FZRSupport: the FZROnline Archive

My HID light started turning off and on a couple weeks ago. I figured that there wasn't enough power to keep it on so I bought a relay harness to connect it directly to the battery.

After installing the harness, the light kept turning on and off until it finally burned my ballast. I installed a new Ballast and bulb and it still turns on and off. The battery/power cable is on tight, it is making good ground, and the plugs are fine.

The right light is halogen and the left one is HID. The problem is with the HID side only.
I think it's somewhere in the stock harness. Has this ever happened to anyone else?

is the high and low beam switch in the bar control dirty and doesent the hid require another transformer or something else in line to get the brighter light i dont know i never installed one. id look for loose conections and hot wires

haro504 wrote:is the high and low beam switch in the bar control dirty and doesent the hid require another transformer or something else in line to get the brighter light i dont know i never installed one. id look for loose conections and hot wires

The switch is fine as the Halogen light stays on High-beam when the HID light turns off.

As for the "Transformer", You might be thinking about ignitor. These aftermarket kits have an internal ignitor inside the ballast box. I triple checked my connections and even moved the ground cable to another location on the frame but still have the problem.

The stock wire harness was never designed to use as much power (voltage) as an HID requires. Basically, the wire size is wrong. Also, the stock light switch isn't the best for this. You need to sort out your wiring to use the correct gauge. Also a good idea would be to use direct battery line power with a load equalizer (basically a capacitor) so that the little power fluxs don't cause you ballast to over load. I had the same problem until I installed the equalizer.

cad600 wrote:The stock wire harness was never designed to use as much power (voltage) as an HID requires. Basically, the wire size is wrong. Also, the stock light switch isn't the best for this. You need to sort out your wiring to use the correct gauge. Also a good idea would be to use direct battery line power with a load equalizer (basically a capacitor) so that the little power fluxs don't cause you ballast to over load. I had the same problem until I installed the equalizer.

I always use an aftermarket harness direct from the battery with a relay and fuse for my HID's. I just used this kit for a couple of weeks until I had time to install my aftermarket harness.

I think I need a capacitor, like you mentioned. If the ballast overloads, does it turn off? I've never had this happen before and I've dealt with OEM and aftermarket HID kits for about 7 years. I do have to say that this is a cheap ebay kit, though. First time I've used one from there.

I've pondered going with hids, they use higher voltage (over 12V) voltage? yes. i think the defining word you used there was cheap

I decided on Super White Xenon's, not as bright as hids, but alot brighter than halogens.



I recently got a cheap laptop power supply off ebay lasted 3 weeks, never again, was for my sons G/F so now i have to try and get a replacement

Cheap sometimes means that exactly, Cheap and nasty.

Good luck resolving the issue though.

I know that some have overload protection. I wonder if this means the same in other words.
My HID kit said this:

100% digital ballast with CPU regulating the voltage so there is no damage to your car!

mawler wrote:I've pondered going with hids, they use higher voltage (over 12V) voltage? yes. i think the defining word you used there was cheap

I decided on Super White Xenon's, not as bright as hids, but alot brighter than halogens.



I recently got a cheap laptop power supply off ebay lasted 3 weeks, never again, was for my sons G/F so now i have to try and get a replacement

Cheap sometimes means that exactly, Cheap and nasty.

Good luck resolving the issue though.

HID's use 12V. Basic kits use 35Watts which is less than a 55W Halogen bulb, but they could take up to 70W for a sec. or two when fired up.

"Super White Xenon" bulbs are not really brighter than regular bulbs. The reason why they look whiter is because of a thin blue tint on the bulb which actually reduces the light output.

Thanks for wishing me luck.

Super White Xenons aint normal xenons, no blue tint whatsoever, much brighter, belive me I've bought loads of crap off eBay

mawler wrote:Super White Xenons aint normal xenons, no blue tint whatsoever, much brighter, belive me I've bought loads of crap off eBay

Ahh. Are you talking about HIR's? If not, I'd have to see what you're talking about.

This is all I find when I search Super White Xenons.
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Su ... a=N&tab=wi

They are brighter. But it is what your eyes can see that makes you think they are not much brighter. Xenon HID lights are up in the 6000 - 12000k heat range depending on the color. Super White is usually around 8000k I think. Those Xenon Halogen bulbs are not capable of burning at that temp, they can only mimic the temp and therefore the brightness.

The ballast is what makes the HID work. So if you are using a cheap ballast, your HID will not work properly. But there is one more side to this. We talked a little bit about the wire harness, but since you are using an aftermarket one that shouldn't be the problem. The other problem is the bikes electrical system. The ballast might not be able to get a constant flow of voltage to keep the it turned on properly. That is the purpose of the capacitor. Also, do you have the HID wired up so it turns on with the key or through a switch? If it is with the key, put a switch in place so that the bike will be running when it is turned on. It won't be as much of a drain on the system if the HID isn't pulling power while cranking.

Take a look through this site. This is were I bought my setup from. Very good and really fast. But definetly not cheap. http://www.xtralights.com/

What's weird is that the HID's were working fine for a full couple of weeks until this suddenly started happening. One kit went out and the other is new. I honestly think it's in need of a capacitor.

I have mine wired up to run with the high-beam light only, so it doesn't pull power from the battery when I crank the bike on.

I didn't see the capacitor xtralights.com. I'm guessing your bought your kit there. I'll search for an HID capacitor to find where I can buy one.

Thanks for your help and I'll let you know how it goes.

Do your capacitors look like this?

http://www.stealthauto.com/Products/HID ... D-CAP.aspx

Not really, but that is the idea. I just checked the site I sent you to and can't find the product I bout from them either. It has bee about 2 year so maybe they have built it into their system.

I did the same thing with my switch. I use it for riding at night so it is on the high beam switch.

How about these?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... MEWAX%3AIT

I emailed that seller and asked if he accepted local pickup. I'm planning on ordering them anyway if he doesn't.

I was also wondering if my regulator was going out since I know the OEM regulators are known for that. Anyway, I'll post any updates when I receive the capasitor.

Thanks for all the help. I really appreciate it.

Wierd you could have a faulty ballasts even if new .. Also some Hid's bulbs will work with some differnt ballast and some will not even though the plugs are the same for all h4's ... If they are slim Digital ballast you should be able to run them even on the FZR without running a dedicated 12v from the battery and they should have built in resistors or it should come on the side with the kit .. Should be just plug and play .. I know on my fzr i used the sqaure boxy type<big non digital> ballast and had to run a dedicated . But the bulbs from that kit wouldnt work with the new slim digital ballasts had to order my bulbs from same guy i got the ballast .. You could have a faulty switch though from where it goes hi/low .. after selling my fzr ordered the new owner slim digital ballast and they fired right up running plug and play not having to run any wire from the battery ..But if your using differnt bulbs from one seller and new digital ballast from another seller that could also be the issue . if you got the digital ballast and bulbs from same seller then somthing else is up ..