SilentWish

not sure if my eyes + my OCD is playing tricks on my mind

it's been a few days since i had my HID lows and fogs installed
already noticed that the driver side fog has a slight green tint
called the seller up and he will replace my fogs with a new set of bulbs
the only thing is that i'm wondering if it would be the ballast? it should be the bulb though right..?
i noticed that the green tint is more noticeable when the fogs are first turned on, and it becomes less noticeable as time goes on. although when you look at the ground where the fogs are lit, you can kinda tell that both sides have a slightly different white

another weird thing i noticed is that when i have my fogs on, the low beams seem to be dimmer.. when i turn the fogs off.. the low beams seem dim at first.. but seem to gradually light up as if the power from the fogs are going into the low beams
but i don't think it works like that right? the same amount of electricity should go to the low beam ballasts regardless if the fogs are on or off.
does anyone have similar experiences?

chikoo

which seller?

SilentWish

it's just a local seller in toronto
not any vendors from CL

Synetix250

regarding the dimming of your hid lows when your fogs are turned on/off, it sounds like you have a relay issue. if you don't already have a relay with your ballast, you might want to consider looking into one even though you just installed your kit. your lows will dim when power is being taken away from it like if your car is idling too long or if you turn on your fogs. a relay ensures your hid's get a consistent, uninterrupted flow of power. the lack of a relay can sometimes shorten the life of your bulbs. as for the green tint, sounds like a quality issue or wrong bulb set maybe. it will take awhile for the bulbs to color shift too, im not sure though. either way, when it comes to hid kits - you get what you pay for.

SilentWish

wow thank you so much for the info man!
it does sound like what you're describing! i actually do have a relay that i asked the seller for.. but another person said those relays are only for german cars so we didn't install them on my IS
another thing is that we couldn't figure out how to install the relay with all the cables lol

i'll be getting new bulbs from the seller tomorrow night, hopefully that will get rid of the greenish tint!

Synetix250

no problem man. thats what the forums are for.

SilentWish

props to you man!

oh another question, i have a set of relays for the fogs as well
but since the fogs are mounted near the bumper.. i don't think the relays are long enough to reach the battery and down to the ballasts at the same time

do people usually use relays for the HID fogs? or are relays mostly for the HID lows? if people use relays for HID fogs as well.. how do they get the relays to be long enough to go all the way up to the battery?

Hapa88

I think what you mean is a HID Wiring kit, not a relay necessarily. A relay is just an electrical switch. The car already has a relay for the headlights and foglights. What you probably need is this Wiring Harness which connects and draws power directly from the battery (vs coming through the factory electrical system). One of these should help smooth out the power to your HIDs. This kit has an additional relay because you end up bypassing the factory relay (the relay is the black cube looking piece on the left side of the picture)

http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/HI...Wiring-Harness


I agree with Synetix here on the bulb quality issue. This is the case sometimes. As far as the statement "you get what you pay for". . From my experience this is NOT necessarily true. I have personally owned units ranging in cost from a $300 McCullen, to $150 DDM kits, to a $25 Apexcone Raptor Kit (yes $25!!). After over a year of use the $25 kit has had zero issues, and neither has the DDM. I could easily highly recommend them to anyone.
http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/Ap...Raptor-HID-Kit

SilentWish

thanks man!
i think you and synetix are referring to the same thing?
anyhow, your pic is the exact same relay harness i have, so i hink relay harness is the same as the HID wiring you're referring to?

wow that ddm HID kit is a good deal! just buying it for the bulbs is worth it!
wondering if shipping to canada will kill the deal
i guess $25 is the cheapest an HID kit can get? lol

Synetix250

yeah, i was referring to the relay harness. that wiring usually comes with the kits. sorry for ambiguity

B16da9

iTrader: (7)

You can also make your own relay harness like I did. You'll just need a soldering gun, the relay and the correct plus all of which can be found at an auto parts store.

SilentWish

thanks guys!

i'm looking at the relay harness, the exact one in Hapa's pic
and i'm wondering how the cables are long enough to go from the battery to the OEM light connector where i have to plug the two small relay harness plugs into
as the two small plugs have such a short cable and the relay harness must be near the battery as it has to be connected to the positive and negative outputs

how did you guys manage to hook the relay harness to the battery but at the same time have a long enough cable to reach down to the OEM light plug in the headlight housing?

Hapa88

I purchased that wiring harness before and from what I remember it had plenty of extra wiring, so much that I had to zip tie the excess together. The line that goes from the battery was plenty long to reach almost anything in the engine bay, from what I remember. One side connects to the battery, the other side connects to the HID ballast and a wiring plug that's by the headlight.

Here's a picture of one unwound. Then you can click the link for a description of where each one connects to.



http://store.ijdmtoy.com/HID-Convers...uide-a/184.htm

SilentWish

thanks hapa!
i seem to have the exact same relay as yours as thats how mine looks as well
maybe i'll take a pic of mine tonite
maybe cause i'm just guessing in my head, hopefully its long enough!

do you know how one would install a relay harness on their fogs? i dont think the harness will be log enough to plug into the fog oem connector right? or do ppl not use a relay for fogs?

Hapa88

On my Mazdaspeed3, I had a relay wire harness for both my fogs and one for my headlights (2 harnesses total). They were both able to reach from the battery in the back of the engine bay to my headlights and to my fog lights. I mounted the ballasts to the back of my front bumper beam.

Also, a quick note to mount the relay such that the wires (or prongs) are facing down (relay is mounted higher and the wires go downward). If the relay is facing down (with the wires coming up and out of it), it has a tendency for water to travel down the wire and settle on the relay. This happened to me when it rained in CA and it shorted out my relay and I couldn't use my headlights. Luckily my foglights still worked. . I went to PepBoys and bought a replacement relay and was back in business, but be sure that water doesn't settle on it! Just a lesson learned to pass on!