well here is what i am thinking. i have a set of mculluch(sp?) ballasts, and ebay bulbs(replacements) and this morning my hids decided that they were not going to shut off. the onyl way to cut them off is dis connect the battery. now i know that the headlight switch is controlling the ground, and if i take it off(dis connect the connectors) then they stay on. so i am thinking that the ballasts are grounding out to the body of the car possibly? i remember seeing them ark for a moment when installing about a week ago, but after re install nothing happened. has this happened to anyone before?
after disconecting the hids, and re connecting the stock bulbs, no problems. any easy fixes for this? or if the ballast is grounding out, then there is an issue, the car was in a front end collision a while back, but the ballasts seemed to be fine. but it is possible somthing was @!#$ in the process.... do i say f it and remove the hids?
Do you have any kind of warranty on the ballasts?
I found a few sets online in the $100 - $150 range (which for me isnt that much money) -- It'd be worth it to me to get a new set of ballasts and try them out, if thats not the problem then return, or re-sell them.
I would CRY if I had to take out my HID setup, Id do anything reasonable to save it.
Good luck!
Matt Linke wrote:Do you have any kind of warranty on the ballasts?
I found a few sets online in the $100 - $150 range (which for me isnt that much money) -- It'd be worth it to me to get a new set of ballasts and try them out, if thats not the problem then return, or re-sell them.
I would CRY if I had to take out my HID setup, Id do anything reasonable to save it.
Good luck!
Ditto... Halogens are lame
It does sound like your ballasts are somehow grounding themselves to the body of your car. Are you using a relay by any chance? That may help your issue. My HID's dont use a relay, but I have heard that some kits need them to function properly. Thats the only thing I can think of right now.
thats weird....did you use the "plug and play" method or did you wire em your self? if you wired it yourslef then double check EVERYTHING!
a relay may not chage it but its the safe way of installing the HID's. To check if the ballast it self is grounding out to the body just unscrew the ballast and take it off the body. If they turn off then figure out a different mounting option. If they stay on then get new ballast and go from there. GL!
i did not hard wire them to the car, they are plug and play. and yes, the only thing i can think of is they came with a double stick pad on the back, and when i removed them last time, one came off fine, the other didnt come off so easily. so its not insolated from the body anymore. i want to try to get some more double stick and see if this makes a difference. but why didnt this cause a problem for the first week they were back on????
there are many ballasts that ground themselves via their bodies. try putting an isolator between the ballast and the body and using zip ties instead of screws, and you'll see that they'll turn off.
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- Sold my beloved J in April 2010 -
did this today, and at first, everything worked fine. and did for the rest of the afternoon. but as soon as i got on the road to head out to a family dinner for christmas, they started acting up again. i ended up switching the halogens back in at the gas station just to be able to turn the headlights off.....
ok so either get new ballast or try and find some way to insulate them from the body....but most hids dont do this so you prolly need new ballast. insulate it somehow first just to try an save some money!
I purchased some McCullough HID's through a GP ran on here last year or so...
When I installed them on my 97 Cav- They were always on, I could not turn them off.
I had to isolate the ballasts from ground. I wrapped a small piece of rubber around them, and ziptied them down... No problems since.
My Bosch HIDs were the same way... grounded themselves thru the case. I isolated them, but eventually one of them worked free and touched metal... same thing, wouldn't turn off.
So... I wired in a relay, so the headlight switch was turning on the relay, which in turn supplied +12V power to the HID's... never had a problem after that. Never had my other problem either, which was only one side coming on at times. There was enough power to fire them both every time.
...j
