Capacitor On a Hid setup.

[Galant306m]

So here is a question, im tired of my ballasts dieing so i was thinking about wiring a Cap on each ballast. Thinking of the simple principle of a capacitor, i think it could possibly solve the misfiring problem that most stock wiring harnesses cause the hid ballasts to do. Basically having a source of stored energy could help keep the from misfiring.

Any thoughts?

[menace]

You could do that or just add a relay setup to jump the voltage for the balasts. Honestly the relay will fix all of your problems as long as you run the power to supply the relay directly from your battery. Just my .02

[Galant306m]

yea i have that now and i still misfire! ive went over the wiring a couple times and its all clean and soldered so i was thinking about it on my way home and thought a stored source of energy could help.

[menace]

Oh ok, I just had to do that on my truck and it fixed it.

Well adding a capacitor seems like it would work. Like you said it would give you that extra boost in energy right when they fire up. What size cap are you thinking of using??

[Galant306m]

well since the ballast doesn't use much power but makes alot of power, it wouldn't have to be something really big, im going to look at the specs on my ballasts and then take a trip up to radioshack and see what i can find that i think would work.

Its funny though they don't use much power, but they have to have a constant source of power to switch, from DC to AC current. So if the resistance in the wire is to high it would cause the DC power to be to low.

[ZigenScarface]

ive never heard of anything like this done b4 lol.. is ur batt n alt good?

[Galant306m]

yea i have a two year old optima and my alt was changed last summer.

[ZigenScarface]

half the shit u do n say make my face do this lol :smt012
im not sure what emote it is really but if i look in the mirror i look like that minus the blue

... but good luck!!!
btw if your drawing power from jsut one line from the batt.. all you would need is one cap

[RafalGTZ00]

you wont find a cap big enough to hold a charge and discharge the amount of voltage through that wire.....plus if you have a large amount of resistance in the wire and a cap you will need to figure out the time constant of charge and discharge. There are many other specs such as rated voltage of a cap and current before it would blow....

[ricky_db]

you deff wont find ne that big at radio shack all they have is batteries lol

[Galant306m]

hmm maybe ill rewire my whole setup i might have a loose connection some where, this was just a thought that i had and wanted input on the idea, from what i see it sounds like it wont work.

[DOHCstunr]

I have relays, HID's for fogs and lowbeams.
all 4 bulbs fire perfectly every time.

One thing i have a habit of doing is only turning the lamps on when the engine is above idle speeds. Meaning i rev it to about 1200-1500 before I fire the bulbs. They'll fire just fine with the engine off, but I like the though of the alternator cranking out the extra amps when I'm triggering the ballasts(especially since I have 4)

[Galant306m]

yea i have four two i think im going to put the fogs on their own relay. the relay that i have is big enough to power them all but i think having all 4 on one relay might be part of the problem.

[DOHCstunr]

yea i have four two i think im going to put the fogs on their own relay. the relay that i have is big enough to power them all but i think having all 4 on one relay might be part of the problem.

LOL. !

Yeah i'd say.
Did your car not come with factory fogs?

my fogs are on one relay(triggered by the factory foglamp switch)
and the low beams are on a seperate relay.

[Galant306m]

yea no factory fogs so all my lights come off my heads

[Team Helotes]

In my truck I have 6 HIDs on with high beams and have never had any trouble. I ran 12guage wire with a relay for each set of 2.

[dwjp90]

a few things, one as DOHC said, let your car warm up.
2 yea no cap would be an easy setup for that, and chances are it would fade in and out.
3. wire the HIDS strait up to the battery and see if they fire correctly (no switches or relays)
4. dont flash your lights on and off.
5. Make sure all of your wires are good (look for kinks and such)

[AVERAGE]

#3 that dwjp30 mentioned is how i have mine. I had an issue a few years ago when I first installed my hid. Kept blowing fuses so I just decided to run the hids of the battery with a toggle switch. Benefits: no draw on the stock wiring and it looks pretty cool to run the fogs without the heads being on.

[RafalGTZ00]

Try a Double Pole Single throw relay.....you can control the surge with a cap and resistor in series...