SharpHID

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John Sharp

Hey alll,

I installed a set of 5000K HIDs in a 2004 Volvo V40 not so long ago. The car has very little space under the hood so the customer decided to go with the DDM kit. The kit installed seamlessly and without issue. We had a little trouble mounting the DDM ballasts as there really wasn’t a space flat enough for the double sided tape to adhere to. We ended up using some zip ties in addition to the tape as there was no doubt the tape wasn’t going to hold. In any case it was a good job we had the DDM ballasts as they were able to be mounted in a much tighter space than a regular Apexcone ballast would. This customer had the OEM jewel headlights in his car. They look fantastic!

This can either be a faulty ballast (though uncommon) or that the car needs a wiring harness. There are slight variations between ballasts that can cause one to not start up properly when drawing from the OEM headlight wiring. A wiring harness solves this by providing clean constant power directly from the battery. Switching the ballast around, though a good place to start diagnostics, may or may not help diagnose the problem in this case. Second thing to try would be a wiring harness. If that fails to solve the problem then a replacement ballast is possibly required.

This is most common on newer cars. The lights are monitored by the on board computer system and because HIDs use a lot less power than OEM halogen bulbs the computer detects this as a bulb failure and cuts the power to them. You may also be getting a bulb out warning on your dash due to this problem. A possible fix is to either upgrade to a 50w kit or use a wiring harness with either the 35w or 50w kit that allows the kit to draw power directly from the battery but is still controlled by the headlight switch in the car. Your car may also require a capacitor harness in addition to the battery harness. Please note that even with upgrades to the 50w kit I have still seen this issue occur on newer cars. Every single car reacts differently and as of yet there is no pattern as to what works for what car. The harnesses are a place to start with solving these issues.

You should not settle for a kit with this issue.  If you have a HID kit where the colour between the two installed bulbs is different it is because you have a mismatching pair of bulbs.  Bulbs are made in batches at the factory and the temperature/colour between batches can vary slightly – enough to make it noticeable.  If this is the case then the bulbs may be eligible for replacement under warranty in order to ensure you receive a matching pair.

It is normal for HID bulbs to change colour a little over time.  Note that over time the bulbs may change colour at a different rate from eachother.

Some flickering is normal during start up of the bulbs. If they do it for more than 5 seconds or so there may be a problem with the bulb or ballast. Some ways to narrow this down is to switch the ballasts around from one side of the car to the other.

Flickering is also caused by an issue with the car accepting the HIDs – a sign of this is that the flickering will continue after the HIDs have been on for a while.  The lights will flicker because they are not getting the power they need.  Some reasons this could be happening is that the car cuts power and then turns it back on and then cuts it again very quickly.  It can also be caused by the HID ballasts not receiving sufficient power.  This is a common problem with cars running Daytime Running Lights (DRLs).  The DRLs on most new cars run at lower power than standard low beams.

If you have determined that the bulbs are ballasts are in perfect working order then you may need to look into other solutions such as a battery harness or set of capacitors.  Unfortunately there appears to be no pattern as to what car will work best with a particular fix.  The Volvo S40, for example, has had a variety of things solve the issues but when two cars have the same exact problem it is common that the solution for one may not work for the other.  I have yet to find a pattern to this with the new Volvos.

The problem may be that on some cars the wiring polarity is backwards on the OEM harness. This is because halogen bulbs are not polarity sensitive. You will simply need to switch the wiring around.

You may also have a faulty bulb, damaged during installation or failed from the factory. However, it is highly unlikely that if both bulbs aren’t lighting up that both are damaged or failed.

Another common problem can occur when installing the HID kit with a battery harness. If you have not grounded the harness properly to the chassis or negative terminal of the battery the kit may not operate at all as it cannot properly complete a circuit. Double check all connections and confirm good contact at the ground point. Note that if trying to ground to a painted surface you will need to scratch away the paint to expose bare metal for the ground to make good contact.

This buzzing is the relay on the harness turning on and off very quickly.  The relay is a standard automotive relay switch which is turned on via a second power source – in the case of HIDs this second power source is the OEM wiring.  The reason the relay is doing this is because the car’s computer is shutting off the harness and then turning it on again, then off again, then on again.  This all happens very quickly and thus causes a rapid clicking in the relay sounding like a buzzing.  The car’s computer is doing this because it detects something is wrong with the lights as it is not used to the HID lights drawing so much less power than standard halogen bulbs.

This is typically solved by installing a set of capacitors which assist on the start up of the kit and attempt to trick the car’s computer that there is nothing wrong with the lights and thus no reason to shut them off.

So recently it has become more apparent that the Volvo S60 and V70 have been having similar problems to the S40 and V50.  It does appear, however, that the S60/V70 are less picky than the S40 as I have experienced far fewer problems with them.  I have had more S60s for instance work with the 50w kit right out of the box without the need for any harness.  I have seen more S60s and V70s work with HIDs just by installing the battery harness and capacitor harness.

One issue that has come up in the S60/V70 more than in the S40/V50 is that the kit will work just fine but the car will display a bulb out warning.  This has occurred after installing a 35w kit with both the battery harness and capacitor harness.  So far I have found no solution to this other than getting the dealer to flash the car for HIDs.  I have not yet had a chance to test whether this is solved using a 50w kit.

Again as with the S40/V50 there is no pattern as to which particular car will work with a particular setup.  I will post here as I find out more and as we develop solutions.

Welcome! Please feel free to post information or questions regarding HIDs or lighting for your car.