Alpine HID AE issue

[acivick]

I have been having problems with my HID AE kit and I wanted to see if anyone was encountering the same thing or could recommend a solution. I tried contacting Alex via PM and email a week or so ago but I haven't heard anything back yet.

Anyway, I got these around March or April 2010. Fast forward to around September or October and I start experiencing some flickering and intermittent loss of power to the lights. Eventually, they failed completely and some helpful troubleshooting advice from Alex narrowed it down to a failing ballast on the passenger side. Things worked great until a couple months ago. This time, only the driver's side would light up on initial startup, but only some of the time. Most of the time they would light up normally with no issues. On the occasions that it failed, I could reset the AE's by turning off the DRL and putting them back on.

I finally got a chance to do some more troubleshooting last week, switched the ballasts, and sure enough, the problem switched sides as well. My only guess is that heat on the passenger side is somehow causing the ballasts to fail prematurely or cannot otherwise handle the amount of juice going through it directly. In any case I am trying to find a better solution than just replacing the ballasts every 6-8 months. I am hoping Alex can chime in.

[aacabriolet]

Sadly you are not the only one..

I've heard it's down to cheap ballasts..they ALL go eventually.. how come the OEM ballasts don't blow?

these things are cool while they work but i've heard too many horror stories to actually give them a shot.. what's even worse is the guy who sells them to you is unreachable half the time.. heck i tried to contact about buying recently and got no response so that says enough i think..

[acivick]

I have also heard that there were several revisions, so it is possible some early issues have been remediated. I really prefer not to install another product like Lux since I really do like these the 80% of the time they work right, plus I don't nearly have the amount of time I used to in order to tinker with the car.

Communication issues seem to be a relatively new phenomenon, as my prior dealings with Alex were fantastic

[1speedbike]

I sent you a PM

The V3 has a higher quality ballast according to Alex, so the shorting issues should be remedied. And for a while Alex was ill, so he wasn't really around, but he seems to be all good now And you can always try contacting Leo@Alpine as well..

[dsc201knoc]

Originally Posted by 1speedbike

I sent you a PM

The V3 has a higher quality ballast according to Alex, so the shorting issues should be remedied. And for a while Alex was ill, so he wasn't really around, but he seems to be all good now And you can always try contacting Leo@Alpine as well..

Ballasts are key but some BMWs are just pains overall. It almost seems that each car has a mind of it's own. I had one 07 335 that would not accept HID fog lights without a relay harness. I did every possible thing to the vehicle and it wasn't having it.

Good ballasts and bulbs are always a great start but remember sometimes its the car not the product. (not saying it's your car and not the product, just something to keep in mind)

A friend of mine didn't want to wait for me to build a harness for him so he purchased one and the harness was electrical taped and the ballasts were grounding out to his frame. this can cause the car to realize an issue and permanently turn off the angels until you bring the car to BMW to have them turned back on.

[DaveSakky135]

I have the same issue! did u ever receive a new ballast?