flip203

I have a 04.5 ram 2500 with the dreaded canbus system. I have changed my headlights to a dual headlight setup. I am currently running a 35w hid kit in the projectors with the capacitor trick to prevent flicker and the bulb out. It worked great for about 2 weeks and now the right is flickering for about 3 minutes before it will ignite and stay on. It doesnt happen all the time. It does it if the wait to start light comes on, even if i wait for the altenator to show charging normally? If I upgrade to a 55w kit will I still have the same errors with the canbus system? What would be a good 55w setup? I called vvme and they were no help in reference to their 55w set up. Any ideas or solutions would be helpful. Thank you.

IPDiesel

Sounds like the capacitor trick just isn't working. When the grid heater cycles, it must be drawing down your capacitor & then it takes a couple minutes to recharge it.

The guaranteed way to make it work-35W or 55w is to put a resistor on the circuit to convert a portion of the energy to heat.

a 10ohm 10watt resistor is what I use and it makes almost zero noticable heat. I can hold it in my hand while running.

If you swap out to the 55w, it will not fix it. I talked to Retrosolutions about it-as I thought it might fix the issue-but it turns out that the wattage rating ( 35 or 55 ) does not translate to actual current draw ( continous )

flip203

Where would I go about finding said resistor and where would I install this said resistor? Right now I have the capacitor wired in between the hot and ground just before it goes to the ballast. Thank you for all of your help. You are the solution to all my problems. Do you have any life tips, Lol.

IPDiesel

You would ditch the capacitor and put the resistor in the same spot. one end to hot, the other end to ground.

I bought my resistors at a local electrical supply house, but if you google "resistor with heat sink" you will find lots.

-and ya probably don't want any life tips from me- it would probably be better for you.

flip203

Are they directional like capacitors are? I really do appreciate all your help. I will look into that when I buy all the stuff to build that relay. Question related to the relay. Will the 12 gauge wire support both 55 w ballast without gettin to hot?

IPDiesel

resistors are not directional
12 gauge will be way more than sufficient. I happened to have 12 ga available to me. Remember that Volts x amps = watts.
55w/12volts=4.5amps *2 = 9amps total

for 9 amps or 110watts you can get away with 18gauge over 3feet or less or wire-but the longer the wire, the larger the wire gauge.
take a look at these 2 websites.
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/am...uge-d_730.html
http://www.rbeelectronics.com/wtable.htm

they show you the wire gauge required for the current @ 12volts.
if you run 15 feet or more of wire, you need 12 gauge. Anything in between is up to you. ( 14 gauge is common and easy to run. )

flip203

Is this the correct resistor?
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...howFullReviews

IPDiesel

that resistor looks fine-I wouldn't go any smaller with it-maybe up the wattage if you can.

For my setup, I am running both HID's off of a relay whose signal is coming from the drivers side headlight. I choose a 25watt 10ohm resistor for mine-mainly because I do not have any current draw off of the factory harness. I only use the factory wiring to trigger my relay.

I know that the 25w one works for me. The resistors are dirt cheap-especially ones without aluminum heat sinks. Try and see is all I can say for your application.