Hid Flickers Upon Start-up Oem Lexus Ballast

[lexus082]

My HID headlight is flickering like a fluorescent bulb when I first turn on the headlights. It usually flickers for about 10 to 20 seconds and then fires up the way it should. But then sometimes I will be driving and it will start to flicker. Since these are illegal for street use I can't have just the one side to start flickering. Its only the left side. I guess its the ballast causing this problem. The wiring connections are all secure. Does this sound like the ballast is failing. Short life considering its an oem lexus part, but I guess when it comes to electronics you never now how long it will last.

***Also its not all the time, it usually fires up great but I would say 1 out of every 10 start ups it will flicker some...

[SKperformance]

What kind of wiring are you using what kind of ballasts and bulbs?

[lexus082]

I am using Denso ballasts from a Lexus LX model. The hid bulbs are rebased philips bulbs. The wiring harness from the ballast to the cars original 9006 bulb "holder" is plug and play.

Sometimes they fire up perfect and other times its just the left side. I guess I should swap the ballast from one side to other and that should indicate the problem.

[bartkat]

Maybe swap bulbs first, whichever is easier. Bulbs can do that too.

[LuckyApril7]

My HID headlight is flickering like a fluorescent bulb when I first turn on the headlights. It usually flickers for about 10 to 20 seconds and then fires up the way it should. But then sometimes I will be driving and it will start to flicker. Since these are illegal for street use I can't have just the one side to start flickering. Its only the left side. I guess its the ballast causing this problem. The wiring connections are all secure. Does this sound like the ballast is failing. Short life considering its an oem lexus part, but I guess when it comes to electronics you never now how long it will last.

***Also its not all the time, it usually fires up great but I would say 1 out of every 10 start ups it will flicker some...

Its not your bulbs because i've done thousands of HID kits. I worked for California Auto Accessories for 7 years while going to school and this is what i found out. The flickering is caused by not enough trigger power to load the ballast. The right way to do it is to chop off your oem headlight bulb plug completely and solder them to the wires leading into your ballast. This gives a more complete and full electrical current to power up your ballast. The wrong and short cut way of doing it that most shops do is to 3m T-tap it or splice them onto the oem wires. The contact is minimal and your ballast is trying hard to suck power out of your oem trigger wires that it flickers before it finally has enough load to stay on.

If this method doesn't work then you'd need to relay to grab power from your battery to load the ballast with power using the oem headlight bulb plug to trigger the relay.

[SKperformance]

Easiest way it to ground the ballasts metal casing to the cars body .

Second get a proper HID wiring harness that uses a relay and proper sockets to match the factory harness to the ballasts running the power from the battery and the turn on from the headlight switch only.

Flickering is caused by the ballast on start up trying to overcome the resistance of the salts in the bulbs. It is either from a defective bulb or ballasts ignitior. Once you rectify the ground issue for power then you can see if the problem still exists to need to switch bulbs around and see if it moves with the bulb or stays with the ballast.

[lexus082]

Excellent info. from all of you. Thanks.

[t0ked]

Excellent info. from all of you. Thanks.

Just play it safe and wire the HIDs via a relay.

[lexus082]

Not too familiar with all there is to know about "relays". For this direct wiring from the battery, would I want to use two relays (one for each ballast) or could I just use one relay for both ballasts. Also what should I use for the "remote turn-on wire" so the headlights come on when the headlight switch is turned on. I know very little about relays. I wired up my cornering lights using relays to make them fog lights. Thats the only time I've used any relays. Any other tips or info is very much appreciated!

[SKperformance]

You can buy relay systems for HID's . They use only 1 relay and use the original bulb socket to turn them on with an adapter.

You can buy a premade one on ebay and other online HID sites.