[Camaran6R.*]

Hey guys,

As most of you know I have just recently completed my Ninjas HID retrofit. I noticed though that when my bike fires up the bulb will flicker for about 3-4 seconds before finding enough power to smoothly start warming up. I find it strange because it has a wiring harness with a relay, which I thought was supposed to store the correct ammount of power to power them smoothly.. (correct my if I am wrong).

Ocasionally (more often than not) I will fire the bike up, and the low beam will flicker then not light up at all. If I turn the bike off, and back on 3 seconds later it will turn on.

Now I read online that an HID kits use more power initially, but is more efficient at steady power. I have never blown the 10A fuse, but am wondering if a 12A or 15A fuse would be reccomended to give it that extra grunt it seems to need? Or is it really super dangerous and high risk of fire if I upgrade from the 10A to a 15A?

Could it maybe be low battery power? I had my bike on a charger already before the season started and I've never had the bike fail me during a turn over, but maybe after the winter season the battery has gone bad? I really don't want to replace the battery... I just dished out hundreds on new tires + install.

It's embarresing to show my new lights, fire up the bike, watch them flicker then die as the bike continues to run.

Any of your thoughts, advice or suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks so much.

 

[03Black636]

Relays do not store energy, the control the flow. A capacitor stores energy like a battery. The power for your HID ballasts should come from the battery, switched on at a relay after the engine start switch has been pressed (just like the factory setup).

And you want the normal fuse in there, even if it seems low. It will protect the components of the system from overload. Fuses are cheap, HID components aren't by comparison.

A bad battery could be the culprit.

 

[nevada]

sounds like maybe a bad ballast.

 

[williams805]

To be honest I think it's normal for cheaper HID's to flicker in the beginning. I've read people replacing bulbs in their there high end (BMW,Lexus,ect...) cars with cheap replacement bulbs and having this problem.

You could start by replacing the bulb with a more expensive name brand and see if it gets better. next in line would be the ballast. This is of course assuming the wiring is as intended. I'd personally just live with it. It works doesn't it? HID's dont get bright right away either. Can take a minute to get full bright. This is why they're not typically not used as a high beam.

 

[Camaran6R.*]

Damnit.

I'm gonna have to leave my bike on the charger again, see if I can squeeze some more life out of the battery before I invest in a new one. If that doesnt work, im scrambling to find a 55W slim ballast. Fudge. My buddy was so sure it would be fixed and should be safe with a 15A fuse, but online there are mixed reviews.

And your right, it is livable, and it does work, I just feel like that flickering is going to destroy the life of the bulb and is kinda a pain in the ass. I have a pretty strong feeling its the battery.

 

[nevada]

a bigger fuse will do nothing to fix that problem.

 

[williams805]

+1^^^^

 

[straytowel]

Does the headlight turn on fine when you bypass the relay? Can you connect it directly to a 12V source? Do you have a multimeter to check the battery voltage?

My setup is the same as yours (lowbeam/relay/battery) but powers two ballasts. See if you can swap the bulb or the ballast to see if it's a problem with either of those. Sometimes the bulb or the ballast can go bad and cause flickering during startup. I had an issue with one of my Morimoto bulbs. It flickered many different colors for a few seconds during startup, and sometimes warmed up, and sometimes turned off. The bulb was repeating the same problem when hooked up directly to a 12v power supply, so that eliminated the problem being the wiring on the bike for me.

If you're just using a single 55W ballast you should be fine for the stock fuse and wiring (iirc they use slighty more than a 35W, something like 7-8A during startup). If you're not blowing the fuse there's no reason you should put a bigger one in there, and even then it'd be unsafe since the fuse is only there to protect the wiring and components.

 

[Camaran6R.*]

HID's dont get bright right away either. Can take a minute to get full bright. This is why they're not typically not used as a high beam.

I've had a few people tell me this already, I am well aware. The projectors i'm using are single xenon though and I wanted to be able to have a high beam. I took the shield out and it actually does quite well. within 10-20 seconds its very bright (80%) and slowly for about another 20 seconds it reaches 100%. My low beams cut off is actually aimed a little higher than it should be so I have wicked distance visibility and havn't had a single oncoming car flash me with thier high beams. When both lights are on its retardedly bright. Any reflective signs just glow, its wonderful.

I am using E46 OEM Bosch projectors retrofitted.
55W DDM Tuning w/ D2S bulbs.

 

[Camaran6R.*]

Does the headlight turn on fine when you bypass the relay? Can you connect it directly to a 12V source? Do you have a multimeter to check the battery voltage?

I have powered it straight from a battery before (bypassing the relay) and it lit up just fine... so the ballasts should be good to go. Same with the bulbs. Smooth power delivery, I have a youtube video of them firing up without flickering.

I haven't checked my batterys voltage, im not sure if my buddy has one in his garage, cause I know I dont.

 

[ZX6RRNewbie]

You may need a HID Relay with Time Delay.



HID Relay Time Delay, SPDT 10 second delay | eBay

Tripage LED

These relays allow your bike to start first without the HID lights ON and seconds later your HID lights come on after the electrical system is up and running.

Just a thought....

 

[ZX6RRNewbie]

Retro-Solutions Time Delay Relay:

LINK

 

[Jordan777er]

Check to make sure you don't have a dying ballast as well. My bike did the same thing after I completed my retrofit, then the light stopped working all together. I slapped a new ballast in there and it's been perfect ever since. My setup is slightly different than yours though as I used bi-xenon projectors, but I don't think that should change anything.

 

[Camaran6R.*]

The light never turns on before the bike is fired up anyways, so I dont really see a time delay making much of a difference. I will check the ballast again maybe and see what kind of results I get after i've charged the battery.

You all kick ass, thanks for the prompt responses.

Its gonna be like a whole new bike after my front pilot power and rear pilot power 2CT are installed!

incase you missed the thread, heres some shitty cellphone pictures untill I re-locate my Nikon battery charger.

 

[03Black636]

The entire electrical system see it's highest load draw during start up. Delaying the HIDs would only serve to help alleviate the problem.

 

[Camaran6R.*]

The entire electrical system see it's highest load draw during start up. Delaying the HIDs would only serve to help alleviate the problem.

Yeah when I purchased my harness from TRS I tried to get one with a time-delay but they didn't have any. I just went with a standard Relay harness and it works, but not as well as it could. I will do anything to avoid stripping down my bike to re-wire that shit.

The weather is gonny be garbage this week anyways so its a good time to have my tires put on and battery charged. I can try to troubleshoot some of these ideas and hopefully resolve the issue.

 

[nevada]

i dont use a time delay relay, and i dont have any issues with flickering lights on start up.
most of the time when i read about that, it turns out to be a bad ballast.

 

[Jordan777er]

^I'm with Nevada, when I had this issue on my bike, and my car, it turned out to be a ballast both times.

 

[03Black636]

I'm not trying to say it isn't but a time delay would definitely reduce the electrical load on the battery at start up (increasing its usable life) and also reduce the voltage flutter that can kill ballasts. That's how the ballast in my truck died (I was lazy in wiring it up and didn't use a delay so the lights would power on with the key, and see voltage fluctuations during the cranking cycle).

 

[Camaran6R.*]

i dont use a time delay relay, and i dont have any issues with flickering lights on start up.
most of the time when i read about that, it turns out to be a bad ballast.

So retarded if its the ballast. this is the first time they are actually in use. DDM has great fit and finish, but as for customer service and quality... its garbage. I really hope I dont have to purchase a new one already.