HID Ballast question
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 2,300
Likes: 115
From: Odessa FL
St. Jude Donor '10-'12-'13-'14-'15-'16-'17
HID Ballast question
Is it the ballast that controls and dictates the wattage of the bulbs? In other words do you need matching wattage bulbs for a specific wattage ballast used? If I have a 70W ballast can it use the same bulbs as a 35W ballast? I have seen varied and contridicting information regarding this so I am hoping the lighting gurus on the forum can chime in and educate me. Thanks.
Heel & Toe
Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 19
Likes: 1
I'm no Guru, but my understanding is you can use different wattage ballasts to power HID lights. The temperature or "color" of the light from the bulb will be affected however. So yes, you could use a 70W ballast on a 35W bulb, but the color temp of the light will change. I actually did this for my fog lights using a lower watt ballast with bulbs that came from a higher wattage set. Now if I could just get my headlight HID's to work! I got nothing when trying to connect at the headlight connections, and when that failed I ran a harness from the battery. The Hid's would power on correctly, but when I turned off the headlights, they wouldn't close unless I switched over to stock high beams first =/ Finally put the headlights back to stock for the time being.
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 2,300
Likes: 115
From: Odessa FL
St. Jude Donor '10-'12-'13-'14-'15-'16-'17
I'm no Guru, but my understanding is you can use different wattage ballasts to power HID lights. The temperature or "color" of the light from the bulb will be affected however. So yes, you could use a 70W ballast on a 35W bulb, but the color temp of the light will change. I actually did this for my fog lights using a lower watt ballast with bulbs that came from a higher wattage set. Now if I could just get my headlight HID's to work! I got nothing when trying to connect at the headlight connections, and when that failed I ran a harness from the battery. The Hid's would power on correctly, but when I turned off the headlights, they wouldn't close unless I switched over to stock high beams first =/ Finally put the headlights back to stock for the time being.
Heel & Toe
Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 19
Likes: 1
Thanks for the info! We were using 55W ballasts, though we were using a bulb from a 35W set. Maybe my next step is to test 55W ballasts with 55W bulbs and see if the headlight goes down then? Next question is why I had to run the harness from the battery? Same issue? Using stock reflector housing at the moment. Just bought her 6 days ago, so I'm still learning EVERYTHING. The purpose of the ACA projectors is better light dispersion?
Sorry if I kinda thread jacked you there.
Sorry if I kinda thread jacked you there.
Last edited by Adriangrey; Mar 15, 2014 at 12:11 AM.
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 2,300
Likes: 115
From: Odessa FL
St. Jude Donor '10-'12-'13-'14-'15-'16-'17
Thanks for the info! We were using 55W ballasts, though we were using a bulb from a 35W set. Maybe my next step is to test 55W ballasts with 55W bulbs and see if the headlight goes down then? Next question is why I had to run the harness from the battery? Same issue? Using stock reflector housing at the moment. Just bought her 6 days ago, so I'm still learning EVERYTHING. The purpose of the ACA projectors is better light dispersion?
Sorry if I kinda thread jacked you there.
Sorry if I kinda thread jacked you there.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...otsa-pics.html
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...-has-them.html
