Seeking Help With HID Diagnosis

[NIck Miller]

If you need new ballasts, 55w upgrades may be nice.  You can also ask this
guy for advice he's very knowledgable. About hids.

Www.theretrofitsource.com

Good luck!
On Oct 3, 2011 9:54 PM, "Fred Munro" <munrof at sympatico.ca> wrote:
> The bulb is just an arc-discharge capsule, so if it lights sometimes it
should light all the time. The problem is more likely with the ballast or
the igniter. If the bulb lights and then goes out later, it is likely the
ballast. If the bulb fails to light when you turn on the lights, it could be
the igniter. I don't know the Volvo system - some system have separate
igniters, and some have them incorporated into the ballasts or into the
capsule base. My Audi HIDs have separate igniters. I've not found a good way
to troubleshooting HIDs other than by replacing parts to see what fixes the
problem, and to this end I have a box of spares I bought cheaply off eBay
over the years.
> The first step, as you mentioned, is to check the power feed connections
and grounds.
>
> HTH
>
> Fred Munro
> '97 S6
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: quattro-bounces at audifans.com [mailto:quattro-bounces at audifans.com]
On Behalf Of gbowles at cansafe.com
> Sent: October 3, 2011 10:01 PM
> To: Quattro List
> Subject: Seeking Help With HID Diagnosis
>
> My Audi's all have halogen headlights. The help I'm looking for is for the
wife's Volvo, so NAC here.
>
> A while back the 2004 XC70 began showing the "bulb failure, low beam"
error message on the dash. The driver side headlight was out. My immediate
thought was, "Oh oh, it's a $150 bulb problem". Then the message disappeared
and the bulb was working.
>
> I haven't found any pattern to it, but every so often the bulb goes out
and the message re-appears. Eventually it will come back on and resume
normal operation. I have found that if I shut down and re-start when the
error appears everything returns to normal, for while. This is beginning to
sound like Windoze, don't you think.
>
> My experience with HID is zero so I hope someone here can shed so light on
what is going on. Do I just replace the lamps and hope that's the problem?
(With halogens that's what I'd do and it would cost me $25.) There are other
(costly) components that could be the problem, so trial & error could get
expensive. I haven't found much info on HID diagnosis other than "check the
connections for corrosion" which is what I plan to do next.
>
> Any advice is appreciated. TIA
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Mr. Greville H. Bowles
> Ralston CanSafe
> 525 Glengarry Cres.
> Fergus, Ontario N1M 2W8
> Phone: (519) 787-1297 Ext. 39
> Fax: 1-800-669-2392
> E-mail: gbowles at cansafe.com
> www.cansafe.com
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
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