lisspants

Hey guys, so I have a 98 XJ and I just purchased an HID install kit which came with the ballasts and the bulbs obviously. I believe I need a relay but I'm not entirely sure. (Btw...I have HID housings, I'm not using the stock ones). I hooked both sides up, and one of the sides burned out within a few minutes of being on.

With that being the problem at hand....Any help or advice anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated Thanks!

Hamster

Where did you get your kit? I tried that awhile back on another vehicle with an el-cheapo set I got on ebay. One of the ballasts was wired wrong. They had the pos and neg switched. After a bit of redneck engineering (rewire), I got it to work. Within a few days, one of the bulbs began to flicker (as if the gas mixture was either incorrect or impure). It finally got so bad that I just yanked it all and went back to conventional bulbs.

Alot of that type of stuff sold on ebay is made in China, is of low quality and does not last very long.

I've noticed similar issues with stuff that's made in China. I ordered some 9004 bulbs off ebay for my car and as you know, the tabs around the edge are arranged so that the bulb will only go in one way. However, they should be identical because OUR left and right headlight bulbs are the same.
The ones I got had one that fit and one that the tabs were the mirror opposite???

chaddwick2005

ddmtuning.com is the place to get HID lights. I bought a set for my motorcycle, 2-9005 bulbs with ballasts $40 plus shipping, with an added bonus of Lifetime warranty on all parts including bulbs. If a bulb burns out, send it in, they send you a new one.

With my kit, it was just a plug and play kit, the new ballast had a female plug for me to plug in my male end from the vehicle, and then off the ballast was wired in a small box that converted the wires to what the HID bulb needed. The HID bulb twisted right into the housing I had. There were no relays, I didn't have to route a "hot" wire to my battery like some cheap eBay kits have, and my bulbs have lasted about 10 months now, without a hiccup. I got a dual bulb dual ballast set up from DDM with 35w 10000k bulb (or whatever that value is, I don't remember).

So to answer you question, no, I don't think there should be a relay, I didn't even have a cut any wires.

chaddwick2005

Here is a pic of my ballast and wires for the HID set up for my bike

There is a ballast for each bulb and you can see towards the bottom where the factory wire harness plugs into the new ballast and it is hard to see the wire conversion box (behind the ballast) but you can see out the top the wires for the HID bulb. The ballast is the component that amps up your power to ignite the gas in the bulb. The only thing you would need a relay for is to route power to the ballast and you should already have factory relays or fuses for your headlights. Unless you got a cheap kit that you had to cut your harness apart for. Then I don't know what to do. Hope this helps.

Gee oh Dee

My HID Projectors came from NorCalMR2.com and were damn near plug and play.

With any upgrade you do you will want to get the Putco wore harness upgrade, which does add relays to take the load off the switch. Always a good idea. Always.

Anyone who tells you not to get relays for the headlights does not lnow what they are doing in relation to our headlights.

Gee oh Dee

And, so you know, you can't just replace the bulbs. Cherokees have sealed beams, you must replace the housing as well.

CherokeeJeeper

In my opinion, unless you have a good set of sealed housings made to cast light properly with HID's my vote is for a Pair of Auto Pal Lenses ($20-Pair), Upgrade Wiring Harness (I went with ARB $$$$, lesser versions are allot cheaper) and a great set of PIAA Bulbs. What I ended up with a super crisp light almost a hyper white with a dash of blue to it. I also didn't go for Fatboys or Hella's above 55W. The upgraded harness made a huge difference.

I have never seen housings that were not initially made with HID or Xenon housings cast light correctly. The cutoff point always ends up to sharp and noticeable. Minus a few broken trim ring screws, my install took less than 30 minutes and cost less than $150.

lisspants

lol that's why I made sure to put in the description the fact that I had HID housings . But thanks for making sure anyways .

As for the brand, I bought it off eBay, so that could explain things. The brand is Xentec, I'll post a picture in a little bit of what it looks like.

Its supposed to be plug and play or however you guys are wording it lol. But I plugged in the drivers side, and it worked, as soon as I changed the passenger side I went to turn the lights on to test them, and there was a noise that I could hear from the inside of the car, and then the passenger side went out :/. I don't know if it was a bulb issue or if I need a relay.

Thanks for all the help guys! I really appreciate it

lisspants

Here's what it came with.. After it was assembled

Gee oh Dee

The relay (which really is more than a relay) should be added no matter what. Whether you build the harness yourself or you buy one like may of us (myself included), its a good thing to install even for the stock headlights.

As for my statement about needing a housing, I was more aimed at chaddwick2005 who has just been talking about replacing bulbs. No mention of housing, which is REALLY an important part.

As for that sound you heard...are both headlights out or is just one?

MANY stories are told of having bad equipment right out of the box. Coworker of mine had a ballast dead when he got it, and it was still in the heat sealed original bag.

Try moving the ballast to the other side, see of anythng changes.

lisspants

Just one was out. Not both of them.

Thanks for the help/advice.

Gee oh Dee

Switch the ballasts around, if the outage travels with the ballast then tbe ballast is bad.

lisspants

Ok, I will definitely try that. Will it work though without the relay?

Gee oh Dee

It may burn your headlight switch.

lisspants

So would you suggest I just get that first? Even if this kit that I got doesn't work, I still plan on upgrading to HIDs