Another Headlight Problem

[blkbrdrydr]

I was out riding all day and I stopped for a bite to eat before heading out on the last 100 miles to home. It was now dark and the first thing that I noticed after I began riding was that my HID low beam lost its intensity and therefore, almost all of its light after 1 minute or so. To regain the light, I had to turn the key on and off to reignite the ballast.

Then I also began to notice that my voltmeter was reading 14.7 - 14.8 with the low beam operating properly.

When the light would lose the intensity every 50 - 60 seconds, the voltmeter would drop to 14.4 which is its normal reading with the low beam working properly (until tonight)

When I came up my street, I turned on the high beam and noticed that it did not lose its intensity when the low beam lost its.

My first impression is that the McCullough ballast or bulb is beginning to fail (after 6 months) which might explain the on and off cycling but I don't understand the higher than normal voltmeter reading when the low beam was operating normally.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[Guest rockmeupto125]

Not sure there, but I'd start by doing one of two things.

Switch your beams and see if the behavior is the same, or goes with the individual HID assembly....

or measuring your voltage at the point that you power the HID system.

It may be the HID, or it may be a problem with the wiring on the bike. The above should help to isolate that.

[blkbrdrydr]

I did some research on HIDs and learned that the behavior is usually indicative of a bulb or ballast failure about to happen.

I pulled the bulbs and found that the low beam looked like the photos below while the high beam was clear in this area. I inserted the high beam into the low beam position, ran the bike for 5 minutes or so and there was no on/off cycling. The voltmeter also read a steady 14.5

I don't understand charging systems well enough to know why the voltmeter rose to 14.8 or so during this failure. Can someone explain it as if I were a 3rd Grader?

The bulb lasted exactly 4,105 miles so I'm certain that I won't be going back to Andy for a replacement.

[Guest rockmeupto125]

Bulb should last longer than that. Sorry.

Perhaps as the ballast continued to draw higher current to fire the bulb, your voltage increased as the regulator let more though to supply the demand.

[gharknes]

Bulb should last longer than that. Sorry.

Perhaps as the ballast continued to draw higher current to fire the bulb, your voltage increased as the regulator let more though to supply the demand.

i would say exactly the opposite, as the bulb is failing it requires less power allowing the voltage to rise slightly under less load

it would be interesting to hear how other peoples perform over time, although remember bikes are hard on bulbs - unlike cars we run our lights 100% of the time

[beondwacko]

I have had my HID's for 1.5+ yrs now in my XX and have not had any problems. I did though just notice a faint flickering of the low beam, but this only happens when riding, not when stationary so I think I may have a loose connector to deal with.

My $.02.

[bartonmd]

Yep, ~10k on my HID and it's fine still...

They do have a year warranty right?? Contact Andy and see what's up... Can't hurt right?

Mike