Been searching the interwebs for other stories but havent found anyone having my problem. I turn the key on for my bike, and my 35W 6000K HID light will come on, stay on, and look great.

Once I start the bike up the headlight will occasionally cut out on me. I checked all my connections and they are secure. Also, there doesnt seem to be a pattern to it, I will be riding and it's on, no bumps or anything an boom goes off, then back on anywhere from 3-30 seconds later.

Am I looking at a bad ballast? I read on one of my search results that they will have a safety shut off for high and low voltages. If my voltage is fluctuating too much and affecting the headlight would that be the regulator rectifier at fault?

For the time being I ordered a bulb for the top portion of my light, as a temporary solution.

Thanks in Advance

Sounds like a voltage fluctuation problem. The cheaper kits aren't as good as the expensive ones with real ballasts that regulate power a lot better.

Put a voltage meter on your bike and try to see what it's doing when the ballast turns off.

Reckon weeds is the man to ask for the actual HID issue ......  But ...

I had an intermittent headlight fault just like you describe with my standard F headlight ...

Went looking looking looking .. Swearing SWEARING looking Swearing...

Main plug under tank from left side cluster switch .... Heat deteriorated wire for headlight (plus a few others) .. Was always as engine heated up ... Wire got flexi bzzt bzzt bzzt ... Turning bars/moving cable under there too also affected it ... Ended up buying a electronic shop plug/contact set and re-wiring the whole plug  ... And then had to reset the headlight wire again... But all good now....

I think combination of engine heat AND electric load heat/carbonisation over time did it... Could hardly tell though .. The white main headlight wire was just a tiny bit discoloured ... But looked wrong and a bit curly at back of pin ..

If its not the HID ballast .. I would be taking a very close look at that plug and its connectors.wire condition

:2cents:

Edit... Wups.. Forgot one other... Also .. Months earlier .. The main plug from Right side cluster.... Same wire.... But heading to the now nonexistent headlight on/off switch ... I bridged that one to start with .. Then re plugged it like the left one ...

Come to think of it... That's a bloody little wire for such a big draw as the headlight .... A not so clever design perhaps? ... Ah well

Also I am assuming you used the existing harness wiring for headlight to power your HID

Quote from: Wagoneer on June 12, 2013, 02:43:01 AM
Sounds like a voltage fluctuation problem. The cheaper kits aren't as good as the expensive ones with real ballasts that regulate power a lot better.

Put a voltage meter on your bike and try to see what it's doing when the ballast turns off.

Don't have a voltage meter, nor will i have the funds for one right away. I Do however have 2 spare rectifiers, swapping that out (assuming spares are good) should work out any voltage fluctuation right?

@Janx - I will look into the plug you suggested. But I should mention that it has more to do with the bike running than being warm. Today when I started it cold, it went out as soon as the bike turned over, I assumed low battery since after about 30 seconds or so it came back. Also, I almost titled the post "Help me Weedahoe Kenobi, You're my only hope." But chose against it.

Err yep ... Sometimes cold too... More frequently WITH engine heat ... But all depended on wire position I think ...

What started me eventually onto that plug was waggling the handlebars left/right also produced a semi consistent result.... Little bit of longitudinal movement in wires through cable flex....

It's my 'personal demon' topic ... Could be the ballast prob but I know bupkis about them....

Just making sure the plug/wire issue don't torment others when I can...

It's pretty much a carbon copy of symptoms .... Apart from the HID being there

I would PM weeds to make sure he don't miss it!! 

Sounds like your ballast does not like being powered by your headlight connection.
As a test power the ballast directly from the battery.If this works continuously get a relay for your circuit so your headlight connection simply switches the battery power from the relay to the ballast.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HID-Xenon-Motorcycle-Motorbike-H4-3-HB2-9003-Bi-xenon-Hi-Lo-Relay-Harness-Cord-/271172262166?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3f23205916

The way its wired up now is direct from battery, here is awesome paint drawing of how the wiring is.

Is there any way u can test it with a different, good quality AC ballast?

no access to one that i can think of.

Ummm .. Even with the direct to battery hookup ... The high and low beam on switch are still connected into the circuit yeah?? ...

Does it JUST cut out on low beam... And stays on if high? .... Cos that's the other issue I had... High beam fine.. Cos different wire ... Low beam was the dodgy one

If u have no luck getting your prob fixed with other replies,Motorcycle Electricians carry spares & products......at the very least know more about it than most of us.Possibly one is a descent enough guy and has a ballast that he is prepared to wire-in for u as a test.

Quote from: fetor56 on June 12, 2013, 04:19:55 AM
If u have no luck getting your prob fixed with other replies,Motorcycle Electricians carry spares & products......at the very least know more about it than most of us.Possibly one is a descent enough guy and has a ballast that he is prepared to wire-in for u as a test.

I do live literally next door to a custom motorcycle shop, guess i could walk over there and ask. Thanks.

HID setups are really simple and more so on a bike. All you have is the power source, ballast and bulb.

If it works fine while sitting still but not while riding, then you likely have a loose connection somewhere. It could be a power or ground issue. Remember that bikes vibrate a lot. Make sure your wires are zip tied in place and the ballast is secured also.

For what it's worth, my bike does the same thing. If you have a dual bulb (low/high), just park it and start it with the high beam turned on. Once you're idling properly, switch to low and you're ready to go.

HID bulbs hate power fluctuation, which is what's happening when you start your bike. You're pulling juice from your battery away from your light. This causes the xenon to lose temperature and die. Halogen bulbs could care less. So start 'er up in high.

Good luck!

If your ballast is getting direct power from the battery and not through the headlight harness which gets power from the regulator, your battery has more than enough capacity to power a single HID ballast without flickering or cutting out.

True. So, perhaps one could wire in an HID relay to pull power directly from the battery. That's how my car is set up. It also prevents flickering while on the road, as stated by weedahoe.

A relay would carry the amp/voltage load while the OEM headlight harness would trigger the relay to turn on.

When you say flickering on a car, it makes me think of some cars that monitor headlight filaments to let you know if one is out. Usually if one does go out, an indicator comes on the dash to let you know and then onboard computer reduces or disables that headlight circuit. Because a HID ballast is a "ballast" and has caps and store and release energy (how HID create plasma light) they will build energy and try to ignite the bulb but cannot sustain the power due to it being reduced so it "flickers"

Hope all that makes sense

Ok so went and sanded my lead and ground for better connection, further secured the ballast, and no luck. But then I look and notice out the corner of my eye, the butt connection I used to connect the power source to the headlight plug was hanging on by a single thread of wire. Cut it, crimped a new end on, snapped them together and voila it is fixed.

so that makes me a liar for when I said my connections were all secure, I think this should be my new avatar:

  for the fix!!!