Hid lights?!

niavd

I baught a new car the other day (delighted) but it has hid lights and im a bit clueless when it comes to them.
Are they suposed to last longer than regular bulbs?
How much is it to buy new bulbs?

Also they have a tendency to flicker on and off a bit and the left one sometimes goes off and doesnt come back on unless you turn the lights off and on again. Id like to keep them because they suit the car but just a bit confused. Could it be that the connection is a bit loose or the bulb could need changing?

Any help/advice would be great!

dgt

What car and what year?

_Kaiser_

Depends on the car but from what you describe I'm guessing these are aftermarket ones fitted by the last owner rather than a factory fitted install?

I had the same sort of problem as you describe with a cheap(ish) kit. In that case it was the bulb, but the ballasts may cause issues too in the cheaper kits

niavd

Its an 05 opel astra. They def werent factory fitted so one of the previous owners must have installed them.
How do i fix the problem of them flashing on and off etc??

Chriscl1

niavd wrote: »

I baught a new car the other day (delighted) but it has hid lights and im a bit clueless when it comes to them.
Are they suposed to last longer than regular bulbs?
How much is it to buy new bulbs?

Also they have a tendency to flicker on and off a bit and the left one sometimes goes off and doesnt come back on unless you turn the lights off and on again. Id like to keep them because they suit the car but just a bit confused. Could it be that the connection is a bit loose or the bulb could need changing?

Any help/advice would be great!

Maybe your Astra has the canbus system but the hids might be just a regular type, something to do with the wrong voltage being read by the car. You can get adapters for the hid ballast that will correct this and your lights should work correctly then. I've seen them on eBay.

Here you go
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-HID-Xenon-Canbus-Warning-Light-Error-Canceller-set-/290516628441?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item43a423f3d9#ht_1822wt_689

mullingar

Flickering is 100% a dodgy ballast if they were working for months with no problem prior.

Either replace it with another aftermarket one or as its now an NCT failure to have an HID bulb in a non-HID lamp, just refit the old halogen bulbs

josephsoap

Why are these aftermarket HID's not illegal ? I met a car with these fitted the other night....nearly put me off the road I was blinded that bad. I know there are different ratings on some of them, but which are the one's that cause you to see stars after meeting a car with them in 8000 or 6000 K should be banned

Come on Leo :-D

mullingar

josephsoap wrote: »

Why are these aftermarket HID's not illegal ? I met a car with these fitted the other night....nearly put me off the road I was blinded that bad. I know there are different ratings on some of them, but which are the one's that cause you to see stars after meeting a car with them in 8000 or 6000 K should be banned

Come on Leo :-D

There is no legislation about the type of bulbs used in your car. The only way to try to get the aftermarket ones out of cars is to make it an nct fail.

Up until a few weeks ago nct only tested for correct alignment, which many cars with aftermarket HID lights passed. The K is just the colour. 4300K is pure white. 6000K is ice-white 8000k+ are blue/purple.