this is the relay mounted on the ballast.. (dont ask me why it is mounted on the ballast..) maybe i should mount it another place??

 

Im not sure why you are still getting this problem as i have fitted these to lots of cars including lots of R53 and R56's. I have never got the noises or the bulb out warnings. The only thing i can think of is that you have gone the cheap route and bought just the Hidsdirect Ballasts instead of just buying the whole kit that is proved to work.

I think you should maybe start a fresh and order the whole H4/3 kit from Hidsdirect. or ask them to sell you everything the kit comes with minus the ballasts.

 

okay PRIMINISTAR

Good to have you, ill just contact them and ask..
will let you know

 

Sakhi, That bulbout is caused by the open halogen connector. All you need is a resistor kit. They sell them on ebay. You want 6 ohm 50 watt and they splice in between low-beam-hot and ground and also high-beam-hot and ground. Mount them on metal because they may get hot enough to melt the plastic. I am in the same boat as you. I have a set on order now. I just installed my H13 Bixenon kit this evening. As of right now I have no idea if you need them on both sides.

The purpose of the relay is to keep the ballast energized while you switch to high beam (low beam turns off when you go high beam) Because it switches away the lowbeam may go open circuit at that moment and trigger the bulbout (I'm not 100% sure) If it does two more resistors will take care of the warning on that side but you may be able to get away with something smaller.

I will keep you posted if the resistors work on the open side and we will work this until the bulbout problem is gone!.

 

Iv never had that problem, although it seems vable considering if nothing is even connected to the other side it would frea the car out. Maybe the US models are more sensitive than the UK models when it comes to bulb out warnings.

 

Hi smoke.

yeah please let me/us know the process of your work, and result.

i got in contact with the company, and i will get a brand new hid set. They told me they think i bought the wrong ballasts (???) -

will let you know also of my process.

can you link me to the resistors? how they look??

thanks

 

Does the ballast power from the two H7 connectors of each of the headlights? or directly from the cars battery?.. I think all bi xenon kits power from the battery directly since they have that "wiring harness controller" in between the ballast and the oem H7 connector, which then blocks the "warning cancelling signal" from the ballast on one side, and the other connector isn't even connected right? Smoke is right about the resistors, but i think it would draw additional & unnecessary power from the car as the two resistors(L&R lows)= 50w+50w then the extra 35w from the hid? Not too sure about this though hehe. In my opinion, leave the bulb out signal + the buzzing is normal for the high beam of the bi-xenon, don't know why though.

 

Not if it is powered from the battery! Relays draw almost nothing on the trigger side. So if it is drawing from the battery to power both lights the resistors will work (you may need a total of 4 for high and low beam on both sides). However to be quite honest, I too am not 100% sure this is the case because of the following. What the relay harness does is keep the ballast energized when you switch to the high beam (because the low beam drops out). So it could be powered from the battery or battery power could be switched in only when the high beam is activated. . . . wait a minute, this is the R56 forum right? You have H13 connectors right? Isn't H7 single filament? I am writing from the 09 JCW perspective so if your bulbs are not H13 what I am saying may not be true for your car.

So if it is being powered from the connector and full power is being drawn from the connector you would only need resistors on the open side. The test we all need to perform is simply plug the stock halogen light into the open connector. If the bulbout warning goes away we need 2 resistors on the open connector and we are done. If it does not go away we still need the 6 oms for the open side and we need to make a current measurement on the other side to determine the value. I have a clamp on DC current meter somewhere around here. If I can find it I will make that measurement and report back.

 

not sure if they put the wrong headlights in my R56, but it actually takes H4's haha and dont JCW's come bi-xenon from factory? I think both connectors are actually open, one of them is obvious cause nothing is connected to it, and the other one connected with the relay actually only takes the signal(high,low,off) but does not draw from that connector. All from the battery.

 

Exactly, But as it doesn't draw from either its setting off a warning light. The HidsDirect sets ome with an odd connecter to fill the open side. I assume it has the resistors in it.

 

I did the bulb trick and it cancelled one of the warnings. I still get a bulbout for the passenger side. I like that hid's direct terminator idea for the drivers side. I wonder if I can buy that part? (update: doesn't look like that terminator is for sale separately, I contacted HID's direct and they are trying to sell me a digital ballast, which I already have) The Passenger side is going to need resistors too.

Matsiho, most JCW's come with H13 halogen, especially if you buy off the showroom floor like I did. I think the H7 may be the R53 style which had different bulbs for high and low beam so if you do have H7 it would be a piece of cake to avoid bulbout warnings. Standard CANBUS ballasts should do the trick (plus like I said above I don't think R53 monitors bulbouts).

BiXenon is a much more complicated puzzle. The ballasts are the same you would use in any single beam application but the bulbs are different and have a second set of leads to actuate the high beam. The ballast is energized by the low beam. When you switch to high beam the ballast needs to stay energized and also the second set of bulb leads need to be energized. On our cars when you switch to high beam the low beam powers off. You need a relay to keep the ballast hot while you power the second leads on the bulb. There is another way to do it with Diodes and not use a relay harness but that set up hasn't been 100% perfected yet. Check out the other thread on this subject as this is the exact topic we have been discussing. Lots of pics and explanations and sob stories too. It works perfect for some and not at all for others.

Primestar: at least on my R53 it doesn't monitor bulbs, which is probably why everything works for you. I can use any LED I want for plates or signals, no problem. I can remove bulbs while they are on with no bulbout! It has factory HID so I am avoiding this exercise on that car. The R56 is a completely different animal. Every external bulb is monitored. I can almost live with the headlight bulbout, it only sounds when you start the car whether the lights are on or off and again when you turn the car off. I have led turn signals and don't have my resistors in yet. Those sound the warning when the car is started and as you use them, very annoying.

Back to my original point, we now know that the H13 connector is only powering the relay trigger circuit so basically nothing (20ma?). 6 ohm resistors should do the trick on both sides to cancel out the bulb warning. I'll keep you guys posted.

 

Let me try to shed some light. First of all, take a video clip of the buzzing noise so we can help diagnose your problem.
Also try running a 16AWG wire between the left & right power terminals. That's B+ on the left connected to B+ on the right. Make sure your grounds are secured to a clean surfaced with no rust. This is a trick I use to stabilize the voltage that causes a lot of these problems.

 

I have an update for you guys. I have the H13 bulb bixenon kit with the relay harness which powers the lights off the battery. One H13 socket (passenger side) controls the relay for the lights. The driver's side is left open. If this sounds like your install read on.

I installed 4 resistors last week. All are 6 ohm 50 watt installed between the H13 connector and ground on both passenger and drivers side connectors. The center wire on the H13 connector is ground so the two outer wires are the ones I spliced into. To reduce clutter I grounded to those bolts on the black rail next to the headlight. 6 ohms is really sized for 21 watt turn signals but this is an off the shelf kind of mod and was inexpensive ($12 and change shipped for resistors, pig tails and splice connectors, ebay vendor warden jp2002 has the best price) Apparently you don't need much to cancel the high beam bulb out so 6 ohms works. The highbeam is cured. I do not get a bulbout at any time.

The high beam shows a bulbout at startup but only a minor (it clears as you drive and gives you no more warnings). 3.46 ohms will draw 55 watts (at 13.8v) but that value is hard to find. I got 4.7 ohm resistors (40.5 watts) to try to clear the high beam. I will install today and report back.

Update: The tire pressure thing was a coincidence. The temp dropped about 30 degrees this morning and the tires were low. I reset it. Should be OK. I reversed the resistors so the 4.7 is on high beam and still get a high beam bulbout. Next step is to add some capacitance to fool the computer. I still only get the bulbout on startup, nothing when I turn on any light. Same deal with the led turnsignals. I am so close but I am not giving up until it works! New parts on order. I updated my gallery with all my HID / LED projects. Check it out when you get a chance.

 

Success finally guys! HID bulbouts are all gone. The problem turned out to be a splice that had backed out. The 6 ohm resistors on both high and low beam would have worked the first time if I did a better job with the splice.

OK the final run down on the H13 connector the center is ground, the outer 2 wires are for high and low beam. You splice a 6 ohm resistor between the two outer wires and ground, either the center conductor or chassis ground works just fine. To find the right kind of resistor, just search "6 ohm 50 watt resistor" on ebay and you will get pages of kits (Gold Aluminum heatsink, 6 ohm 50 watt with pigtails already soldered on and 4 splices), $12.99 is about average for 2 resistors shipped, you will need 4. Make sure your splices are all the way down and the wire did not back out. Also check your work (learn from my mistake!), on low beam one set will get hot and on high beam the other set should get hot. That's it problem solved!

 

I bought a kit from these guys:
http://www.hidkitxenonlights.com/h13...FWHZQgoddSwARg
But after reading this thread, I am hesitant to begin installation on my 09 R55. I have also read that these are illegal for street use in California. Is this correct?
Thinking about returning, but I live in a rural area, and use the Clubman for deliveries.
Needing more light but trying to keep the price below 200 bucks, if possible.

 

Alanwrench, That last post was over 2 years ago and I am running the same set up with no electrical maintenance or modifications, no dealer problems either as many people do this mod. The resistors are reliable. I did my R55 JCW shortly after and have been running it for about a year with no problems. I got even more brave with that system and bought it piece by piece as opposed to getting a kit and also installed it without splicing into the factory wiring.

You will like the difference, especially in a rural area. But it is very important to aim them correctly after you install them. As far as the legality, technically they are not legal. However if you read further in the law, the US is much more lenient than EU. Nowhere does it say they need to be self washing or auto leveling, also it is legal for light to escape over the cuttoff in order to read signs in the US. Our patterns are nearly equivalent to projector but in the center some light does escape over the cutoff (see my gallery I got a converted pattern, 05 projector pattern and a 2013 projector pattern for reference so you can compare apples with apples). So when you really break it down, in our housings we should be OK. I have never heard of anyone getting a ticket for HID lights, tinted windows for sure but never HID's.

Again you are responsible to aim them and they can move form time to time. I got flashed for the first time in 2 years the other day and I noticed they are pointing up so I just re-adjusted them this weekend after 2+ years of operation (so yes they do move over time).

 

Guess I will go for it. Thank you for the reply!

 

I encourage anyone using HID lights in the factory halogen housing to park 10-20ft from a wall at night and take a picture of their low beam spread on that wall.

 

check my gallery. That's exactly what I did. The 2009 halogen housing converts very well. I used to have a smoke grey 2005 MCS with factory projectors. That is in my gallery for comparison. I recently had a 2013 mini coup loaner car with factory projectors that's on there too. I have on road pics of the conversion to demonstrate the far field also. The fog light pattern is in there too and it shows how it is designed to fill in the near field.

Lets get this straight, in no way am I saying that the conversion is perfect. Projectors are better hands down 100% of the time. But if you bought off the showroom floor your options just became limited. Halogens are in many cases dimmer than street lights so you are constantly checking if they are on, and if you believe everything you hear about conversions "in general" I would expect the pattern to look like a big searchlight.

Look at the two patterns in terms of cutoff and hotspots. Is the projector 10 times better? It costs 10 times more (maybe about 8 times now for a good projector conversion). To the left of center, where on coming traffic is located is the pattern not equivalent? Also the big surprise is the projector patterns are not perfect either even though PC would have you think they are. The truth is the exact same defects are in both patterns to differing degrees.

 

None of the pics are labeled as to which one is which but you can easily tell the glare on the blue lights. Sorry I personally wont agree that the HIDs in a halogen housing are an acceptable form of headlights (unless it was factory spec like older Prius, Maximas, Escalades, etc... D1R bulbs and housings)

 

Your pictures point out the ridiculous amounts of glare perfectly well.

Look at how lit the window on that wall is between the two and it's compounded by the fact that the car looks really close to the wall.

This is posted proof on why people should never be cheap and disregard the safety of other drivers by installing HIDs in a halogen housing.

Projectors:


Halogen housing with HID:

 

Getting blinded by these people who have ghetto-installed kits into halogen pods is getting old.
I do not want to increase their number.
I do not want to become a bigger hazard than I already am.
The company I bought them from will not refund my money, so I think Im out the $130.00, unless I buy the $300 pair of projector housings.
Wow, I feel stupid

 

HID fog lights?