2007 Mazda3 - HIDs flickering - Driver Side - Many Remedies Tried

[zmz3]

Hi everyone,

So on a trip back to Hamilton from Ottawa, my passenger side HID ballast stopped working and a local shop replaced it with a new one. Bulb still works and now it's much brighter than previous setup.

Note: The previous ballast plus bulbs were installed by our very own Kelvin (Approx. June 2011) and it worked great from day one without any issues using factory harness.

After I replaced the passenger side ballast, liking the brightness it gave me and wanting to match both headlights, I opted to replace the driver side with the same brand ballast. Here's where the problems began.

1) Now that both ballasts are replaced (brand is LITETECH and ballast is 35w), the driver side is still not as bright as passenger, but still brighter than before.

2) Driver side flickers no matter what so we tried the following: (by we, I mean the local shop doing the installation) [PS passenger side has not flickered once]
i) We put a capacitor (still running on factory harness) and drivers side still flickers, but slightly less
ii) we put a relay harness (without capacitor) and drivers side still flickers
ii) we added a relay harness plus the capacitor (battery > relay > capacitor > ballast), and drivers side still flickers
iii) we then changed the orientation of the setup (battery > capacitor > relay > ballast) and drivers side still flickers
iii) we have replaced the driver side ballast a few times and still just tonight I still see flickering

We checked all the wiring and everything seems good and pretty much new except for the factory wires that connect to the HID bulbs.

So now I am running out of options and it's frustrating me. The local shop has been extremely accommodating in trying to solve the issue and they are trying all options.

All that remains is replacing the bulbs, but can bulbs cause flickering? And passenger side is about 30% brighter than driver side anyway.

I am hoping someone has had some experience with this because I have only one option left and that's to replace the bulbs, but I don't know if that's the real cause.

PS battery is brand new Mazda-dealer bought and installed since a month ago.


I would appreciate any inputs from you guys :)

[Noisy Crow]

Power the HIDs directly from the battery, using a relay harness triggered by the parking lights.

And you mentioned you haven't tried different bulbs. Have tried swapping passenger and drivers side bulbs to see if the problem follows the bulb?

[zmz3]

Power the HIDs directly from the battery, using a relay harness triggered by the parking lights.

And you mentioned you haven't tried different bulbs. Have tried swapping passenger and drivers side bulbs to see if the problem follows the bulb?

Hey, the current setup is (battery > capacitor > relay > bulbs), so it is being powered by the battery and I tried even with just the relay or with just the capacitor, no luck. Or are you referring to something else?

I have not tried different bulbs or swapped them, that's my next step tomorrow morning. However, after reading many threads online and here, it seems (I can be corrected) that the bulbs don't usually flicker by themselves, it's caused by something else.

[Noisy Crow]

If you have a direct connection to on to the battery and turning on the rear defrost a uses flickering.... Either the HID is bad or you have poor electrical connections. Check battery connections, and check for flicker both with and without the engine running. Capacitor is not needed unless you are triggering off of pulsed DRL headlights, which you don't have.

[zmz3]

If you have a direct connection to on to the battery and turning on the rear defrost a uses flickering.... Either the HID is bad or you have poor electrical connections. Check battery connections, and check for flicker both with and without the engine running. Capacitor is not needed unless you are triggering off of pulsed DRL headlights, which you don't have.

Ok. So the rear defrost does not cause flickering per say, but if pressed it can cause an extra flicker and it will stay flickering. Flickering starts when the car starts or a bit after that.

Also, I tried without running engine and no flickering. Interesting...

[zmz3]

So went for a test drive tonight and I have the following to add:

- the lights do not flicker if they are turned on with ignition key on ACC (engine isn't running)
- if I press the brakes and release, a more noticeable flicker will be present... Similar to turning on/off the defrost. This only happens when car is driving/engine running.

Perhaps this could help pin point better.

I look forward to suggestions

[Como]

What is triggering your relay?
Where is that trigger source coming from?
You may have a good connection from battery to ballast, but your trigger for the relay could be not a constant 12+v?

[Templar Knight]

Im sure you've probably already checked, but from my past incidents with flickering, for me it was the ground wire that wasn't properly secured all the way. Over time it just got loose.

[zmz3]

What is triggering your relay?
Where is that trigger source coming from?
You may have a good connection from battery to ballast, but your trigger for the relay could be not a constant 12+v?

I am not sure what you mean by "triggering your relay". Isn't it connected to battery which supplies/relays power to ballasts?

With the current setup: battery connected to capacitor connected to relay which connects to ballasts. This is how I understood it. We have tried many other combinations and no luck. The current setup was the last combination we tried which still shows flickering.

I'll look into the the grounding. The issue is I am not familiar with working on this by my self, the local shop works and I watch and try to learn.

[zmz3]

Im sure you've probably already checked, but from my past incidents with flickering, for me it was the ground wire that wasn't properly secured all the way. Over time it just got loose.

Yeah, the local shop has checked a few times, or so they have said to me. This is a single wire? Where does it connect to?

[zmz3]

Anyone in the Hamilton area or GTA willing to have a look for me? I don't mind buying you coffee or something :-)

I can drive to closest location near you.

[Como]

You have main power to relay (high current from battery) which should be fused and the main ground wire. You've got the input from your existing wiring to your headlights, this is a female connector to tap into your existing harness (THIS is your trigger. To turn relay on and send the high current from battery to ballast).
What a lot of ppl have done is cut the 'trigger' connector off and splice into your parking lights as there are issues with constant 12v to your regular headlights.
This is what I have done as I had issues with flickering mostly related to DRL.

I 'think' I explained right

[zmz3]

You have main power to relay (high current from battery) which should be fused and the main ground wire. You've got the input from your existing wiring to your headlights, this is a female connector to tap into your existing harness (THIS is your trigger. To turn relay on and send the high current from battery to ballast).
What a lot of ppl have done is cut the 'trigger' connector off and splice into your parking lights as there are issues with constant 12v to your regular headlights.
This is what I have done as I had issues with flickering mostly related to DRL.

I 'think' I explained right

Thank you for taking the time to explain. I am not sure about the connection flow or terminology on here, BUT I will see if the local shop understands this and perhaps will wire it like that. I hope.

Appreciate it :)

Would me posting pictures help with the diagnosis better? (I can do my best to catch every connection flow) Or if you have a specific connection you'd like to see?

[zmz3]

You have main power to relay (high current from battery) which should be fused and the main ground wire. You've got the input from your existing wiring to your headlights, this is a female connector to tap into your existing harness (THIS is your trigger. To turn relay on and send the high current from battery to ballast).
What a lot of ppl have done is cut the 'trigger' connector off and splice into your parking lights as there are issues with constant 12v to your regular headlights.
This is what I have done as I had issues with flickering mostly related to DRL.

I 'think' I explained right

Can someone please help in explaining how cutting the trigger connector off works? Like, cut the wires then connect them to the parking light wires?

This method of splicing into parking light wires seems like wires will need to be electrically taped. Isn't that a cause for concern in future when moisture and such gets in there?

I'm trying to understand this possible solution, as it's the only one I haven't tried, but I want to get some feedback of some members experience.

[Como]

There are specific connectors used for splicing into other wires available at crappy tire. These are what I used. You won't have any 'exposed' wires with this method. I did however for my own piece of mind used liquid electrical tape on these connectors after securing in place.

[zmz3]

There are specific connectors used for splicing into other wires available at crappy tire. These are what I used. You won't have any 'exposed' wires with this method. I did however for my own piece of mind used liquid electrical tape on these connectors after securing in place.

Great! Thank you for following up. I'll visit the local shop, offer this recommendation and see how things go.

Will report back after I get the new 'fix'.

[zmz3]

U
There are specific connectors used for splicing into other wires available at crappy tire. These are what I used. You won't have any 'exposed' wires with this method. I did however for my own piece of mind used liquid electrical tape on these connectors after securing in place.

Update:

So I went to the local shop today and I asked about splicing into the parking lights and they were aware of it and they mentioned that they'd have to remove the bumper to access the wiring? So I said, any other options left?
They said they could put a similar system to what I had, which was slim ballasts. Apparently the ones they put in are "analog" or perhaps AC? They were quite larger than the slim sets they had.

To keep it short, they swapped with digital ballasts and now the HIDs work (almost) perfectly 99%. The driver side flickers only on start up and takes about 3 seconds and goes away, I presume just when bulb reaches full brightness.

We kept the same setup. Battery > Capacitor > Relay > slim Ballasts > HID goodness.

Brightness stayed the same. And since we have the capacitor first in the setup, the HIDs turn off several seconds after I have turned them off (until capacitor discharges). Looks cool. Hopefully not a long term cause for concern.

[Como]

Glad in the end it worked out.
I did not have to remove my bumper to access the wires for parking lights. It's a tight fit to squeeze your hands in, but I managed.
But if your setup works this way, don't bother.
:thumbsup

[zmz3]

Glad in the end it worked out.
I did not have to remove my bumper to access the wires for parking lights. It's a tight fit to squeeze your hands in, but I managed.
But if your setup works this way, don't bother.
:thumbsup

Yeah, I think they wanted to do a clean job so removing the bumper would have made it easier. Kudos to you for making yours work well!

I appreciate the input you've contributed to this thread.

As of right now, HIDs are 99% (almost) perfect operation. Driver side flickers for 3-4 seconds until the bulb warms up and both work fine after that. If they are warmed up and i turn them off and back on, no flicker at all. Guess it's just in initial warm up of the driver side bulb. Maybe it's on its way out.

If anything changes, I'll be sure to report it back.

Thanks everyone for your contributions!