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.