HID Relay Harness Problem

[yeloaw]

I have searched the forum but cannot find an answer to my problem. Currently I have aftermarket HID installed on my car with no problems except for occasional flickering upon starting the car. To solve this flickering I decided to install a relay harness to draw power directly from the battery. I installed the relay harness but the relay seems to trigger an inconsistent flow of power from my battery to the ballast. I cannot figure out what the problem is??? Pos/ground connections have all been dbl checked and are correct. Please view the problem here. My car is a 2002 c240. Anyone with a prefacelift 203 successfully install a relay harness? Does anyone know why or how I can fix this??

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[e1000]

Are you getting errors?

[HellsAngel]

i dont know if we are talking about the same problem, but when i first installed my xenons the lights used to flicker when they were not on...
i did now know about the set xenon=present thing... so i fiddled with the on board computer, i dont remember what exactly, but there was an "thing" in the lighting submenu that you can set to "continuous / alternative".... i set it to alternative or something like that... and it solved the problem.. now its working perfectly altaught i did not set xenon to present !!!!!!!

[samaritrey]

Originally Posted by HellsAngel

i dont know if we are talking about the same problem, but when i first installed my xenons the lights used to flicker when they were not on...
i did now know about the set xenon=present thing... so i fiddled with the on board computer, i dont remember what exactly, but there was an "thing" in the lighting submenu that you can set to "continuous / alternative".... i set it to alternative or something like that... and it solved the problem.. now its working perfectly altaught i did not set xenon to present !!!!!!!

ok you changed the setting that has your headlights always on or manual mode in the ic. when in manual mode you can use the headlight switch to auto or off or on or whatever you want.

[acr2001]

Originally Posted by samaritrey

ok you changed the setting that has your headlights always on or manual mode in the ic. when in manual mode you can use the headlight switch to auto or off or on or whatever you want.

Yes, but it should be noted that when the headlights are set to continuous (DRL mode) the lights will be getting LESS THAN 12 Volts during the day time and 12 Volts when the ambient light sensor detects that it's getting dark out / night time.

This is because the headlights are dimmer during they day in DRL mode. I imagine this is not good for your HIDs!!

[samaritrey]

Originally Posted by acr2001

Yes, but it should be noted that when the headlights are set to continuous (DRL mode) the lights will be getting LESS THAN 12 Volts during the day time and 12 Volts when the ambient light sensor detects that it's getting dark out / night time.

This is because the headlights are dimmer during they day in DRL mode. I imagine this is not good for your HIDs!!

don't think that is true for USA cars.

[bdgdl08]

It is true for my lights. I don't know why, because I know that others don't have that.

[yeloaw]

Originally Posted by e1000

Are you getting errors?

Yes I get errors when the lights flicker. Errors say left or right headlamp needs to be checked.

[samaritrey]

Originally Posted by yeloaw

Yes I get errors when the lights flicker. Errors say left or right headlamp needs to be checked.

turn the lights on with the key out of the ignition what happens?

[yeloaw]

Originally Posted by samaritrey

turn the lights on with the key out of the ignition what happens?

Same thing happens

[samaritrey]

Originally Posted by yeloaw

Same thing happens

interesting then i would say bad connection or ballast or something. the car does not regulate power until you turn it on. when i put in my bix i used that so that they would work until i got the setting changed. turn the lights on wait 20 seconds then start car no error.

[TemjinX2]

check all your grounds...it looks like a bad ground or bad ballasts. I'm would say its more on the side of a bad ground somewhere. Make sure you have the ground connected to the battery as well. Also make sure you didn't cross the grounds and pos some where.

This is a video of my s2000 hid projector retro with quick start up of my xentrac ballasts on philips 4200k bulbs. I have a relay harness directly connected to the battery and i used the side marker as the trigger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNidKl4kHME

[e1000]

Originally Posted by yeloaw

Yes I get errors when the lights flicker. Errors say left or right headlamp needs to be checked.

If you are using a relay, then it's because the relay isn't using any electricity. Once the car sees that no electricity is used, it will cut all power, thereby turning off the relay. This happens over and over again, and that's why you're getting the flickering. You'll need a resistor on the car side of the wiring harness so the computer will think there is a bulb present.

[acr2001]

Originally Posted by samaritrey

don't think that is true for USA cars.

It is indeed true. I can speak for the USA spec 05 C class anyway.

[TemjinX2]

if your using a low beam wire as the trigger, just use the side marker wire instead. I recommend against using resistors since they get really hot.

[samaritrey]

Originally Posted by acr2001

It is indeed true. I can speak for the USA spec 05 C class anyway.

ok must have been changed. i would have noticed them being dimmer during the day then at night. all Canadian cars though have drl i know that.

[bdgdl08]

Originally Posted by samaritrey

ok must have been changed. i would have noticed them being dimmer during the day then at night. all Canadian cars though have drl i know that.

I really don't know what the deal on that is. Matt's do not run dimmer during the day, but other '05s do. So who knows.

[acr2001]

Originally Posted by samaritrey

ok must have been changed. i would have noticed them being dimmer during the day then at night. all Canadian cars though have drl i know that.

Something is weird about this. I can tell you that they are functioning on my car as they did from the factory (no modifications).
Probably a 05+ thing.

I would never have realized that they were dimmer during the day had I not been shining the lights on a shady wall when I switched from AUTO to the headlight symbol. After that I did it a few times to see if I was crazy, but it's a pretty big difference.

[bdgdl08]

Originally Posted by acr2001

Something is weird about this. I can tell you that they are functioning on my car as they did from the factory (no modifications).
Probably a 05+ thing.

I would never have realized that they were dimmer during the day had I not been shining the lights on a shady wall when I switched from AUTO to the headlight symbol. After that I did it a few times to see if I was crazy, but it's a pretty big difference.

I only realized it because I was doing the same with my reflection in the back of cars in front of me. I did it multiple times to check that I wasn't imagining things... black cars (SUVs to be specific) work as very good mirrors

[LILBENZ230]

Drew is right, and hate to throw a wrench into your thing ACR.. but my car's lights run at full power AND run all outside lights when I set Headlamps = Constant in the IC. I've seen 2007 cars running their low-beams on lower-power during the day and no exterior lights.

My car is just special, I guess.

[acr2001]

Originally Posted by LILBENZ230

Drew is right, and hate to throw a wrench into your thing ACR.. but my car's lights run at full power AND run all outside lights when I set Headlamps = Constant in the IC. I've seen 2007 cars running their low-beams on lower-power during the day and no exterior lights.

My car is just special, I guess.

I remember discussing this in another thread with you... I don't understand what Mercedes was thinking with this weird behavior between cars. My marker lights DON'T turn on when the headlights are dim during the day and the manual even mentions this specifically (that the marker lights will not turn on until dusk if you are in auto mode with headlamps set to constant.

[LILBENZ230]

My car is weird, anyway. I have a HID kit that gave me no errors, ever. But it hasn't worked for others with 2005 C230s. It's also accepted that if you have a HID kit, you cannot set your headlights to "constant" or they will flicker. Not on my car, but I guess that's because my car just runs all lights at full power in that scenario.