Hid Life Time

[Monticarlo]

Hi everyone..!

1.I noticed slightly shaking beam when my car feels sudden vibes (on uneven surface). Is this due to a loosening of the whole unit or a fault in the light?

2.Does turning on and off frequently shorten the life time of HID unit?

I greately appreciate your response.

Thanks.

[The Don]

  On 7/16/2012 at 2:39 PM, Monticarlo said:

Hi everyone..!

1.I noticed slightly shaking beam when my car feels sudden vibes (on uneven surface). Is this due to a loosening of the whole unit or a fault in the light?

2.Does turning on and off frequently shorten the life time of HID unit?

I greately appreciate your response.

Thanks.

Is the HID system original or an aftermarket unit?

[The Stig]

  On 7/16/2012 at 2:39 PM, Monticarlo said:

Hi everyone..!

1.I noticed slightly shaking beam when my car feels sudden vibes (on uneven surface). Is this due to a loosening of the whole unit or a fault in the light?

2.Does turning on and off frequently shorten the life time of HID unit?

I greately appreciate your response.

Thanks.

Whats the unit ?

If the bulbs themselves are shaking its probably a loose holder, though the size is universal sometimes these cheapo brands are too loose or too tight or the other possibility is that who ever fixed it messed with it somehow. Or another cause could be the classic loose connection in wires, trace the wires from the light to the ballast and after that to see if some connector or wire is loose.

If the lights look like they are flickering even in stationary its probably a bad ballast (the box that the wires of the bulb connects to) that has gone wrong.

"Does turning on and off frequently shorten the life time of HID unit?" as for this question im not entirely sure but an educated guess would be yes it could be bad. Specially for the ballast as turning on and off can loosen the solder joints inside the ballast cause when its on because of the heat the unit generates the joints expand and when its off cause the heat is not there anymore the joints will compress once again and constantly being expanded and compressed can cause the joints to dry up and loosen. Anyway why would you need to turn it on and off constantly ?

[terrabytetango]

Rapid on/off will reduce the lifetime of the ballast, since its working extra hard to stabilize the voltage each time the bulb is ignited. Rapid flashing at traffic is highly discouraged when your high beams are HID. The ignitors are also affected, but to a lesser extent. The shaking of the beam when you see when the car jostles about is due to a loose bulb like stated above. Make sure the clip is seated properly. Also, these bulbs are generic, thus the mounting flange can be removed independently of the bulb. The bulb may have worked itself loose from the H4 flange. The most common reason for this is when we remove the bulb connector, since we normally press against the flange when tugging at the connector.

[kevin1462]

When you turn on/off rapidly the inverter unit generate sudden voltage (morethan recommended) devertime you do it this happens that's why you can see a sudden high light when you first turn your lights. I've experienced this in my friends toyota vitz which has factory fitted hid. So I've decided not to upgrade my lights to HID.

[Monticarlo]

  On 7/17/2012 at 2:18 AM, The Stig said:

Whats the unit ?

If the bulbs themselves are shaking its probably a loose holder, though the size is universal sometimes these cheapo brands are too loose or too tight or the other possibility is that who ever fixed it messed with it somehow. Or another cause could be the classic loose connection in wires, trace the wires from the light to the ballast and after that to see if some connector or wire is loose.

If the lights look like they are flickering even in stationary its probably a bad ballast (the box that the wires of the bulb connects to) that has gone wrong.

"Does turning on and off frequently shorten the life time of HID unit?" as for this question im not entirely sure but an educated guess would be yes it could be bad. Specially for the ballast as turning on and off can loosen the solder joints inside the ballast cause when its on because of the heat the unit generates the joints expand and when its off cause the heat is not there anymore the joints will compress once again and constantly being expanded and compressed can cause the joints to dry up and loosen. Anyway why would you need to turn it on and off constantly ?

Thank you for being so kind to share those valuable facts.

Think of night time shopping along the street. There may be frequent stops.