HID ballast fried help?

Kuchar09

Original poster
Member
Dec 4, 2011
150
About 6 months ago I put hids in my hi, lows, and fogs. I got jettstreams module and add the fog light always on option. I wired all of these with their own relays (off ebay) connected to the battery. I liked my lights to always b on so I made a cap for the light sensor so my low beams and fog lights are always on, kinda makes the module pointless but I liked always having my lights on.
So anyways the other day I realized my right low beam was out so i switched my high and low ballast so I at least had a working low beam. About one week later (today) my low beam stopped working again haven't tested to see if its the ballast or what yet but will tomorrow.
So my question is if this ballast is fried again what could possible be causing this? I plan to test the voltage and power and grounds tomorrow, hopefully everything checks out.
What could possible be causing these to fry?
I believe that both times that I have realized these have stopped working were after very snowy and wet conditions.
I remember that after cutting the dust cap I added silicone to seal up the headlamp.
Is it possible that the ballast connections or the relay connections are getting wet causing this?
I already contacted DDM about getting one ballast replaced and will probably have to contact them about another one tomorrow. :hissyfit:
 

Boricua SS

Member
Nov 20, 2011
3,080
Ohio
how well are your ballasts tied down? meaning are they mounted nice and tight in a good spot?.. a situation that happened to my friend was that he didnt mount his ballasts very well and they were banging around where he mounted them... since then, he has gotten new ballasts and mounted them the proper way and made surre they were nice and secure, and he hasnt had a problem since..
 

Kuchar09

Original poster
Member
Dec 4, 2011
150
I actually went all out and made a bracket to mount all 3 ballast and relays to and used Velcro to attach them to the bracket. But now that I think about it the module part (rectangular block) that comes off the ballast and attaches to the bulb is sorta just dangling around in there I think. :lipsrsealed: Not sure how sensitive that piece is.
 

Boricua SS

Member
Nov 20, 2011
3,080
Ohio
Kuchar09 said:
I actually went all out and made a bracket to mount all 3 ballast and relays to and used Velcro to attach them to the bracket. But now that I think about it the module part (rectangular block) that comes off the ballast and attaches to the bulb is sorta just dangling around in there I think. :lipsrsealed: Not sure how sensitive that piece is.

that module is the ballast (the big rectangular part)... through my experrience... if it is loose at all... they will fail... it happened to my fog ballasts as i had them on there mounting plate.. but the plate was hanging.. therefore suseptible to vibrating and moving on its own (swinging in the air like).. they lasted 2 weeks lol... since then.. all has been secured... and zerro issues...
 

Kuchar09

Original poster
Member
Dec 4, 2011
150
Boricua SS said:
that module is the ballast (the big rectangular part)... through my experrience... if it is loose at all... they will fail... it happened to my fog ballasts as i had them on there mounting plate.. but the plate was hanging.. therefore suseptible to vibrating and moving on its own (swinging in the air like).. they lasted 2 weeks lol... since then.. all has been secured... and zerro issues...

Ok go figure basically I only Velcroed the part that the relay would plug into, didn't think the next block was as important, but it sounds like that's the most important part! Well Ill have to test everything tomorrow and and be sure to secure everything down!! Hopefully that's what it is and I can just take 2 ballast off my snowmobile while I wait for them to be replaced.
Thanks for the help :thumbsup:
 

Boricua SS

Member
Nov 20, 2011
3,080
Ohio
yea.. hopefully its that simple for you... that was the issue for me... if your going to have everything apart.. might not hurt to recheck all your connections and make sure they are secure... would suck to do all that work just to have the same problem
 

Kuchar09

Original poster
Member
Dec 4, 2011
150
Boricua SS said:
yea.. hopefully its that simple for you... that was the issue for me... if your going to have everything apart.. might not hurt to recheck all your connections and make sure they are secure... would suck to do all that work just to have the same problem

Yeah definitely I was so pissed when I blew the second one that's why I began to wounder if it was something else... just weird that I had no problems with them for 6 months. While I'm checking my connections I might as well tape them up just to make sure no water is getting into something.
 

Kuchar09

Original poster
Member
Dec 4, 2011
150
Update

I pluged in a new ballast into my low beam to test the bulbs and the lows worked! Then for the heck of it I turned on my high beams and they worked too!! That was with the original low beam ballast the stopped working last week so I switched the ballast with the high.
I'm a little confused now...
Basically I'm back to one non working ballast again but it a different ballast now.
Do these normally either work or not? or is there a sign of them going out?
 

Boricua SS

Member
Nov 20, 2011
3,080
Ohio
hmm.. interesting... when my ballast went on my fog light, it would flicker while warming up.. once warmed up, the flickering would stop, but then it would go out after a few minutes... then it just got to the point that it was blowing my fog light fuse under my hood.. switched ballasts with the driver side fog light.. and boom.. popped my fuse again.. so thats how i knew it was mine... so yes, they do give off "warnings" before they completely go, or in my case.. just popped my fuses...

only thing i could suggest, leave things how you have them now, and see if after awhile the ballasts doesnt work.. or since you use the lows more (obviously lol) swap it with your other side that you know was working and see how long it takes before or if it goes out... the trial and error process gets annoying with HID's... sometimes the problems happen immediatly, sometime it takes them awhile...
 

Kuchar09

Original poster
Member
Dec 4, 2011
150
So I brought both the ballast that stopped working over the past week inside overnight and I was going to test then today and switch them out with working ones.
Well I just plugged them in and the both work now!! Go figure I guess I'm just going to put them back in and tape up all my connections just in case. Oh and I'll be sure to secure the whole ballast this time. :wink:
 

Boricua SS

Member
Nov 20, 2011
3,080
Ohio
Kuchar09 said:
So I brought both the ballast that stopped working over the past week inside overnight and I was going to test then today and switch them out with working ones.
Well I just plugged them in and the both work now!! Go figure I guess I'm just going to put them back in and tape up all my connections just in case. Oh and I'll be sure to secure the whole ballast this time. :wink:

gotta love electronix and connections... it might be a sign of things to come.. but hopefully you have a little background now on where to start for troubleshoooting :thhumbsup:
 

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