Radio interference with cheap HIDs?

[95PGTTech]

Anyone else have this issue?
Anyone have a solution?

I'm running generic $55-85 HIDs in 9005/9006 headlight housings. These are only a 9006 kit, my 9005 hi-beams are just Sylvania Silverstars. I wired them and mounted them as per instructions, reiv believed it was because he threw his in his engine bay and did not mount them. His are bi-xenon beams in the stock 9007 setup.

I thought maybe it was because I was a little different than everyone else. My stock 9007 setup plugs into my 9005/9006 wiring harness and then into the HID harness, I thought maybe with so much wire I was causing issues. The radio works fine. Pull the parking lights on, still works. As soon as you pull it to the headlight position, radio interference. Static on every channel but 94.5 (my strongest one). Replaced the antenna, regrounded it, checked all the wiring. I thought it was a frequency issue only letting 94.5 in but when I moved out to PA here where other stations are stronger I can now get like three channels, but not 94.5 so I know it is just an interference issue.

I tried removing one side. Regardless of left/right, it does it with the radio. When I put the high beams on, there is no change. I tried getting better grounds for the HIDs and the conversion wiring harness, no change. I even grounded all four points directly to the battery, no change. I grounded all four and the antenna directly to the battery, no change. A friend who works at Toyota mentioned some Scions had a similar issue where the radio case was not grounded properly. So I grounded the headunit better, then directly to the battery, no change.

I have come to the conclusion that it's just a cheap HID kit. I dug up an old McCulloch 9006 HID kit that I bought for $400 back in the day when HIDs were new, expensive, and the baller thing, I am just going to put that kit in and see what happens. The ballast plugs look the same so I may quickly just try and swap the ballasts to confirm my thoughts about it being the ballasts.

So again, anyone have any tips for what else I could try to figure out exactly what in these cheap kits is the problem, have similar issues, or find a solution to their issue? Before I found my old kit I was just going to rewire the entire headlight circuit with larger gauge wire and hardwire the HIDs in like they were there from the factory, eliminate the stock wiring and conversion harness.

1. 95PGTTech
2. reivaxtorres

 

[vermilion]

might be needing a higher output alternator?

 

[Bluesn95]

First of all, never ground anything directly to the battery. That's a no no. Second of all interference is not caused by bad grounds. I really think you're checking in the wrong places. Have you tried going back to your factory setup? I don't know what your current hid setup looks like in your car so I wouldnt be able to tell you what the problem could be. But I can tell you that to never ground anything directly to the battery and that bad grounds don't cause interference, they cause high unwanted resistance and or an open in the circuit. Have you done a lot of wiring mods on your car? What I would do is just go back to stock and see if you have the same problem.

 

[vermilion]

^smart idea and weed it from there.

 

[reivaxtorres]

well, i havent exactly solved my interference issue, but i have discovered a few things:

1) the farther from the antenna that you mount the HIDs, the clearer the radio chanels. right now mine are mounted right behind the headlights, im going to be remounting them behind the bumper support, see if that helps any

2) as odd as it sounds, wrapping the ballasts in aluminum foil helped a little bit. a very little bit, but it helped.



there is a thread on another forum that talks about the interference die to the HIDs,here is a link to i. as bet as i can tell, my HIDs are alredy wired up this way tho. here is a link to it:

http://lamustangclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20904

 

[Bluesn95]

I don't know what your hid kit looks like but its my guess that your problem is that the kit has wires that aren't shielded but probably should be. Actually wires or components. Im not familiar with what materials are use as shields but if you use that material you may solve your problem.

 

[DropTopPony]

No interference issue with my Stangmods hid kit....thankfully

 

[95PGTTech]

The grounds DO cause interference. I came up with attempting that solution after other people with similar issues reported that by cleaning the grounds and no other changes, they solved their issues.

There are no wiring modifications to the car other than the HIDs. The electric water pump was installed months after, is on a completely separate circuit, and has worked flawlessly since the first fire-up. There are absolutely zero other wiring modifications other than the 9005/9006 headlight wiring harness, which also worked flawlessly from day one of install until I installed the HIDs and they still work perfectly on the high beam which is unchanged.

I attempted to use a piece of sandpaper to sand down my grounds to bare metal and tried it that way. When that did not work, I used alligator clip jumper wires as an attempt to diagnose the issue, I did not drive the car like that. As I understand it there is absolutely no better ground than the negative side of the battery.

I did go back to the factory setup once which is very simple actually, one side is not even used, plug a bulb in, disconnect the other side from the 9005/9006 harness and put a bulb in it. It works perfectly on high and low beam.

Another issue I am having with these is that the passenger side headlight randomly goes out. When I turn on the headlights I have to check both are on every time because about 20% of the time the passenger side will not come on. So I have to get out, remove the 5A fuse from the circuit, and insert it back in and it comes back on. Up until a few weeks ago I thought once I did this the system was good while driving, but driving in front of the car I saw it randomly go out while driving. If it was an open in the circuit or a short, it should pop the fuse? no? I just remove it, put it back in, and it's fine. I tried using a multimeter to ohm out the wiring and found nothing, but I sort of expected that with an intermittent problem like so. Keep in mind this is isolated to the passenger side and the two sides are completely separate as far as the wiring goes. The wires travel from the 9006 connector to the ballast, then to the new HID bulb and to a ground. I have tried leaving on just the HID on the passenger side and it still does this issue, and vice versa. Also, the passenger side will flicker once about every 20 minutes just one flicker off/on. I just thought both to be traits of low-quality systems, but it is isolated to the passenger side. If I run the car driver side HID passenger side halogen bulb in the 9006 harness, I get neither of those symptoms but still radio interference.

However, if I only run one, radio interference is still bad, real bad, but not as complete static as with both. If I amplify the antenna with even just a wire and hold it higher, it gets better, but still static, which all lead me to believe they are just cheap chinese ballasts which are not shielded properly. I did experiment with moving them around the engine bay and it does seem to get better in certain places, but only on specific channels. Moving away from the antenna for example gets better on certain channels but worse on others. The wires being shielded I have not looked into but there is only a very short (like 1/2") section that is not shielded right near the ground o-ring. The rest of the wiring I actually have inside 3/8" black plastic conduit and electrical tape on top of the shielding on the wire.

I would really like to find a nice chunk of lead to put in between one and the antenna, that would really let me know it was a cheap ballast not properly shielded issue. I promise to try the high-quality McCulloch kit I have this week one part at a time to try and isolate the component. BTW...I have recently installed a brand new alternator, HIDs draw less current than halogen bulbs, and if they were drawing too many amps at idle I could see, but why would it be a problem even when I'm winding out the motor at 6000+ rpm?


I don't mean to sound ungrateful for the help guys, but I seriously have exhausted every option I or anyone else could have thought of for the last six months. If anyone comes up with anything I haven't tried yet I promise to give it a shot. I really wish I would have kept that StangMods kit I bought originally...9004 Dual...but I purchased the projectors right after buying them which came with the 9005/9006 harness.

 

[atrainsgt]

I just got my HID's finished up tonight, my reception is clear.

 

[reivaxtorres]

i know you said you tried moving them all over the engine bay, but did you try moving them outside the engine bay? like plug everything in, and get the ballasts and all the wiring as far away from the car as you can. if that works, that means to me its not a ground issue but an issue with the ballasts themselves not being shielded properly.

 

[voidfinger]

looking into this with you guys

 

[95PGTTech]

i know you said you tried moving them all over the engine bay, but did you try moving them outside the engine bay? like plug everything in, and get the ballasts and all the wiring as far away from the car as you can. if that works, that means to me its not a ground issue but an issue with the ballasts themselves not being shielded properly.

I literally held one ballast at a time and moved it in a full 360 degree arc slowly as far as the wires would stretch it. Some places it would improve, but as soon as you switch the channel, you realize that it only improved that one channel.

 

[atrainsgt]

I'm not electrical expert but it doesn't seem like the ballast are the problem, have you tried moving the controller around?

 

[95PGTTech]

Controller? My kit consists of about 12" of wire harness going from the HID bulb to the ballast and then another wire harness going from the ballast to the 9006 connector that the halogen bulb went into and one small ground wire.

 

[atrainsgt]

Oh really.... my kit has things yours didn't I guess, but mine wasn't real cheap, it was $120 and a nice kit. Low high beam 6000k.

 

[reivaxtorres]

Controller? My kit consists of about 12" of wire harness going from the HID bulb to the ballast and then another wire harness going from the ballast to the 9006 connector that the halogen bulb went into and one small ground wire.

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did you read thru the thread i posted earlier? this one --> http://lamustangclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20904