Faulty HID

[Rogue]

A few weeks ago, my passenger side main beam stopped working. Obviously I thought it was a blown bulb, but I was out driving at the time and I didn't have anywhere to stop...so thought i'd deal with it the next day.

Next day, light worked fine.

It's been ok for a while, but my Mrs says it does go out and randomly comes back on again.

I've noticed that it's gone again. I've checked all the wiring to see if it looks ok, and to be honest from what I can see it looks fine. Can't see any loose connections or anything.

Anyone ever experienced intermittent faulty HID's before and will be able to give me a rough idea on where to start looking??

Cheers,

Pete

 

[Roy]

I got bog standard ones and I had that happen over 2 weeks till the bulb went
So I think it may be your bulb

 

[Rogue]

Did it go on/off/on/off etc?

Bit random eh?

 

[Roy]

Yep we would be behind a car a night and you would see it flashing on and off and people would flash you coming the other way lol

 

[Rogue]

Ill check it out tomorrow.

I thought a bulb would just go like a normal bulb. Ha

 

[Rogue]

Repost

 

[Roy]

It's French lol

 

[lild-200cup]

I have had this problem with a hid kit thought it was the bulbs so changed them but still had the same problem found out it was the ballast causing the problem so changed and problem was solved.

 

[SarGara]

It's French lol

HID kits wont be french, they will be some chinese mass produced thing. HIDs were never fitted as standard by Renault.

I get it from time to time that one HID will not light up and the other will at start up, but switching them off/on will normally bring it back. Ive never had them go out mid-journey so id look into getting a replacement ballast.

The ballast controls the illumination afterall, and if a bulb was to go, it wouldnt light up at all or in the case of HIDs it would start to lose its colour and go pink.

 

[Ollie RS]

you just have to replace the ballast happens with a lot of kits had it before as well i've seen less problems occuring with the 'new' style slim ballasts maybe give that a try...

 

[RalphyBMW]

If its a 197 then HID/xenons were an option, but you may be able to find a cheaper aftermarket replacement. As mentioned above, the likely culprets are either ballast or bulb. The same parts are probably used by several manufacturers so a wider search for a solution may be beneficial.

 

[Rogue]

It's defo the ballast. Took me ages to get the thing wired up again (Due to lack of space!!) and the light still doesn't work.

Can I just retro fit any ballast? At the moment it's a 50w but the replacement bulbs are 35w.

The drivers side is still 50w, is there likely to be much, if any difference in brightness?? Should I just change both?

 

[930Tech]

Theres a renault bulb and ballast on ebay IIRC.

 

[Rogue]

This is after market...I need to try and buy it tomorrow rather than buy it online if possible.

 

[Rogue]

What an absolute nightmare.

So I got a replacement ballast unit, getting the old one out was pure agro. It was only taped to the underneath of the light unit. So it dropped to the bottom of the car. Which meant I had to remove the bottom floor pan to get the thing out.

Hooked up the new one, and the light works but I can't get the new ballast in for love nor money. I can't get my hand down the gap. So gotta run the car into a garage tomorrow to get them to take the front bumper off, the light out to get it all hooked up properly.

Less than bloody impressed!