Hey guys. Tonight I went to turn on my headlights and noticed that only my passenger one was on. Thought maybe the ballast didn't fire up right, so i shut off lights, turned back on, no go. Checked the fuses and my LH fuse was blown (15A). I am running aftermarket HIDs and have heard cases on people bumping up the fuse to 20A on other cars since the ballast has a big spike on its initial fire up. Thoughts on this? Safe?

 

the wires might not be able to handle that

 

Ah gotcha. I will just replace with 15a for now. If it happens again then I will ask the manufacturer . Maybe it was a crappy fuse considering the passenger side looks ok

 

Hrmm replaced the fuse and still a no go. Light still won't turn on. At least this time it didn't blow the fuse. I will check the ballast. Thoughts?

 

Well I got it to work again. Not sure what it was but aftet disconnecting and reconnecting the components it started working again . Must have been a junk connection that shorted the fuse

 

A fuse blows due to an excessive amp draw. What is causing the larger than normal amp draw is the concern.
I would think you might have a bad ballast. One way to check is to swap right and left and see what happens. Might not be an easy task. One way to verify.
You could have blown the bulb also.

 

Are you using 35watt HID or 55watt?

 

FUSES Remember the fuse is there to protect the wiring. & how wants to replace the wiring harness.........STAY STOCK or close to it!

 

Stumbled across this thread looking for a blown fuse issue - If you are reading this you CAN up the fuse rating to certain bulbs that will fit the 8. I did so a few years back. I was acutely aware of the draw, amperage, wire ratings, ect. Drove the car with heavier bulbs and bigger fuses for almost 3 years. Biggest mistake. It managed to damage the inside of the headlight lens. (It partially melted it) Just the inside surface and only barely before I noticed it. I could not believe that such a small change in temp would cook the light. The already fragile mounting basket for the bulb was dry, brittle and fell apart on dis-assembly. Although the bulbs did not go out, they were warped and twisted from the heat. I am still saving up enough to get new headlight assemblies.

 

The simple answer is you most likely have a bad ballast.

I had the same issue when I got my HID kit. I finally swapped ballast from from one side to the other to test and the problem still exisited.

Went back and got the ballast replaced and have not had a issue since.

 

^ +1 , this was the issue. Bad ballast that first blew fuses, then just would shut off intermittantly. Resolved with a new ballast.

 

Why are people going aftermarket? What's wrong with the headlights the 8 has?

 

I had halogen, albiet they were fine, I love the look of HID bulbs, plus I got a really good deal from VLEDS with various coupons.

Mind you I will at some point do a lens retrofit to complete the conversion....once my left ******** comes out of hiding from the $700 price of a new assembly in teh event I fubar mine up lol