Do you have a car? Are you looking for a way to prolong the lifespan of your HID lamps?
If the answer is yes, you may want to look into purchasing an HID ballast system. This is common in a lot of vehicle owners and may be the best way to save you money!
Let’s have a look at how to reset HID ballast.
What is HID Ballast?
An HID ballast system is what controls the intensity for the HID lamp inside of your car. It also regulates the intensity of the lamp so it is not using all of your power.
The reason behind using it is to save you energy, prolong the lifespan of your vehicle, saving you money for frequent costs related to maintenance work.
Every time you go to a garage to get your car looked at, it costs you a great deal of money. The bulk of your money there is usually spent on labor, so it is an easy fix to dodge in the first place by having an HID ballast. A ballast can also produce a high intensity burst, activating a stronger light in the HID lamp.
When you have a HID Ballast, it extends the life expectancy of your lamp. However, even though a HID Ballast works great, there are sometimes reasons it fails and stops working.
Sometimes the ballast may spark but never truly ignite, and in these cases you will need to do a reset of the system or install a completely new HID ballast if the damage is that bad.
What You Will Need
In order to reset and overall repair your HID ballast it is important to have these items:
- A working ballast system (or a new one if your system is completely dead)
- A soldering iron
- Solder
- Solenoids
- A full kit for your HID ballast
- Multimeter
It may seem like a lot, but the job of a reset is quite simple, and these tools are to be used to make your life easier.
First Thing to Do
First off, if you are having trouble with your HID ballast, don’t start the reset process until you’ve checked out the entire system. To do that, check both the voltage and amps that are outputting through the HID by simply getting a multimeter.
If the voltage seems too high, your ballast could be working too hard and therefore be burnt out. If this is the case, you will need to reset the voltage on the ballast or change the HID lamp as it may be using too much voltage.
On the opposite side of things your HID ballast may not be exuding any voltage, meaning it is dead. In this case you need to boost it through a reset.
How is Your Wiring?
The ballast has a lot of wiring and you need to check it to make sure everything is in order. To have a properly functioning HID Ballast, it needs to be getting good ground with a lot of power.
If it is the wiring you can purchase a ballast repair kit that specializes in wire replace and repair. This is a really easy way to completely provide a reset to your HID Ballast, but you may want to DIY, which is what we will dive into next.
A Solenoid Problem
Sometimes a solenoid may be the problem mostly because of corrosion caused by the intense heat. These are a quick change and you may not even need a reset when you purchase and install a new solenoid.
Connecting the Connections
Most of the time, the common problem that an HID ballast encounters is with poor connections. There are many times when the connections are loose, or don’t fit. If this is the case, all you need to do is solder the connections and make sure there is good contact between them.
When HID ballasts are installed, the mechanic usually just crimps the wires, which means they are likely to come loose in the future.
Conclusion
All the options mentioned are great ways to completely reset your HID ballast so it works properly in the future.
However, there is a chance that none of the above options work due to just an overall failure in the system. If this is the case, you may need to purchase a completely new HID Ballast system. While this may be a pain at first, but that one expenditure will save you money down the road.