Well if you look at the second picture you can see there are markings. There is indeed a '+' and '-' marking on the ballast, so unless the markings were wrong...I had everything hooked up right...I guess?

 

Well Michelle responded to me today, said I didn't need the capacitors...so my next question would be, what have I hooked up wrong, if I take out the capacitor from the equation?


I don't think that the capacitor blowing would effect the rest of the ballast or anything, right?

 

Did you try reversing the connector? I seem to recall I put one on backwards. Upon reversing the connector, it worked correctly.
Thinking back, I honestly can't say if the ballast wasn't marked, or if it was incorrectly marked...

 

Well, I have done some more thorough testing since Ive had the daylight to work with. I have discovered that I have 1 good ballast and 1 good bulb.*


The good ballast has the plus and minus labeled on it, but it turns out they are labeled wrong. I reversed that plug and the bulb came right on.


I attempted to do the other side in the same fashion, with no luck. So I reversed the plug on the ballast so it accurately matches up positive with red wire (as opposed to the other ballast that is mislabled and I actually have to plug the red wire into the negative-labeled side) and it didnt work that way either.*


I then decided to reverse the plug on the OEM part, to no avail. I then switched the ballast plug back again while still leaving the OEM plug in the reverse position, without luck.


I then decided to check the non working ballast and non working bulb against the ballast and bulb I knew was working. I plugged the working ballast into the non working light with the ballast plug negative on the red wire (the same setup as the original working setup of the first ballast and bulb) with no light resulting. I then switched the ballast plug to the 'normal' position as what is labeled on the ballast with the ballast positive marker going to the red wire. Turned on the lights with the same result - no light. I then decided to reverse the OEM plug in the same fashion as before with equal results of no lighting. Also changed the ballast plug around while also keeping the OEM plug in reverse - same result.


I then decided to try the 'non working' ballast with the good, working bulb. I did all the same tests as described above with no effect on the lighting.


I then plugged the working ballast and the working bulb back in to each other and it worked right away.


So, from m experiments, I've concluded that I have a faulty ballast and a faulty bulb. Would people concur with me, based on the experiments I have described to you in this post?

 

I concur, it sounds like one bulb & one ballast are DOA. I couldn't remember for sure, but mislabeled plugs seemed to come to mind, I'm glad I mentioned it. At least you were able to get a solid diagnoses of the problem. I'm sure they will set you back up right with no issues.

PS - if you saw my install write up, you saw I mounted the ballast so the connections were facing down. I did this to help alleviate water intrusion. It was a tight fit to get them in there, but it is a great place to mount them.

 

Well, just got off the phone with Michelle, she is going to send me out a new ballast and bulb on monday.


And yes, LuvMyTJ, I saw it and I had mine set in there exactly the same way. But alas, I had to pull it all back out since I didn't want to have just one bulb that was really bright and the other just regular.


Till Monday, I suppose!


Thanks for the help so far from everyone who has chimed in!

 

I installed hid's in my buddy's 01 Jimmy and had a similar issue. I finally realized that there are L and R headlight fuses and one had blown. Did you check them?

 

Thanks for the input, DJM, however I know the fuses are ok because the regular OEM lights still work just fine, and one ballast/bulb works for *both sides, as well.
*

 

Dude, Don't rely on the + and - signs. Use a tester to find out which is positive. With the blazer, I had noticed that one side was in reverse then the other. With the CTS I own, both sides were in reverse and I had to line the "+" to the "-" on the ballast.

Use a tester

 

Yup. The one ballast that I have currently is infact, labeled wrong. Good times.