HID ballast + electrical smell

[briggsy1987]

Hi all,

Had a good rummage around the forums and didn't find anything relevant. I had a headlight go the other week along with a strong electrical/silicon type burning smell coming into the cabin. I disconnected the affected headlight and I am assuming it is the ballast as the box smelt as far as I could tell. How do I tell which ballast box to replace it with? I'm not sure what colour HID's I have, and the ballast boxes are labelled up as 35W, 9-16V, 23kV max voltage. A model number of B-12 but no manufacturer name to go by, and google hasn't proven very fruitful.

Do I need to stick to the same manufacturer or will a replacement with the same electrical stats do the job? Where is a good place to buy a replacement?

Yours truly, confused

 

[koush]

I had a ballast go and gave hids4u the spec and they supplied a replacement for about £40.00, there is also hid direct, some have bought complete kits from themand seem happy.

Koush

 

[TarekElsakka]

Are you talking aftermarket ballasts or the OEM (Factory) provided one? If you're talking about aftermarket ones, then go to www.hids-direct.com and you can buy a 35W terminator can-bus kit with whatever color temperature and bulb type you want (4300K, 5000K, 6000K, 8000K); 4300K is more yellow, 5000K is white, 6000K is white with a small blue tinge, and 8000K is white but very bluish.

I'd suggest buying the kit instead of buying a single ballast from somewhere since you might not find one exactly like yours if you can't identify the brand or remember where you purchased it from.

And if you have the normal head lights (halogen reflectors) in the car, then these are the bulb types:

H1 (high beam)
H7 (low beam)

Good luck and ask if you need anything else.

 

[briggsy1987]

The car has aftermarket HID's, a conversion kit. I purchased the car with them already in, I quite like them but I wouldn't want to buy an entire replacement kit. Is it easy enough to revert to standard lights if I do need an entire kit?

 

[TarekElsakka]

If you don't need HIDs (as in you don't drive off-roads in truly dark places) then you can just buy standard halogen bulbs (fairly cheap) from Halfords or the SEAT dealership itself.

Dipped beam: H7
Main beam: H1
Fog lights: HB4/9006

I am assuming you already have halogen bulbs in the main (high) beam so all you'll need is a pair of H7 halogen bulbs. Osram Nightbreaker Plus or Philips Xtreme are recommended. I had Philips in the dipped beam before I got HIDs and they were great, and I now have Nightbreaker Plus bulbs in the main beam and will stick to them because they're great.

Any more info please let me know.