Found this on the Corolla forums. Apparently it worked for the owner, so I figured maybe it'll work for me too. I vaguely remember having that eyelet connector thingy somewhere downstairs. Found it! I even had one last quick splice left! 

Tried it and nada. Didn't work either. Man, I'm running out of ideas soon. I'm keeping track of everything I've tried obviously through the blog but I'm also crossing out the ones on my "Options List" post. I guess I'll just be waiting for my Error Code Eliminators. It'll be a couple weeks.

Big Mamma

I just came back from the garage after installing the Big Mamma. That's what I'm calling the fact 4700µF 35v capacitor. Although I'm happy to report that the rattling went away and so did the flickering, the sad part is that the light didn't turn on at all! 

One weird thing about the smaller 1000µF 35v capacitor is that I noticed the light would get really bright just before I turned it off, but only for a split second. At the last blink before shutoff, it's way brighter for that millisecond that it is when it's flickering when on the on mode. 

I have no clue what all this means. Perhaps I need a capacitor larger than 1000µF 35w but smaller than 4700µF 35v?

There's only a 2200µF 35v and a 3300µF. Is that my only hope? I've already spent about $12 or so on capacitors. I'm not thinking of buying any more. I've already ordered the error eliminators the other day. It won't be here 'til 8/17 probably. That gives me a stretch time to figure out any other options. We'll see. We'll see. Not giving up yet. 

Understanding the DRL Issue

I've been doing what everyone says to do online about the flickering lights, but it wasn't until just recently that I've gotten so much info on this that I'm actually starting to understand what's going on and why. 

Having the relay harness is recommended for systems that don't get enough voltage to power the HID's. The relay harness gets power straight from the battery and provides that needed power. That's not my issue though, so the relay harness wouldn't really help. 

My problem is more similar to the daytime running lights setup that flicker people have. Although the relay harness provides constant higher voltage directly from the battery, that doesn't change the fact that the signal coming into the system is still pulsating as like most DRL systems. 

I'm thinking outloud here, but I think my capacitor still wasn't big enough and wasn't covering the gap in the pulsating signal. The idea behind the capacitor is that it stores enough of the energy and discharges it during the gaps. I'm guessing the smaller capacitors I've been using aren't covering enough of the gaps. Or at least that's my understanding. 

I just came back from buying a whopping 4700µF 35w capacitor so maybe that mother will take care of the problem. Crossing my fingers. Gotta get dinner now.

Run over a Relay

I didn't really run over a relay. I wasn't angry enough for that. Although I did almost run over a pedestrian - a stupid one I might add. I was going up to Oreilly's Auto Parts on one of the main stretches when a woman decides she wants to walk right in front of me in the middle of the block - close enough that I could smell her bad breath. For her that was about 2 car lengths or less. 

Yes, the evil part of me decided to wait til then before giving her a honk she'll never forget. That air horn comes in handy. I've always wanted to use it on an unsuspecting pedestrian just to see their reaction. Since I first installed it years ago, no pedestrian has ever deserved to hear it until now. 

HOOOOONNNNKKK! 

She jump probably 3" off the ground and turned around to see me. "Sorry," she whispered. By then, I could really taste her breath. Yuck!

With all kidding aside, it's really probably best that pedestrians don't jaywalk. And if they do, jaywalker should have at least the courtesy if not the for the security of their own life to look both ways before crossing. Duh, we learned that in Kindergarten. Why can't people just stop being so damn selfish and entitled and just start following the rules of the road? 

Bigger is Better?

This thing is gimungous and it's not even the 4700µF 35v one. It's just a 1000µF capacitor. The 4700uf one was huuuuuge. It was almost the size of a C battery. Crazy.

Some guy put one on his Mazda 3 and boy is it big! 

Here's the comparison. The large one I picked up from Radioshack this morning cost me $1.99 plus tax, the most expensive one of them all.

And so did it work??? I turned the engine over and the buzzing of the relay continued. It buzzed much less though. Seemed like the steroids was wearing off. I installed it with the polarity going the opposite direction that the first one exploded. Figured the popping of the last capacitor was enough to convince me that the blue is actually positive making the white wire negative. Not the other way around. So what next? 

More Options

I don't have much choice out there, but I've only got two choices from what I've been reading:

1. Hook up a switch. Something than can handle 0.3amps is what I vaguely remember reading. Oreilly's should be able to help.
2. Maybe the guy in the Youtube video meant 4700uf 35v capacitor - not 470uf 35v capacitor. I was reading this forum and a guy used 4700uf 25v on his car for a pair of HID's and it worked! http://www.hyundai-forums.com/224-tucson-ix35-lm-models/138018-hid-harnesss-relay-buzzing-sound-2.html. If this is really the solution, this would be the third one I buy! I might actually buy two instead I pop another one. I'm still not sure was the polarity is on the wires. I'll call up DDM Tuning to let me know. In the meantime, I'm going to order a voltmeter which I can use on other projects.
3. Swap the polarity. At first I thought if the polarity was wrong, it wouldn't turn on at all. But I'm reading reports that reversing the polarity on a flickering system sometimes does the trick. Hmmm. I'm trying that now.......wait, I'm reading more and my first hunch was right. Only change the polarity if the light doesn't fire up.
4. Replace the relay with a 60amp one.
5. DRL relay or other method. I keep ignoring the day time running lights threads in various forums, but it only just occurred to me now that technically the scooter does have daytime running lights since they cannot be turned off w/o turning off the scoot's engine. Hmmmm.
6. I just read that maybe my capacitor is in the wrong place. Some say it can go directly on the relay and connect the negative to the positive like I have. Others say to do it in line of the relay meaning wires have to be tapped.  
7. Add a ground wire to the negative wire of the HID kit going into the stock headlight connector like this guy: http://corolla9.com/index.php?/topic/86-diy-disable-the-annoying-drl-flicker-with-hids/

After about 4 hours of research I'm convinced that the scooter in fact does act like daytime running lights. Cars with this feature have the same problem with the flickering. This guy explains it very well with his diagrams:

http://www.mazda3forums.com/index.php?topic=120616.0

Looks like I'll be back to Radioshack yet again. This time I'm getting 4700uf 35v ones (one for backup).

More Capacitors

Rushed to Radioshack today to pick up more capacitors. I got one of the same ones I got yesterday and also picked up a 470µF 35v one in case it didn't work.

Since I read that capacitors blow up b/c they're installed with the incorrect polarity, I tried putting this new one in the opposite direction. Not wanting to end in a violent fate like the last, I turned the engine off after realizing it didn't work. The bulb was still flickering and the relay was still buzzing. 

Being that this is I think the fourth time I've taken the scoot apart, this image looks familiar. Figured I'd document it for y'all. It actually only requires removing 4 screws: 2 at the battery cover and 2 that secure the headlight cover. 

Since it didn't work with the opposite polarity either, I brought out the big kahunas. This one's pretty monstrous relative to the other two.

After a deep breath, I inserted it and tried again. Didn't work either. Ugh, one more chance. Reverse the polarity. 

And so I did. And guess what? Nothing happened but more buzzing and more flickering. Same as before. My last hope? Perhaps some error code eliminators will work. For now, I got nothin'.

Solutions to HID?

The capacitor didn't work. It exploded. Pop! and all this fuzzy stuff came out of it. Ugh.

Maybe I'm supposed to hook up the negative wire to ground instead of the negative pole of the battery? or not.

Read some more stuff online:
Just a warning, if your lights only come on when the motor is running, they probably are running AC directly from the stator and the relay provided will only work with DC. You'll either have to add a rectifier (or two, if you want hi/low) or wire up a switch to fire the relay from the DC out of the bike's rectifier. 
---

Another possible solution, as Charger RT 2010 noted, is to hook up the ECE's between the relay harness and the factory harness. The ECE's are basically just capacitors anyway. The reason the buzzing occurs even with the ECE's connected directly to the ballasts is that the relay is still receiving the pulse. Putting the ECE's in the path of the pulse and having them receive the pulse before the relay may solve the issue. I haven't tried this solution myself but the logic is sound.

I am running the DDM tuning 35W kit with ECE's and Relay Harness and now the capacitor. I guess this may seem "overkill" but I'd rather have the harness to provide the initial ignition power as opposed to straining the stock wiring. The Error Code Eliminators take care of any flickering issues due to computer controlled headlights detecting a lower power draw on the circuit and thinking a bulb is out. Hope this clears things up for everybody. 

HID Testing

After that year of research and consideration before finally going forward with the HID's, I received the kit, installed it and got nothing but a flickering bulb. Perhaps it was wishful thinking that made me surprised that it didn't work out of the box. I had read up that a capacitor may be needed, but having failed in my last attempt to solder something, I had hoped it wouldn't be required.

 Here's the kit laid out on saddle. From far left is the relay harness, bulb, then ballast. The H4 bulb does come with a shield. Having done some research, I was surprised to learn that the shield is supposed to mount on the bottom - not the top. Yes, that makes the bulb bare on top when installed. Apparently this is the way it's designed and provides less glare after shining off the stock reflector.

 The 9v battery of course doesn't come with the kit and has nothing to do with anything other than to give an idea of exactly how small the ballast really is. I knew ballasts came thin these days, but boy is this thing puny! Pretty cool. I love how there aren't any stickers on it. This would've been perfect for the kits I've put on my cars in the past. Black = lot less visible and looks stock in the engine bay.

Not only did the bulb flicker, but the relay was vibrating like crazy! Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. It was way loud! After some Googling, I found this post from a fellow member at: http://www.ramforumz.com/showthread.php?t=79449 that explained what was going on and what needed to be done very well.

It's not the relay, it's the trucks electrical system. Our trucks have a pulse modulated electrical signal. What is happening is the computer is sending out a electrical signal that looks more like a AC sine wave compared to a DC sine wave.

Here is the difference between the 2 waves:

http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/acdc.htm

What this is doing is causing your relay to turn off and on at a very rapid rate causing a Buzz or chatter. The relay requires a constant 12v and with the pulses the coil in the relay opens and closes.

Only real way to solve this issue is to install the capacitors so they can store extra current and keep a constant 12v going to the relay to keep it closed!

Not wanting to solder anything, I was quite disappointed that a capacitor would indeed be required. My 2 hours of research got me some good info on how to install the capacitor w/o soldering.

Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kcp58RaY-A&feature=player_detailpage#t=665s.

Basically the 100 µF 35V capacitor goes straight into the relay and the plug thingy just plugs right into it. Knowing from experience that installing electronics with the incorrect polarity can break things, I searched a bit more and found out how to tell the difference btw the positive/negative sides of the capacitor.

• It should be marked. Duh, + or - sign on either end. 
• Sometimes there's an arrow, but different manufacturers will use the arrow pointing towards positive while others will do the complete opposite and point it towards the negative side. How dumb. 
• The real way to tell is that one wire coming out of the capacitor will be longer than the other. The longer one is the positive end. 

So what next? Off to Radioshack I go after work and hopefully after $1.49 out of pocket, I can give this thing another go this evening and everything'll be good. Crossing my fingers hoping this will be the easy fix.

If it works?

I'll test it over a few rides to be sure the battery doesn't die out and ensure the headlight stays on with no mishaps. And if all successful? Projector headlight retrofit will be next!

Oooo, I haven't been this excited since my carbon fiber rear diffuser project on my car. Yummy. Can't wait.