Can someone tell me if I'm doing this right?
Thread Starter
Newbie
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
1994 Mazda Miata
Can someone tell me if I'm doing this right (Xenon headlight testing)?
Hey all, I signed up for the forum just to ask this question, but hopefully I'll be back often.
Just for a bit of reference, I sell used car parts for a living. Yesterday, I happened across a pair of OEM Xenon headlights out of a 1997 Mercedes S500.
My typical testing method for Xenon headlights is to hook a 12 volt battery to the ballast. On this one though, the ballast has a port, rather than a set of wires. In other words, I don't know exactly what is power and ground. Playing around with terminals, I've gotten the D2Rs to flicker rapidly. Normally, I would say "bad ballast" and move on. However, both headlights have this issue, and in my experience, if you find a set of lights with the exact same issue, it probably means that there's something wrong with your testing setup.
My question is this. Well, questions. One, does anyone have a wiring diagram for the headlights? Two, is there anything special about the S500's that would mean that a 12v battery wouldn''t provide enough current? The wiring to the ignitor is much heavier than any xenon setup that I have come across, and so I'm thinking that maybe there's an amplifier or something that I am missing. In other words, should hooking a battery to the proper terminals work?
Sorry for the jumbled question. Thanks in advance for the help!
Just for a bit of reference, I sell used car parts for a living. Yesterday, I happened across a pair of OEM Xenon headlights out of a 1997 Mercedes S500.
My typical testing method for Xenon headlights is to hook a 12 volt battery to the ballast. On this one though, the ballast has a port, rather than a set of wires. In other words, I don't know exactly what is power and ground. Playing around with terminals, I've gotten the D2Rs to flicker rapidly. Normally, I would say "bad ballast" and move on. However, both headlights have this issue, and in my experience, if you find a set of lights with the exact same issue, it probably means that there's something wrong with your testing setup.
My question is this. Well, questions. One, does anyone have a wiring diagram for the headlights? Two, is there anything special about the S500's that would mean that a 12v battery wouldn''t provide enough current? The wiring to the ignitor is much heavier than any xenon setup that I have come across, and so I'm thinking that maybe there's an amplifier or something that I am missing. In other words, should hooking a battery to the proper terminals work?
Sorry for the jumbled question. Thanks in advance for the help!
Last edited by lxpeery; Nov 9, 2014 at 10:15 PM.
