New HID kit....WTF!?!??!

[2 E L O]

Ok, I got the $42 HID kit from HID Gate on eBay for my low beams and I just got around to installing it today...

Anyway, I installed the passenger side, checked to make sure everything lit up and worked right, and then put everything back together. Well, I got in my vehicle and turned the ignition to the "On" position (which turned on my low beams because it's a little dark in my garage) without starting it because I was sitting in my garage. I got distracted and started reading the owner's manual about how to re-aim the headlamps and then all of a sudden after a minute or so I get a chime and it says my battery is dead!!! It won't crank at all! D-E-D. Dead. And it was perfectly fine earlier this morning because I took it to go run a few errands and everything.

So...what's the deal here? I know they make relay harnesses that connect the ballast directly to the battery, but I don't think that would solve the problem.

I tried doing a quick search on here and couldn't find anything.....

What gives!??!!?!? Thanks for the help!!!!

 

[2 E L O]

Well....weird. I threw it on the charger and it tested out so I went ahead and charged it. Finished the other side and there were no issues at all. Took it for a drive and I'm sold on HIDs!!!!! My girlfriend's new Mazda CX-7 has factory HIDs and they really motivated me to get them for the Tahoe...

The lows are 6000K....fogs are still OEM for now. I ordered a set of 3000K 5202's though. They were supposed to be here yesterday but something got screwed up with UPS...haven't been able to track them down yet.

Anyway....pictures! I'm pretty impressed with the camera on my HTC Hero... Not bad for a phone!

The road picture is just the lows....

 

[SoulRaven]

looks good man but did u track the battery dran issue?

 

[yukon07Artic]

are your head lights factory headlights housing? did you just use a hid kit and thats all? or did you but a seperate factory light housing.

 

[Zed 71]

^ factory housings are pretty good. I know there are aftermarket projectors that come with halogesn for the NNBS, but IMO they are not good with HIDs.

Those are good pics!

 

[DenaliAK]

Seriously, what the heck happened to your battery? Regardless of anything else, it shouldn't have died that quick.

Those are pretty good pics for a phone. Kind of annoyingly good, actually. I sat there with my expensive camera half the night trying to get good shots of my HID's and yours came out better....

 

[2 E L O]

I still have no idea what caused the battery drain. Since I charged it back up and installed the other side it's been perfectly fine. When I turn the ignition to the "On" position it reads just over 12V and when running it reads about 14.7V...so battery and alternator are both functioning properly. I had to travel for work the past couple of days so the Tahoe sat without being started for 36 hrs and there was no parasitic drain. I was a little nervous about leaving it for that long but it was perfect when I got back to it yesterday evening.

Very, very perplexing... And it completely killed the battery, too. Completely dead. It would barely even power the interior/dash lights.

I did just use the factory housings. From all the comments I've read the past couple months it sounded like the 07+ Tahoe housings were decent enough to use HIDs. I hate the look of most aftermarket housings for the NNBS so that contributed to me keeping them stock.

I've only been flashed once so far...and that was by someone in a little econocrapbox as I was coming over the top of a hill--so I'm sure they were uber bright.

I have a really nice Canon G9 camera (basically the next best thing to a big bodied DSLR) but I didn't want to run in the house to get it because I was covered in mud from working on the Tahoe. I was pleasantly surprised with my HTC's camera...

 

[2 E L O]

Alright, got the 3000K fogs done!

Looks like I might need a relay harness, though.... I hit the country roads right out by my house and was messing with different light combos (lows only, lows+fogs, fogs only, etc.) and when I went back to the auto setting only the driver's side low came on. Stupid. Oh, well...I'll see how it goes... If it doesn't act up under normal conditions then I won't worry about the relay.

Pictures!!!! The last one is fogs only, by the way...

Additionally...The quality of the DDM kit (used for my fogs) seems to be lacking in comparison to HID Gate's (used for lows) product. There was absolutely no mounting hardware provided for the ballast with the DDM kit and the wire connectors were not as good of quality, either. Also, the red rubber o-rings around the DDM 5202 bulbs were too thick so the bulb would not properly seat in the housing. To fix this issue I just replaced the o-ring on the DDM bulb with the o-ring from the OEM bulb. Problem solved. I guess I can't complain about either, though....since they were uber cheap.

 

[Modded]

My passenger side did some crap like that before too, relay fixed it.
Fogs look really yellow?

 

[2 E L O]

My passenger side did some crap like that before too, relay fixed it.
Fogs look really yellow?

I think my phone's camera may have exaggerated the yellow-ish-ness-osity when I was shining against the garage door. They are definitely pretty yellow, though...I will probably have to drive through some gnarly weather tomorrow on my way across Nebraska...I'll get to see if these 3000K temperature bulbs really work in the snow/fog!