Aftermarket Xenons
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 49
From: Las Vegas
Aftermarket Xenons
I recently had my replaced my projectors bulbs with xenon. Every now and then when I start my car (headlight switch on auto) one of the HIDs will turn on and the other one won't. I had to switch my lights off and back on again for it to work. I've heard that leaving it on auto will cause this. Is that true? If so what can I do to correct this because I like the auto feature??
What type of aftermarket bulbs did you get?
On your profile and from what I can gather from the images uploaded, It looks like you have a S model, so the HID/Xenon bulbs were not standard on your model.
Let's start debunking those confusion points:
This could be a sign of bad bulbs or bad ballasts.
Bad bulbs will light or light for a while and then turn off, or if the bulbs are made of poor quality materials, then they have probably reached the end of their life already. When HID bulbs reach the end of their life, the ballast has to work harder, and pump more power into the bulbs to sustain the arc of light you see. After a certain point, the ballast just gives up.
Bad ballasts will simply just fail and do not light at all. (Not too sure about this one.)
This provides support for what I mentioned above: Sometimes the bulbs will not light on the first try, so when you turn off the lights and on again, I assume that the ballasts enter "start-up and strike mode" and this time, successfully light the bulbs.
This is false. My car came with HID/Xenon stock from the factory, and I have never seen this happen.
You can think of the auto-switch as just someone that has literally nothing better to do than to stare at the sky and check if it is light or dark.
If it is dark enough, she/he turns on the lights for you.
If it is light enough, she/he turns the lights off for you.
On your profile and from what I can gather from the images uploaded, It looks like you have a S model, so the HID/Xenon bulbs were not standard on your model.
Let's start debunking those confusion points:
Every now and then when I start my car (headlight switch on auto) one of the HIDs will turn on and the other one won't.
Bad bulbs will light or light for a while and then turn off, or if the bulbs are made of poor quality materials, then they have probably reached the end of their life already. When HID bulbs reach the end of their life, the ballast has to work harder, and pump more power into the bulbs to sustain the arc of light you see. After a certain point, the ballast just gives up.
Bad ballasts will simply just fail and do not light at all. (Not too sure about this one.)
I had to switch my lights off and back on again for it to work.
I've heard that leaving it on auto will cause this. Is that true? If so what can I do to correct this because I like the auto feature??
You can think of the auto-switch as just someone that has literally nothing better to do than to stare at the sky and check if it is light or dark.
If it is dark enough, she/he turns on the lights for you.
If it is light enough, she/he turns the lights off for you.
Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 660
From: SLC, UT
Akiyikio knows way more about this than I do, but, I assume that the more on/off that the lights do, the more wear they take on and shorter their life becomes.
If I'm driving around town as its getting darker, my lights (the HID's stock in the premium pkg) usually kick on, then off, then on, then off, then on again before all is said and done. That whole process is randomly spread out over half an hour to an hour or so, and depends on where I'm driving, the direction I'm pointing, the bridge I'm going under, etc.
Additionally, if its the middle of the day and my lights are off, everytime I pull into my garage, it's dark enough that my lights kick on automatically for the few seconds that I pull in, park, and then shut the car off.
When all is said and done, the auto feature (which I leave on constantly) causes my lights to cycle on/off probably 3-4 times per day, while the old fashioned manual switch would've only been once. You guys think that the auto feature is reducing the overall life of my HID's?
If I'm driving around town as its getting darker, my lights (the HID's stock in the premium pkg) usually kick on, then off, then on, then off, then on again before all is said and done. That whole process is randomly spread out over half an hour to an hour or so, and depends on where I'm driving, the direction I'm pointing, the bridge I'm going under, etc.
Additionally, if its the middle of the day and my lights are off, everytime I pull into my garage, it's dark enough that my lights kick on automatically for the few seconds that I pull in, park, and then shut the car off.
When all is said and done, the auto feature (which I leave on constantly) causes my lights to cycle on/off probably 3-4 times per day, while the old fashioned manual switch would've only been once. You guys think that the auto feature is reducing the overall life of my HID's?
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 49
From: Las Vegas
What type of aftermarket bulbs did you get?
On your profile and from what I can gather from the images uploaded, It looks like you have a S model, so the HID/Xenon bulbs were not standard on your model.
Let's start debunking those confusion points:
This could be a sign of bad bulbs or bad ballasts.
Bad bulbs will light or light for a while and then turn off, or if the bulbs are made of poor quality materials, then they have probably reached the end of their life already. When HID bulbs reach the end of their life, the ballast has to work harder, and pump more power into the bulbs to sustain the arc of light you see. After a certain point, the ballast just gives up.
Bad ballasts will simply just fail and do not light at all. (Not too sure about this one.)
This provides support for what I mentioned above: Sometimes the bulbs will not light on the first try, so when you turn off the lights and on again, I assume that the ballasts enter "start-up and strike mode" and this time, successfully light the bulbs.
This is false. My car came with HID/Xenon stock from the factory, and I have never seen this happen.
You can think of the auto-switch as just someone that has literally nothing better to do than to stare at the sky and check if it is light or dark.
If it is dark enough, she/he turns on the lights for you.
If it is light enough, she/he turns the lights off for you.
On your profile and from what I can gather from the images uploaded, It looks like you have a S model, so the HID/Xenon bulbs were not standard on your model.
Let's start debunking those confusion points:
This could be a sign of bad bulbs or bad ballasts.
Bad bulbs will light or light for a while and then turn off, or if the bulbs are made of poor quality materials, then they have probably reached the end of their life already. When HID bulbs reach the end of their life, the ballast has to work harder, and pump more power into the bulbs to sustain the arc of light you see. After a certain point, the ballast just gives up.
Bad ballasts will simply just fail and do not light at all. (Not too sure about this one.)
This provides support for what I mentioned above: Sometimes the bulbs will not light on the first try, so when you turn off the lights and on again, I assume that the ballasts enter "start-up and strike mode" and this time, successfully light the bulbs.
This is false. My car came with HID/Xenon stock from the factory, and I have never seen this happen.
You can think of the auto-switch as just someone that has literally nothing better to do than to stare at the sky and check if it is light or dark.
If it is dark enough, she/he turns on the lights for you.
If it is light enough, she/he turns the lights off for you.
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