brunnhizzle

Can a lack of voltage cause a HID bulb to flicker?

brunnhizzle

I went back to basics with my headlamps. took everything out and started with checking the voltage at the factory wires. My findings: when I got to the hot wire leading to the HID bulb itself one side (the side that is working normally) reads 228.1 mV, r .2281 Volts. The other bulb is reading 10.47 V. I thing the ballast on that side may be a complete failure, that or its grounding out somewhere. In either case the high voltages side causes my electronics to flicker. Any electricians out there?

PsYcHe UK

Run a seperate ground for that HID ballast to check it. Some cars have a problem with the ballast on the factory wiring.

Also.. Try swapping the ballasts/bulbs to see what effect that has, could just be a bad ballast or bulb, they do fail.

PaulW

....it shows the one with less than 0.5 VDC on it is actually a ground path. It should be at approximately 13 VDC with the engine running or 11.5 with the engine off, but instead, the instrument cluster is using it as a ground path.

It has current running through the ballast, the reason for the HID working.

brunnhizzle

Did all that, have it pinned down to one ballast.

brunnhizzle

The low voltage side is working. In every instance it has worked (moved bulbs, disconnected other side, changed grounds, etc.) The other side with the seemingly normal voltage is the problematic side. I understand what you are saying with the ground path and I'll look into that deeper. But before I do that I'm going to recheck the entire kit completely outside the car so I know exactly what's happening.

I'll have updates for sure, ha ha.
Thanks for all the help guys.

PaulW

If so, that's your problem. You can do all you want with the other side, but it won't fix yoru dash problem.

brunnhizzle

No, it's just the opposite, so you can see my confusion.