then aiming them down will help but you still get a good amount of glare from the hid not being in the focal point where the stock halogen was.

 

For me, mine are in stock housings. They do produce some glare, not much more than stock. However, they do produce glare quite a bit brighter than stock since I'm running 55W 6000k.

 

Don't fall for the hype. "55W" HIDs only produce about 37-42W of actual output which equates to only 15-17% more output in terms of candlepower versus 35W. I have one of the highest quality aftermarket kits and I think my 50W HIDs are only about 44W as reported by the makers. 65W and 75W have even less returns.

 

I kinda figured they don't put out the stated power. I only mention the power of the ballasts I'm running to give somewhat an identification of the color, as people are used to a more bluish tint with a 35W ballast and 6000k bulbs than a 55W ballast and the same bulb.