Weird HID issue - strobe lights!

[Aerton]

Sounds like the HID is trying to find a ground through the H1s. Both H1s combined make an "okay" ground for one ballast, but not both.

Make up a temporary separate ground for the ballast to check, and verify the brown wires at least have basic continuity to ground.

I'm having some electrical issues like this, DaveSmed I'm going to pay your fuel and expenses if you come out and work on my car for the day!!!

[bloodshot-e30]

mine does the whole start to warm up thing then gives up haha i think its because i broke the conduit (thats spelled wrong) around the top wire haha

[- jay]

^^bumping this to the top... i just installed my hid's, it doesnt strobe, but when i first turn the lights on, the drivers side doesnt turn on and i get a warning light in check panel. if i turn the lights off and turn them on again it works perfectly, but warning is still there...

i currently only have the low beam hid's hooked up if that makes a difference. car is a '88 m3

Same problem for me right now, but it's my passenger side, and I don't get warning lights because I don't have a check panel xD

[rav320uk]

^^bumping this to the top... i just installed my hid's, it doesnt strobe, but when i first turn the lights on, the drivers side doesnt turn on and i get a warning light in check panel. if i turn the lights off and turn them on again it works perfectly, but warning is still there...

i currently only have the low beam hid's hooked up if that makes a difference. car is a '88 m3

Warning lights on the overhead display always lights up on the euros too,

[KenC]

I just had mine wired up wrong. Works great now.

[airkhin]

^^bumping this to the top... i just installed my hid's, it doesnt strobe, but when i first turn the lights on, the drivers side doesnt turn on and i get a warning light in check panel. if i turn the lights off and turn them on again it works perfectly, but warning is still there...

i currently only have the low beam hid's hooked up if that makes a difference. car is a '88 m3

[rav320uk]

More info on this? Resistor packs?

Over here, to overcome the HID flicker, all we do is unplug the 2 resistors where I said they were located, front driverside inner wing, in the engine bay, if you header tank is in the same position as the euro late model, the resistor pack will be directly underneath it or towards the front of the car.
They are about 3" in length, and are together.

Rav

[KenC]

Ok. Does it work now?

Going to try it again today.

[KenC]

Have you unplugged the 2 resistor packs???
This normally causes the HID's to flicker.
Cream/yellow in colour, and located on the driverside(USA) inner wing towards the front of the car.

More info on this? Resistor packs?

[e30trooper]

i had this strobing the other night putting my euros back on. it was in the wrong plug, swapped it , and it fixed.

[rav320uk]

Have you unplugged the 2 resistor packs???
This normally causes the HID's to flicker.
Cream/yellow in colour, and located on the driverside(USA) inner wing towards the front of the car.

[Wh33lhop]

I think my trouble was hooking one up at a time. I had them both plugged into the hot low/high beam leads.

Ok. Does it work now?

[KenC]

Wait.

How do you have the HIDs wired up? They should be going from the low beam positive to ground on both sides. Correct me if I am wrong but it sounds like you may have them wired up between low beam positive and high beam positive, which would explain both of your problems (it would give high beam positive a little voltage when activated because of the resistance of the wiring back to the actual ground).

I think my trouble was hooking one up at a time. I had them both plugged into the hot low/high beam leads.

[Wh33lhop]

Yeah, it's a 91 318is.

How would I temporarily ground the ballast? Hook the black wire to a ground?

If the third wire is hooked directly to the highbeams, that may explain why they glow very dimly while the HIDs strobe.

Which wires on the factory plug should the ballast hook into? Right now it seems to be the two positive leads (if I'm correct that the factory brown lead is ground).

Wait.

How do you have the HIDs wired up? They should be going from the low beam positive to ground on both sides. Correct me if I am wrong but it sounds like you may have them wired up between low beam positive and high beam positive, which would explain both of your problems (it would give high beam positive a little voltage when activated because of the resistance of the wiring back to the actual ground).

[DaveSmed]

The drivers side has a yellow/white wire for positive, and a brown for ground.
The passenger side has a yellow/blue wire for positive, and a brown for ground.

And yea, just attaching the black lead from the ballast to ground should do the trick.