I have a few questions about a new HID setup I recently acquired from Illusion Lighting. They did an awesome job and I am absolutely loving how it looks. They put in ECE spec Valeo Projects with Phillips 4100k connected with Hella ballast for my 2000 ES.

First, I was wondering if there is anyway I can see if I am getting maximum output from the bulbs? I ask this because I remember reading a thread about tiguy99 having to replace the actual lens on his headlamps to get the maximum output. The reasoning is that the lenses from the OEM setup wasn't good enough, particularly with the "lines" in them. Now, my particular headlamps doesn't have the lines etched across them like tiguy99's ES. (I'm thinking cause I have a newer model than he did, if I remember correctly his is a 95, where as mine are 2000).

Second, I don't know if this is supposed to happen, but when I'm driving, it always seem like my left HID (driver) is brighter than my right (passenger) HID. This is seen through reflections off other car bodies and windows, etc. This is a visual observation, but it is such a strong difference in reflection that I am wondering if something is up with my right HID.

Third, with regards to my right HID, I noticed that when I start my car and its night time or even when I just turn on my HIDs, the right HID would flicker...a lot...then turn stable. Now my left HID does flicker too, but it stablizes much quicker or not display any flicker at all during startup. Once or twice now, the right HID would flicker and NOT EVEN turn on, basically, flicker a few times then shut off. I had to turn off my ignition, restart my car, then the right side would come on. This is very strange. During installation, when connecting my bulbs to the ballast, the left side would connect right up. The right side gave me a lot of difficulties, like the prongs wouldn't fit or something. It finally went in and locked, but I don't know if that can mean anything. I checked the connections and everything is okay.

Fourth, when I am driving, I am noticing some very faint flickering, not actually like when I start up when you can actually count the miliseconds between on and off states of the HID, but very faint flickering, and I would have to say its from both my HIDs, but mainly noticable on my left side, mainly because I think the left side is brighter and thus shows this up better. The flickering is almost like a florescent light in an office. Its barely there, but there nevertheless. Is this normal? Is something up? Should I worry? Are the power connections not right?

Finally, aiming of the HIDs, I noticed when I am doing the driving up to a wall and see how they are aimed thing, my left and right aren't exactely lined up correctly, I asked Johnny about this and he said that my headlight might need slight adjustments to get them perfect. I will be using these instructions posted at
http://www.autooptiks.com/aiming.html, unless anybody else have a better idea or site I can use. My question mainly focus on exactly HOW i adjust the headlamps. I see a screw thingy on the rears of my headlights, do I use these? Keep in mind the projectors are already glued into my headlight assembly by Johnny, so I kinda need some help here in aiming my lights.


Thanks you all for help. If pictures are required. I will see what I can do.

 

the reason for that you THINK the left headlight is brighter, is coz' the left headlight is aiming a bit higher than the right. that's why the reflection from the right is not as strong as the left into your eyes. that's same as what you stated in your last point about left and right not alligned. once they are aligned i am sure it's good. i don't have es300 so i am not sure how to do it exactly though

about teh flickering, try to check all the wiring connections and make sure they are all good. you probaly don't want too much flickering, that's not good for the bulbs at all.

 

I just took apart everything and reconnected everything as it was. The flickering is still there. I am now getting quite worried about this on/off flickering thing. Any advice?

 

umm.... can you try putting the ballast from the flickering side to the other side? sometimes the ballast is bad

 

Rom,

I just tried what you suggested about the switching ballast part. Actually, because I taped the ballasts down already, i swapped headlights. What I discovered what that the same passenger side was still flickering, which leads me to believe it is something to do with ballasts?

I am continuing my reserach on this matter and have found some information about my grounding is not sufficient? Can this be it? Any thoughts? Along those lines, i've come to understand with my 4th point about is that is normal behavor because of the gases in the HID bulb "restablizing" (?) I'm just still waiting on how to fix this initial flicker and to find a time to figure out how to re-aim the beams.

Thanks in advanc.e

 

well i guess it's safe to say the bulb is ok. it could still be the ballast or some sort of defect along the wiring harness, althought i doubt that's the case. talk about ground, maybe you can describe how the pessenger side is grounded at this point?

 

Rom,

The setup is all new, so i don't think it would faulty wiring. From what I understand from Johnny at Illusion Lighting, he told me not to worry about the negative, "The grounds are all internally connected".

What do you think?

 

i think that makes sense, coz' at least on my hid kits the gnd isn't something you can really control.

if that's the case, maybe you should talk to them about getting a second ballasts for testing or something?

 

Thanks for your help Rom, greatly appreciated.

 

you right ballast is prob touching your chasis and arcing ... in effect grounding it self.... hence flickering... try... separating it.. i know u taped it.. but... just try

2 pennies 4 ya.
-fp12

 

Try all the above efforts. See if it makes a difference. With the lighting differences, it could be the aiming or the power connections. Either way, once we know for sure if your ballasts are "grounding themselves" or connecting thorugh faulty wire harnesses or causing a disruption of powerflow we'll know what to do. As for aiming, use the adjustment screws you mentioned. One is for horizontal and another is for vertical. You can use those aiming instructions as long as you remember the golden rule....your beam needs to drop 2 inches every 25 feet after the correct spot on the ___/ | ___/ wall is discovered.
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I changed my lenses because the 2nd gen ES300 had thick plastic that distorted clarity from the projector beam pattern. When compared to newer cars or even the cars equiped with HID, there literally was no comparison. The inferior lenses soaked up about 25-40% of any projectors sharpness of cuttoff, intensity of beam (ground wise) and even light intensity. But the worst part was that the small veritical lines at the bottom of my lense were beaming up glare from the bottom portion of my projectors. So I experimented with the remaining portions of the wrecked set of X5 lamps I had and used them to transplant the plastic pieces that would cover the entire area the beam travels through the lense. This solved the problems for me. The good news is that for you, theres no need for a transplant. By 2000, auto makers were using much better plastic for head lamps which didn't soak up light for HID projections etc. So you're in the clear about that! Keep us posted and perhaps some wall shots and night pics depicting your beam pattern on a white wall from 10, 25 and 40 feet may help.

 

THank you all for your responses. What I ended up doing is sending it back to Illusion for them to figure out exactly what went wrong. They pinpointed it to the ballast, although they didn't say what exactly. They are gonna send me a Hella in the meantime to get my lights up and running. I thought I was running Hella, but according to them, i am actually running Bosch, I should pay more attention when mounting these suckers.

So for the time being, I am waiting for them to come back and then re-aiming them. I'm actually having a hard time finding the two screws to aim my headlights. I can actually only see one of them, the one with the thumbscrew looking thing. If i can get some pictures in here, i would.

tiguy, I am soo happy to hear from you about the upgrade in lens construction for my year ES, I would be at a complete loss to try the transplants. Although I will absolutely try what you say to let you all see my light output for any final determinations. I have a hard time finding another car with HIDs willing to sit there and compare with me =). I usually find a car at a stoplight, inch forward and see if there are any differences.

I will keep you all updated.

 

hey tony it's good to know that they are getting that fixed man! hopefully you get everything in soon!

 

Yeah, I am actually very glad to find out that Johnny was gonna help me out. I'm all thumbs when it comes to figuring these things out....=)

 

Yeah. Those guys are pretty good. They should help you out fine. Def post pics when you finish!

Check out this Grand Am with Valeos while you wait for your setup. I hope it doesn't make you scratch the wall waiting on the mailman!

http://hidforum.com/forum/showthread...Grand+am+valeo





And no they're not color modified. Thats how they come stock! Enjoy