LS4 Performance - HID problems?

I recently purchased and installed hid headlights into my 08 grand prix gxp. they are not working properly they seem to come on when they wont. checked the connection and ground and it seems to be good. They turn on sometimes and work fine and other times they turn on at all. Do I need to replace my stock fuses or something?

Are you using a relay harness? 35w or 55w? what brand?

had a similar issue, was a relay going bad, got a little moisture in there and worked intermittently then not at all

Your going to want to add a relay harness like the one the w body store sells. The stock wiring doesn't support the needs of the HIDs. Of course, if you paid under $100 for your HIDs, it could be the ballasts themselves because they are likely very low quality.

I agree...Gotta run relay harnesses, no matter what other people say about their experiences without them.

As for the quality, it depends on where you buy. We've been running DDM Tuning HIDs on three of our cars, two of them for nearly three years. We're still on the original ballasts and bulbs for all of them.

@LS1 Racer - What DDM ballasts did you get?

I have the 35w with the Raptor ballasts. The first couple days they worked fine. Now the left one doesnt always come on and some times I get them flickering. And yes I have the Harness. I also have the 35w with same ballasts in my fog lights with out the harness and they seem to work fine all the time

I have the harness already as well got in touch with company they told me to send it all back in so they could diagnose the problem

@LS1 Racer - What DDM ballasts did you get?

I have the 35w with the Raptor ballasts. The first couple days they worked fine. Now the left one doesnt always come on and some times I get them flickering. And yes I have the Harness. I also have the 35w with same ballasts in my fog lights with out the harness and they seem to work fine all the time

Impala has Raptor ballasts in the low beams and slim ballasts in the highs. The other cars run all Raptors.

The one thing I've found is that a cheap harness is sometimes worse than none at all. I learned the hard way, and replaced all of my harnesses from a manufacturer in New York. They were on eBay but are gone now. You could also make your own.

I have the harness already as well got in touch with company they told me to send it all back in so they could diagnose the problem

They'll probably just send you all new stuff. It's cheaper than dicking around with what you send back.

I have DDM bulbs 35w and some old ass ballasts "WITHOUT A RELAY HARNESS"with no issue ...

Just saying :lol:

me too ^^^

Me three! Two years with ddm 35w 5000k, no problems here.

ddm's 35w 8k's at fogs and lo's and nothing but complete problems, with or w/o harness. ddm will not warranty them due to i cut the extra plug i did not need off when installing the harness. the passenger side lamp melted and then neither ballast / bulb would work. Ivew ran ddm's on tons of cars without problems but my gxp wants nothing to do with them.

I had nothing but problems with teh DDM's in my GXP. I've run them in motorcycles and other vehicles with out a problem. but now is not the case

I run VVME thats what I also sell to my friends, slim AC ballasts low price and great quality. I have NEVER had a problem with them I recommend to anyone.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/200818215711?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

Just out of curiosity, did you ever run your HID's with your DRL's on?

I'm pretty sure the ISS/MCSS folk just pull the fuse for the DRL's. GXP guys simply just turn them off with the headlight knob, but that isnt the best thing for HID's; to be turned on and off quickly.

I run VVME thats what I also sell to my friends, slim AC ballasts low price and great quality. I have NEVER had a problem with them I recommend to anyone.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/200818215711?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

Pretty sure that's what I bought for our Envoy a few years ago. We were in the habit of flicking the DRLs off every time we got into the car in the beginning until I finally wired a relay in to give full power to the HIDs whenever there is a DRL signal. Now we leave them on all the time.

They've been in the truck for probably a little over 2 years now, and I only wired in the relay 6 months ago. Before I wired the relay in, sometimes only one would fire and we'd have to turn them off/on to get the second one on. Since I fixed the wiring (note this is NOT a special HID power relay/harness... I just wired in a relay to bypass the factory PWM of the headlights for DRL usage), we haven't had a single problem with one not firing.

I'm probably going to end up picking up a pair for the GXP too, just haven't gotten around to it yet.

I used to have issues with HID's. The wife would never remember to turn the DRL's off, I would forget from time to time. So I did this.
http://ls1tech.com/forums/ls4-performance/1150448-how-disable-drl.html
It's a lil extreme for some, but it works.