I have an 04 coupe with OEM Bose audio with the cassette up front and cd changer in the back.

Since I got my HIDs a few years ago, turning them on affects the radio reception. It wasn't a big deal but now that I live out in the country I can only get ONE of my 12 presets when the low beams are on. I now drive an hour in the dark each way to work so I wish I could listen to the radio.

The HID fogs have a slight affect but the low beams are the big problem. I had this problem in my last car (Mazda3) too. I have heard people with the same problem on here but the only solution given was to dim the interior lights which has not helped me at all.

Has anyone conquered this problem yet? I find it odd that the low beams are a problem and the fogs are not. And the HIDs draw less power than stock bulbs so I'm lost here.

 

Seems to me that the HID ballast high voltage could be likened to that of the engine's sparkplug wires. When the ignition causes interference a good way to deal with it is to shield the sparkplug wires. This would be the equivalent of the ballast outputs. So you might want to try enclosing your ballast outputs in braided shielding that is grounded at both ends.

 

I'm not familiar with braided shielding... can you enlighten me a little? And do you mean cover the ballasts themselves or the wires leading from the ballasts to the lights? Thanks a lot for your help

 

Before you install shielding try unplugging one input to one ballast and check your noise level. If nothing is actually wrong with the ballasts then either ballast should create about the same amount of noise. If one ballast is making all the noise then you know what's the culprit. If they're both making the same amount of noise and they are working good then move on to trying to shield the ballast output wires. The two ballast output wires are likely acting like an antenna that is transmitting noise instead of useful information. Measure the largest diameter that the braided shield will need to fit over, likely that'll be the plugs. Call The Wireman and tell him what that largest diameter is and that you don't want braided shielding any larger than what you need. Just cover the wires from the ballast to the back of the lamp socket. The shield will act like Chinese handcuffs so you can slide it back temporarily to fasten your connectors. Once the braid is covering the entire ballast output wire(s) wrap some approximately #16 ga. wire around each end of it and secure the wrapped wire with ty-wraps. Run those wires to a grounded screw or bolt somewhere trying to keep them short as possible. If you end uo doing this and it solves the problem let everyone know.


"Tinned Copper Braid for Grounding" half-way down this page:
http://www.thewireman.com/wirep.html#601

 

TNX ZORA, thanks for all of the info. If I fix the problem I'll post up a how to with pics.

 

FYI, I fixed this issue using ferrite cores as suggested by the following post:

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1061002

I purchased a pack of ferrite cores from amazon, and placed two on the output wire of the ballast (between the ballast and the bulbs), nearest the ballast and it seems to have solved my radio static issues.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Pics from Naxja thread: