ghaffar23

I've had my retrofit HIDs in for about 8 months now, and no problems. However, lately, I've had the passenger side HID flicker every now and again, now, it's no longer working. Mind you, I'm using Matsusheeta ballasts out of an '04 FX35.

I've had the Matsusheeta ballasts and igniters in there, and they work perfect, but I didn't like how it gave me the "Lamp Defective" message when I cut the lights off. More than likely, I am going to dump the Matsusheeta's, in favor of something more OEM so that it won't cause that irritating message.

My question is, to zam2000 or raymond g, which brand of ballasts and igniters will not give me ANY messages on my readout? There was a thread somewhere, but it is a pain to find. In addition, I would feel that this thread would be a nice reference looking to venture into the field of retrofitting for a W210. Please advise.

P.S. I know it's not spelled Matsusheeta. The censors got ahold of the real spelling

ZedStyle

maybe something like this would help with the warning

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HID-C...spagenameZWD1V

ghaffar23

There's a cleaner solution than that, I'm sure. I just want to replace the ballasts that I have altogether with a new set. I will find out what is wrong with the set I have now, fix them, or sell as-is. As for my original question, which brand of OEM ballasts will not trigger a lamp failure message and not have to modify any factory wiring for amperage?

raymond g-

i have the Zam email in which he had identified ballasts which seem to
mimmick the standard load, thus precluding the triggering of the Lamp
Defective light. am quite sure Hella gen3 is one of these, and possibly
Denso, but I'll need to refer to my notes when i get home from work.

p.s. couple of months back, I had pax bulb flickering as well as color
shift. I swapped the bulb L<>R and the flicker continued on the same
side. fortunately, one of the more prolific sellers of HID used parts on
Ebay lives nearby and I emailed him asking for a replacement gen3 Hella.
R&R the ballast and all is well again.

JerryCurl

I have the older Denso's with E55 projectors, with no error message, 1.5 years and going strong.

And FWIW - I had the same issue; a bulb flickering and then no worky. I triple checked everything, to make sure there were no bad connections. However, after removing the light and ballast - the problem was simply a bad connection on the Denso cap to the Phillips bulb. It felt tight, but wasn't, and the voltage/current literally fried the connecotr until it failed.

raymond g-

yeah....i seem to recall when you posted when it fried or melted. did you
replace with same brand/Denso ballast to balance the other?

raymond g-

ghaffer-
found it....it wasn't email, rather one of Zam's post on this forum....

The Hella Gen-3 will not trigger lamp msg, but draw lot of power during boot, you will need 15A fuse to handle it. Never a good thing

I've tried Hella Gen-4 twice, one time it trigger lamp msg, another time not, so not very conclusive.

The Denso ballast (from Lexus) and Mitsubishi ballast will not trigger lamp msg on any Benz. The best, and kinda expensive.

The Panasonic ballast will not trigger lamp msg when light turn on, but "might" trigger msg when light is turned off, odd. But they're very durable and compact (a bit pricey too).

One thing about all of the Japanese ballast (Denso, Mitsubishi, Panasonic/Matchusita) is that they draw much less power during boot, so won't hurt/affect your light wiring harhness at all. With the Hella ballasts, if not careful, you might fry your wire in the long run. That's one of the reason I don't use them at all. And they're not that reliable.

Generally speaking, the Japanese ballasts are much better than the German one (guess it applies to all electronic stuffs ??): more efficient, draw less power (while give same performance), more compact/reliable. Cost a bit more, but you really get what you paid for.

Philips D2S bulbs give a bit more light than Osram, but both are good. Go with 4300K, the light output is the best. After a while (burn in), you will get that white/purple look anyway.

Avoid aftermarket HID stuff at all cost, most are junk.


Originally Posted by michakaveli
I'm going to undertake retrofitting some E55 Bi-Xenon projectors into my OEM halogen lamps. I've previously performed the mode w/ some Audi A4/S4 projectors. I currently have the Hella Gen III ballasts and do not get a lamp failure fault. I have a pair of Hella Gen IV that I need to use for this application. I've heard that only some ballasts will not give the lamp failure fault. Would I get the fault w/ the Gen IV's?

Zam if your're reading... Please help a brotha out. Trying to refamiliarize myself w/ the world of HID. Haven't done a project in over a year.

BTW, I have some I believe Philips 5000K that I bought from Akinaboy on eBay. I like the 4300k better for light out. Do the Philips or Osram 4300k bulbs have stronger light output.. Lumens that is :-)
__________________

ghaffar23

That's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks! Hmmm...but this is the thing about Hella gen3: if I've had OEM xenon's in my vehicle previously, wouldn't my wiring be able to handle the extra load? Zam said something about the Hella's not being reliable. I mean, I bought the Matusheeta's just from this post alone, but I just want something now that won't give me that message. Hella's seem like the most feasible route, but I wanted to make sure.

raymond g-

I've been using Hella gen3 for about 2.5 yrs now. I replaced one when I
determined it was the cause of flickering. I'm not sure of its true MTBF
as I bought it used to begin with. but it seems reliable enough for me
so far. it has built in igniter so the set up is clean and straight forward.