HID Headlight Problem, Please HELP

[tysamigo]

I've been having a load of problems after installing the Xenon Headlights (from Tone). After initial installation they worked for a few weeks to a month perfectly. Then one day the passenger side stopped working. The headlights are SOOO good that I never noticed driving with only 1 headlight until someone told me. For about a week the headlight would come on then go off (staying on or off for 1 day at a time, it was not like the lights were flashing or turning on and off by hitting bumps).

I contacted Tone and he rushed me a new replacement kit (thanks man!). I installed the new kit and yet again the same side did not work. I checked the fuses including the 10A in the car and the wiring harness, no probs. I troubleshooted each and ever single part of the kit and found the faulty part to be a ballast. I contacted Tone again and he came to my rescue again by swapping out the faulty ballast with a new one. It arrived and I installed it late lastnight. It still does not work. ARGGGGGHHHH

If I take the GOOD ballast and move it to the passenger side of the truck, it works fine. In fact, I drove around for 1 night with it installed like this (with no front bumper). No problem. I put it back on the driver side and it works no problem. I take the BAD ballast (the one I just received) and it won't work on either side.

So the thing is that I've had one good working ballast this whole time. It works on either side of the truck. The system IS installed correctly and professionaly. I have yet again troubleshooted EACH AND EVERY PART going from driver side to passenger side. EVERYTHING works except for this new ballast that I just received. This is the 3rd ballast to go bad (1st from the original kit, 2nd the replacement from the new kit, 3rd from the ballast only replacement I just received).

Please could someone brainstorm with me and give me your thoughts... I just don't have any idea of what is wrong except for the ballast however I understand completely that Tone has an exceptional reputation for sending only quality parts....so I'm at a loss for words...

ANY AND ALL HELP would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Tyler

[tysamigo]

Oh yes, did I mention (in case you don't know) that I removed the whole front of the VX each time. It's been 4 times now and I'm still back at square 1. This has taken sooooo much of my time and is becoming a nightmare, seriously. I just want the lights to work.

Has anyone else have had troubles with the ballasts or the systems?

[circmand]

Sometimes it's just better to write a check

[circmand]

Sometimes it's better to just write a check

[WyrreJ]

From your description, there can only be two issues:

1) You have an undiagnosed, intermittent problem on the passenger side that can destroy a ballast.
2) You have had a bad run of luck and have just received 3 bad parts in a row.

You can rule out #1 by switching your known good ballast to the passenger side and leaving it there for a few weeks. If it never goes bad, then you can be reasonably confident that it is #2. The longer you run that way, the stronger your confidence.

[MZ-N10]

how is ur passenger ballast mounted? that might contribute to the dying ballasts.

[mdwyer]

You might want to check to make sure everything's tight. I believe doing a hot restrike is usually pretty hard on an HID system. Once you turn them off, you're supposed to wait for them to cool before you turn them on again. Some of them have a hot-restrike capability, I guess, but I haven't done the full research on it.

Anyway, what I'm getting at, is make sure you don't have a short or break that could be causing the light to flicker out.

[tysamigo]

After consulting with Tone, he said "Double check the install instructions and verify that you are only powering one side of the system as it passes power to the other side - there should be 2 wires not connected."

This surprised me because I cannot find this information in the Kaixen Xenon Light System Owner's Manual. I hooked each side up to the battery separately and grounded each properly. I believe, based on Tone's response, that this IS the problem.

I asked him if he could provide a set of instructions that has this info and he said the info he described is in the instructions I have, although I cannot see it.

Does ANYONE have a set of instructions of what Tone is talking about?

OR can anyone please help me?!

It's been months since this has worked. I have the original Kaixen Xenon Light System Owner's Manual only. Should there have been a supplement or separate instructions for VX installations?

Tyler

[MrCrowley]

Doh! I was really interested in the HIDs too. Just has been on a backburner for a long time.

Until Tone chimes in or someone has the manual, all I can say is- if you have the wiring diagnostic ability- to maybe follow the wires included with the kit, and see if the power is doing like he stated about going to one light, which then powers the other, or is the power going to both lights? It is a little vague. We just dont want you driving a padiddle, and possibly getting pulled over for it. Lol

[Kenny]

I had a recent issue with my Kaixen Bi-Xenons from Tone; The bulbs were turning off. Turned out the in-line fuse holders and fuses had broken down and were "sparky". I cut them out and when directly to a custom fuse block and the problem went away. Not sure if this helps any...

[LittleBeast]

I had the same issue with Tone's HIDs and it really was never resolved. Tone is a great guy and would definitely buy from him again, but the HID thing kinda didn't work out. His kit was a little more complex than the HID kit I ended up putting in my VX and my brother's Mustang and my sister's Xterra. Tone's kit kept on going out on one side or the other, my problem seemed to be the cheap relay (black box looking thing). Try tapping or hitting the black box (relay) on the side that is not working next time. I sent my kit back to Tone for him to look at it and have not heard anything about it since, and I don't really mind, he was great to work with through the whole thing, but I decided on some HIDs from XenonRider.com and his prices are amazing and I have never had any problems and his kits are far less complicated (less to break). Once again absolutely nothing negative about Tone from me here, but the HIDs I got from him never worked out either and it sounds like I had the same problem you did. I gave up and bought different ones after the fifth try at fixing the problem for more than a week.

[iamjacksadrenalgland]

little beast,

exactly which xenonrider kit did you use? my second kaixen ballast unit just went out and i'm ready for a more reliable product. thanks in advance.

[LittleBeast]

http://www.xenonrider.com/products/h4_bixenon_hid_kits.shtml
The dual lamp one of course, and give him a call normally he can give you an even better price over the phone. I have his cards for 10% off referals if he asks, but normally over the phone he just gives the best price possible, but maybe that is because I have bought 5 kits plus some extra from him already and never had a problem and the set I could not get to work with my RX-8 fog lights I broke in the installation process and I sent them back to him and he still gave me $100 back even though it was totally my fault.

little beast,

exactly which xenonrider kit did you use? my second kaixen ballast unit just went out and i'm ready for a more reliable product. thanks in advance.

[iamjacksadrenalgland]

many thanks for the info!

[tysamigo]

This project was on the back burner until the snow subsided and I could continue. After consulting with Tone I sent the faulty ballast (we did confirm through diagnosing that the ballast was bad) to the manufacturer. Within 1 week I received a new ballast.

I sent the rest of the kit to Tone as he offered to label the connections for me. I'm pretty darn sure that I had it connected properly but when I heard about connecting them together I was confused so I thought what the hell, send them to Tone, have him label the connections, get the kit back from him labeled and throw in the new ballast from the manufacturer. One Problem, USPS lost the package on the way to Tone's. So now I have one brand new ballast from the manufacturer and nothing else.

I am awaiting for the USPS insured claim to be approved ($349, the purchase price). Once I get the money I had planned on just getting a new kit, HOWEVER I just read a thread about Xenonrider (http://www.vehicross.info/forums/showthread.php?threadid=13092)

Now I'm wondering which way I should go when I get the money from USPS. . .

[LittleBeast]

Not to say you should not go with Tone, but I know that the xenonriders kit is far more simple, and has fewer components = less stuff to break. I had Tone's HID for one year and it had problems from day one and the issues were never resolved, I have had Xenonriders kits in 4 cars for over 2 years now and 0 problems. I would never say anything against Tone he is an awesome guy, but on this specific subject I suggest the more simple cheaper better qualty product.....

[tysamigo]

LittleBeast

Thank you very much! I called and spoke with Joseph. He knows of the group and indeed offered a GREAT discount (shipping included)!!!!

I purchased the "H4 / 9003 Bi-Xenon Hi/Lo HID Conversion Kit (Dual-Lamp)". He shipped it out today and it should arrive Tue or Wed. I certainly will post back an update of how everything went.

It's WELL worth noting that Joseph answered my questions and spent a great deal of time with me on the phone. I was just wanting to ensure that I'm not buying junk and sort of "quizzed" him on his knowledge of the product down to technicals, and no doubt he knows his stuff. I decided to go with the 10000k just because I have a Proton with the "blue light" thing going on and I wanted a bit more blue in the headlight.

I can't brag about the guy enough on his knowledge and customer service. Now let's see if the product holds up to my expectations.

Kudos to LittleBeast for the info. I'm hoping to have better luck with these versus the Kaixen brand name.

Tyler

[MSHardeman]

Ty/ LittleBeast,

I am interested in getting an HID conversion kit, and from what I've read on XenonRider's website, you can go back to your old halogen bulb if you ever want to. Do either of you know if this is true? Do you have to cut up your headlight assembly? Granted, I intend to keep the VX until is just won't go anymore (and at that point I may rebuild it) so I don't know why I would ever want to go back to halogens, but you never know.

Thanks,

Mark

[Ldub]

Ty/ LittleBeast,

I am interested in getting an HID conversion kit, and from what I've read on XenonRider's website, you can go back to your old halogen bulb if you ever want to. Do either of you know if this is true? Do you have to cut up your headlight assembly? Granted, I intend to keep the VX until is just won't go anymore (and at that point I may rebuild it) so I don't know why I would ever want to go back to halogens, but you never know.

Thanks,

Mark

In case you NEED to go back to halogens would be the only reason...if you delve into their website far enough, you will see that conversion kits are not DOT approved.
There are no state vehicle inspections here in ND, so I'm not too worried.:smilewink

I haven't installed these particular kits, but it is my understanding that they just replace the standard bulb & the rest of the harness is plug & play. Mounting the ballast is the most difficult part & that's E-Z.:_wrench:

[tysamigo]

Ldub you're right. It's a simple plug and play thing and the ballasts aren't to bad to mount, but here's one thing to note MsHardeman is that this kit (unlike the Kaixen) DOES come with a ballast mounting bracket. The Kaixen came with doublesided tape which melted (hot engine compartment I guess) and the ballasts fell off of the tape within a week. I ended up zip tieing them with extra large zip ties and worked fine. I like the fact that these come with a bracket, I'm also assuming however that the bracket is sturdy and has holes in which to mount somewhere =)

To make sure you can go back to halogen just call:

626.378.8138

And just as LittleBeast said, tell him you are from the VehiCross group and he'll honor a GOOD discount =)

[MSHardeman]

Dub,

I have a feeling that once I go to HID's I won't WANT to go back to halogens. We don't have any vehicle inspections here in Colorado either, so the lights not being DOT approved doesn't matter to me either. I just wonder WHY the kits aren't DOT approved. Too bright? Guess I have some reading to do on the site.

Ty,

Thanks for the info regarding the plug and play. Like I said above, I don't think that I would ever want to go back to halogens, but I just hate to chop up my VX. She's almost bone stock, and the mods that I DO do are usually very subtle. I just didn't want to have to hack up my headlight housings.

Looks like I'll be giving these guys a call soon.

Mark

[tysamigo]

Wow, I ordered this kit on Friday at around 5:30pm EST and I received the package today!! It arrived quickly (from CA to KY) and inside was not only the kit but something you just don't see that often these days, a real letter signed by Joseph on thanking me for my business. It looks very nice and he also added a Xenonrider hat which looks pretty cool.

One other thing, the Kaixen kit (well at least the 3 that I fooled around with) comes with an instruction book but the photos are black/white and are very hard to see. The installation instructions flat out suck. For example it says "make connections" as step 3. It doesn't show you how to make the connections but then again its plug and play and seemed simple so that is when I assumed that the RED wire for each unit (fuse protected) went directly to the bat, but later I was to understand that this was incorrect and may be the cause for my problems. I asked for a sheet to show a diagram of where each connection goes but none was available.

This Xenonrider kit has nice instructions and easy to understand, almost no way to goof with a diagram. Also they give their customer support number and say if you have any questions or need help please call, yes with a phone, not by email.

I will install the kit in the next few days and will post back my results.

So far so good...

[LittleBeast]

Yupe, sounds like the same awesome service I got as well. Really a great guy to do business with and a great product, GREAT MOD no one should be without, and since it has a HI beam it passes inspection here with flying colors.

[Tone]

Time will tell. I used the Kaixen kits for almost a year before I even started talking about them. The instructions are pretty clear and simple as is the design and their glare shields are the best I found out there. Improper install can kill the best electrical components. My phone number has always been available for everyone here.

Yes, beast had a problem with the relay sockets when we installed his kit for him in Houston. Kaixen responded immediately with a redesigned socket and harness and replacements were in hand within a week. Multiple shipments to beast were made with no acknowledgement of receipt or the status of the problem. Then a complaining email months later and another shipment of replacement harnesses were immediately sent out and again no acknowledgement. Over a year later, the hacked up kit is finally sent in for inspection and I can see why there were problems. Seems he had some other electrical issues with his VX as well

And with Ty, after sending him parts and multiple complete kits (all from different production runs - 2 of which were tested here before reshipping to him) and yet the exact same problem continues to occur? XenonRider install instructions / design are the same as the Kaixen's except that the Kaixen's use a separate relay and fuse for each side.

[LittleBeast]

Once again Tone you are a great guy and have tried your best in our instances to do the right thing and fix the problems we have had with this kit, but no fix seemed to really help us, that is not saying anything against you or your stuff, just our experiences. And especially in my experiences I have had 0 problems with the Xenonrider stuff for years now in multiple cars, I just think a more simple design has fewer things to break.

As for my other "obvious electrical problems", one was just my yellow top battery dying after just 13 months of operation (weird) and my problems changing all the interior bulbs to LEDs, a problem I fixed myself, but nothing abosolutely nothing WE tried ever fixed the HIDs in my situation, but we both tried all we could. We had problems from day one (when you so patiently put the kit in my car with your own sweat and time, thanks again) and you and I tried everything for a year (back and forth) until I was just tired of messing with it, and I know you were to.

Once again nothing against you or your products, you are great to deal with and do all that you can to make people happy and we all appreciate you and your specialty products, but this one specific HID kit seemed to be unfixable, no big deal, we all live and learn, I wish I would've done a little more research before purchasing the kits I have, but hopefully all of our experiences will help someone else in the future.

[tysamigo]

One of my father's friends fixed the hood release and I never had a chance yet to ask him what he did.

Now on to the Xenonrider, I just got finished installing the kit. Each headlight harness on the VX has a 3 prong connection. On this Xenonrider kit it only has 1 connection. The instructions says:

Step 7: Connect the 3-pin socket on the wiring harness to ONE of the headlight sockets. Please note: Some vehicles are positive-switched and some are ground-switched. You may need to switch some of the pins around if the standard pin configuration does not work.

So when facing the truck from head on, the left side (passenger) is the side in which the 3 prong connector is connected. The other side (driver) is not connected to anything. When I first turned on the lights they both worked and were BEAUTIFUL. In about 3-5 seconds the left side (passenger) went out, no light. The fuses are of course OK and I have not started to switch the ballasts because I think this unconnected 3 prong may have something to do with the problem.

Littlebeast, how did you connect yours? What am I missing?

I'll also give Joseph a call in a few moments but wanted to know from someone who has a known working system how the connections were made.

Also note for those considering this mod, the instructions I spoke of are easy to read (the 1 page sheet) however when it comes to the actual installation manual (a small booklet), it sucks. The wording is in broken english as if someone translated it and did a very very very poor job. Nontheless one can mumble through it and use the diagrams to connect it.

Littlebeast????

[tysamigo]

OK GREAT NEWS!!!

THEY WORK!!!!:bgwo:

As soon as I left the computer I called Joseph and he answered immediately (it's 7:18pm EST). It sounded like the call was forwarded to his cell phone, even more impressive that he answered. He said to ensure the ground was not on a painted metal surface and to sand the area to ensure it's metal to metal contact (duh, even though I didn't originally do this). I did this and the same problem happened, the passenger side turned off in 5 or so seconds. My next step was to swap out the ballasts and so I did. Once I did this the darn things work!! I'm guessing (along with Joseph's advice) that nothing is wrong with the ballasts, but that I had a bad connection to the ballast.

He (and the instructions) suggest to run them for 15 min or so for the first time. They have been running for 20 min and NO PROBLEMS!! HOOOORAY!!

I ordered the 10k which is 1 step away from the most bluest color. I LOVE THEM, but the true test will be when nightfall comes. That will be the final test. I'll post back my experience, but so far soooooo goooood :)

KUDOS to Joseph's great and fast customer service!!

[tysamigo]

I've had an opportunity now to drive with the new Xenonriders (10k) for a few hours now. All I can say is WOW;party:

They are beautiful! The 10ks are a bit more blue than the previous HID set but I love them. If I wasn't satisfied with the color I could have swapped them out (no charge) but I'm definitely sold on these.

The ballast in this kit is smaller than the other kit and so I thought maybe they won't be as bright and brilliant because the other kit was AWESOME (for the 2 months of operation). No problem, these are just as bright, just a bit more blue tint than before. If I remember correctly Joseph said these were about 2500 lumens, a technical spec I could not retrieve from the other kit's retail package. When driving you can see the reflective tape around the stop sign aaaaaall tha way down at the end of the road along with the reflective paint on both sides of the road and inner lanes. The lights bring out so much more visibility that it's actually such a more safer environment to drive in. I can't brag enough . . . however . . . it's still to be determined (although others have had success) if these will be troublefree.

As always, I'll keep you all posted but for now we are all good :thumbup:

[MSHardeman]

Ty,

Can you take a quick photo of the install? I'm really interested in the head light assemblies themselves. Do you have to get rid of the little reflector in front of the halogen bulb, or is this truely a "plug and play" installation?

Thanks for the info, and thanks for keeping us up to date.

Mark

[LittleBeast]

Ty,

Can you take a quick photo of the install? I'm really interested in the head light assemblies themselves. Do you have to get rid of the little reflector in front of the halogen bulb, or is this truely a "plug and play" installation?

Thanks for the info, and thanks for keeping us up to date.

Mark

Plug and play. The little reflector works perfectly with these bulbs. The easiest way to do this is to take everything apart including the rubber boot and see what you are dealing with. Practice putting on and off the connector ring on your stock headlights to see how it correctly clips them in there. Then try with the HIDs. Really is easy as cake just takes a few tries to get the hang of it. Seriously though if you have changed your lights before you can do this, just runs a couple of extra wires.

Ty, if you don't put some photos up maybe I can when I get the VX back from Aamco. Ty, glad everything worked out for you. I ran the ground directly back to the battery, and I did not have to modify the connection at all, however on the Mustang and Pathfinder, I had to switch around the connection plugs until the hi were hi and low were low. Glad you got that little bug figured out. Sometimes on those connections you have to sightly bend the metal part to make good contact, but be careful and make sure no power is going to anything.

[rowhard]

So, has anyone tried them from here, and if so, did you have any problems?
http://www.xenonlink.com/

[MSHardeman]

Ty,
How are the Xenonriders working? I'm on the verge of ordering a set and I wanted to see how things where going.

[SkidPlate]

Just had a problem with my Kaxien HID's and found that the relay was sticking.

I cleaned the contacts and replaced the relay with a Bosch SPDT and I'm back online. :gring:

Looks like the heat shrink on the relay wasn't water tight, there is a bit of corrosion on pin 30.

[rowhard]

Wow, I guess he offer's us a discount. I just placed my order and was excited, and after the price quote am smiling ear to ear. Thank's LittleBeast.:)

[LittleBeast]

Wow, I guess he offer's us a discount. I just placed my order and was excited, and after the price quote am smiling ear to ear. Thank's LittleBeast.:)

No problem, hope they work out as good as mine have been

[tysamigo]

Well it's been some time now and my headlights still KICK ***!!! I love them so much and so many people comment on the color. I purchased the ones that were 1 grade away from being the most blue. I love them, no tickets and many cops have looked at them, even when I'm driving alone at night at 3am on Fri/Sat nights (knock on wood :bwgr: )

I'm loving these HIDs!

[rowhard]

when I'm driving alone at night at 3am on Fri/Sat nights (knock on wood :bwgr: )


Yea, knock on wood is right. I have thought about changing the lic plate lites to green LED's, but it would be the night when I had 3 instead of 2 glasses of wine that I would get pulled over, bang go's the job seeing I drive for a living.

[rowhard]

Well, they are installed. Took a test drive last night just to see,
OMG! could I see. I will never have another vehicle without them. Think I would consider putting them on a riding lawn mower if I had one.

Thought they might be to high, but no flashed so guess I am okay, did crank them down a good bit which is dead simple on the VX.

This is a mod well worth the money Joesph @ xenonrider is selling them for. Thanks Littlebeast for turning us onto him. Had a slight problem and he called me back at 5 on a Saturday night. What can you say.

[tysamigo]

I bet I get at least 4-5 compliments/comments on these headlights per week. I love them and have also installed them on my Isuzu Amigo.

Regarding the lawnmower, I would also put them on the riding mower, but I ended up trading mine for a RoboMower (one of those automatic robotic lawnmowers), "he" sees in magnetic fields, not light

but I absolutely love these headlights. I highly recommend them to anyone...so far. I hope to feel the same a year from now =)

[rowhard]

So, now that I am so impressed with the HID's, has anyone here done the Moncha fog light conversion and then converted them to HID's? Am thinking hard about it. Not sure if I want the 6000k or the 3000k fog light yellow. I tend to use these as daylight running lights.

[So-CalVX]

i have a set of like Civic foglights that i plan on installing one day and I AM putting the yellowest HID bulbs in there (3000k i believe)

i also have 1 high beam out of an Infinity QX4 or whatever that i plan on installing next to the license plate in them holes i don't use. i tore open the headlight and got the oval bottom light out... gonna put in the super blue HID in there...

i have the regular white HID's in my headlight right now

it'll be sweet 'froadin with multicolored lights

now i jus need the other QX light and motivation :)

[LittleBeast]

So, now that I am so impressed with the HID's, has anyone here done the Moncha fog light conversion and then converted them to HID's? Am thinking hard about it. Not sure if I want the 6000k or the 3000k fog light yellow. I tend to use these as daylight running lights.

Yes, I did exactly that and used the HID 6ks in the Hella Micro DE's and then have the factory fog light switch running it all. Looks awesome and was well worth the time and effort.

[rowhard]

So, let me tell you about Joesph at XenonRider, the guy littlebeast turned us onto for HID's.

Friday night, am installing a set of 9006 HID's I got from him in a Honda. Had a problem with them, troubleshot and determind that we had a bad ballast.

Called Joesph at 7:40pm his time on a Friday night just to leave a message for him to hear Saturday Morning. 20 minutes later, he's on the phone. Told him what we had.

No problem. New one will be sent tomorrow morning with a RMA to return the bad one.

Now, that's the kind of guy I like doing business with.:)